AIP-454: The BANANA Bill: Apes Gotta Eat

Final AIPs Accepted AIPs
55

Thank you for the proposal. Despite recognizing many smart individuals with impressive personal track records backing this proposal from the DAO’s inception, I have several questions and concerns.

  1. Why do you believe BANANA Bill would make decisions better than the DAO?
    The essence of DAO is for people to have diverse opinions, perspectives, experiences, and vote to assess all the strengths and weaknesses of a project.
    Recent AIPs show that public voting and community feedback can influence others’ decisions. Many participants understand the potential of ApeChain and will vote in favor if they see a strong team and assess the risk/reward ratio positively.

  2. What primary problem does this AIP solve, and is this solution worth 100 million APE?
    If the issue pertains to finding builders, let’s address it separately and attract them through advertising, partnerships with funds, accelerators, hackathons, and other promotional methods. ApeCoin DAO has a unique advantage that no other chain possesses – authors can request any amount for starting a business on ApeChain or integrating into an existing one.
    This is the strongest competitive advantage among all chains! Other chains typically offer grants averaging 50,000 USD with over 5 months for approval and a very limited budget, where decisions are made by a specific group of people rather than a DAO.

Questions to the DAO Administration

  1. Why does this AIP have privileges over others, such as expedited administration and a designated voting date? What is the reason for this?

  2. Why is a Twitter Space scheduled specifically from the official ApeCoin account on Monday, June 17th, at 11:00 AM PST? How can draft authors initiate such a Town Hall through the official ApeCoin DAO account? I’ve searched but couldn’t find information on the forum indicating this option is available to everyone. Could you please clarify if this is possible for any participant?

I deeply respect the authors and their contributions, acknowledging that there may be aspects of the proposal that I haven’t fully grasped

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56

I just glossed over that one and discarded it out of hand because it’s just words.

Right now, we can’t even get updates on funded AIPs; and we also passed an AIP to get reports from the SC, that lasted a few months before another AIP rescinded it. We can’t inquire to the SC about any material DAO docs because they’ll just throw up some excuse or blow you off. But yeah, they’re totally going to provide this level of transparency and accountability when it’s a $100M ask. I don’t believe any of it; and neither should anyone. Why? Well, just look at the leadership track record. There’s your answer.

To wit: there’s this as an example (there are several others).

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57

Anyone notice how, with the exception of CaptainTrippy (who I actually don’t have any opposition to regarding his involvement because there’s no argument against his DAO activities, qualifications, and experience) that all these “advisors” aren’t actually active members of our DAO community?

So, here we are with a $100M liquidity egress in which people from Yuga, Animoca, Horizen are going to be in charge. I hope it’s clear now that the leadership don’t actually care about the people in the DAO. If they did, for as many of us who are exceptionally qualified people, nobody approached us to be a part of something as big as this. You get the picture now?

As for Horizen, aside from my on-going beef and spat with them over the Polygon AIP, their voting activities, their inserting one of their own people into the SC etc. using their wallet to control our DAO votes against the popular vote, no third-party dev (e.g. me) who has ever dissented publicly or otherwise, will ever see an AIP, let alone a deal under this AIP, pass through here. What they and Airvey did during the last SC elections - all of which is public and well documented - proves this beyond a reasonable doubt. And we all have the receipts. For example.

I am all but certain that if this AIP goes through - regardless of any promises or modifications - it will be the last final act that kills the DAO treasury, and by the very people who were instrumental in creating it in the first place. Harsh? Maybe so. But that’s what I believe to be the case because regardless of best intentions, a $100M egress - that ends up being a failure (games are high risk, so we can just assume that 90% of the fund will evaporate) - is still a failure executed by the people who thought it was a brilliant idea to take that money out of the treasury - ignore WORKING initiatives like ThankApe - and bet it all on the single most risky endeavor in any enterprise. That being gaming - and on a chain that, for all intent and purposes, will be DOA. Comparing this fund to other funds is immaterial because, shockingly, those guys have a lot more going on than this fledgling and largely ineffective DAO that’s tied to an IP that’s been on a rapid decline - like the token attached to it.

FYI: Despite Spencer’s proclamations about ApeChain being for Apes and Moca, the latter went off and did their own thing. Yet - nobody seems to be actually talking about that. And they get to vote on our ApeChain AIPs. Go figure.

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And so, with the exception of CaptainTrippy and even BoredApeG (since he is a ThankApe advisor, and they’ve done well over there), most of us would like to see people who are active in the DAO have positions in this AIP, either in advisory or other roles. My only misgivings about this is the fact that, well, they’re in the DAO leadership that lords over a community whose moral is at an all-time low because, arguably, the DAO doesn’t appear to be acting in its best interests.

To wit: we just gave $5M to the worst F1 racing team - and it did nothing for the IP nor the token. You know what the DAO could have done with $5M that would have had more of an effect and gain community interest and support because of ApeChain? FUND GAMES!!!

We should never allow Horizen - or ANYONE associated with them - to be a part of this or any AIP that is detrimental to the DAO. Same goes for Yuga and Animoca (unless ofc it’s Yat).

I would like to say a few words about @Aepicurean. I don’t know him, and never heard of him before the AIP discussion blew up on X. I did my usual research, had exchanges with a few people etc. and I am satisfied that we’re not dealing with a conman or the usual Web3 crop of grifters.

First, optics aside, not that it should matter (see below), he’s no longer with Horizen. We, myself included, unfairly cast him in a poor light by virtue of him being a part of Horizen - who most of us have an on-going beef/spat with, and for many reasons.

We should always strive to give people the benefit of the doubt, and “guilt by association” is usually a terrible way to judge people. Though, if you’re hanging out in a cult, it’s going to be tough to make the argument that you’re not a stark, raving, lunatic.

Having said that, the downside is precisely why, even though we all have friends in DAO leadership, when we vent our dissent and frustration, we tend to hold them all collectively accountable as a result of said association. Yes - it’s unfair, but that’s how society works. I have said many times that I am burdened with regret each time I find myself writing yet another missive about DAO leadership shenanigans. But if we can’t dissent against the people we like (e.g. I like and have the utmost respect for Lost, Gerry, RedVulkan etc) and hold them accountable, then what are we? And that’s how credibility works. You get to stand up and say something - even if it’s an inconvenient truth that rubs your own friends the wrong way.

I am say all this again - once again for the record - regardless of who is in charge, if this AIP passes - in this form, and with people who have proven that they cannot be trusted - the DAO will regret it. But then again, ask yourself this? What can you do about it? The answer? Nothing. And they all know this because they have the wallets to counter the popular vote and subsequent dissent. That’s why, instead of, you know, fixing the voting system, they’re doing all these AIPs, rushing them through etc.

That said, I will continue to hope that somehow, some day, and in some way, we can get a win; and one that everyone in the DAO can benefit from.

ps. I hope this missive doesn’t come off as being overly critical. Most of us who have run the AIP gauntlet have faced similar or even worse critique.

3 Likes
58

Think about all apecoiners.

Advisory should get zero because you all already get payed and its literally your job.

Never give your votes for the exchange of proposal support . it will be considered as voting manipulation: Example - on recorded twitter spaces.

The asking amount is unreasonably huge.

You have to show the work with small stages. I don’t feel that any on the board should be asking for ay extra pay and help others to do proposals instead of investing time into their own.

3 Likes
59

I applied for tradsemark more then half year ago after winning ThankApe VR skins, and you couldn’t t even respond in 4 month, i applied again even, instead my idea was shared and other put the proposals completely copying my idea. You official secretary email all the councils and there was still no response till now. I see some people apparently getting trademark within a day or so after winning Thank Ape. you have to focus on current AIPs and you job descriptions and deliver, instead of creating side thing for yourselves before completing the job.

On top Horizen token has a tremendous downfall in trust. And look at the holders comments at their DAO too, its concerning. Besides being delisted from some exchanges like OKX it was also flagged on other major exchanges like Binance.

1 Like
60

Will tomorrow’s Space be recorded @Waabam ?

61

gm folks,

Here is a link to the Banana Bill group chat on Telegram:

@VonFrontin Yes, we’ll record tomorrow’s space.

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63

Well now I really want to dig into that Star Wars reference. :rofl:

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65

And here I was thinking it had a cantina with a banger band…

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67

I have to respectfully dissent against this decision. So, now we have:

  • Discourse (which has a chat function on the sidebar)
  • X
  • Discord
  • Telegram

Even those of us who tend to keep up because we have flex schedules, it’s going to be rather challenging to keep track of this specific and impactful discussion across various mediums. Heck, a significant portion of this pertinent discourse about this AIP are on X - not here. Another channel just fragments this discussion, and that in turn, leads to misinformation, FUD etc.

Anyway, as this TG channel was suddenly opened anyway, nothing we can do about it - except not participate. To that end, I will take upon myself to transcribe official (from the authors and key men in this proposal) statements from there, and collate them in this thread. That way, months or years down the road, we can come back here and see how it started, how it’s going, and how it ended. I will do the same with today’s Spaces recording (which I may have to schedule a meeting for, just so I can attend).

Once again, I like this proposal - a lot. Especially since it’s gamecentric (though no entirely about just games), it’s impactful, and is probably the one “win” that the DAO will get, a sort of Hail Mary if you will. We simply can’t expect initiatives like ThankApe and about 5 (I have a running total) other AIPs over the last three years to be our 3-year track record. The DAO needs this. And we need to win.

And for those who don’t already have it, this is our AIP Tracking Table put together by our prior secretary @Vulkan (I will miss that guy; I hope he sticks around in the DAO)

3 Likes
69

Finally, let me clear some things up publicly, and for the record:

I keep getting DMs about why I’m excited about this, not involved, deploying my projects elsewhere etc.

  • Back when my AIP-316 failed, I had said that I was never putting anything through the DAO again, for as long as our voting system is controlled by whale wallets, and our games traction doesn’t improve. In fact, during my self-imposed boycott, I withdrew all my AIPs, rather than fight/continue with them. Especially now that our voting system is controlled by Horizen, and given my public opposition to their infiltration and control of our DAO, I will never succeed here - in any capacity. Other devs/content creators like Jonah and others have made the same statements. So, I am not alone in this.
  • At this moment in time, my opposition to ApeChain in general, remains unchanged. I still believe that it’s a case of bad timing, and that it will struggle for a variety of reasons (you can read my X missives for my analysis on this point). Nevertheless, it is here now, and being the always faithful old school soldier that I am, I have supported all worthy AIP builders who come through here; and so, I will support all those who decide to build on ApeChain. But I will not be making my own recommendations to my network of devs, nor offering anything but tech related opinions to others who continue to approach me about ApeChain because that would be improper conduct on my part. Hopefully, in time, I will be proven wrong about ApeChain; but for as along as I’ve been in the biz - over 40 yrs now to be exact - and having seen every single gaming and tech trend during this period, I remain convinced that I am correct in my analysis. I absolutely would love to be proven wrong because that would ultimately mean that ApeChain became a success - against all the odds that are stacked against it.
  • I do not want to be in any DAO leadership. I never did. This will never change. Unless of course it’s a role (for e.g. something like AIP-413) that gives me the control and leverage to actually bring change that benefits our DAO in consequential ways. I have run studios, large teams, huge projects (incl. govt. projects btw) for decades; and so, I know precisely how things get done, and also how quickly it can all fall part if you’re in the wrong team. I believe that all of us entrepreneurs in the DAO know what I’m talking about.
  • I do not want to be a part of this $100M AIP proposal because I will be forced to work with people actively working for/with Horizen. In my discussions with Jordan, I have made these positions clear, outlined (with receipts) the reasons for my decisions, while offering helpful suggestions which I hope he takes into consideration. And as a part of that, I also committed to assist in any capacity (e.g. he suggested games BD, tech etc) - if this AIP were modified and it passes - while working outside the group. I will invoice for my time because if they’re getting paid, I’m getting paid because my time isn’t free (only when I’m sh*tposting or FUDing. That’s always free). I mention this as a total public disclosure to my DAO because I’m old school like that; and I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding or backdoor whispering if do end up being involved in some capacity, even after voicing my dissent against this fund. My character has always been unimpeachable; and I intend to keep it that way. To be clear, none of this changes my opinions about this $100M fund; and if it doesn’t get modified to address our collective concerns, I still will NOT help them in any way, shape or form - payment or otherwise.

That said, from what I know from talking to people who know, have met Jordan etc - and from my exchanges with him, I remain convinced that he means well. Too bad the “Horizen baggage” (and it’s not just us btw, go look at their DAO discussions, the circumstances surrounding their de-listing from OKX etc) is going to continue being a hinderance to his efforts.

That said, below are my closing suggestions to him. Again, total disclosure to the DAO:

That is all.

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71

Hi there and thanks for your feedback. I’m not sure we’ve ever actually talked 1:1, but I’m pretty sure we haven’t. If you’d like to reach out to me, I’m happy to sit down and chat.

All that said, when you claim that “no third-party dev who has ever dissented publicly, or otherwise, will ever see an AIP passed,” can you point to an example of this actually being the case? I certainly would consider @kodama somebody who frequently dissents and disagrees with Horizen Labs, and yet we voted in favor of his recent proposal.

No one person controls the voting process on Horizen Labs’ side and I’m happy to explain how the multisigner process works on our side if it’s helpful. I can’t think of a single recent example of Horizen Labs using the power of its vote for retribution. As a public-facing representative, I take this very seriously btw. The company generally will vote in favor of protocols that help ApeChain that make sense and I’m happy to explain any abstentions (very rare) no votes under the current process.

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72

Were you personally involved with Aivery & HL attempt to bribe and corrupt delegations back in Nov ‘23?

AIPs are about trust. Most people don’t trust HL, myself included.

73

Thanks for the response.

I was just going by what Airvey did to one of our DAO members whereby he flat-out said that he/Horizen voted down that person’s AIP because they voted against his. And since I’ve been wailing at him and Horizen since Oct last year, it stands to reason that I would think that any AIP that I [personally] put through here, is likely to suffer the same fate. And in case you missed this, do take a look.

Anyway, thanks for addressing it. I just hope that Horizen doesn’t use its voting wallet in a nefarious manner, given that it’s one of the largest voting whale wallets.

Anyway, as you’re well aware by now, the trust level that the DAO community has in Horizen is at an all-time low; which is why most of the dissent against this AIP is focused on their involvement. As I mentioned in the Spaces earlier, they appeared last Oct, and they’ve:

  • started voting on our DAO
  • used their wallet to win the ApeChain bid
  • used their wallet to insert Airvey into our Special Council
  • and now, we have you, currently in Horizen, as one of the admins of this 100M $ape treasury egress
  • and also, we have Jordan, another ex-Horizen (as of this past May) as the lead on this $100M $ape treasury egress

Oh, and since Airvey joined the Special Council, unless I missed something, I haven’t seen a single - not one - mention of our DAO in social media feeds. In other words, he’s as engaged now as he was prior to ApeChain.

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74

Hey, Im struggling to submit my AIP. I seem to not be able to create a thread, apologies if this isnt the place to reach out- but any Ape that can help me out Id really appreciate it.

75

Have you tried posting here?

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76

@blockchainzilla (tagging to hopefully get this answered) I won’t hold my breath tho as what really can you say. :grimacing::saluting_face:

Full disclosure for community members unaware:

(The forum is the place where we all have the opportunity to highlight concerns with AIPs & AIP authors.)

Aivery (Herve) approached large delegations in Nov ‘23 with the intention of hiding Horizenlabs massive vote and infiltrating special council.

Aivery attempted to bribe the delegations by offering to share out all the multiple millions of horizenlabs apecoin voting power, to all the delegations who agreed, as long as they’d commit beforehand to voting for him at the upcoming special council elections.

They (Aivery & horizenlabs) have zero care for the apecoin community and our success as shown by the way they held our staking contract “hostage” (Feld’s words not mine).

I have no problem getting behind apechain, however, I will never forgive or forget what absolute corrupt and unethical behaviour both Aivery & horizenlabs have shown.

This is just some of the behaviour many of us here have witnessed, and it is highly concerning and somewhat disturbing to say the least.

Piece said. Gladly will cease now as it makes me FURIOUS every time I think about it.

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77

Indeed. I pointed this out in an earlier post in this thread, as well as in yesterday’s X Spaces. Basically, if any of us put up an AIP for even $100K, we would be subjected to intense and aggressive scrutiny - in all aspects. And so, this should be expected in the light of an impactful $100M ask such as this AIP. Look what I had to endure during my AIP-316. And that was only a $500K (down from $2M and larger vision) co-marketing gig. Then, the DAO went and gave $5M to a sub-par F1 racing team. Go figure. And I am still p*ssed about that btw.

I don’t see how the Airvey/Horizen involvement gets mitigated to any meaningful degree. What I do know is that, while it is unfair for us to hold Spencer & Jordan liable for the actions of an entity such as Horizen which has other involved parties, we still have to take into account that Spencer still “works” for Horizen, while Jordan only departed last month to lead this AIP. As I’ve said previously, I am willing to give them both the benefit of the doubt; but as the saying goes “Trust but verify”.

Quite frankly, all said and done, I don’t believe that two high profile people such as they are - and who have everything to lose - would p*ss around with something as critical as this fund when in fact all they have to do is lead it to success and take the win.

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79

Hey @SmartAPE, thanks for your feedback. I want to be clear that we currently have very strict guidelines and rules around how we vote. It’s a multi-signature process, and no one person controls it fully. Recommendations are made and multi-signers have to agree to them. I am fully cognizant that our voting was more haphazard in the past.

I disagree that the DAO community’s trust in Horizen is at an all-time low, and I’m always wary of anyone claiming to speak for the community at large. I certainly understand that your and a few others’ trust may need to be repaired but on a broader scale, I think anybody who has paid attention to the work we’ve put in on ApeChain, listened to the multiple upon multiple spaces I’ve made myself available for, or talked directly with the team (and, again, if you’d like to, please DM me, and I’ll share a calendar link) would also disagree.

Regarding social media feeds, I am currently the most actively front-facing HL employee around ApeChain and talk about ApeChain, the DAO, etc. constantly on X. Most of our opinions/postings come from employee accounts, not The Horizen Labs official feed. The Horizen Labs official feed is mostly focused on promoting products that are actively being shipped (zkVerify, for example, currently), and there will be posts about our work on ApeChain coming from there as we get closer in; it’s simply not where we opine on things for the most part.

I have absolutely no insight into any of the prior interactions you’re referring to between other Horizen Labs/Horizen Labs-adjacent folks and anybody on your side, and as such, you’ll excuse the lack of a direct response. What I will say is feel free to route this DAO member to me. We are committed to working with DAO members and getting AIPs passed that benefit ApeChain in particular, and I’d be happy to talk to them.

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80

Sadly, @Lost couldn’t record yesterday’s Spaces. As I mentioned in the Banana Bill Telegram channe I was at a meeting that I couldn’t reschedule; and so I couldn’t join right at the start. Thankfully @chimperton and I were in communications, and I was able to locate the Spaces and joined while on the road, and until I returned home later. The blasted thing lasted over 4 hrs!! I believe that’s probably a record for our Spaces turnout (which was quite full).

I came in around the 28 min mark, and so I didn’t miss much. I stayed to the end - right through the most hilarious parts towards the end when Machi showed up, and Natalie (OMG! she’s awesome + hilarious) took the stage and let it all rip. I will live my life knowing that I should never argue with her on Spaces - about anything. Like ever. lol

I love and respect Lost, but if it turns out that they sent him a bag of $ape so he could botch the Spaces recording making it impossible for us to recall the promises made, answers given, and so not be able to hold people accountable etc. I will forever denounce any association with orange background pfps.

So, anyway, while there’s no recording for me to transcribe as promised in my earlier message, below are the highlights. And I was in several external discussions on X, Telegram and Discord throughout the session. Below, I will only cover the important points that I feel are relevant and which the DAO should be privy to for future discussions.

  • I am just going to say this, right off the bat. For as much grief as I have given the Special Council [collectively] these past months, I was quite impressed with CaptainTrippy’s take on this proposal, what it is, and what it has the potential to be. To the extent that, even with all that has happened in the DAO, and which most of us are collectively unhappy with, I specifically indicated that I was glad that, at the very least, we [DAO] “had a man on the inside” - given the lack of trust that most of us have in Horizen - and anyone associated with them. As I’ve said before, nobody can openly impugn his dedication to the DAO, nor his qualifications and experience as per this program.

  • The responses by Spencer, Jordan, CaptainTrippy - and the Spaces in general - exceeded my expectations. To the extent that - while I had a list of “concerns” (tbh, they came off as grievances) ready to create an absolute ruckus, I didn’t use it because I found the list to be repetitive, reductive, and inconsequential, given prior responses and opinions by the authors and others in the Spaces. I even mentioned to sheftali.eth that I was prepared for it all to go sideways - fast. Though I have always been respectful in contentious Spaces, things do tend to get heated up because some people can’t handle being in the [hot] public seat.

  • A lot is going on behind the scenes regarding this fund, and has been for sometime now. A lot of work has been put into it by Spencer, Jordan and other [unnamed] parties.

  • It became clear to me why this AIP is in an express state. Now that I understand better what’s going on behind the scenes, it makes sense to me why they had to do this. The only downside in saying this is that the DAO, while busy giving money to grifters, hasn’t put in any procedures or notices in place which would permit them to immediately send ecosystem related AIPs to vote. If this was a known procedure, then it would have alleviated all accusations of improper conduct wrt to the speed and timing of this proposal. In fact, the original Polygon AIP for ApeChain was in the works behind the scenes for over a year. Then it suddenly appeared - and was fast tracked to vote. As it pertains to this proposal, without it passing, there are no funds for it, and without funds, you can’t hope to bring builders on board. It’s a Catch-22 situation that requires this proposal to leapfrog others. I get it now. But it’s still improper for our DAO leadership to just wave off such criticisms rather than addressing it to the the community. Now that I am back here as a result of this impactful proposal - I intend to put up an AIP specifically to address this deficiency in DAO ops; in the hopes that my frens will see the value in it and thus support it at vote. Problem solved.

  • One important point was made: The 100M $APE funds will not be extracted from the DAO in a lump sum, nor will there be any multi-sig associated with it. At least that’s how I understood it. This was a concern voiced by myself and several others. I still don’t quite understand how they will handle the disbursement of funds, while still being subject to the usual DAO payment delay shenanigans that we’re all well aware of. I intend to discuss this in additional detail with Spencer and/or Jordan, and report back with my thoughts and findings.

  • There are “big” name devs looking to build for ApeChain. They didn’t provide any names; while citing on-going discussions, commitments etc. This made sense to me because that’s how those things usually work. No point in naming devs if there’s nothing contracted, no firm commitment, a term sheet etc. My only concern in this regard - and which was one of my questions which I opted not to ask - was: what big names, who have access to bigger more prolific and popular chains, would decide to come to a fledgling chain such as ApeChain. I found that hard to believe, and I am waiting to be proven wrong. Though there’s a possibility that they were not referring to just “game devs” per se.

  • I raised the question of salaries whereby I highlighted that with $1.25M allocated to salaries for 5 advisors, and with 3/5 (Yuga, Animoca) not getting paid, that means this lofty sum would be split between two (!) people - including CaptainTrippy who would stand to make in excess of $600K if those funds were supposed to be evenly split. Spencer noted that was not the case, and that because the funds were there, doesn’t mean that it was all going to be spent. Also, that they would be using contract/employment agencies to determine the payments of all people getting paid under this program. This made more sense.

  • As per above, I asked why there was no itemized list of how the funds would be allocated to each person. Spencer said that was because a lot was still being worked through, and that - if needed - these would be provided in due course. I look forward to seeing those.

  • I asked why we needed the likes of Yuga, Animoca in advisory, the response was that we needed the big names, not only to give credibility to the program, but also to provide clout aligned guidance. That made more sense to me; though I would still have preferred that some of our talented DAO people be considered for roles in this program. I remain displeased that many members of our DAO - all very talented people - still don’t get a seat at the table at things like this. And time and time again, we find outsiders - with little or no skin in the [DAO] game - taking control and center stage in our DAO and its activities. This is why I am a super ThankApe fan. And it’s also precisely why, being a [gaming] community aligned kind of person, when I first wrote up my massive scope AIP-316, at $2M, I had specifically targeted our DAO frens to participate and benefit from it. Sadly, it was not to be. Here we are.

  • Koko raised an very important point about needing people who live, breathe ApeCoin/ApeChain, to carry this message forward. I concurred, and further opined that the current known list - CaptainTrippy aside - aren’t likely to do that; at least not to any reasonable degree. It’s almost as if we don’t actually have a functional MarComms group. But that’s a gripe for another day, and which is beyond the scope of this missive.

  • I also raised the point that the likes of Yuga, Animoca execs aren’t likely to be supportive of this program obo their respective companies. It was surprising to me that most people seemingly had the opinion that they would be; and so I was keen to point this out. I mean, saying that these execs act and/or speak obo the program in their capacity as execs of those studios, would be like me being an advisor to a bank, and speaking directly to the CFPB obo of the bank. Don’t forget that Yat was an OG member of the SC while also being an Animoca exec.

  • At some point when it was looking like coming off as a fluff-ridden full-on circle jerk devoid of any critical questions and answers, Kodama jumped in with his usual brand of critical questions and opinions - on everything. I wish the Spaces was recorded because I felt that between him, Koko and our very own [much loved] AdventurousApe - also to some extent, Lost - who seemingly lost the opportunity to be a politician or a lobbyist - they left no stone unturned.

  • The point was made - and stressed - that this program wasn’t just about games. This part is of vital importance given the high risks associated with games. But I swear, as God is my living witness, if these guys turn ApeChain into a glorified memecoin haven, and/or nonsensical dApps made by their grifter friends, instead of signing worthy games and dApps by devs with experience (we really don’t need amateurs because we are already starting late, and behind the curve), I will dedicate every spare moment to writing lengthy tomes and missives which even War & Peace can’t compete with in terms of sheer volume of words.

  • Horizen. The elephant in the room. I did not hold back in my criticisms of their involvement in our DAO, this program etc. I pointed out how, since Mar 2022 when the token and DAO were formed, none of the known Horizen accounts ever interacted with us to any meaningful extent. Until Oct when ApeChain became a thing, the SC elections were afoot - and now this $100M play. I came with the receipts - and I outlined them in detail.
    And I have to say, going in, I was fully prepared for the backlash that would have likely ensued as a result of my [aggressive] stance. It never came. Instead, Spencer, as he had done throughout the Spaces, addressed every single point that I raised - without making ANY excuses, laying blame, nor deflecting, waffling or side-stepping. And at that moment in time, aside from the penchant for con-men and grifters to also be eloquent and articulate, I again realized the dangers of judging people by association. If you read my earlier post, then you already know how I feel about that. While I am still against the idea of Horizen’s deep fingers into our DAO, I will continue to take a cautious “Trust but verify” approach in the hopes that, at the very least, they realize that, given the amounts involved and the attention that this is getting, if they screw this up, there will be far-reaching ramifications and consequences for all involved.

In general, despite the LFG! nonsense that tends to surround Web3 like lions at a deer festival, I felt that a lot of people who spoke, were taking a cautious “wait and see” approach because nobody that I heard was willing to indicate that they were “all in” with the proposal as written, nor the amount of money that was about to egress the treasury. This, to me, was a huge indication that all are well aware that a $100M play was nothing to be trifled with because if it goes wrong, Web3 will remember all of it, and those who put their undying support behind it.