SECTION 1: APPLICATION OVERVIEW
Provide a brief summary of your application. This section should introduce the reader to your project, explaining its intentions, objectives, and scope.
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Which category of integration is your project applying for: Trading Contracts for a trading competition between users.
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How many $ARB tokens are you applying for: 20,000 $ARB
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Please provide a description of your project:
- Mercle is a distributed incentive network that powers On-Chain Identities using attestations.
- Using Mercle, protocols, chains, and L2s such as Arbitrum (including ecosystem projects) can create user PoW in the form of attestations
- Mercle can be used as a platform that rewards Liquidity Providers (LPs) in concentrated liquidity pools with customized token incentives from incentivizers.
To Summarize:
Mercle is a decentralized reputation graph protocol with a proof-of-work mechanism built using attestations, allowing Web3 users to build an on-chain reputation.
It enables decentralized apps (dApps) to incentivize users based on their engagement and on-chain interactions with their protocol. This allows them to attract new users, efficiently incentivize liquidity, and build a robust community.
- How will you integrate gTrade and what benefit does it bring to your users:
Integration:
- We will include the smart contracts of gTrade to be listened to by our indexers
- This integration will allow us to create all sorts of leaderboards, PnL, profit value, volume traded etc, for gamifying user experience.
- Moreover, our attestation infrastructure will allow users to claim platform-level Mercle DE-FI XPs for verifying actions that we list.
Benefits for users:
- We have around 300,000+ users on our platform and look out for good incentives, this grant would allow them to get exposed to exclusive trading competition.
- Create a sense of belongingness using NFTs for gains network.
- Some stats of our existing users who are traders. Out of 300,000 users, we have 50,000 users to trade very often.
Platform Level Data
Users: 270,000 +
Attestations: 2 Million +
NFT Mints: 200,000 +
Some of the previous work with numbers.
We’ve worked with more than 20 protocols with names like Jumper Exchange, Polygon, Quickswap, Shapeshift, Linea, Syncswap, Rhinofi, TraderJoe, Powerloom, etc. Below is a detailed breakdown of results & everything for the major campaign.
We have been running a few campaigns that exceeded our expectations and have performed well.
Major Stats
Stats - Notion w Dune links
Recent Campaigns
- Jumper Exchange Dynamic PFPs
- Fortify Syncswap
- Trader Joe Galactia Booster
- RhinoFi Bridge to Solana
NOTE: All the campaigns had different goals, but the one common goal was to make it fun enough for users.
- What are your plans for the requested grant and how does it bolster the gTrade integration:
We plan to facilitate a trading competition on Mercle and gamify the experience. The plan is to use the amount received from DAO i.e. 20,000 $ARB and give it back to users participating in this competition.
We already have an infrastructure built that indexes everything happening on the blockchain. We can fetch the user’s volume, PnL, number of trades, etc. to create a leaderboard that acts as a source of truth to distribute incentives.
Based on our calculations we plan to boost the following parameters of trade using Mercle:
- New users
- Trading Volume
- Fees Generated
- Network Fee Generated on Arbitrum
Picture this:
We will deploy an NFT that depicts it’s a trading competition by gTrade x Mercle.
Here’s a rundown on how the campaign will look like:
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User comes to Mercle and mints an NFT (entry pass), like this:
Then,
a. Set a username (in this case NFT will be deployed on Arbitrum)
b. Mint the NFT
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Users can flaunt them on social media platforms like Twitter, Discord and Telegram.
PLAN
Note - Ideally, we will have everything ready before the trading competition starts, so this phase bifurcation is based on actually running the competition. We will prepare a leaderboard for the users and index gtrade contracts to build the same.
Total Duration: 10 Weeks
Phase 1 (week 1-4) - 10,000 $ARB
Phase Name: PnL says the truth.
In the initial phase of our 10-week trading competition, participants will focus on maximizing their Profit and Loss (PnL). Over three weeks, traders will compete to achieve the highest profitability from their trading. The total reward pool for this phase is 10,000 ARB, which will be distributed in a tiered manner: the top three traders will receive 50% of the phase’s rewards based on their rankings, followed by the next three traders who will share 30% of the rewards, and the subsequent two traders will split the remaining 20%.
Reward Distribution
- Top 3 Traders: 50% of the phase’s reward pool = 5,000 ARB
- 1st place: 50% of 5,000 ARB = 2,500 ARB
- 2nd place: 30% of 5,000 ARB = 1,500 ARB
- 3rd place: 20% of 5,000 ARB = 1,000 ARB
- Next 3 Traders (4th to 6th): 30% of the reward pool = 3,000 ARB, each gets 1,000 ARB
- Next 2 Traders (7th and 8th): 20% of the reward pool = 2,000 ARB, each gets 1,000 ARB
Phase 2 (week 4-8) - $5000 $ARB
Phase Name: We believe in Raffles.
In the second phase of our competition, the goal is to achieve a minimum of 25% increase in trading profits. For example, if a trader starts with a balance of $1,000, they need to earn a profit of at least $250, raising their total to $1,250 or more to qualify for the raffle. Those who meet or exceed this 25% threshold will be entered into a raffle to win a share of 5,000 $ARB tokens.
Prize Distribution:
- Grand Prize: 1 x 2,000 ARB
- Major Prizes: 2 x 1,500 ARB
We will have two raffles, one for 2000 $ARB and another for 1500 $ARB.
P.S. The leaderboard will track each trader’s percentage profit increase over the phase duration. Only traders who appear on the leaderboard with at least a 25% profit increase will qualify for the raffle.
Phase 3 (week 9-10) - $5000 $ARB
Phase name: Two Winners. Two Weeks.
The final phase of our competition is a straightforward, two-week sprint focusing solely on Profit and Loss (PnL). This closing segment of the contest is designed to be a quick and intense challenge where only the top two traders with the highest PnL will be rewarded.
Prize Distribution:
- Top Trader: 2,500 ARB
- Second Place: 2,500 ARB
P.S. No raffle, the top two in the leaderboard win.
Provide a timeline and set of milestones with expected ARB payout per:
- Total Duration: 10 weeks
- Total ARB Requested: 20,000 ARB
Key Metrics to Enhance:
- Number of trades
- Trading volume
- Number of active traders
- Fun ( we will measure this, too)
Week 1-4
Requested $ARB: 10,000
MILESTONES
- Increase daily trades by 10-15% from the baseline
- Boost daily trading volume by 10%
- Increase daily active traders by 20%
Week 4-8
Requested $ARB: 5000
MILESTONES
- Sustain daily trades increase by 10-15%
- Sustain daily trading volume increase by 10%
- Increase daily active traders by an additional 10%
Week 8-10
Requested $ARB: 5000
MILESTONES
- Grow the base of small-scale traders by 25%
- Sustain the volume and number of trades in the third phase
SECTION 2: APPLICANT INFORMATION
Provide personal or organizational details, including the applicant’s name, contact information, and the name of any associated organization. This information ensures proper identification and communication throughout the grant process.
- Applicant Name or Alias: Prashant Sharma
- Project Name: Mercle
- Project Description: Mercle is a decentralized reputation graph protocol with a proof-of-work mechanism built using attestations, allowing Web3 users to build an on-chain reputation.
- Team Members and Qualifications:
Team Members and Qualifications:
Prashant Sharma (Pash) - Founder & CEO
Nishchit Prasad - CTO & Co-Founder
Rohan Dubey - Business & Growth Lead
Devansh Dubey - Marketing Lead
Tarun Kauhsik - Full Stack Developer
Divyesh - Full Stack Developer
Prashant Sharma: Aerospace Engineer | 2x Founder (web2) | Hustler
CEO & Founder
Prashant founded his first brand advertising startup company in 2013 during his first year of college. This venture used disposable paper cups for advertising in key locations like airports, railway stations, and bus stops.
In 2016, he created a brand loyalty mobile app for offline businesses, which was later sold to a restaurant chain.
[Startup of the Day] Chandigarh-based Buck Apps rewards users for uploading restaurant bills
After completing his engineering degree in 2017, he founded a coworking space business named NEXT57. This provided flexible office space solutions in tier-2 cities. Over the next three years, he expanded this business to four cities and 14 locations, with an annual revenue of 2M.
In late 2020, he joined Polygon (formerly MATIC Network) as a growth specialist. His major contributions were towards the NFT ecosystem and web2 adoption for the chain.
From 2021 and for the next 1.5 years, he worked as Program Director at Tachyon (an Accelerator by Consensys Mesh). Here, he helped incubate teams with growth and PMF strategies.
Nischit: Computer Science Engineer | Founded Tradefi Exchange previously | Hacker
Co-Founder and Tech Lead
Nischit is recognized for his outstanding problem-solving skills and creative approach to technology. He excels in leading teams and innovating under pressure, consistently providing solutions that improve and streamline business operations. His eagerness to tackle complex challenges and his progressive mindset are defining characteristics of his personality.
Previous Experience:
- Led the development of a platform similar to YouTube Shorts at Quiph, focusing on real-time video sharing (2020-2021).
- Developed OYO OS for hotel receptions at OYO Rooms, used in 7 countries (2018-2020).
- Created a scalable Load Testing System and a fault-tolerant Orchestration System at OYO Rooms, enhancing service reliability.
- Contributed to a high-capacity crypto exchange and optimized risk management for leveraged users at Bittmax Crypto Derivatives Exchange.
Devansh: Computer Science Engineer | Hipster
Marketing Lead
Started his tech journey at 15 by winning the Google India Dev Hackathon.
Fueled by a relentless passion for crafting compelling product stories and his early love for tech.
Rohan: Generalist & Everything in Between | Hustler
Business & Growth
Rohan began his journey in high school, participating in quizzes, debates, and physics. His diverse career spans across content creation, marketing, partnerships, technology, and B2B sales, with a constant drive to improve.
He has created promotional reels for companies, written newsletters, and used his personal brand to guide over 100 students. In addition, he has been featured on a podcast and interview.
From Twitter to GitHub, Rohan’s presence is ubiquitous.
Side note: Over 57,000 people resonated with his thoughts here!
Tarun: Chad | Developoor
Full Stack Developer
Tarun has created Chad Finance—a decentralized exchange and borrowing protocol—brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at Advantage Club, Digiblock, and SilverlineSwap. An active open-source contributor, Tarun is dedicated to innovating in the finance and blockchain sectors.
Divyesh: Diva in Dev
Full Stack Developer
Divyesh has four years of experience in the crypto space, working with multiple blockchains. His background includes working with Rationarium, a crypto accounting software, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the blockchain sector.
Project Links:
Twitter: x.com
Discord: Mercle
Website: www.mercle.xyz
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Telegram: @pash161 `
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Twitter:
[Twitter handle] -
Email: Prashant@mercle.xyz
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Are you currently a grant recipient in other $ARB incentive programs? (eg. STIP.B, LTIPP, an Abritrum Incubator program or else: No
SECTION 3: GRANT DETAILS
Outline the requested grant amount, and provide an overview of the budget breakdown, specify the funding and contract addresses, and describe any matching funds if applicable. ****
- Funding Address: 0x02B2851E445955016be31c802Dc5f5a9f76EB3a2
- Funding Address Details: 3/5 SAFE on Arbitrum
- Other Contract Addresses: NA
SECTION 4: DATA & REPORTING
Please describe how your team will be able to provide data & reporting on the grant distribution.
- Is your team prepared to provide Dune graphs and/or Dashboards for your incentive program?: Yes
- How does your team plan on posting bi-weekly program updates on the Gains Network forum?
For transparency, we will create a Dune Dashboard for the ongoing trading competition on Mercle through gtrade and post bi-weekly updates on the gains DAO. The report will include:
- Dune Dashboard with the number of users, volume generated, fee generated, NFT mints and number of trades.
- Detailed report of what has been our observation and how the campaign looks in terms of engagement and awareness.