MIP 88 - Oku Crosschain Deployment Support

Governance
1

Summary:

GFX Labs will provide user interface support for Morpho’s multichain expansion within Oku. GFX Labs will also proactively seek out new blockchain partners, and negotiate favorable terms to incentivize users to utilize curator vaults.

Motivation:

Blockchain ecosystems require borrow-lend protocols to offer users the full suite of expected DeFi services. Most L2 and alt-L1 chains also prefer to remain neutral and host protocols on their chain to provide the best user experience rather than deploy their own local, team-owned fork.

Morpho has become one of the premier borrow-lend protocols, with a differentiated product and an excellent safety record, making it a recognized name in DeFi lending alongside Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO. Its brand, established user base, and unique product make it desirable for L2 and alt-L1 stakeholders to request and incentivize Morpho deployment to their chain.

At the same time, expansion to new blockchains expands Morpho’s user base. New blockchains aggressively source users, and those users can be introduced to a world-class experience using Morpho for DeFi lending and borrowing.

Most blockchains have unique stakeholders that emerge to service them and their users, and deploying Morpho and supporting interfaces will grow and support the Morpho ecosystem of curators. Whether that is on a RWA-centric chain, a stablecoin-centric chain, or chains experimenting in GameFi, identity, social, and other niches, there are unique assets on each chain that can benefit from Morpho.

Put simply, Morpho can capture more growth by building a presence in more markets. Users and assets not present on Ethereum and Base currently cannot access Morpho, and all of the lending activity associated with those users and assets is ceded to competitors.

Morpho also benefits from decentralizing and diversifying its contact with end users. Integrating Morpho into a platform with an existing user base for spot trading, and maintained independently from the Morpho Association and other existing frontend providers, puts users first with multiple choices and points of access to the protocol.

Finally, every grant, subsidy, or incentive not secured by Morpho is available to competitors, like Aave, who actively pursue grants and incentives.

Why GFX Labs:

GFX is uniquely suited to helping Morpho grow quickly and sustainably. Our contributors have longstanding experience inside Compound and MakerDAO. GFX has also produced a small borrow-lend protocol that operates on Optimism. Our familiarity with how borrow-lend protocols are built and used, combined with Morpho’s differentiated product from competitors like Aave, Compound, MakerDAO, Spark, Liquity, and Euler, means that GFX knows how to thoughtfully represent Morpho’s benefits to potential partners.

With our Oku partnerships and involvement in Optimism and Arbitrum governance, GFX Labs maintains a wide network of relationships in the multichain space. It is especially important that Morpho expand its user, curator, and developer base across the Optimism Superchain, the Arbitrum Orbit chains, and the plethora of independent chains using OP, Arbitrum, Polygon, and ZK stack technology. If the chain is EVM, has users and resources for grants, then that chain needs a Morpho deployment.

GFX’s role in expanding Uniswap proves that we are capable of building out new, meaningful deployments of a blue-chip DeFi protocol. We have a track record of successfully deploying the protocol, passing ownership back to governance on Ethereum, and ensuring an intuitive, positive way for users to experience the protocol, driving rapid user acquisition.

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GFX Labs deployed on major chains like BSC and Base, as well as numerous frontier markets, some of which will grow to meaningful size.

GFX Labs regularly serves on grant-giving committees. Across the Optimism, Polygon, and Arbitrum ecosystems, GFX knows what it is like to sit across the table from protocols seeking grants to deploy to a chain. We have evaluated, rejected, and approved hundreds of grants in 2024 alone. When a protocol wants a grant to defray costs and incentivize users, we know what grants providers seek.

After securing subsidies and incentives from partner chains, Oku is a perfect access point for new Morpho users. Boasting more than 8 order routers, over 11 bridges, and an easy on/off ramp for fiat, frictionlessly adding Morpho vaults to the platform will offer a best-in-class user experience.

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This will help new Morpho deployments when deployed on chains that Oku already supports, immediately tap into existing user bases and bundled with other DeFi protocols in that market. More users get to try Morpho, existing curators can expand to new markets on those chains, and the protocol is further decentralized with an additional user interface.

Alternatively, some partners may wish for a white-labeled solution.

Specification:

Transfer $400,000 in MORPHO to GFX Labs’ address: gfxlabs.eth.

When the summed TVL of all Morpho deployments where GFX Labs is the first/primary user interface equals $100,000,000, then an additional $100,000 (at the time of proposal) will be transferred to gfxlabs.eth.

The Morpho Association is responsible for verifying when this milestone is met. A 7-day TWAP of the MORPHO price, beginning on the day this proposal is posted, will be used to determine the amount of MORPHO for direct transfer and vesting.

This specification outlines the terms of engagement between GFX Labs and Morpho DAO for providing user interface support and chain expansion services.

As a reference point, the Uniswap Foundation awarded GFX Labs $1.6M to build Oku, a ten-month project launched in July 2023. That scope was significantly larger than this integration, requiring a skilled team of 10 to develop the entire platform from scratch.

Project Timeline and Milestones

  • Phase 1: Initial Development (3 months)
    • Weeks 1-3: UX design and backend architecture
    • Weeks 4-11: Interface development
    • Weeks 12-13: Beta testing and refinement
  • Phase 2: Post-Launch Support (3+ months)
    • Continuous updates based on user feedback
    • Feature enhancements and optimization
    • Performance monitoring and improvements

Deliverables

  • Complete Morpho interface integration within Oku.trade

  • Backend infrastructure and support systems

  • Ongoing maintenance and updates

  • User experience improvements based on feedback

Next Steps:

When engaging stakeholders on a target chain, GFX Labs will seek a package of incentives and subsidies that keep the net cost to Morpho Association and Morpho DAO at or near zero.

While GFX Labs will seek the best and largest possible package for Morpho and its users, we will target chains where we believe Morpho can outperform. For major existing chains, that means significant incentives for aggressive market share capture. For newer chains, that means building a low-effort presence until it becomes clear which frontier chains will develop into meaningful markets.

GFX Labs has experience spearheading the expansion of major DeFi protocols and has been directly responsible for deploying more than 20 Uniswap instances. Between those chains and our involvement in the Optimism Superchain and Arbitrum ecosystems, GFX Labs has a long list of preexisting relationships that can be leveraged to grow Morpho quickly and safely while minimizing cost and distraction to the core Morpho team.

Conclusion:

This proposal accelerates Morpho’s expansion, leveraging GFX Labs’ expertise to enhance growth, decentralization, and user engagement, securing its position as the top borrowing and lending protocol.

3 Likes
2

Thanks for the proposal! While I support the multichain deployment of Morpho, I have several key questions and concerns about this proposal:

  1. The precise scope of cross-chain deployment services
  2. The role of OKU.trade and its alignment with the proposal’s objectives
  3. The proposed compensation and specification details

1. Scope of “CrossChain Deployment Support”

The proposal claims GFX Labs’ experience with Uniswap demonstrates capability in deploying protocols across chains. However, several points require clarification:

  • Creating a Morpho instance is technically straightforward using deterministic proxy factories on EVM chains.
  • What unique value does GFX Labs provide beyond basic contract deployment?

Regarding chain expansion claims, the current evidence is limited:

  • Most Uniswap trades occur through the official website, which already supports multiple chains.
  • Available data sources (Dune dashboard -frontend trade size and orderflow.art) indicate minimal impact from third-party interfaces:
  • “Unknown” sources show negligible order flow compared to the official frontend
  • No significant alternative interface traffic is evident

2. OKU.trade’s Role and Contribution

Key Questions:

  • Why is this not a “integration program”?
  • Will the project open-source its code to benefit the broader Morpho ecosystem?

The whole oku.trade development part sounds more like an “product integration” instead of a service provided to Morpho, consider it’s itself a user-facing product that have incentive to add more features.

Instead of packaging this as a “chain expansion service” for a single team, we should consider starting a new, open program:

  • Create a dedicated UI builder and API development grant program
  • Invite multiple participants to contribute to Morpho’s ecosystem expansion
  • Provide fair, competitive opportunities for integration

3. Compensation and Specification Concerns

The proposed $400,000 compensation is unreasonable. Based on the project scope and OKU.trade’s existing resources (team, designers, UI components), this represents a workload of a 5-person team working for 12 weeks at most, which is far less than the proposed $400,000.

Recommended Approach

I would support:

  1. Developing a public API service for Morpho, proposed as a builder grant
  2. GFX as a delegate leading and launching an ecosystem-wide UI integration program, in which OKU.trade would compete alongside other participants, but have its unique strength to start early with the API development.

I believe this approach would be more fair, transparent, and ultimately beneficial to Morpho as a protocol, extending beyond specific brand or product interests.

3 Likes
3

Great questions, @antonttc! Happy to provide more context.

The Morpho team will, for the time being, deploy all instances of Morpho.

GFX is providing a user interface so that users can easily access those smart contracts. Our formidable task is to build the absolute best Morpho UI/UX possible, and also to help expand Morpho to new chains with the most possible support from those chains. GFX is already fielding a lot of inbounds about this.

Oku will offer users the highest quality experience possible. Compare Oku.trade to the default UI for accessing Uniswap. Expect comparable improvements. Our goal (and incentive in this proposal) is to hit $100m TVL in the new deployments, and as quickly as possible. Then exceed that number.

Oku has a broad network of relationships. It currently supports DEXs and bridging on 24 chains, with 30 by the end of February. GFX is already getting requests from existing partners, wanting to know what they need to do to secure a Morpho deployment, or if they were already on the announced list, how to secure a safe, professional user interface quickly.

It’s worth remembering that this is not one piece of work and then it’s done. GFX Labs would be joining the Morpho ecosystem permanently. Just as Oku has continuously improved and developed new features for Uniswap users, the Morpho community should expect any Morpho UI we launch to significantly improve by day 180 post launch, and then again by the one year anniversary, and so on. The work will be ongoing, because we want users to keep coming back to Morpho to meet their lending and borrowing needs.

The existing Morpho front end is not public to our knowledge.

Because Oku is a front end, we don’t want to make it easier for phishing to target users. It’s very common to clone a website, buy some Google ads or seed some malicious links in forums/discords, and then rob users. We also don’t want clones that will end up broken or abandoned, and provide a bad UX. Oku takes a team to maintain, and robust back end infrastructure.

We would be happy to grant the Morpho team access to the front end code, and back end parts that are relevant to Morpho, however.

The first priority is to get an MVP ready for rapid deployment to the many chains who want a fully functional, accessible Morpho instance yesterday. As we point out earlier, the work doesn’t stop there. This will be an integral part of Oku’s offering to users, and we need to continuously improve on it, just as we have with the swapping and bridging and fiat on/off ramping features.

We are a US-based team. For cost comparisons, please refer to the Uniswap Foundation grant we received.

Overall, we want to emphasize that this is not tossing up a simple UI and calling it a day. It’s a commitment to make Morpho a core part of Oku, making Morpho’s success or failure our own.

4

I want to emphasize that integrating Morpho into an existing product (OKU.trade) should not be considered a “service”. I’ve spoken with numerous teams integrating Morpho vaults recently, and none of these integrations are classified as “chain expansion services” for MorphoDAO.

While all teams bringing liquidity benefit the ecosystem, packaging this as a “chain expansion service” seems misaligned. The DAO should instead establish an independent program focused on incentivizing cross-chain development, promoting fair competition and integrations

This proposal would be more compelling if it:

  1. Operated as a contracted development of an alternative frontend with full Morpho Associate control
  2. Open-sourced infrastructure components, SDKs, or other tools to benefit the broader builder community

Without these elements, the proposal doesn’t substantively support multichain growth compared to using these resources to openly attract teams and wallets to integrate Morpho across chains.

Also would love to get your response to key questions from above:

  • Why can’t this be part of the builder grant program?
  • Can you provide data demonstrating OKU.trade’s unique contribution to Uniswap’s success?

I do not support passing this proposal for several reasons:

  • Approving an incentive for a specific UI integration would likely trigger similar proposals from other teams, messing up the upcoming grant program
  • The proposal lacks concrete elements that would directly help builders, risk curators or integrations.
  • Chain expansion efforts should prioritize public infrastructure and curation that directly benefit the entire multichain ecosystem, rather than a private UI with guaranteed UX
2 Likes
5

We want to emphasize some points that were not prominent as they should have been in our initial post.

White label support

The interface that’s built within Oku will also be available as a white-labelled option for chains that wish to have their own branded front ends. This has already been requested by a major chain.

Functionality would be the same as that offered within Oku, which makes maintenance and improvements easier, and ensures a chain’s white-labelled UI still gives users a best in class experience.

Grants advocacy

Building a UI won’t be enough. Morpho’s growth needs support from the major stakeholders in the new markets it is entering, whether those are DAO governances, foundation companies, DevCos, or someone else. Typically that kind of support comes in the form of grants.

GFX has served on grants and procurement committees for DAOs across web3. We have reviewed thousands of grants that total into the hundreds of millions of dollars. We have walked many miles in the shoes of those who approve grants, which makes us uniquely suited to understanding how Morpho deployments can secure the best incentives package possible.

Whether a formal or informal grants process, they are typically not short or a small amount of work, particularly over the lifecycle of the grant where you have to report back or hit milestones. But we know how to secure and distribute funds from grants.

Multichain complexity

Indexing a large number of chains is not a small amount of work. A front end requires a back end, and that back end has to be quite robust. Users will need to see real-time numbers from the blockchain and able to execute transactions smoothly and without delay. It is not an accident that Oku supports Uniswap across twice as many chains as the official front end.

Morpho needs to be everywhere. For that to work, someone has to provide users a high quality access point to the protocol, and partner chains to help bootstrap these new markets so they have a depth that makes each one core DeFi infrastructure like Morpho is today on Ethereum and Base.

GFX can help Morpho meet the demand for its product, and meet it quickly before chain partners turn to competitors like Aave, Euler, Compound, or their own local lending protocols.

1 Like
6

Gm!

I think the extra information you provided IS some of the more key relevant information that makes the proposal more advantageous. Two of the largest value propositions being multichain indexing and BD.

The only discrepancies I see for the type of funding you’ve requested vs. the expected impact is that the compensation is structured almost entirely as a “payment for work” rather than ongoing service for results.

This proposal does not provide data or validation of Oku’s previous success, but, from a BD perspective I can see how GFX could be a great partner as you are well connected and respected around the industry. I have always enjoyed your pragmatism as well.

Would Oku and GFX stand to generate more revenue in the future from onboarding Morpho users? In which case the below suggestion I make creates more incentive alignment.

In short, the only major adjustment i’d like to see in the proposal is one where the compensation is primarily structured on achieving goals (TVL?), beyond the $100k/$100mil bonus structure.

If it was more results orientated I would vote yes.

4 Likes
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Leaving my feedback before casting my vote against the proposal (as it is now):

  1. While I support expanding Morpho to multi-chain, some infra work like public API that can directly benefit the whole ecosystem is not included in the current deliverables
  2. The proposal lacks evidence to support claims of previous successes
  3. The proposal needs more thorough discussion, especially given the significant budget of $400K plus bonuses

But will be watching and change my vote if an updated version addresses these concerns over the weekend!

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Have much respect for @GFXlabs, a great contributor and delegate whose expertise and direct, clear communication is always appreciated. Our experience with the team has been nothing but great.

I do feel like the proposal is being slightly rushed, mindful that we all want to get things through before Christmas, but some valid points have been raised by @antonttc and @Leuts that I believe warrants some additional time for discussion, unless figured out before voting ends. For example, some data on Oku.

Holding our vote for now.

1 Like
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Oku had 26,000 unique traders (users who executed a swap transaction via Oku) in the month of November. User base has generally been growing throughout Oku’s lifetime, and is on track to be higher in December than November. We want those users to have Morpho in front of them.

10

Now that this proposal has been approved by the DAO, a 7 day TWAP has been calculated using the closing price for each day as follows:

  • December 16: $2.69
  • December 17: $2.62
  • December 18: $2.79
  • December 19: $2.45
  • December 20: $2.79
  • December 21: $2.27
  • December 22: $2.26

The resulting 7 day average price is ~$2.553 per MORPHO token. This results in an initial grant of ~156,678.4 MORPHO tokens, with a milestone reward of 39,169.6 MORPHO tokens once the $100M TVL milestone has been met.

1 Like
11

Acknowledging and confirming this number.

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We supported this proposal because it allows Morpho’s core team to focus on protocol deployment while Oku provides a valuable initiative on the frontend. Although $400k is a significant amount, we believe it will be justified through user onboarding and incentive programs to be realized that attract users on L2 and alt-L1 ecosystems.

However, we have two comments.

  1. How can we confirm how much value Oku contributes to Morpho in terms of asset flow?
    While the data referenced by @antonttc sources are helpful, we are not sure if that’s correct as a data source, because this significantly differs from the data provided on Oku’s frontend.
    While it is possible that the date provided on the frontend is not about Oku but rather Uni v3, we’d love to make sure we can see the data properly.

The data provided by @GFXlabs is also helpful, and we believe we need data in many other aspects including trading volume.

  1. For future proposals of this nature, whether submitted by @GFXlabs or other contributors, it would be beneficial to design a compensation scheme that aligns the incentives of the proposer with those of the Morpho DAO as @Leuts suggested. Ideally, the compensation for contributors like @GFXlabs should be more directly tied to measurable performance outcomes, such as the growth in TVL driven by the Oku frontend initiative.
2 Likes