What do Rootstock builders/grantees need right now from The Collective?

[Axia]

We talk a lot about supporting builders — but we don’t always ask them directly what support looks like.

Builders: what’s your biggest blocker right now?

For example:

• What took longer than it should have when building on Rootstock?
• What would have made your grant process smoother?
• What’s missing from the ecosystem that would unlock your next step?
• Where do you wish you had better connections, tooling, or documentation?

If you’re a builder/grantee, please drop a quick note —anything will help. I’m tagging some builders for visibility @Francisco @Ezequiel @AndrewG @mrmtech @DappsoverApps @Ikabott @Maurotov @WeCard @juanipodesta @onrampmoney

[Tane]

Thanks for opening this up, @Axia. We’d like to add a few questions from what we’ve observed reviewing recent grants.

Beyond blockers and tooling, we’re curious about:

• How does the milestone reporting process feel from your side? Is it clear what’s expected, or does it create unnecessary overhead?
• What’s your plan for user acquisition and retention after grant funding ends? Are there ecosystem-level resources that would help?
• Are you aware of other Rootstock grantees building adjacent products? Have there been missed opportunities to integrate or collaborate?
• For DeFi builders specifically: are there composability gaps in the current protocol stack that limit what you can build?

A pattern we’ve noticed across recent reviews is limited cross-protocol integration, thin user bases, and unclear post-grant sustainability. Understanding where the real friction sits would help delegates ask better questions at proposal time.

[Luis_VOTTUN]

Thanks for opening this super valuable to have this conversation openly.

From our side, RSK questHub, a few reflections based on actually building:

1. Build time vs expectations

One thing that took longer than expected was the final stretch of product readiness especially around additional collective voters testing, iterations, and alignment.

This is not necessarily a bad thing (it improves quality), but it does mean that time-to-market extends beyond what is initially planned, and that has second-order effects on momentum. That also adds costs in our side.

2. Ecosystem collaboration

We feel there’s still a gap in real ecosystem collaboration. There are great teams, but in practice:

• some projects don’t have resources to collaborate
• some are not fully active
• and integration and collaboration opportunities don’t always materialize

Unlocking stronger incentives for collaboration could significantly improve this.

3. Biggest blocker: GTM, not tech

At this stage, the main blocker is not building, it’s distribution.

Crypto has evolved and users don’t come just because a product exists, get their attention is highly competitive and the reality is that bootstrapping without incentives is extremely hard

This creates a gap where products are built but adoption doesn’t follow

4. What would unlock the next step

What would really help is ecosystem-level GTM support, in our case for example:

• co-incentivized campaigns - subsidize some projects to test our product for the first time
• liquidity / user incentives - give users addtional rewards for being the “early adopters”
• distribution support - propose ecosystem perks for collaborating
• shared growth initiatives - help teams to sync in common RSK goals

Not just goodwill but structured growth mechanisms .

5. On sustainability post-grant

This ties directly to the previous point. Without early traction it’s very hard to prove sustainability…even if the product is solid

So supporting early user acquisition is key to long-term success.

6. Final thought

We believe there’s strong potential in Rootstock, but to unlock it we need to complement builder support with growth support

Because today, the bottleneck is not “can we build it?”

It’s “can we get users to care?”

Happy to collaborate with others in the ecosystem, we think that’s also part of the solution.

I hope this could be useful.

Vottun´s team

[jengajojo]

Although not a builder yet, I strongly agree with the emerging theme here. I think the next unlock is not isolated building but distribution, especially if we as a DAO can coordiante on it. Then, the grants should come with clearer testing loops, shared GTM support & user incentives. If we as a DAO can help good teams/products find users faster then sustainability becomes far more realistic for every builder here.

[jxlabs]

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks for opening this conversation. From our side at JXLabs, as builders in the Rootstock ecosystem and grantees for both BALT and Tykora, we really appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts.

Our experience with the Rootstock Collective has been very positive. The grants helped us move forward with two different but complementary initiatives:

• BALT, focused on decentralized inheritance and long-term asset continuity.
• Tykora, a no-loss prize vault designed to bring a more engaging DeFi experience to Rootstock.

From a builder perspective, we believe the biggest opportunity right now is not only helping teams build, but helping strong products reach users, partners, and real ecosystem adoption.

A few areas that could be very valuable:

1.Ecosystem-level GTM support

Building the product is only one part of the challenge. Once a project is live, the next major blocker is distribution. Support with campaigns, visibility, co-marketing, user education, and coordinated launch efforts could make a big difference.

2. Stronger connections between grantees

There are many teams building valuable pieces of the ecosystem, but collaboration does not always happen naturally. More structured introductions between grantees, DeFi protocols, wallets, infrastructure teams, and community initiatives could unlock useful integrations.

3. Early user activation and incentives

For products to prove traction, they need real users testing, interacting, and giving feedback. Ecosystem-level incentives, quests, pilot campaigns, or early adopter programs could help builders validate products faster and create momentum after launch.

4. Clearer technical and ecosystem onboarding paths

Rootstock has strong technical foundations, but builders coming from other ecosystems often need clearer paths around integrations, liquidity, wallets, UX patterns, and available protocols. A more practical builder map or integration playbook could help new and existing teams move faster.

5. Post-grant sustainability

Grants are extremely helpful to build and launch, but the hardest stage often comes after the milestone is completed. Helping projects transition from “grant-funded development” to “ecosystem adoption and sustainable usage” would be highly valuable.

Overall, we believe Rootstock has a very strong opportunity to become a leading Bitcoin DeFi and Bitcoin utility ecosystem. To unlock that, builder support should continue, but it should increasingly be complemented with growth, distribution, collaboration, and user activation support.

From JXLabs, we are happy to collaborate with other builders, grantees, protocols, and community members to keep strengthening the Rootstock ecosystem.

Thanks again for opening the discussion.

JXLabs team

[Luis_VOTTUN]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the input here. It feels like there’s a pretty clear pattern across what people are saying.

A lot of teams are actually building solid stuff, but once the product is live, things get much harder. Getting users, distribution, integrations… that’s where most of the friction is right now.

Feels like GTM, user activation and better coordination between projects could make a big difference at this stage.

The question for me is more practical: How do we move this from discussion to something real?

Do we as builders need to put together a concrete proposal (for example a small GTM pilot with a few projects), or is there already some structure within the Collective where this could be pushed forward? We need Collective advice here please

Happy to help shape something if it makes sense just trying to understand what’s the best way to actually get this moving.

Thanks!

[Luis_VOTTUN]

Anyone from the Collective to chat with?

[Axia]

Hey @Luis_VOTTUN sorry for the delay. The Collective is meeting this week to align on our priorities and strategy. I should have more info to share with you next week. Thanks for your patience!

[Luis_VOTTUN]

Hi @Axia
Any update?