What is Hummingbot’s value proposition?

• Market making bot ⇒ Operating system for crypto quant trading
• Core value proposition
  • Different exchange types (CEX and DEX) will always be part of the crypto landscape
  • Hummingbot public infrastructure that helps traders bridge the gap between different exchange types
• Connectors
  • CEX: standardize exchange idiosyncrasies, handle WebSocket order management, etc
  • DEX: standardize exchange/chain idiosyncrasies, handle nonce and node interactions, etc

Who does Hummingbot provide value to?

• Quant traders
  • Individuals running trading bots
  • Small market making firms
  • Founders market making for their own tokens
• Exchanges
  • Tap into Hummingbot user base
  • Use connector for self-serve liquidity
  • Being in Hummingbot codebase acts as stamp of quality

What are the problems with the existing approach to connectors?

• Each new connector adds work
  • Maintenance / documentation load
• Marginal connectors are subtracting value
  • Potential for hacks/scams: FTX, Terra
  • Potential security risks from dependencies
  • Dilutes Hummingbot brand
• Doesn’t correspond with community usage or fees
  • 85% of volume from Binance
  • 90% of fee share from Binance and Kucoin
• Misallocation of scarce resources
  • Foundation spent bulk of time reviewing new exchange connectors instead of enhancing the top ones
  • Hummingbot doesn’t curate exchange connectors for users
• Certification program has no teeth
  • No differentiation between certified and non-certified exchanges from a UX standpoint

Proposed solution

• Hold regular votes that allow HBOT holders decide how Foundation allocates maintenance bandwidth:
  • Connectors: vote on which CEX and DEX connectors are Gold / Silver / Bronze (every 3 months)
  • Strategies: vote on which strategies are Core / Community (every 3 months)
  • Issues: vote on top 5 issues to fix next month (every month)
• Connector Voting
  • Types
    • CEX: centralized exchanges
    • DEX: decentralized exchanges (both CLOB + AMM)
  • Tiers
    • Gold (1): maintained by Foundation (”gold standard”)
    • Silver (3): maintained by Foundation, funded by HBOT bounties
    • Bronze (≥100k HBOT): maintained by community, not funded or tested by Foundation
  • Voting
    • 2 Snapshot polls (CEX and DEX) every 3 months
    • Quadratic voting
    • Choices: All current connectors in codebase
• Strategy Voting
  • Tiers
    • Core (5): maintained by Foundation, funded by HBOT bounties
    • Community (≥100k HBOT): maintained by community, not funded
  • Voting
    • Snapshot poll every 3 months
    • Quadratic voting
    • Choices: All current strategies in codebase
• Issue Voting
  • Nomination
    • 1 week before poll creation, users can nominate any open Github issue or pull request in a Discourse thread
    • These issues can be for any connector, strategy, or component (tiers don’t matter)
  • Voting
    • Snapshot poll every 1 month with choices from nomination thread
    • Quadratic voting
  • Tiers
    • Prioritized (5 new per month)
    • Not Prioritized
  • Foundation will focus on resolving Prioritized Issues during next month
• Proposed Changes
  • Governance Portal
    • Build /governance page on hummingbot.org
    • Show past results and upcoming votes
    • Incorporate Snapshot GraphQL API
  • Docs
    • Restructure docs.hummingbot.org
    • Differentiate Gold/Silver/Bronze exchanges and Core strategies
    • Add Scripts
  • Client
    • Add list command with tabular info for:
      • connectors: Gold/Silver only
      • strategies: Core only
      • -all modifier shows all connectors and strategies
    • Remove Connectors and Strategies that don’t meet minimum community vote thresholds
  • Timeline
    • Work on Portal / Docs / Client changes in December 2022
    • Hold first votes week of Jan 9, 2023
    • Incorporate changes by Jan 2023 release