Project Description and why it’s classified as a Public Good:
Revoke.cash is a suite of end-user security tools that help people stay safe in crypto. It was created by me in 2019 as a side projects, but over the past years it has grown into a staple of web3 security tooling. The main product is a token approvals dashboard that enables users to inspect and manage their token approvals across 60+ different networks. We’ve also created a browser extension that provides pre-transaction warnings for certain high-risk interactions.
All of our software is provided free of charge and open source licensed (MIT). We may add certain paid features in the future if it’s required in order to sustain the product or enable those features. Even if we do add these kinds of paid features, we plan to open source this functionality, so that it is possible to self-host instead.
Funding sources:
All funding has been from Grants, donations and sponsorships. In descending order of amounts received from inception until now: Gitcoin Grants, Optimism RetroPGF, Sponsorships, ENS Grants, Direct Donations.
Seeking project-specific funding or funding for general operations:
We’re seeking funding for general operations. All grant funds we receive goes towards paying for continued development, infrastructure, and other running costs.
Team Information, including backgrounds and roles:
Rosco Kalis: Founder and Full-Stack Developer. Also handles all surrounding business activities, such as social media, marketing, administration, etc.
Do you have a commitment to open-source (i.e. every open-source license accepted by the Open-Source Initiative) technology and sharing results publicly?
Have you provided transparency about how exactly funding will be used?
Are you advancing values of freedom and privacy (no surveillance and handling of personal data)?
Are you supporting decentralization in various fields (for example building Web3 projects)?
Have you provided social media channels to the extent that we can confirm social proof of your project?
Quite the timing for you all to join with everything that took place last week. Really a big fan of your project, and thanks a ton for sharing these extra resources.
I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t yet checked out Revoke to go and do so. Go see what tx’s you’ve signed and what dapps youve given permissions to, as it can be extremely important for keeping your funds safe!
Incredibly fast thinking taking the website offline almost immediately last week - you guys handled that very well. Makes me very happy revoke continues to get funding in the ecosystem! Grateful for y’all, have used revoke many times in the past few years
It’s time for an update ahead of Epoch 3. Below we’ll list our achievements, plans and funding information since our Epoch 2 application.
Achievements / developments since Epoch 2 application
Overhauled the signatures dashboard to make it easier for users to understand what they already cancelled and to make sure they don’t accidentally cancel signatures repeatedly
Added indicators for old approvals
Added search functionality to the network selection dropdowns
Added support for X new mainnets (Blast, ZetaChain, ZKFair, EOS EVM, Bitrock, GoldX, Kroma, Mode, RARI Chain, Darwinia, Crab) and several testnets
Added exploit checkers for 3 new exploits (Socket Hack, Concentric Hack, Seneca Hack)
Also check out our monthly update blog posts for December, January, and February for more details.
Upcoming milestones / plans for Epoch 3
In the background, we’ve been working mostly on helping users get a better understanding of the risks that their token approvals pose. To do so we plan to launch NFT pricing information soon and we also want to start adding more risk indicators, such as potential malicious token approvals.
We are also working on creating a service where users can subscribe and get notified of new token approvals as well as get weekly digests that share updates and advise on their token approvals / wallet health.
Epoch 2 funding usage
Epoch 2 funds have been combined with our other funding sources. Since our Epoch 2 application, we have mostly spent money on salaries (Dries and me), paying contractors for design and content work, and paying for services (such as Infura/Alchemy, Etherscan, brand protection, etc).
We plan to continue spending money towards these same ends, and potentially look into adding a part time community manager / content writer to the team in the coming months.
Other funding
Since our application for Epoch 2, we have received a 50k USDC grant from ENS Grants and ~150k OP in Optimism’s RetroPGF program. We also receive an average of $1000 in direct donations from our users per month.
We are happy to be a part of the Octant community and we are grateful for the support that Octant and these other grants programs provide. We’re looking forward to keeping even more people safe in the coming months!
It’s time for an update ahead of Epoch 4. While we did not receive any funding in Epoch 3, there were over 130 people that voted for us last Epoch, which we take as a clear signal that there is interest in funding us again. We’re very grateful to everyone that voted for us in Epoch 3 and hope that you’ll vote for us again in Epoch 4.
Below we’ll list our achievements, plans and funding information since our previous update.
Achievements / developments since previous update
Revoke x ScamSniffer: We teamed up with ScamSniffer to add indicators for known malicious token approvals.
Refactors, refactors, refactors: We had been putting off updating to the latest major versions for manny of our most important dependencies, such as Viem and Next.js. These upgrades came with major breaking changes, but as of now, we are fully caught up again with latest best practices. We also refactored a lot of other internal code to make it simpler to add more networks and other functionality.
Removed Wallet Health Score: we added the wallet health score last September, but unfortunately found that it raised more questions than it answered, so we removed it recently. We are working on a replacement that will provide more actionable insights.
Improved performance for a dozen networks.
Added support for 13 new mainnets (Merlin, Astar zkEVM, Degen Chain, Fraxtal, Beam, Redstone, BOB, inEVM, Immutable zkEVM, zkLink Nova, RSS3 VSL, Viction, Neon EVM) and several testnets.
Added exploit checkers for 5 new exploits (Unizen Hack, ParaSwap Whitehat Hack, Dolomite Hack, Merkle Hack, Magpie Hack).
Also check out our monthly update blog posts for March, April, and May for more details.
Upcoming milestones / plans for Epoch 4
In the last update we mentioned that we were working on providing better risk insights through better pricing information and risk indicators. Since then we’ve added some new indicators, but more elaborate insights are still in progress.
We briefly launched our NFT pricing information, but had to take it down due to performance issues. We are also working on fixing these issues in the near future. We are also still working on creating the notification service that we mentioned in the previous update, that we intend to launch into beta during the next Epoch.
Epoch 3 funding usage
We did not receive any funding during Epoch 3, and our expenses have been mostly stable since the last update (i.e. salaries / contractors and services). We have a new Community & Content team member that starts this week, so that will bring additional running costs into the next Epoch.
Other funding
Since our last update, we have received $23k in donations on Gitcoin Grants, with another $15k in matching to be received. We also receive an average of $500 to $1000 in direct donations from our users per month.
We are happy to be a part of the Octant community and we are grateful for the support that Octant and other grants programs provide. We’re looking forward to keeping even more people safe in the coming months!
It is time for an update ahead of Epoch 5. We’ve received close to 25 ETH / $80k in Epoch 4. We are incredibly grateful to everyone that voted for us and we hope that you will want to vote for us in upcoming epochs as well.
Below we’ll list our achievements, plans and funding information since our previous update - according to the Long Term Update template. This is the first time using this template, so any feedback is welcome!
Funding
The first epoch we participated in was at the beginning of this year (Epoch 2). We also receive funding from other sources, so we list our spendings regardless of its source.
Total Funds Received from Octant so far: ~$120k
Funds Spent (past 6 months): $120k
Detailed Utilization
Most of our spending goes towards salaries of our 3 team members. Besides that we also have significant monthly infrastructure costs (server costs and data providers) and spend money on brand protection / scam website takedowns, administration, and contractors.
Milestones and Deliverables
Milestone 1:
Description: Rebranding
Immediate Outcome: A more distinctive brand that is more flexible to expand our products / tooling beyond what we currently offer.
Funding Used: ~$20k
Milestone 2:
Description: Redesign of the browser extension
Immediate Outcome: An extension that is easier to understand and use, keeping users safer.
Funding Used: ~$15k
Milestone 3:
Description: Add support for Taiko, Sei, Mint, Sanko, re.al, Berachain bArtio
Immediate Outcome: People will be able to keep their funds safe across networks.
Also check out our monthly update blog posts for June and July.
Challenges
N/A
Outputs and Outcomes
Outputs (Last Epoch):
Output 1: Rebrand and redesign
Output 2: Support for additional networks
Short-term Outcomes:
Outcome 1: It becomes easier for us to work on more features not strictly inside of the direct ETH ecosystem
Outcome 2: More people can use our products on more of the networks they like to use
Long-term Outcomes:
Outcome 1: People will have more brand awareness around the Revoke tools
Outcome 2: More blockchain ecosystems will consider financially supporting Revoke
Plans for Potential Funds Raised in the Next Octant Allocation Window
Goal 1:
Description: Improved risk assessments
Expected Outcome: People will be better informed to make decisions about which token approvals to revoke
Funding Needed: $30k
Goal 2:
Description: Better flow for sequentially revoking multiple token approvals
Expected Outcome: People will find it easier to revoke multiple token approvals, and will more easily leave a donation / tip at the end of the flow
Funding Needed: $30k
Other Funding
Since our last update, we have received no new funding besides the $500-$1000 direct donations that we receive from our users.
Future Plans for Financial Sustainability
Revoke.cash is a 100% free and open source public good. Initiatives like Octant, Optimism Retro Funding and Gitcoin Grants have given us the financial support that we need to continue offering all our services for free. As long as we continue receiving enough funding from these public sources, we want to continue being a 100% public good.
If the funding that we get from these public grants programs is significantly reduced then we have some ideas around potential subscription plans with added premium functionality, but this is not our preference and we will only look towards those options if needed to financially sustain the project.
Thanks @rkalis great to see the progress Revoke.cash is making, especially with the rebranding and expanding support to more networks. The upcoming plans for improved risk assessments and revoking multiple token approvals sound like they’ll be really valuable for revoke cash users. I’ve always wanted that feature myself as well. Loving it!
