AIP-247: Promote DAO Participation through Degenda

Final AIPs Rejected AIPs
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Proposal Name: Promote DAO Participation through Degenda

Proposal Category: Process

Abstract | Two or three sentences that summarize the proposal.

Degenda (http://degenda.io) is a community engagement platform that increases visibility for DAO proposals and announcements. In-app DAO voting will be integrated into the platform to make it as quick and easy as possible for DAO members to vote on upcoming proposals. The platform also enables all-in-one-place event/announcement tracking for multiple Web3 communities that overlap significantly with ApeCoin DAO members.

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Author Description (mandatory if the AIP is requesting funds) | A brief background of yourself

@kalikade_nft has been engaged in the Web3 space since 2017 and has been deeply involved in the NFT scene since the launch of Yuga’s Bored Kennel Club collection. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, and has garnered a wealth of experience in product and strategy during her tenure as a former management consultant. She is the CEO of Degenda.
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@degenBen_ is an accomplished developer who has been actively involved in the Web3 ecosystem for nearly half a decade. With a PhD recently earned in 2022, he embarked on a mission to address the challenge of staying informed amidst the overwhelming abundance of events and announcements in the NFT and DAO space. Collaborating with @kalikade_nft, he co-founded Degenda to provide a solution. He presently holds the position of CTO at Degenda.
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Motivation | A statement on why the APE Community should implement the proposal.

By subscribing to Degenda’s community engagement platform, ApeCoin DAO can streamline the process of staying informed about upcoming proposals, bolster participation in DAO voting, and improve access to relevant information. Here are some of the key reasons why ApeCoin DAO should consider subscribing and funding customized feature development:

  • The issue of low participation in proposal voting is widespread across the DAO space, but Degenda’s platform offers a solution that can address it. The platform makes it easy for members to stay informed and reminded about upcoming proposals and participate in voting directly in-app.

  • Funding the development of in-app voting via Degenda’s platform is a vital component of this proposal. In-app voting will enhance voter convenience and improve the voting experience for members, which will lead to increased engagement and participation.

  • Degenda’s platform is currently monitoring events and announcements from major NFT projects, many of whose token holders share membership with the ApeCoin DAO community. This provides an efficient way for members to access pertinent information from other Web3 communities.

  • Consolidating relevant information into a single calendar makes it simpler for members to stay organized and up-to-date with their community and token, providing a unique solution for community engagement and token tracking. This offers users an accessible way to stay engaged.

  • Degenda is a proven solution that has already been implemented by other communities, providing a low-risk and high-reward opportunity for increasing engagement and participation.

Rationale | An explanation of how the proposal aligns with the APE Community’s mission and guiding values.

One of the fundamental principles of ApeCoin DAO is to promote increased decentralization over time. By facilitating voter participation, Degenda helps to achieve this objective. In December 2022, Degenda successfully raised its first round of venture capital ($162K) which was used to build the platform, launch the beta, and onboard NFT communities. As we embark on the journey of onboarding DAO communities, we aim to begin with ApeCoin DAO to customize the experience and features according to the community’s preferences. As one of the most successful DAOs in the ecosystem, ApeCoin will play a vital role in shaping how this tool is tailored to the DAO space. In keeping with our commitment of supporting the ecosystem, Degenda will contract developers using ApeTalent (AIP-91) to ensure that Degenda’s development is carried out by those who will use it.

Specifications | A detailed breakdown of the platforms and technologies that will be used.

The Degenda platform includes:

  • Project Portal: Where communities push events and announcements to their token holders. Generally used by community managers. For DAOs, ApeCoin included, the process of pushing proposals to the platform will be automated given the decentralized organizational structure. However, Project Portal log-in can be given to members of the newly appointed Marketing & Communications Working group (AIP-246) should they want the ability to push custom announcements and events to ApeCoin holders.

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  • Web Application: Where holders connect their wallet to check for partnered tokens (no signature necessary). This generates a QR code that is then scanned with the mobile application.

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  • Mobile Application: The user-facing side of the platform – where users view all the events and announcements for their communities.

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For this AIP we will use these technologies:

  • NodeJS
  • React
  • MongoDB
  • Nextjs
  • Flutter
  • AmazonS3
  • Solidity

Steps to Implement | The steps to implement the proposal, including associated costs, manpower, and other resources for each step where applicable.

Phase 1: Integration of ApeCoin DAO with Degenda’s platform. The ApeCoin Foundation’s Communication & Marketing working group will receive access to the Project Portal, while ApeCoin holders will be able to scan for the token using the Web App and download the Mobile App. Proposals will be available for review on the App, with holders receiving notifications of Live Proposals. There will be no cost associated with this phase.

Phase 2: Hire ApeCoin Dev Talent to develop in-app DAO voting. We will recruit a UI designer, a frontend developer, and a backend developer, with the designer being compensated at a rate of $30 USD per hour, while the developers will receive $60 USD per hour. There will be no cost associated with this phase.

Phase 3: Development of in-app DAO voting, followed by its integration into the mobile application. The creation of proxy wallets for every user on the application will be necessary, and they can choose to delegate their vote toward this feature. The cost associated with creating these proxy wallets will be $24,000 USD worth of ApeCoin.

Phase 4: Collaborate with the ApeCoin community for future modifications to the platform. The ApeCoin forums will be utilized to gather community input, and if significant, future AIPs will be submitted. Degenda’s monthly subscription fee for ERC-20 tokens is 0.01 ETH/mo. per 1000 unique holders/addresses. This would put one year of subscription for the ApeCoin Foundation at 13.9 ETH worth of ApeCoin, assuming there are 116,000 ApeCoin holders. However, Degenda is going to waive the cost for the first year of subscription. We believe it is both beneficial for us and the space to work with the ApeCoin community for free and iterate on the application before resubmitting a second AIP to ask for a subscription in Year 2. This gives the community ample time to try the application and communicate desired changes before subscribing.

Timeline | Relevant timing details, including but not limited to start date, milestones, and completion dates.

Below are the four stages with their time to completion and their related milestones. Any stage that involves a release of funds to Degenda from the ApeCoin fund must have the previous milestone’s approved by the ApeCoin Foundation.

Phase 1:

  • Time: 1 week
  • Milestone: ApeCoin Foundation granted access to the Project Portal, and the Mobile App and Web App accessible for the community with ApeCoin added to the platform.

Phase 2:

  • Time: 1 week
  • Milestone: A dev team, consisting of 1 UI designer, 1 frontend developer, and 1 backend developer, is contracted for 1 month from the ApeTalent pool.

Phase 3:

  • Time: 4 weeks
  • Milestone: In-App voting functionality is developed and pushed to the mobile application. This milestone must be approved by the ApeCoin Foundation before moving on to Phase 5.
  • Release of funds: $24,000 USD worth of ApeCoin

Phase 4:

  • Time: 1 year
  • Milestone: Ongoing use of Degenda by ApeCoin DAO and continued development. Future changes to the platform are iterated with the ApeCoin community via ApeCoin forums and semi-regular twitter spaces, and future AIPs are submitted if substantial changes are requested. Degenda must reapply for renewal after 1 year.
  • Subscription Fee: 0 ETH worth of ApeCoin

Overall Cost | The total cost to implement the proposal.

Assuming the APE-USD, APE-ETH, and # of ApeCoin holders on July 25th, 2023:

11,940 $APE

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Hey degenBen (and kalikade), welcome to ApeCoin DAO!

Could you elaborate on this? How does this work in terms of permissions required from ApeCoin holders?

The idea of a calendar is cool, though another app to manage is a big ask. Could you perhaps just offer an iCal subscription - kind of like we have Holidays and Birthdays calendars integrated into our main calendars, you could just push an ApeCoin DAO calendar? This could even be a good place to start, if this proposal fails - just an iCal that’s maintained by you by copying events, and then a later proposal for UI for DAO mods/facilitators to manage it, once people get used to the calendar and feel the need for it. Just throwing it out there, ofc you go whichever way you think is best!

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Hey Sasha,

Thanks for feedback! The proxy wallets created for users will give ApeCoin holders the option to delegate their vote toward the proxy wallet that is linked to their instance of the app, allowing them to vote in-app with the click of a button.

Right now, users have the option to push Degenda events to iCal if they want - but one of the big advantages of Degenda is we give users the ability to read, review, and vote on proposals all in one place. The other advantage is we already have all the events/announcements for other top DAOs and NFT projects in-app, so it is currently a centralized hub for keeping on top of what is going on in all your communities in one place.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what other features would be most helpful for ApeCoin holders!

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Hi @degenBen,

Your topic will be automatically closing in less than 24 hours. Are you content with the feedback received, or do you wish to extend community discussion for a further 7 days?

If we do not hear from you within 48 hours after your topic closes, your topic will be moved straight to the AIP Draft process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

-Amplify

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Hi @amplify.Admin ,

Thank you for the heads up. When the AIP Idea expires we are ready to move to AIP Draft to continue iterating and getting more community feedback.

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Sounds Interesting, Would love to see where this goes

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This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.

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Thank you @degenBen for your ideas and the ApeCoin DAO community for the thoughtful discussions. A moderator will get in touch with the author to draft the AIP in the appropriate template. Once the AIP is drafted and meets all the DAO-approved guidelines, the proposal will be posted on Snapshot for live official voting at: Snapshot

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments. @degenBen please see your messages for the next steps.

-Amplify

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@degenBen has completed editing their AIP Idea to be their AIP Draft.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Amplify

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

Our team has reviewed and discussed @degenBen’s AIP Draft and have sent a list of initial questions. We await answers.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Amplify

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hi @degenBen,

As I finished reading over your proposal I realized there hasn’t been as much feedback as an AIP author could usually expect during the Idea/Draft stage here. I am currently an active delegate, so I am also personally curious/excited about some aspects of this proposal and I want to ask a couple questions to try surfacing some additional context for the community and myself.

Phase 4 under you Steps to Implement section details your plan to implement in-app voting using Degenda along with a web of “proxy wallets” which would require members to delegate their votes in order to access the in-app voting feature. The currently available setup doesn’t allow for members to delegate votes which have already been delegated. It seems to me that the proposed plan to implement in-app voting would not allow delegates to participate in the in-app voting.

*Questions: *

1. Do you have any plans to implement a solution which would account for the significant amount of tokens which are already Delegated?

2. Would you be prepared to iterate a solution for delegates before the release of funds stated in Phase 4?

Moving beyond the delegate conversation, I’d like to highlight a few areas of the proposal that I was feeling a bit Lost on.

Throughout the proposal there are multiple statements which seem to indicate that Degenda is currently being used by multiple communities with some degree of success, (I highlighted a few above). The proposal seems to present the opportunity for active community members to have access to various communities which they may already be regularly monitoring. But, later on in the proposal, the Steps to Implement indicate that Degenda is still in a Closed Beta.

Questions:

3. Can you clarify the timeline for releasing Degenda to the general public ?
4. Are there any additional points you would like to clarify regarding the overall timeline, goals, and/or future for Degenda ?

Finally, Phase 5 mentions 13.9 ETH for a 1 year subscription for the ApeCoin DAO community based on over 100K expected “holders”/users. My personal opinion is that this number of users is completely misinformed/unrealistic. Understandably there are upwards of “90k token holders” and this proposal may not seek to redeem the full grant amount, the ApeCoin DAO has seen an average voter turnout between 500-800 members generously. I think you could do an estimate for the pricing here based on between 3,000-5,000 users for year one, again generously.

Thank you,
@Lost

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@degenBen has responded to our questions and they are in our review once again.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Amplify

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Thank you for the thorough feedback! I’ll just go through your suggestions/questions in the order you numbered them:

  1. Do you have any plans to implement a solution which would account for the significant amount of tokens which are already Delegated?

The primary motivation for this proposal is to increase voter turnout for users that aren’t otherwise voting/delegating by providing an accessible and simple-to-use tool so that they can partake in the DAO from one app/device.

That said, we do want this tool to be equally useful for current delegates, and we are open to building and implementing tools and features aimed directly at delegates. One potential solution is to offer delegates the option to connect and sign transactions from within the app using their wallet. This feature isn’t currently in the app for security reasons - but an option could, in theory, exist for delegates.

As a delegate, would you use Degenda to review/vote on AIP Proposals? Or would you continue using the ApeCoin forums and Snapshot? This is a feature we could add to the draft if there is significant desire from the community.

  1. Would you be prepared to iterate a solution for delegates before the release of funds stated in Phase 4?

Yes, we are ready to iterate a solution for delegates with the ApeCoin Foundation prior to the release of funds for the completion of Phase 4. We will also be continuously updating and improving the user experience, and plan to implement feedback and requests from the ApeCoin Foundation promptly. Additional substantial updates (beyond in-app voting) can be pushed to an AIP for community feedback, even if they do not require funding.

  1. Can you clarify the timeline for releasing Degenda to the general public?

While in closed beta, we are limiting the download of Degenda to users who hold tokens currently supported by the platform. This means that all holders of ApeCoin tokens will receive an automatic beta invite and will have full unlimited access to the Degenda platform.

We will release Degenda on the App Store and Google Play Store for all users to download in early Summer 2023.

  1. Are there any additional points you would like to clarify regarding the overall timeline, goals, and/or future for Degenda?

Our primary goal is to increase DAO engagement and participation. We’re doing this by streamlining the DAO voting process to encourage as many users as possible to read AIPs and vote. As you mentioned in your discussion on pricing (which is also open for discussion), generously, < 0.9% of wallets with ApeCoin vote on AIPs. We hope that by providing a tool that makes it as easy and quick as possible for DAO members to keep track of and vote on AIPs, we’ll capture more of those votes and further democratize the DAO.

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Def sounds interesting, btw nice deadfella

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

We have no further questions for @degenBen. This AIP is now with the Special Council for Administrative Review.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Amplify

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Where are you getting your data on number of ApeCoin holders?

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Hey @bigbull ,

We were using the number of unique wallet addresses that hold APE! As it’s on-chain data - anyone can access it. And for writing the proposal, we pulled it from Etherscan.

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But this data isn’t accurate if people are staking or have funds on central exchanges. I would estimate the number of holders in total to be far greater.

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You are likely right - but conversely an individual holder may have >1 wallet holding APE (such as a hot wallet and ledger). We wanted pricing to scale with number of individual holders as best as possible (because the more distributed/decentralized the holders are for a project, the harder it is to get voter turnout).

This was just a rough estimate to price the subscription according to how many potential wallets could participate in voting using the Degenda platform :slight_smile: