Safe Grants Program: Wave 1 Roundup

Last Monday, Feb 12, 2024, we hosted a live closing ceremony with our Safe Grants Program grantees showcasing their finished projects and milestones, and us sharing more about what’s coming up for the next wave!

Watch the recording here:

TL;DW, or, just prefer to read and scan?

Scroll down to digest the top highlights of Wave 1 of the Safe Grants Program, and a recap of what our amazing grantees achieved.

SGP Wave 1: A summary

The Safe Grants Program began with the passing of SEP #6 in May 2023. This was followed by the election of the Safe Grants Council, which saw newly minted council members: @sachin12eth, @adamhurwitz.eth and @sohkai onboarded by August 2023, alongside Safe team council members, @SeanMacAonghais and @Germago.

From August to September 2023, a total of 120 applications rolled in, across our pre-defined categories of Build, Growth, Research, and Govern.

Out of these 120 proposals, 39 proposals made it to the Final Review, and a further final 21 proposals were accepted and funded, with an acceptance rate of 17.5%.

A total of $500,000 was funded for Wave 1 of the SGP.

Over the next four months from October 2023 to January 2024, our newly awarded Safe Grantees got to building on their projects. Under the guidance of the Grants Election Council and our Grants Lead, they reached three separate milestones to qualify for every payout.

Now that that is a wrap, we’re extremely proud to present to you their amazing achievements.

Wave 1: Top 5 highlights

From cross-chain abstraction and one-tap Safe creation, our Wave 1 grantees smashed their milestones. Here are the top 5 highlights of this first-ever Safe Grants Programcohort in no particular order.

Candide

Candide launched Abstraction Kit, a Typescript SDK to easily build and send ERC-4337 UserOperations, integrated with the Safe Canonical 4337 Module v2 for first-class support. Highlights include a Paymaster API where users can access a network for third-party gas sponsorship and Bundler Voltaire to help optimize user ops with precise gas estimates and swift execution.

Get started: https://docs.candide.dev Track on Github:

Nest Wallet

As part of their milestones, Nest Wallet (we hear it’s the friendliest way to use Safe) launched their Chrome Extension and Mobile app on iOS and Android with premium Safe{Wallet} support. Key features include shipping token P&L tracking features in app, advanced simulation protection, 2FA, counterfactual deployment of Safes, and free Safe creations! Try it out:

• Download Browser Extension

• Launch iOS App

• Launch Android App

Learn more: https://nestwallet.xyz/

Sygnum

Sygnum’s grant went towards the Safe{RecoveryHub} project – a new crypto wallet recovery ecosystem available in Safe{Wallet}, launched in December 2023. Sygnum serves as one of the established third-party recovery providers to provide users with a buffet of recovery options to meet their needs–from self-custodial to custodial and everything in between. Their completed milestones include recovery setup and execution available on testnet!

Follow updates: https://twitter.com/sygnumofficial Learn more: https://Sygnum.com

Acme

With support from Polygon, Acme launched its one-tap intent “Signature-Based Mint” and one-tap onchain payments in collaboration with Transak. The project created some 2,000 Safes across 14+ networks including Polygon while spreading the gospel at major web3 events.

Follow updates: https://twitter.com/AcmeOneTap Learn more: https://www.acme.am

DeFi Wonderland

The team successfully launched Multichain Safe modules, which tackle the liveness problem, one of the main challenges faced by smart wallets to improve cross-chain user experience. The team did an in-depth study on the current state of storage proofs as part of their journey. Track on Github: https://github.com/defi-wonderland/safe-liveness

Congrats to the teams on their stellar achievements!

Wave 1: Individual project achievements

Below are all of our grantees' projects and milestone achievements.

Build

Cannon

Cannon is a DevOps tool that enables you to queue, sign, and execute deployments using a Safe. To date, dozens of transactions verified and signed with Safes, with nearly $1MM TVL on mainnet. Try it: https://usecannon.com/deploy Track on Github: https://github.com/usecannon/cannon/commits/main/

dSAFE registry

dSAFE registry is a decentralized Safe registry that will enable an alternative way to interact with Safe smart contracts without being reliant on centralized backend architecture. Follow updates: https://twitter.com/daoism_systems

Eternal Safe – Decentralized Safe{Wallet}

Eternal Safe is a decentralized Safe{Wallet} and web app, which can be compiled and run locally, only requiring an Ethereum (or other EVM network) node. It has been proven that a wallet for interacting with a Safe can be built without relying on backend services, and with the ability to run your own Safe Wallet UI locally or connect via IPFS. Track on Github: https://github.com/eternalsafe/wallet/blob/eternal-safe/todo.md

Extensible Fallbank Handler + Signature Verifier Muxer

This project was developed to meet the lack of a sound extensibility/composable framework to build function handlers or signature verifiers. To date: 253 Safes converted to use the ExtensibleFallbackHandler + SignatureVerifierMuxer across Ethereum Mainnet and Gnosis Chain $91.05M traded via TWAP orders on CoW Protocol $70.9M worth of tokens held by converted Safes. Track on Github: https://github.com/rndlabs/safe-contracts

Fluidkey – Privacy Made Simple

Fluidkey is the first production-ready stealth address product based on Safe smart accounts, enabling onchain privacy in a user-friendly way. The alpha version is now available on Optimism and access is being gradually released to waitlist users. Over 1,000 transactions were sent into and from privacy-preserving Safes during the testnet phase. Try it out:

Safe Explorer - An explorer for Safe wallets

SafeScan provides a user-friendly block explorer with features such as: Allow search for any transaction/module transactions in safe scanner Show wallet activity and balance in safecsanner Show 4337 user operations done by a wallet in the wallet page Allow searching for user operations using user operation hash Add a tag showing if a transaction/user operation was sponsored by Gelato or a paymaster. Try it out: https://safescanner.xyz

ZenGuarden

ZenGuarden is a plugin/extension marketplace for smart accounts that will enable developers to build new features efficiently and securely. Achievements include: 3 Modules published on ZenGuard Dashboard Devs and auditors onboarded on the ZenGuard Dashboard 3 Modules available to be enabled and used for Safe wallets via explorer Safe App Dune Analytics metrics showcasing Module listing, audit attestations Onchain module audit attestations using EIP-7512 implementation Docs and blog published on EIP-7512 implementation along with audit partner testimonials. Try it out: http://dashboard.zenguard.xyz/ Explore modules: https://explore.zenguard.xyz/

Growth

Brahma Console - DeFi Pro Asset Management

Brahma Console has deployed Console on Mainnet and Arbitrum with a full onboarding and interaction UX for users to deploy Safes, connect to dApps, and build and execute transactions with SubAccounts for risk segregation, as well as access control settings with policies. Over 100 Safes created in the first launch week, by Funds, Individuals and DAOs. Try it out: https://console.brahma.fi/console Explore: https://etherscan.io/address/0xec4181ee959e47f72e9cc60274fbe53d68949e47#code

Lore: Empowering Communities Through Co-Ownership

Lore develops a protocol and consumer experience that enables mainstream communities to leverage Safe to form, coordinate, and distribute value at an internet scale. The team has deployed an improved consumer experience of Lore on the Base Superchain and Optimism L2, launched over five crowdfunding campaigns with notable communities like Basepaint, and secured over three distribution partnerships with creator & community platforms, like with Memeland.

Follow updates: https://twitter.com/loredotxyz Learn more: https://lore.xyz

StationX

StationX is building tools for communities to coordinate capital leveraging Safe. The team has enabled cross-chain deposits on Stations. Users can spin up Safes on StationX across multiple chains with the same address at once making it easy for: Members to join by depositing from any of the supported chains Admin to track & manage funds of a Station (club/collective/pool) across multiple-chain seamlessly from a single dashboard. The team has also signed the first institutional customer for this use-case: Kokonut Network.

Watch it in action: https://youtu.be/m6M2nF3ZO_k Try it out: https://stationx-fe-git-fix-cc-station-fe.vercel.app/

Research

Challenges and Opportunities of Distributed Cryptography for Safe

The team has presented their research findings for the first phase, looking into Threshold Signatures, Aggregated Multisignatures and Privacy Enhancements in Safe Wallets.

Read a summary of their findings here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A3tv0EhK4uhwLEuFu_G2KSfRXvkKi6tXmq7E0RzmPRo/edit#heading=h.amgggzk1co9q

How to responsibly incentivize multisig signers?

As part of their research, the team has conducted community research with more than 40 web3 projects of all sizes on their multisig setup design. They have produced the handbook “Introduction to multisignature wallets” with use case examples from the research and has identified additional gaps in public resources and education on the topic of multisigs; redirecting project’s future focus into this area. Track on Github: https://github.com/bartosjiri/multisig-signer-incentives

Safe Anonymization Module

After hitting various milestones from research to backend development, integration and technical documentation, frontend development for the Safe Anonymization Module is currently underway.Track on Github: https://github.com/oxor-io/sam-contracts

SafeRecover: zk-powered recovery mechanisms

SafeRecover is a Safe plugin that allows Safe owners to recover account ownership when they lose access to their Safe. The team has hit a series of milestones including: Circuits and Contracts Development Frontend Development App launch on testnet & +1 recovery method.

Try it out: https://safe-recover-noir.netlify.app/ Track on Github: https://github.com/porco-rosso-j/safe-recovery-noir

Govern

StableLab: Enhancing Governance Participation in SafeDAO

In their efforts to enhance Governance Facilitation, Community Education, Engagement, and Activation, the team has delivered the following:

• SafeDAO Monthly Governance Roundup 

• SafeDAO Bi-weekly Governance Digest

• SafeDAO Community and Governance Call Summary Notes

• SafeDAO Governance Handbook V1 - WIP

• SafeDAO x StableLab twitter space

Up to 15% of SAFE available for voting are now voting consistently on SEPs, marking a 10% increase in vote participation since implementation of the program. Learn more: https://stablelab.substack.com/

Safe Governance Analytics Dashboard

Since the dashboard’s early launch on 19 December, it has recorded significant user engagement. User Statistics: Accumulated 157 users with an average engagement time of 1.2 minutes. Dashboard Interactions: Over 800 views and 1.2k event count, indicating active user interaction and interest.Try it out: https://safedao.curiahub.xyz/

And that’s a wrap for Wave 1! We’re thrilled that you were able to follow along our journey. For a more detailed retrospective including learnings from Wave 1, you can read about Safe Grants Program: Wave 1 Retro in our forum post.

What’s next? Wave 2

Safe Grants Program Wave 2 is slated to commence in Q2, 2024!

The exact date is yet to be confirmed as it will dependent on the vote by the SafeDAO. In the meantime, please check out other funding program from SafeDAO: Outcomes-based resource allocation framework (OBRA) for funding Safe ecosystem projects.

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