Introducing Backstop Grants

The Optimism Foundation is experimenting with backstop grants, a bootstrapping tactic that gives teams the confidence to work full time on the Collective while still orienting them toward Retro Funding as their long-term support. If a grantee receives less OP from Retro Funding than its backstop grant value, the Foundation covers the difference; if it receives more, no additional tokens are paid. The grants are more likely to go to teams dedicating all or most of their bandwidth to Optimism and working on critical infrastructure such as the OP Stack, and the list of recipients as of 14 April 2024 includes Agora and Open Source Observer. The exact grant amounts are not disclosed so that Retro Funding voters can assess projects without considering them.