Proposal Information
Proposal summary:
Request for funding to incentivise and reward new contributors towards DAO operations tasks, primarily through bounty mechanics
Proposal description:
The proposal outlines :
- The desire to prepare the Aragon DAO operations to be self-managed by the community through a short term activity of stewardship
- The need to fund a set of operational tasks via bounties that will allow the emergence of a truly self-managing structure that supports this ownership
- An explanation of how these tasks will be iterated across 2 week blocks starting with a set of defined bounties, then emerging bounties, and then a move away from a reliance on bounties to mechanisms that support ongoing contributions
- And finally a request for funding of ~ $64,000 USDC to reward community members for completion of these incentivised tasks
Proposal Rationale:
Currently, the DAO team representing Aragon is small and stretched. Within the Community, there is a sense that opportunities are limited and work is not rewarded. The asymmetry of these two positions and the paradox can be simply addressed by bringing the talents and gifts of our community to core operational tasks of the DAO. Aragon will prioritise, incentivise and reward contributions for the scaling of core operations within the AN DAO.
We have collected from core contributors, current DAO projects and from some guilds a set of operational bounties linked further in this document.
These bounties will help transition ambassadors toward becoming core contributors and partners in the progressive decentralisation of Aragon - creating a strong foundation in which operational contributions can prepare us to scale guilds and sub-DAOs at some future point.
We expect that as bounties are completed, new bounties and coordination needs will emerge. So our second request is for funding to steward and coordinate with these contributors to iterate on the next set of bounties as work is completed. Finally, we expect to start to coalesce around increased teaming and collaboration as a mechanism to deliver on the work outlined, and so will at this point explore how we will leverage Coordinape and/or other collaborative incentive mechanisms to further reinforce a collaborative, collective culture.
Currently, there are real and perceived roadblocks to this, of which one is the process of attaining funding for tasks within the AN DAO structure. This proposal seeks to remove this limitation by securing a budget that allows for more flexible contributions to the AN DAO and for us to build in an evolutionary capacity - starting small, learning and growing together, figuring things out as we go and setting a tone for how we want AN DAO to operate in future.
For the community, we wish to say that now is the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the Aragon DAO as we steward the core operations of the DAO to the community. We look forward to the evolution of the Aragon DAO and working as a partner with you to create a strong, collaborative and empowering place for you to realise your potential and work with us to realise the ambitions of the Manifesto. Bringing your talents into the daily operations of the DAO will undoubtedly increase the number of active DAOs built on Aragon, and provide a more efficient system for utilising the DAOs capital to help any number of intermediate DAO builders to create the next 10,000 DAOs.
Limitations of any benefits mentioned above:
The limitation is simply that we do not know exactly what can and will be delivered within the timeframe, and how effective this approach will be. This is comforting to us, because we reject the premise of being able to have all the answers upfront in a complex and evolving system.
The financial proposal process observed so far has required a clear definition of what work will be undertaken and by who, which feels inflexible and unreasonable for a DAO at its genesis stage. Here, we want to take the first steps to create an evolutionary organisation: humbly starting small, prepared to iterate and learn, and adapting quickly and effectively to find the optimal path to achieving our goals together. We have scoped a financial proposal which we think uses simple logic, and would ask the exec sub-DAO to view this optimistically and then keep us accountable, so that together we can learn how to bring both freedom and accountability to future funding requests.
Expected duration or delivery date (if applicable):
This proposal is made for a duration of 6 weeks. Funding is to cover three 2 week blocks, with blocks 2 and 3 at this stage providing for continued operations of earlier work and or newly defined work that will enhance the operations of the AN DAO. We also expect that if successful, it is likely to be the first of many future proposals toward the ongoing operations of the AN DAO by its Community Contributors.
Team Information
****Ben Perez - Aragon DAO steward (Aragon Core Head of Talent) - responsible for stewarding these tasks to community ownership
Alex Clay - (Aragon Core Network Ops Lead) - responsible for operational execution within the DAO
Taylor Rawlings - (Aragon Core Community Manager) - representing the community
Lion - Aragon Ambassador and designer of the bounty board enabling this work
We plan to work as stewards of this proposal and faithfully submit it on behalf of the wider Aragon Community & Ambassadors.
Note: Members of Aragon core team listed above will not be compensated as this sits within the scope of their respective roles.
Skills and previous experience in related or similar work:
The team brings previous experience in DAOs, organisation design, legal, operations, VC and transparency. Please review their current and historical contributions via:
Ben:
Alex:
Tay:
Lion:
- https://twitter.com/lion917_eth
- lion917#3637
Funding Information
Amount of ANT requested: 14,254 ANT (equivalent 64,143 USDC at 24th Jan 2022)
Escrow where funds shall be transferred: Greet.me shall be the default Escrow provider.
To ensure bounties are available for timely payment to contributors upon completion of operational bounties we ask that total funds of $64,143 be provided to an operations multisig account. We propose the use of Gnosis Multisig with 3/4 signers, so that funds can be allocated to pay for tooling (as these are identified) including Coordinape and or tipping tools for use in distribution of funds to community
More detailed description of how funds will be handled and used (in USDC):
Budget breakdown:
- Request 1: Weeks 1-2
- Fund genesis bounty board: $16,300
- Board - In progress
- Request 2: Weeks 3-4
- Fund ongoing and anticipated new bounties at 1.25x Request 1: $20,375
- Milestone will be scoped and communicated prior to specified weeks
- Request 3: Weeks 5-6
- Fund anticipated new bounties at 1.25x Request 2, and transition of some bounties to collaborative incentive mechanism (Coordinape): $25,468
- Milestone will be scoped and communicated prior to specified weeks
- Request 4:
- Expected Adhoc funds for purchase of tool subscriptions (i.e. bots), DAO access, plus other TBC: $2000
Funding request total: $64,143
Risks to execution that we see are:
- Contributor contributions are unpredictable: The Ambassador program has hundreds of individuals but we are unsure how many are lost to Aragon given recent dormancy and missteps
- Contribution scopes are unpredictable: We have used best judgment but scoped bounties involve complexity and unknown-unknowns as we dive deep into these operational areas for the first time
- Executional risk: We will endeavour to be a force for living values of decentralisation and not being a central point of failure or bottleneck. As such, the ability to meet deadlines and deliver is also somewhat unpredictable as we try to humbly learn as we go.
Ownership, licensing, and/or control of any outputs:
We expect most outputs to align closely with the AN DAO operations and as such ownership, licensing or IP questions to be limited. We will advise the ESD on progress bi-weekly and cover any such topics as they arise.