Grant Proposal: Rust Office Hours Resources

Community Grant Applications
#1

Grant ID: 8676zy9un

Summary:

While there is a growing demand for Rust skills across web3 and many core developer teams working on The Graph, the pool of skilled Rust engineers remains fairly small. Furthermore, there are few existing Rust learning materials with content specific to The Graph. This project aims to support the development of blockchain data indexing-focused Rust engineers by creating free and open source learning content about concepts relevant to The Graph.

Past and upcoming guide topics include:

Subgraphs
Substreams
Graphcast
and more

Please visit Sessions | Rust Office Hours Resources to see a few prototype guides under development.

I have read and agree to the privacy policy:
true

If available, please enter a link to your project below:
https://alex-pakalniskis.github.io/RustOfficeHoursResources/sessions.html

Are you applying as a team or individual?:
Individual

What type of grant are you pursuing?:
Project (one-off)

Please select the category your project best fits into:
Education

Please select who you think will benefit from your project?:
Indexers, Subgraph Developers, Other

How much funding are you looking for? (USD):
5000

Provide a breakdown of your requested funding:
10 Rust developer guides released over Q1 and Q2 2023. Each guide will include a reference GitHub repository of completed Rust code, in-depth written instructions and explanations of Rust and The Graph concepts covered within, and an associated video recording shared on YouTube.

For each of the 10 guides, I need to:

research Rust and The Graph content ideas
write Rust code
write documentation
record a YouTube video

Have you applied for (or already received) funding from somewhere else?:
No

What’s your vision for how your project will impact The Graph and/or web3?:
These guides will support the learning of current and aspiring Rust engineers in our community by covering foundational-thru-intermediate Rust concepts while engaging with domain specific topics relevant to The Graph. Growing the pool of Rust engineers in the community will benefit the long-term health of the protocol by supporting the progressive decentralization of core tech stack contributions. Furthermore, this initative supports the on-going labor needs of core ecosystem developers by helping to train the next generation of Rust engineers in our community.

What can you share about any past work that is relevant to this grant?:
I’ve previously received a community grant for my “Code Along with Alex” education project. I frequently cover Rust-based topics during sessions and post recordings to my YouTube channel. Most of our sessions use pre-existing lessons, guides, or tutorials because of the more introductory, domain-agnositc nature of the sessions. It is through preparing for these sessions that I’ve found the lack of The Graph-focused materials online for Rust engineers.

In December 2022 I became one of the co-hosts of Rust Office Hours in The Graph protocol Discord Server.

Can you share any information about current/past web3 experience?:
I’ve been a Graph Advocate and DAO member since April 2022. My Code Along with Alex project started in August 2022 and received it’s first community grant in December 2022. Coinciding with the start of MIPs I co-launched an indexer and community support organization with a few friends from The Graph community (IndexerDAO).

Why are you interested in contributing to The Graph and/or web3?:
My involvement in The Graph community has only deepened since joining the Advocates program in April 2022. I really enjoy building, learning, and teachnig with other ecosystem participants and hope to continue doing so for years to come. I’m inspired by the technology but stay for the friendships and great conversations about “why” we’re actually building all this.




Primary Community Poll

Do you fundamentally support this grant application, knowing that the final scope and grant amount may differ from the requested proposal?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters




Grant Committee Vote (Closes on Jan 18th)

Do you recommend this grant to the DAO?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

2 Likes
Grant Proposal: The Graph, Free Course on Udemy and Alison
#2

Hi @pakaliscious

Thank you for submitting your community grant applicaiton! After reviewing your submission I have a couple follow up questions for you:

  • Can you please provide a cost breakdown of your budget?
  • Can you describe how and where you will share these Rust guides in order to get maximum engagement with engineers?

Thank you again for applying! Looking forward to your responses.

P.S. I was able to attend the Rust Office Hours you hosted today and want to publicly share what I expressed to you this morning. Even not being a technical person myself, I found your delivery to be terrific. You provided heady information in a very relaxed, digestible, and fun way and given the community feedback I’ve seen recently that Rust is too complicated/difficult, I think the resource you are proposing in this application will be very valuable and timely.

2 Likes
#3

Hey @Mr.1776,

Thank you for the feedback. Your kind words are much appreciated.

Can you please provide a cost breakdown of your budget?

For each of the 10 guides I need to:

  • Research content ideas (2-3 hours)
  • Write Rust code and text explanations (4-5 hours)
  • Record a video (1-2 hours)
  • Maintain lesson and video content + code repositories to reflect changes to The Graph protocol and Rust programming (1-2 hours)

Range of hours:
8 hours - 12 hours of work per guide

80 hours - 120 hours for 10 guides @ 5000 USD = $41.7/hr to $62.6/hr

Can you describe how and where you will share these Rust guides in order to get maximum engagement with engineers?

Currently I’m sharing the guides in a public, open-source GitHub repository associated with my personal account: GitHub - alex-pakalniskis/RustOfficeHoursResources. You can view the rendered GitHub Pages website here: Sessions | Rust Office Hours Resources.

I’d like to migrate the project content to a repo associated with The Graph’s GitHub organization: The Graph · GitHub or The Graph Academy: https://docs.thegraph.academy/

While I understand it may not be possible to leverage these platforms, I believe that sharing this educational content this way will increase the reach of the project and encourage other Rust engineers in our community to contribute (I have a feeling people are less inclined to contribute to a repo in a personal account).

If the external org idea doesn’t pan out, I’ll keep hosting content in my personal repository. Regardless of ultimate location, I will also market the project on Twitter and LinkedIn with posts. I’m considering paid advertisements too, but it’s still early for that.

Thanks again!

1 Like
#4

Greetings!

The presentation of the project will be in the public-voice-chat channel on the Graph AdvocatesDAO Discord server on January 10 at 18:00 UTC. Entrance is open and everyone is welcome to come in and ask their questions during the presentation!

Thank everyone for your attention!

2 Likes
#5

Congratulations! The majority decision of the Grant Committee has concluded to recommend this proposal to the DAO.

In order to receive official approval from the DAO, a corresponding on-chain vote needs to be conducted on DAOHaus that will determine the DAO decision. A member of the Grant Committee will reach out to you via email with instructions on next steps in order to prepare for the on-chain funding proposal, which requires prior completion of KYC and consent to the Grant Agreement.

Thank you for all your effort to present a strong proposal aiming to grow The Graph and web3 ecosystem!

2 Likes
#6

I hereby agree to this grant agreement of the Graph AdvocatesDAO with the GitHub commit-hash 3858eb9315ef3a0a93d0701961ffbc2a57d45205. That document forms the legal agreement of the proposed grant with the following terms:

  • Scope
    • Support the development of blockchain data indexing-focused Rust engineers by creating free and open source learning content about concepts relevant to The Graph.
  • Deliverables
    • 10 Rust developer guides released over Q1 and Q2 2023. Each guide will include a reference GitHub repository of completed Rust code, in-depth written instructions and explanations of Rust and The Graph concepts covered within, and an associated video recording shared on YouTube.
  • Total Grant Amount
    • USD Value: 5000 USD
    • Token: GRT
    • Token Amount: 81,967.21 GRT
  • Disbursement Schedule
    • Initial Funding: 40%
    • Upon Completion: 60%
  • Term Length
    • Start Date: February 2023
    • End Date: July 2023
  • Receiving ETH Address: 0x4CBcDE1E9DAFe3635C872E6D4909DF952a38B290

I understand that the agreement will only be executed upon a successful completion of a corresponding on-chain vote by the Graph AdvocatesDAO. I also understand that the grant will be disbursed on Gnosis Chain.

1 Like
#7

The Graph AdvocatesDAO has approved initial funding of this grant proposal! Thanks to all community members that have been engaged throughout this process and providing feedback.

To the grant recipient:

The DAO is looking forward to hearing about your success! Following completion of your grant, please write a confirmation post as a response to this thread. The more details you provide, the easier it will be for the DAO to initiate the final funding amount in a future on-chain proposal. Providing links, docs and images of your completed grant will also help the DAO determine how to best promote the labors of your hard work. Good luck!

For more information on how to withdraw your grant, please review the following documentation here.

Please note, that the total amount of the grant shall be set forth in the Grant and is stated in U.S. Dollars and are payable in GRT. The USD-GRT conversion rate (the “Conversion Rate”) provided to Grant Recipient will be the monthly Conversion Rate determined by the AdvocatesDAO.

For further information, please refer to the Grant Agreement, here.

1 Like
#8

Hey @pakaliscious

As we come to the point where the deadline for the grant proposal has passed, DAO would like to know the results and whether they have been achieved. To remind you of them:

Thank you! And DAO looks forward to hearing from you soon!

1 Like
#9

Hey @doxe01.eth

I’m still working on the lessons (sorry for the delay in communication with the DAO). Career changes have been a bit more time-consuming than expected.

I would love to request an extension to continue working on this project through the end of 2023. I’ve recently brought on some colleagues to my team to help with content creation and quality assurance testing. Furthermore I’m adding some content from the more stable aspects of The Graph’s tech stack (Indexer Components like Indexer Agent and Service) to complement the tutorials about the more bleeding-edge side of our protocol.

Thank you for understanding and look forward to on-going discussions.
Best,
Alex/Paka

1 Like
#10

I think we should try to promote this more within the DAO and maybe on social media since it’s a very useful initiative and learning resource.

#11

Everything’s great!

I’m glad the work continues and was just clarifying that the DAO was aware of this as it was going along. I can see from the documents that you are working responsibly.

Thank you!

#12

Hello!

I can prepare a draft for the promotion of these materials on Twitter.

@pakaliscious, what we can cover, what is ready and what we can show. Also, to maybe get more people interested in it.

Thank you!

3 Likes
#13

Greetings!

After contacting the grantee, the Grantee has refused to continue working on the grant for several reasons that have been discussed individually. For this reason, the previously drawn up grant agreement is cancelled and no longer valid.

In the process of working with grants, difficulties arise and in any case we are happy to support grantees on their way. For its part, the Grant Committee and DAO will be happy to see you @pakaliscious in the future with new grant proposals, which are likely to be of the same high and interesting level. Thank you for your work! And good luck!

Best regards,
Graph AdvocatesDAO

#14