UnitedBloc - Retroactive Treasury Proposal for Q3 2023

Abstract - UnitedBloc is a group of community collators who have been actively involved with Moonbeam since the early testnet phase. In early 2023, we introduced our public RPC service for Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha. This initiative rapidly gained traction within the user and developer community, with the RPC serving up to ~1.5bln requests per month across all three chains.

On October 3rd UnitedBloc was selected by the Moonbeam Treasury Council 2 as one of the supported RPC providers for Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.
Given that fact and given the high traffic volume occurred on UB endpoints during Q3 2023 which we initially targeted as funding start with our proposal, we’re also seeking retroactive funding for Q3 2023 with this proposal.

Motivation - Our first objective is to foster Moonbeam’s growth, it’s crucial for developers to have seamless access to top-tier RPC services. Our free public RPC service serves as a stepping stone, supporting new developers as they launch and expand their projects. No signup. No accounts or accounting, just point the app to a UB endpoint and go. If at any point the project RPC requirements exceed our capacity, we’ll guide them toward commercial service providers. Our second objective is to facilitate the RPC needs of non-profit endeavors. If community focused non-profits ever need more RPC than our public service provides, we will work with them to meet the need.

Project Overview and Team Experience - UnitedBloc members excel in Linux administration, allowing us to deploy robust servers. Each member organization takes responsibility for deploying and maintaining their individual RPC servers. This approach leverages our collective expertise for a decentralized network architecture.

Overall Cost - This proposal encompasses combined operational costs for Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha for Q3 2023. The total requested amount is $10,800, equivalent to currently GLMR 44,289.2952 and MOVR 544.4432 in a 80%/20% ratio.

Use of Treasury Funds - As community collators reliant on community delegations, we have launched the RPC service to give back, operating with a non-profit focus. This grant covers our infrastructure costs for the RPC service across Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha, including the provision of boot nodes for all three networks. It excludes any margin or profit for UnitedBloc.

Specifications - The UnitedBloc RPC service encompasses four regions: North and South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The service has grown to nearly 1.5bln requests per month across all three networks. We employ global DNS load balancing to efficiently route users to UnitedBloc servers in their respective regions. Within each region, OpenResty enhances RPC requests with additional load balancing and optimization. When demand surges, we promptly adjust by adding more servers or specific services. Our design is thus scalable, flexible, and cost effective.