Overview

TheDAO Security Fund is a long-term, bottom-up funding engine for Ethereum security, inviting Round Operators (ROs) to apply to design and run its funding rounds end-to-end. TheDAO Security Fund handles the final on-chain distribution to projects from its multisigs, while ROs own the design, execution, community feedback, and public learnings. The first round will be a broadly scoped quadratic funding round on Giveth, with future rounds run by external DAO tooling providers.

Key Details

Timeline: Rolling applications. Next RO expected to be selected in June or July 2026.
Compensation: Fair Fees model — scales with pool size, proposed by the operator, paid on top of the pool (never eats into grantee funds). Open to KPI-based upside on engagement and co-funding.
Round Cadence: 3–4 rounds per year, dependent on ETH price and staking performance
Expected Pool Size: Often million-dollar-plus, but smaller rounds also welcome

What Round Operators Actually Do

Round Operators are ecosystem partners who design and run funding rounds end-to-end. TheDAO Security Fund handles the final on-chain distribution; everything else — design, execution, community feedback, and learnings — is up to the RO. ROs are expected to push their DAO tooling forward rather than run a standard playbook.

What Kind of Rounds We Want to Run

DAO-style rounds, meaning either:

AI-assisted decision-making, where agents help shape or execute the allocation (like the work being done with Bonfires.ai on ETHSecurity Badges), or
200+ meaningful participants with real influence over the final distribution

The mechanism can distribute funds to projects directly (as in quadratic funding or deep funding rounds) or allocate a budget to RFPs (as in Optimism's Season 7 missions-based grant round).

On the participant side, ETHSecurity Badge holders are offered as a natural curated voter pool. ROs are also encouraged to create new voter sets that suit their mechanism.

A Few Things We'll Ask of You

Apply eligibility criteria consistently
Declare and manage conflicts of interest
Keep processes neutral and transparent
Publish a public retrospective after each round so the ecosystem can learn

Eligibility

Full eligibility criteria are documented in the Round Operator Eligibility Criteria (linked in Resources). Applicants are asked to read it before applying.

How to Apply

Read the Round Operator Eligibility Criteria in full
If your team is a fit, submit the Round Operator Application Form
Selected ROs will work directly with Giveth, the Ethereum Foundation's grants management team, and security ecosystem partners to launch the round. Giveth will be the primary point of contact.

Resources

Round Operator Eligibility Criteria
Round Operator Application Form
Fair Fees Model (Gitcoin Governance)
TheDAO is Becoming a DAO Again (context on ETHSecurity Badges)

Opportunities at TheDAO