The Ethereum Foundation allocates a grant to DeFiScan

The Ethereum Foundation has allocated a grant to The DeFi Collective to develop further DeFiScan, DeFi’s first framework that formalizes the decentralization stages of DeFi technology.

It will enable us to speed up ongoing efforts, with the North Star goal of maximizing DeFiScan’s percentage of DeFi TVL coverage. The funds received will help us onboard one full-time contributor dedicated to DeFiScan, scale up our community submission program, and raise awareness of DeFiScan.

Growing DeFiScan’s team with dedicated full-time contributors

DeFiScan is a public good dedicated to providing transparency on DeFi protocols’ level of decentralization. Much like L2BEAT pioneered extremely high-quality reviews on the decentralization of L2 chains, we strive to provide the most accurate and reliable information on DeFi protocols. DeFiScan aims to provide transparent, unbiased information on DeFi protocols’ decentralization levels, enabling users to make informed decisions about protocol usage and associated risks. We are building the tool we would have loved to have when we started exploring DeFi. Our North Star is to reach 95% of the total DeFi TVL covered with qualitative, accurate, unbiased, and up-to-date reviews.

Reviewing the decentralization of DeFi protocols is no easy feat. One needs to have a deep level of expertise and put in the right amount of time to produce an accurate and unbiased review of one protocol. Each review needs to be double-checked by multiple experts before it is published to ensure neutrality.

To progress towards our North Star, we are working both with internal contributors and harnessing the power of the community, and we will continue reinforcing these two paths to producing high-quality content:

• We are hiring two full-time contributors to DeFiScan. Preference will be given to profiles that have already submitted and successfully merged one or several DeFiScan reviews. If you are interested, grabbing our attention is straightforward: show us that you can do the work.
• Community members can also participate by submitting individual reviews. The first submission will be rewarded with a minimum of 1,000 LUSD and up to a new maximum payout of 3,000 LUSD per review, reflecting the complexity of reviewing large, intricate codebases like Aave. We will publish a blog post detailing the revised review program shortly.

Finally, we want to keep investing in awareness, education, and outreach activities. More specifically, that means:

• Graphic redesign of the DeFiScan website, Twitter-optimized review social sharing card, and additional infographics.
• Event attendance & presentation: representing DeFiScan at events (ETH Belgrade, ETH Bucharest, ETH Zurich, ETHCC and others Ethereum, DeFi events), and organizing events like workshops.

What it means for DeFiScan and DeFi

Following the investments mentioned above, we can increase the pace of review publication. We aim to publish 25 reviews over the next 6 months, covering currently missing DeFi staples such as Aave v3, Lido v3, Uniswap v4, Pendle, or Maker/Sky.

Launched in October 2024 with 7 initial reviews**, the total has already doubled to 14 in ~5 months**, and we’ve learned tons about the reviewing process and the intricacies of applying the DeFiScan framework.

With increased resources and awareness, DeFiScan will have all it needs to grow its coverage, awareness, and mindshare in the DeFi ecosystem.

All major protocols will eventually be reviewed, and with their decentralization status neutrally documented, there will be no more surprises. The DeFi Collective’s support of stage 1 and 2 protocols means that all incentives are now in place to maximize the number and TVL share of maximally decentralized protocols.

We are thankful to the Ethereum Foundation for proactively recognizing the value of the technical information delivered by DeFiScan.This support is a testament to DeFiScan’s pivotal role in driving the decentralization of the DeFi landscape, and we are honored to be advancing this mission within the Ethereum ecosystem. We are also thrilled to see this grant implemented shortly after the Ethereum Foundation’s first sizable deployment of assets in the DeFi ecosystem.

The future of DeFi looks… ever more transparent!