Project Description:
Signals is an OSS (AGPL) protocol for discovering and prioritizing community sentiment in decentralized communities. The protocol iterates on vote escrow mechanics and locking primitives to provide a flexible, mathematically-sound system for assessing community support.
It was born out of our work at Lighthouse and time spent across various governance ecosystems over 4 years.
Public Repository:
Budget Breakdown
Milestone 1: ~30 ETH, Q1/25
- Core platform development, Factory Smart Contract Development, Off-Chain Infrastructure, UX Research
- Deployment provisioning, Vendor Intergrations, Formal Research (R&D, Whitepaper)
- Expected Outcome: The protocol will be ready for a real world deployment.
Milestone 2: ~15 ETH, Q2/25 - Expected Outcome: Resources requires to document, pitch and carry out several pilot programs. eg. Pilot Program
Plans should you fall below, reach or exceed funding goals:
We are a professional team. Our flagship product (Lighthouse) has been bootstraped for two years, Signals is the product of our research from Lighthouse and have been designed to work with the needs of the Ethereum ecosystem.
You can trust we are a committed team, evidenced by our work to date. We have a high standard and will continue to do our best with the resources on hand.
- We have been accepted into the Uniswap v4 Hooks Incubator
- We are also seeking best in class audit subsidies (TBD)
- We will continue to bootstrap the protocol, as we have with Lighthouse
- A high level roadmap should also indicate our plans for the Protocol. Public Roadmap
Impact Measurement and Reporting
Inputs > Activities > Outputs > Outcomes > Long Term Impact
Short-term Outcomes (0-3 months):
- Number of communities signed up for the pilot
- Diversity of EVM networks wishing to deploy the protocol
Mid-term Outcomes (3-6+ months):
- Number of users referencing white paper
- Number of communities with deployed pilots
- Total Value Deployed (TVD) or Total Value Allocated (TVA) across all pilots
- {n} of initiatives created total across all pilots
- Total Rewards Allocated, Total Rewards Deployed across all pilots
Long-term Impact (5+ years):
Our vision of the future is best framed in this essay I wrote on Network Economies. In order to realise this vision, we need more data on-chain to support a rich analysis pipeline IF you agree that an AI agent based future is on the horizon.
Outcomes Measurement:
Primary Metrics
System works as expected with no funds lost.
Engagement Targets:
10-15%token holder participation for any given pilot20+unique initiative submitters across all pilots10-20initiatives meeting threshold requirements10%governance token holder “activation”
Token Mechanics:
- Diverse lock duration distribution
- Small holder competitive ability
- Effective decay function operation
Community Alignment:
- Clear initiative prioritization
- Governance success correlation
- Positive feedback metrics (NPS)
Secondary Metrics
Technical Performance:
- Gas efficiency optimization
- UI/UX satisfaction
- Interface reliability
Community Health:
- Discussion quality
- Idea cross-pollination
- New participant onboarding
Interim Reporting
Regular Updates:
A mix of monthly updates and daily when appropriate.
- Company blog, Lighthouse Labs
- X, x.com
- Gated Telegram, https://guild.xyz/lighthousegov
We shall also commit to monitoring our project thread in the Octant discord.
Milestone Verification:
We will design the protocol such that it is optimised for onchain reporting. Will shall commit to deploying Dune dashboards so that all the prominent vectors may be tracked on-chain.
Sustainability Plan
To bootstrap the project, we will be relying heavily on grants. Once Lighthouse is generating revenue we will also be committing funds to ensure the continuation of the Signals.
We have built protocol fees into the design of the system so it will be up to program participants to set the fees as they see fit. This means smaller communities can run it for free and larger communities can commit to a fee avoiding the need for continues grant applications.
Paths to revenue
- Free protocol deployment, (Requested via Form)
- 10% standard fee while we are in development/beta
- 50% discount on protocol to ecosystems that have provided grant funding.
- Y2, Reduce fees as we stabilize
- Y3, Reduce fees as we stabilize
- Y4+, Fees removed and optional per deployment.
Case Studies and Testimonials
Gathering Feedback:
We will be conducting User Interviews with Ecosystem leads. Our Governance work at Lighthouse has given us expose to key leaders, thinkers and acadameics in the space. We are also active in standards committees (Metagov)
Showcasing Success:
- Website
- Microsites
- Blog
- Custom Merch
- Podcasts
Advancing Values of Freedom and Privacy
We are bringing more governance activity on-chain. Currently many systems require us to use software that asks for our email or phone number.
This is unacceptable.
Supporting Decentralization
By placing decisions on-chain, it means it also makes the data accessible for indexing and training. Currently I have to “scrape” web2 forums to synthesise historial research. There is no guarantee this information will exist 10 years from now.
This is unacceptable.
Team Information
Arnold Almeida, Founder, CTO
• 15 years of industry experience.
• Led teams of up to 10 members.
• Scaled organizations with headcounts up to 150 at the C-level.
• Taken 10+ products to market from ideation.
• Achieved one exit and two public listings.
James MacWhyte, Co-founder, CPO
• 12 years of crypto startup experience.
• Early-stage involvement with Coinbase and Kraken.
• Held a C-level position at BRD.
• Contributed to 4 funding rounds leading to one exit.
Xaun Lopez, Senior Full-Stack
• 10 years of digital experience.
• Led cross-functional teams of up to 8 members.
• Founder experience in a digital agency.
Social Proof
(Grant) SAFE DAO, Grant to add multisig support for mobile
https://snapshot.org/#/safe.eth/proposal/0x98c7041ac814c38d54f08ea115f7d44d78f5720029aa18ce0d52342acc7955df
We will be releasing deep multisig support on Mobile for Snapshot spaces. (World first)
(Signals) Winner, RNDAO <> Arbitrum Collabtech hackathon.
Independent peer reviewed winner. Judged from pool of 150+ applicants.
(Public Good Endorsements)
Optimism Retrofunding (just announced yesterday)
Transparency
- Currently we leave grant funding in our address designated by
lighthousegov.eth. - Large amounts are reconciled to a 3/5 multisig for safety.
- We usually run payroll one day a month.
- Depending on the grant denomination we may swap to stables or deposit in treasury management solutions to hedge risk.
Grant funding will only ever used on wages or services related to the Signals project. For further clarity, Lighthouse is funded separately and while Lighthouse may inject funds to support Signals, Signals public goods funds will not be used for Lighthouse activities.
Other funding
Signals
$5000 - RNDAO Hackathon (To be paid)
Lighthouse
Gitcoin, ~500 USD (Paid)
Retrofunding, ~12k OP (To be paid)
Retrofunding, ~13k OP (To be paid)