The RAF

The RAF

Obol’s Retroactive Funding (RAF) mechanism is designed to strengthen and promote the decentralisation of Ethereum's settlement layer by rewarding projects that add value and drive impact for Ethereum’s decentralisation. Read more about the Obol RAF here.

Voting and funding distributions occur over a series of Obol Retroactive Fund (RAF) rounds, with OBOL token Delegates determining how funds from the RAF are allocated. The first RAF round will open in February 2025.

Overview of the Obol RAF:

• Any project that meets the RAF round’s criteria can make an application.

• OBOL Token Delegates vote on applications proportional to their delegated power and using quadratic funding.

• The Obol RAF rounds occur at intervals and include phases for scoping, application creation, application review, voting, and funding distribution.

• The Obol Association will collect information from projects to distribute grants, including KYC, where required.

Below is described the steps within each RAF round. Each step takes approximately one week.\

Step 1: Scoping

The scope of the round’s impact and the amount of funding to be allocated is defined by the Obol Association at the outset of the round and posted on the Obol Forum.

Step 2: Application Registration

Projects are invited to create an application on the RAF App. Any project or team can apply, but in the future, governance may decide that an application needs to be made by someone holding a minimum amount of OBOL tokens.

Once a RAF round is opened, to apply for the Obol RAF, projects can create an application on raf.obol.org by following these steps:

1. Create an Application: Fill out the application form using the RAF App.
2. Describe Impact: Specify the category of the project and its impact.

Step 3: Application Review

A subset of OBOL Delegates appointed by the Obol Association reviews applications to ensure compliance with the application rules.

The Obol Association will also review applications to filter out spam or applications that do not align with the mission of the Obol Collective.

Step 4: Voting

OBOL Delegates vote on projects in proportion to their voting power. Here’s how it works:

1. Eligibility: Every address that has been delegated voting power by OBOL Token holders can submit votes.

2. Voting Process: Delegates vote using the raf.obol.org app. Depending on the type of application being reviewed, a specific set of criteria should be used to judge a project's contributions to the Obol Collective.

The Obol Association will monitor votes to ensure contributors are not voting for projects they are directly involved in or where a substantial conflict of interest may be present. Delegates are expected to act in accordance with the Delegate Rules of Engagement and the general Code of Conduct for the forum.

Step 5: Tallying Results

The voting power of each OBOL Token Delegate is proportional to the amount of OBOL tokens delegated to them. However, the funding results are calculated using quadratic funding, meaning that the square root of the votes is used to determine the final allocation. This approach ensures a broader distribution of funding across the Obol Collective, rather than allowing a small number of winners to dominate.

Step 6: Compliance

The Obol Association will review the list of selected projects, adjust if necessary and collect information from them to distribute the grant legally compliantly (including completing KYC if required).

Step 7: Funding distribution

The overall reward amount for the round is divided among the winning projects based on the delegates' vote and allocation according to the quadratic funding mechanism.

Step 8: Community retrospective

After each round, The Obol Association will conduct a retrospective and gather community feedback.

Guides for each Round

RAF1: see the RAF1 guide in the forum.