Purpose
brainbot is sharing this update regarding the grant of $233K from Shutter DAO 0x36 received on 19 September 2024. It covers use of funds, activities and accomplishments in September 2024.
Highlights
brainbot made significant progress on core protocol development, research and analytics - all of which set the stage for several important launches in October and a new whitepaper publication in November.
A few highlights:
- Shielded Trading on Gnosis Chain: Fixed stability issues and developed Shutter Explorer. Preparing for launch in mid-October.
- Shielded Trading on Ethereum L1: Outline long- and short- term visions and prospective partnerships. Initiated collaboration with MEV Blocker.
- Shielded Voting on Snapshot: Developed a deep understanding of current usage. Developed a growth strategy and revenue models.
- Awareness & Engagement: Expanded Shutter’s presence and visibility at regional and international conferences and hackathons. Experimented with new community engagement models.
Use of Funds
Values
| Category | August 2024 | September 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | $97,8K | $98.5K |
| R&D | $23.6K | $32.1K |
| Biz Dev | $25K | $28.2K |
| Marketing | $17.6K | $21.9K |
| Admin | $16.5K | $21.4K |
| Legal | $6.3K | $6.4K |
| Other | $34.6K | $22.6K |
| Unused | $12K | $2K |
| Total | $233.4 | $233 |
Note: Cumulative “Unused” funds are $14,000.
Percentages
Team
FTEs
Current FTEs working on Shutter
- 1 CEO
- 1 Finance & Admin
- 2 Business Development
- 1.5 Marketing & Communications
- 6 Protocol Developers
- 1 Researcher
- 0.5 Lawyer
Changes
None
Shielded Trading on Gnosis Chain
Release & Stability
We reached 95% system stability after resolving several core bugs. Fixing the few remaining system-wide issues will require a joint effort from Gnosis, Nethermind, and Shutter. We are now aiming for a new release in mid-October.
- Fixed core bugs in the codebase, testing suite, and observer component.
- Initiated system-wide coordination (Gnosis, Nethermind, and Shutter) to resolve the final issues.
- Made a new Chiado testnet deployment, which further narrowed down the issues.
Explorer Development
We deployed an MVP of the Shutter Explorer (https://explorer.shutter.network/), which offers a comprehensive view of the operation of Shielded Trading on Gnosis Chain. We are now focusing on additional features and improvements before its public release in mid-October.
- Deployed MVP (not yet announced) which provides system-wide statistics, Shutterized slot predictions, and tracks transactions across the encrypted mempool (similar to Etherscan).
- Enhanced visualisations to offer deeper insights into key metrics and protocol performance.
- Integrated backend and public API support with third-party applications.
Shielded Voting on Snapshot
Dashboard & Analysis
We collaborated with the Snapshot team to create a Shielded Voting on Snapshot Dune Analytics Dashboard, and analyzed the data. We found that Shielded Voting has significantly more adoption and retention than previously thought.
-
Collected key statistics:
- 634 DAOs Protected (since Oct 2022)
- 522 DAOs Protected (at present)
- 87% DAOs Continue to Use Shielded Voting after 1 Year
- 298,000+ Votes Encrypted
-
Identified notable DAOs using Shielded Voting:
- arbitrumfoundation.eth
- tomoondao.eth
- layer2dao.org
- shapeshiftdao.eth
- doodles.eth
- banklessvault.eth
- alpacafinance.eth
- paraswap-dao.eth
- token-engineering-academy.eth
- giv.eth
- Sporkdao.eth
-
Designed a study to evaluate the impact of Shielded Voting on voter participation and proposal outcomes.
Growth Activities
We created a sales funnel to identify DAOs on Snapshot and help them enable Shielded Voting.
- Utilized the Snapshot APIs to automate notifications of sales funnel events and trigger marketing and communications activities.
- Contacted current and former DAO users to collect their feedback and understand their experiences using Shielded Voting.
We created a placeholder Shielded Voting webpage. We are now building a polished Shielded voting webpage.
- Worked with Relate Studio on layout and graphics.
- Collected testimonials from ShapeShift DAO and Layer2DAO.
We created several revenue and payment collection models, including:
- Sablier stream subscriptions
- YeLay (formerly Spool) yield subscriptions
- Staking SHU
Decentralized Keyper Set
We identified the tasks needed to decentralize the Keyper set and integrate it with Snapshot. We are aiming for completion in October.
Strategic Research
Shielded Trading on Ethereum L1
We explored long- and shorter-term visions for integrating Shielded Trading into Ethereum L1 and PBS.
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Long-term vision
- Fully private L1 using a combination of FHE, ZKP, and TEEs.
- Cryptographically auditable through the Keyper committee.
- Result should be a fully private yet auditable programmable finance platform.
-
Short-term vision
- Collaboration with MEV Blocker to integrate Shutter.
- Collaboration with Chainbound for proposer commitments.
- Eventual connection of MEV Blocker integration and proposer commitments.
We also had a productive conversation with MEV Blocker about these visions and collaborations. MEV Blocker is interested in the idea of integrating Shutter and suggested starting with an integration for their fully private transactions. We will now write a document that specifies the required actions, from MEV Blocker’s and from our side as well as how this fits into our larger Shutter for L1 vision, for this first integration.
Shielded Trading on Arbitrum (via Espresso)
Arbitrum and Espresso published their specification for a decentralized timeboost sequencer. The use of threshold cryptography (decryption and signatures) is a core component. We believe that Shutter could help by conceptualizing and implementing the threshold cryptographic primitives. We reached out to Arbitrum and Espresso and also posted on Espresso’s forum where we asked several questions about the specification.
Fully Homomorphic Encryption
We met with Zama to explore the possibility of extending Shutter’s encryption scheme to a threshold-FHE scheme and to better understand the efficiency of state-of-the-art FHE schemes. It seems that FHE is currently still not efficient enough for a widespread deployment, but we will stay in touch with Zama and track the progress in FHE research. We are now investigating how FHE could be made more efficient for the specific use case of MEV protection. For instance, it might be sufficient if only certain parts of a transaction are FHE encrypted, while others could remain unencrypted.
Advanced Cryptographic Techniques
We continued our collaboration with TU Darmstadt and PolyCrypt GmbH.
- Explored advanced cryptographic extensions for Shutter: preventing collusion among keypers, and combining Shutter with trusted execution environments for added security.
- Collaborated with TU Darmstadt and University of Warsaw to write a blog post about advanced anti-collusion primitive “secret sharing with snitching”.
Developer Relations
Shutter Network Members
We provided support and guidance to Shutter DAO 0x36 members on tasks, including:
- improving DAO participation
- testing the Sablier module on Decent
- understanding options for treasury management
- ​​integrating Dappnode with Shutter Network’s Keyper Software
- implementing staking mechanism, economic parameters, indexing, and audit
- closing the USDC.e/SHU pool, opening a XDAI/SHU pool on Swaper v3 on Gnosis Chain
- confirming the SAFE on Gnosis Chain is controlled by Shutter DAO 0x36
- bridging SHU to OP Mainnet
- developing an AI agent driven MEV and transaction ordering simulator on Gnosis Chain
Hackathons
We attended EthGlobal Singapore (September 20-22) in person to support hackers and judge submissions. Several teams explored using Shutter. However, we decided not to award prizes.
We developed a new hackathon challenge and prize - “Build a consumer dApp which utilizes Shutter commit & reveal scheme on Gnosis Chain” - for EthSofia (October 17-19) and EthGlobal San Francisco (October 18-20). We will attend both events in person to support hackers and judge submissions.
Marketing & Communications
Conference Presentations
We represented Shutter Network at ETHMilan (Sept 26-27), thanks to a sponsorship package by Shutter DAO 0x36. Loring delivered a 20 minute presentation titled “Your Favorite Platforms, More Fair & Credibly Neutral” on the Main Stage. We will share a link to the video when it is available.
We applied to deliver presentations at ETHSofia (October 17-19), several DevCon side events (November 9-15), and Eth Vienna (December 2-3).
Awareness & Outreach
We continued with Galxe campaigns and content creation program:
- onboarding users to the Shutter Network via a series of quizzes and quests
- hosting a monthly lucky draw
- Increased community - 400+ new members in Discord
- leveraged Galaxe to amplify Shutter socials - such a newly created explainer thread on Shutter
We continued our new content creation Retro Rewards program:
- incentivizing everyone to create content about Shutter and to share Shutter on social media
- empowering community members to vote on the most impactful content and rewards distribution
We published an op-ed on Coinpasar, a Southeast Asia-based crypto publication.
We prepared campaigns for the re-launch of Shutterized Gnosis Chain and Ethereum L1 whitepaper:
- X/Twitter tweet campaign with partners - launching 10 Oct to end of the month
- Joint Gnosis Chain-Shutter blog posts - launching 10 Oct
- Live stream panel discussion - 15 Oct
- Marketing preparations for a Ethereum L1 whitepaper - Oct/Nov
Community Engagement
We engaged the Shutter community via social media and community platforms:
- posting updates and educational content on X / Twitter
- encouraging and moderating discussion Discord and the Shutter Forum
- hosting 2 community calls (12 Sept, 26 Sept): a special preview of the Shielded Trading on Gnosis Chain, and strategic staking and hosted guests from Blockful, Stakewise, and Trading Protocol
Website
Continued production of https://shutter.network/ web pages with Relate Studio. Shielded Trading and Shielded Voting pages are scheduled to be completed in October.
We are building a research section on the Shutter website to inform the community about past and ongoing research projects, engage in discussions with the community, and invite the community to share ideas for advancing the Shutter protocol.