AIP-522: Dissolve The Metaverse Working Group

Active Proposals AIP Drafts
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PROPOSAL NAME

Dissolve The Metaverse Working Group

TEAM DESCRIPTION

@SmartAPE | DAO member [Trust Level 3] | writer-of-many-words

I am an indie software developer who has been in the games industry as a gamer and game dev for over 40 years. I have designed, developed, and published over a dozen games during my career.

My first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD (aka BC3K), was a ground-breaking game that was ahead of its time. Published by Take Two interactive in 1996, it was one of their portfolio titles when they went public in 1997. So, you could say that I helped the company succeed to where it is today.

Over the decades, I have worked with some of best software developers and publishers around the world, and my works have been featured in various online and print magazines around the world.

I am also a lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association, and was Florida chapter board member for several years.

You can learn more about me on my professional LinkedIn page.

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION

This proposal was split from the original AIP-466: Proposal To Close Non-Essential Working Groups which was tagged “Returned for Reconstruction”:

This AIP Idea was tagged as “Needs Administrative Review” and sent to the Special Council. Upon careful review, the proposal has been deemed “Return for Reconstruction”. In doing so, the Special Council cited:

  • Could you please resubmit this proposal as individual proposals for each specific Working Group, referencing the charter for each one?
  • Please remove any references to clawbacks from the resubmissions.

This proposal suggests the following:

  1. Close the Metaverse Working Group AIP-245: Working Group Charter - Metaverse
  2. Terminate the contracts of all stewards in the aforementioned working groups
  3. Perform an orderly wind down of any/all ops related to the aforementioned working groups

To date, and with the exception of the newly created AIP-376: Working Group Charter - Web3 Development which has yet to be formed, these Working Groups have been largely ineffective in their mandate.

Further, as per the Q1/24 financial reports which we all knew would be bad (and we have yet to see Q2 & Q3), it’s clear that the treasury has run out of disposal funds. Ape Foundation Transparency Report - 2024 - Q1

The current yearly budgets based on an approved 6-month budget for the MwG is $831K per year AIP-404: ApeCoin DAO Metaverse Working Group Budget

Collectively, all three working groups are costing or will cost the DAO almost $3M per year

The DAO created these working groups. And the DAO is well within its actions, activities, and purview to close them as per AIP-239: Working Group Guidelines & The Governance Working Group Charter

wg_dissolution

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM

Closing the working group has the following benefits:

  1. The DAO immediately saves money
  2. The DAO can re-purpose LESS funds to hire/contract experienced third-parties who have a lot more experience in the specific areas previously outlined in this WG charter.
  3. The DAO no longer has to deal with the distractions, funding, and down time associated with elections as well as the budget proposals and voting for these working groups.
  4. The GwG and the SC advisors can focus on specific mandates which are beneficial to the smooth operation of the DAO.
  5. The GwG and the SC advisors can hire and contract third-party teams and corps on an as-needed basis. This also provides the flexibility of being able to switch teams if they fail to perform as expected.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT

Upon passing of this proposal, the following are to take immediate effect, and the Ape Foundation is directed to take the following actions:

  1. To TERMINATE the contracts of all the stewards in the working group, and with a minimum of 30-days notice given to the affected stewards.
  2. To pay in full, to affected stewards, any/all amounts that are in arrears. With the exception of payments due with the aforementioned 30-day period, these payments are for that which are in arrears only, and not a contract “buy out” of future payments.
  3. To put into effect an orderly wind-down of the operations of any/all activities and entities (e.g. sub-DAOs) associated with the affected working groups as per AIP-239: Working Group Guidelines & The Governance Working Group Charter

Going forward, and on an as-needed basis, this proposal grants the following to the Ape Foundation:

  1. Put up RFPs for activities and work which were previously required to be performed by the aforementioned working group. Such RFPs would be based on RFP revisions approved in AIP-401.
  2. As per the RFP, hire third-party teams which would be directed to handle all activities previously performed by this WG, and in much the same manner that it hires and contracts attorneys, accountants and other third-party teams and entities needed for its day to day business activities.
  3. As per the RFP, without the need or requirement for any additional stewards, the Ape Foundation manage and co-ordinate the consulting and hiring of any third-parties selected by the RFP to perform the required roles with specific KPIs and OKRs which are to be shared with the DAO community.
  4. As per above, a new Discourse category called “Job Description” related to either a work for hire request or an RFP so that the DAO community can have the opportunity to participate in such hiring opportunities.

REPORTING EXPECTATIONS

The expectation is that this proposal would be implemented by the DAO’s administrative team. The community should regularly review the impact of this proposal. If accepted, the administration and the community should review the impact of the updates after the 3-month period for conflict ends.

OVERALL COST

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = A maximum of 200,000 $APE per year would be allocated as the total budget for the activities previously associated with this working group. This budget can only be revised via a proposal by either the GwG stewards or the Special Council.

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This might not solve the core issues (Significant KPIs or measurable requirements, etc)

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:point_right: Ape Foundation Transparency Report - 2024 - Q1

In any financial setting, when low on funds you take steps to extend the financial runway. And that means, cutting staff, projects etc. This is standard practice. Even Yuga - with over $450M to burn - did two rounds of layoffs for specifically those reasons.

Regardless, at the end of the day, it’s up to the DAO to make the final determination.

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Also relevant here.

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Everyone know how ill structured all Working Groups were, they shouldnt have existed in the first place and the mindset back in 2022-23 was way different than it is now.
Soon people will realize how bad the whole infra of Special Council and Working Group is. In my eyes only GWG and Facilitator group is something that ads value in the DAO, and under it dedicated person leading marketing, business development, DevRels and other operations can exist without bleeding quarter million per year for people who dont bother sharing Apecoin content on their page unless an announcement is made via Apecoin or Yuga Labs twitter, that too in the form of Retweet.

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Exactly. Which is why I tried to close all of them last year. AIP-358: Ape Assembly Restructuring For Independence

Then they created more. lol

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The DAO is just 一盘散沙

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Hi @DIM as per your comment in other proposal:

I will moving towards step #3. All things considered, while I believe that your contributions to the DAO are invaluable, I thus far have found no plausible reason for this WG to exist. To that end, as the proposal indicates, it will be up to the GwG to move forward with RFPs to fill these positions as-needed.

  1. It gets extended as fact-finding continues
  2. It gets withdrawn if responses are satisfactory
  3. It goes to vote where the final deposition is up to the DAO
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This was a personal opinion just as it’s your personal opinion that the MWG contribution is invaluable. We will have our call next week

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Yup, I am well aware that it was merely an opinion because you said so in that comment.

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Just noticed the end of my comment was not published.

My comment did not apply to MWG but to all of them.

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Not sure what you mean, but what I excerpted above is your complete comment in that other WG discussion. Did I perhaps miss something?

Also, you said “your personal opinion that the MWG contribution is invaluable.”. That’s not entirely accurate.

What I said was “your contributions to the DAO are invaluable”.

There is a difference between the two statements. Your valuable personal contributions to the DAO are different from the functionality of the MWG. If I found that the MWG was valuable, I wouldn’t be trying to close it.

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Hi @SmartAPE,

The community feedback period for your proposal would be ending in less than 24 hours.

  • If you’re content with the feedback received, your next steps are to finalize your proposal using the AIP Draft Template.

  • A moderator will reach out to the author to finalize the AIP Draft. Upon receipt of the final Draft, we will review and provide instructions on the next steps.

  • Are you ready to proceed to the next phase or do you wish to extend community discussion for another 7 days?

We look forward to hearing from you.

-@Facilitators

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The proposal is already in final draft format. Please proceed.

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

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

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

This proposal has been assigned the AIP ID Number 522.

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

Kind Regards,

-@Facilitators

1 Like