Abstract
To scale research and development efforts of The Graph, The Graph Council is establishing a Technical Advisory Board (“TAB”), whose responsibility is to support core contributors to accelerate R&D efforts by collaborating with The Graph Council and the wider ecosystem in reviewing technical plans, proposals, and implementations.
Motivation
Making decisions about the development of The Graph requires deep technical understanding across a wide range of subject areas from smart contracts to devops to data engineering. While The Graph’s core contributors have significant expertise in these areas and actively participate in GIP development, introducing a formal mechanism in the form of a TAB will make the process of GIP review more thorough, and increase the confidence of the community and The Graph Council in approving more technical proposals and software upgrades when they reach the final review stage.
High Level description
The TAB will have the following responsibilities:
- Reviewing GIPs and Graph Node upgrades (including all indexer-stack software)
- Supporting the R&D process and helping to facilitate GIPs
- Supporting The Graph Council in answering technical questions
- Supporting The Graph Foundation in assessing and awarding technical grants
- Reporting and providing updates to The Graph ecosystem
- Confirming transaction details and integration details with The Graph Foundation and smart contracts teams to ensure security and completion
- Reviewing code and changelog details with core contributors
- Coordinating with The Graph Foundation and core contributors on executing technical upgrades
Detailed Specification
Goals
- To support The Graph core developers and Graph Council in implementing technical upgrades, protocol improvements, and R&D (ie. working with the Roadmap Working Group).
- To conduct due diligence, reviews, and provide feedback on GIPs and proposed upgrades.
- To conduct thorough reviews, preparation of multisig transactions, double checking and confirmation of all information in transactions for GIPs reviewed by the Graph Council.
- To coordinate with the Graph Council on GIPs once sufficiently reviewed, share feedback with the Graph Council and support the end-to-end process of GIP approval.
- To provide non-binding feedback, advice, and input to the Graph Council on GIPs.
- To contribute to improving the technical upgrade process alongside core developers. Examples:
- Protocol upgrades
- Indexer-stack software (indexer-agent, etc)
- Data services to be supported on the network
- Feature support matrix of graph-node
TAB Structure
The Board will start with 6 members, with the potential to expand once the TAB has demonstrated utility.
TAB Members
The Board will have responsibilities that require specific subject matter expertise in order to fulfill board responsibilities. It is expected that members:
- Are experts in the GIPs and GRPs process
- Understand the different technical components of The Graph tech stack
- Understand how the protocol works on a technical level
- Actively participate in the network
- Can communicate fluently in English, verbally and in writing. This is required to ensure board members can communicate their research to the Council, and also to the broader community in different channels (meetings, office hours, Forum posts)
- Have time availability to fulfill the commitment required to successfully support The Graph Council and flexibility to accommodate times when The Council summons the TAB
Membership Process
- Community members nominate themselves or others for the TAB in the Forum via a standardized application template, similar to that which has been implemented in other web3 protocol communities (ie. Delegate roles in governance processes).
- Nomination will be open till Friday Oct 20, 2023
- The Graph Council, in collaboration with The Graph Foundation, determines a shortlist of candidates that will be interviewed by representatives from The Foundation or Council. Once The Council has decided on the first members of the TAB, they will be announced.
While determination of the members of the TAB will ultimately be at The Graph Council’s discretion, key factors The Council will consider include R&D due diligence, community feedback and contributions to The Graph to date.
Compensation for TAB members
It is anticipated that TAB members will dedicate a reasonable amount of time and effort to their board activities. This is a serious commitment that will include interaction several times a month with other board members and core contributors. TAB members will receive a grant for their contribution and commitment.
Structure for nomination
If you’d like be considered by as a potential candidate, please reply to this Forum thread following this template:
- Full Name.
- I am nominating myself or someone else.
- Address or ENS used to participate in the network (specify all of them).
- Discord username.
- Forum username.
- Email/Telegram for contact for an interview.
- Why do you want to nominate yourself (or the person you are nominating)?
- Please list yours, or your nominee’s, skills and areas of expertise.
- Yours, or your nominee’s, views on The Graph’s vision.
- What’s the next data service you, or your nominee’s, think The Graph should add to the protocol, and why.
- Please provide yours, or your nominee’s, contributions to The Graph ecosystem up to date.
- Any additional information you would like to include as part of your, or your nominee’s, application.
TAB Expectations
Meeting Cadence
Members of the TAB will meet on an as-needed basis, but at least once per month, with meetings scheduled by a TAB lead or Foundation representative. The TAB will also have async communications with each other, core developers, and Council members. Additionally, The Graph Council can summon members of the TAB to join Council meetings when needed or if an emergency decision arises that requires attention.
Communications
Members of the TAB should expect frequent communication with various core contributors to R&D, The Council and The Foundation, especially when supporting technical decisions, providing feedback, reviewing security or supporting the GIP process.