Ever since the birth of the Hummingbot ecosystem, we've strived to ensure a decentralized approach to governance and maintenance of the Hummingbot codebase. Let's take a brief journey through some key milestones:
Oct 2021: Launch of the Hummingbot Foundation
Jan 2022: Introduction of the HBOT Token
Dec 2022: Introduction of Polls for CEX and DEX Connector Voting
Sep 2023: Addition of Chain Connector Voting and Bounty Budgets
HBOT holders are now empowered to dictate how the Foundation distributes its maintenance resources and bounty budgets across the 50+ CEX, DEX, and chain connectors in the codebase. This post updates HBOT holders on how the governance system works.
Hey there, bot runners! We're super excited to announce the first Bot Battle, a 48-hour trading competition for the
Hummingbot community!
Whether you're a seasoned quant trader or just dipping your toes into the world of crypto bots, this competition is tailor-made for you! Compete with other bot-runners, see how your strategy stacks up, and win prizes!
This Beta Bot Battle is a test run for the monthly bot trading competitions that will be a major component of Botcamp starting in October. While the Botcamp competitions will be reserved exclusively for Botcamp members, we are opening up this beta competition to any Hummingbot user!
Since inception in early 2022, Hummingbot Foundation has continually improved and iterated on its governance system. Each quarterly Epoch has introduced voting format changes that are designed to align the choices and decisions that HBOT holders make with changes to the Hummingbot codebase that users want.
Since the end of the Epoch 5 polls, we have engaged in comprehensive internal discussions aimed at enhancing the governance process for the next epoch. Please see below for the proposed improvements. We cordially extend an invitation to our community to thoroughly examine these proposed changes below and provide feedback!
Since the inception of the Hummingbot Foundation, we have paid out 282 bounties to 92 unique developer wallets. Bounties have been an unqualified success in leveraging the global developer community to maintain the Hummingbot codebase by fixing bugs and adding key components.
To continue on this path, we are excited to announce a new change to the Bounties process. Now, bounty recipients can choose whether to receive their payments in HBOT, our native governance token, or the USDC equivalent amount.
By allowing recipients to receive bounties in stablecoin if they wish, we aim to lower transaction fees while still enabling long-term supporters to accrue HBOT.
Every quarter, Hummingbot Foundation organizes Polls, an on-going initiative that lets HBOT holders decide how the Foundation allocates its engineering bandwidth and developer bounties across the components in the Hummingbot codebase.
This week, we completed the Epoch 5 polls, which prioritize exchanges and strategies, in the Hummingbot codebase for the July, August, and September releases.
Hummingbot Foundation's quarterly Polls have successfully driven greater participation in Hummingbot governance. Last quarter, each poll received 30+ votes and 20+ million HBOT voting power allocated!
But more importantly, polls have also allowed our community to decide which exchange connectors should be included in the Hummingbot codebase and how they should be prioritized. There are now 44 CEX and DEX connectors in the Hummingbot codebase, and each new connector requires maintenance, testing, and documentation time that imposes a cost on the overall Hummingbot user base.
From the moment we open sourced Hummingbot as a CLI-based market making bot back in 2019, people have asked "wen GUI???"
While we knew that a graphical user interface would make Hummingbot more user-friendly, we chose to spend our limited resources on improving Hummingbot's exchange connectors and strategy template library.
We recently finished our fourth cohort of Hummingbot Botcamp with Demo Day, where participants showcased the custom trading scripts they developed over the course of the Botcamp intensive 6-week online core course!
The Botcamp participants in this cohort were a dynamic mix of enthusiastic software developers, enterprising startup founders, and adept quant traders, all keen on honing their own unique trading strategies and skills. Botcamp is a professional community with regular events, and numerous participants have forged strong bonds well beyond the program's duration.
Let's take a look at what Botcamp participants presented for Demo Day #4!
Roland wrote a script that creates a self-rebalancing portfolio based on a 1/N strategy, ensuring ideal diversification without the need for specific parameters, thus offering a satisfactory baseline performance.
Launching a new process that connects skilled community developers with stakeholders seeking dev work
Last year, we introduced the Bounties process, which has successfully addressed numerous issues and funded vital technical improvements in the Hummingbot codebase. Bounties have been $HBOT-denominated rewards provided by the Foundation to developers for resolving bugs or adding enhancements (such as new connectors, strategies, etc.) to the Hummingbot codebase. Given its significant impact and cost-effectiveness, we believe it's time to expand the Bounties program to the broader Hummingbot ecosystem.
Here are the milestones that Bounties have achieved:
68 bounties paid, resulting in 53 bug fixes and 15 new features and exchange connectors, including Kucoin Perpetual, PancakeSwap, and SushiSwap.
Largest bounty paid: 2,000,000 \(HBOT (\)10,000 currently) for the Orchestration Module.
Total funds spent: 13,337,000 \(HBOT (\)67,000 currently).
Now, we believe it's time to open up these bounties to the broader Hummingbot ecosystem, so we are recasting them as Community Bounties.
Community Bounties offer a platform for those seeking development work on exchange connectors, strategies, bug fixes, and more to connect with skilled developers capable of building these solutions. As with past bounties, Hummingbot Foundation will oversee the entire lifecycle of Community Bounties, including scoping, assignment, QA/engineering review, and code merge / payment.
In December, we shared our ambitious technical roadmap for 2023, detailing the features and improvements we planned to introduce throughout the year. Today, we are excited to provide an update on the progress we've made, the milestones we've reached, and the exciting plans we have for the remainder of the year.
