Delegate Mission Request: Research capital migration to the Superchain

[opjulian]

Delegate Mission Request: Research capital migration to the Superchain

Application Link

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Delegate Mission Request Summary: This request is a moonshot; it is dedicated to strategically facilitating the migration of Mainnet capital onto the Superchain, aiming to position Optimism as the most promising and secure destination for this capital shift. This is not mere liquidity mining going after mercenary capital; this task is a major, holistic one geared specifically to getting capital permanently onto the Superchain.

S6 Intent Intent 3

Proposing Delegate: Jack Anorak

Total grant amount: The grant amount proposed is 100k OP, which is a sizeable but well tuned investment in courting the $31b in total value locked and 300b in Ether market cap alone.

Should this Foundation Mission be fulfilled by one or multiple applicants: Unlimited applicants up to budget.

How will this Delegate Mission Request help accomplish the above Intent?

One of my longest-held theses has been that from a competitive standpoint, one of the biggest determinants of an L2’s success with developers will be the migration of risk-averse Mainnet capital onto an L2. To date most capital has remained on L1 for security reasons; L2s are, to many, way too unproven to test the many risks bridging onto an L2 entails.

I believe that when this body of capital is ready to migrate, much of it is going to move to the L2 that presents significant promise and safety. And I think most of that capital moves only once. So we need to be that L2.

Optimism is now getting to a place where we can credibly attract much of this Mainnet capital. Fault proofs are here, crosschain specs are taking shape, we have major players on our side. I think it’s now time to start making moves to attract this capital.

As mentioned above, the idea here is not simply to provide incentives to pull capital over. That may be part of the solution, assuming there is adequate justification. But in crypto we’ve tried this many times to little effect.

What is required to execute this Delegate Mission Request?

Phase 1

1. Research to understand the identities, risk profiles and needs of Mainnet capital holders and protocols as well as possible pull solutions
   This research must include information on:

• User interviews with large capital holders revealing their opinions about L2 migration
• Breakdown of capital ownership on Mainnet and characterization of entity type and propensity to migrate
• Potential short-term means of attracting Mainnet capital

2. Research and incentives to bring over the 31b of protocol TVL on Mainnet, which is inherently stickier than user capital.

Phase 2
May include but not limited to:

• Preliminary infrastructural work not already underway to facilitate capital migration
• OP incentives to facilitate active, permanent migration of capital
• Commitments by Superchain partners to use their own resources to bring capital over
• Other initiatives

How should governance participants measure impact upon completion of this Mission?

Milestones:

• End of Phase 1 should produce an actionable report that can be used to inform Phase 2
• Research should be publicly posted as it is generated and edited
• Phase 2 work varies but in general there should be periodic updates of spend, uses, and mapping to project plans.

Metrics: In order to standardize evaluation, it is recommended that metrics for success and milestones tie back to the target metrics listed under each Intent as much as possible.

• Amount of specific 'targetable' TVL relative to total TVL on Mainnet and potentially other ecosystems
• Individual wallets/entities identified
• Rating of plan's novelty and likely effectiveness by Grant Council
  Impact: These measures should be focused on performance and may be used to assess your Misson’s impact in the next round of Retro Funding
• Large wallet migration
• Capital migration
• Meaningful infrastructural improvement that is noticeable on, e.g., L2Beat

Has anyone other than the Proposing Delegate contributed to this Mission Request?
No

Which metric will the success of this Mission Request be evaluated against?

The North star metric against which this Mission Request should be evaluated is TVL, because the initiatives outlined above aim to attract an influx of additional assets. This metric was suggested by the foundation and approved by the Grants Council.