ThankApe x ApecoinDAO AIP Idea-a-thon: Innovate on DAO Governance

[Stonie]

I agree. As a newcomer to Discourse, the UI/UX on this page needs some help. For example, helping the user navigate where to start on the first visit with a call to action button like “Submit Idea ” or “Get started!” is very important.

[toga]

Thats true can be kinda confusing for new starters

[ssp1111]

Hey @Feld

Just to clarify, the plan is for the SWAG Store to operate separately and sustainably via the revenues from the eComm activities. There are no funds going back to the foundation.

The benefit to the DAO is that we have a place where creators, artists, designers from within the community are creating products with an approved ApeCoin token logo (hopefully, drawing attention away from all the unofficial merchandise being sold currently on Etsy, RedBubble, Amazon, etc).

If the team/squad that operates this store cannot make it work as a stand-alone endeavour, then it has no business being in business .

Beyond the convenience and trust that this store can provide our members who wish to purchase fun branded gear or for those hosting IRL events and need professional tablecloths, banners, promo giveaways, etc, the store would be a great outlet for the creators and designers in our community.

Anyway, having managed a Corporate Brand Store in a previous life, I know this would be magic for our own community, just wanted to clarify that there are no funds directed back to the foundation.

Trust this helps.

SSP

[wutwut]

Thanks for the quick reply. For example, If I was to propose a different order/flow for the AIP approval process, which would have to be implemented by the core DAO team, is that in the scope of this event?

[Feld]

I’d say so. Give it a try!

[br00no]

Thanks, @Feld .

I now better understand this initiative.

Tough to say. Best I / anyone could do in the spirit of what I suggested is to get funded to get RFP’s from credible auditors including examples of what those audits and commentary would look like.

Ultimately though, I don’t think this can be done given the current leadership and most voters seem disinterested in - or outright opposed to - proper oversight, since it prevents high-paying power grabs that seem to be all the rage here now. So would they facilitate getting cost estimates for proper oversight and disclosure?

If a whale or two step up to shoot down those proposals, that’ll be different. Bottom line though; people who don’t put oversight, true transparency, and fail-safes 1st and foremost are either unqualified or insincere. On the flip side, voters who don’t insist on oversight and true transparency can’t be helped.

Copying terrible IRL processes results in the same terrible results, and just like IRL by the time enough people decide to care it’s too late. With that in mind, I respectfully suggest nothing else matters in re: “DAO Governance”.

Examples of what I mean:

Requiring super majority or a fee on certain proposals

A very relevant and timely example… Voting on “AIP-239: Working Group Guidelines & The Governance Working Group Charter” is currently “In Favor” with only 16% of the votes actually in favor. 240 voters so far, which is about half what an AIP normally gets. Here’s the kicker: a full 36% of In Favor votes are by a single Steward and co-author who stands to gain considerably if it passes ($9k / mo for 2 years +++) since statistically incumbents win re-election a large amount of the time. There …

Working Group Charter - Essential Services Only

Credible effective oversight is absolutely crucial, no matter my opinion. Also reporting is not oversight, especially when it’s self-reporting. “Essential Services” includes proper oversight. The ApeCoin.com “About” and “Governance” pages contain zero instances of “audit” and a single instance of “oversight”: “A special council on the APE Foundation (the DAO’s “Board”) provides, at the behest of the ApeCoin DAO members, oversight of the Foundation administrators.” Where can we see details o…

If scrolling back a few posts to 2nd comment in that 2nd link, I detail how it can, and arguably should, be easily, fairly and safely done.

Zero idea if there’s a way to do even a small part of any of that within parameters of this Idea-a-thon. If someone sees a way, let me know.

My thanks to you for this effort to inspire and fund ideas, whatever comes of it.

Cheers to you and all the dreamers. Remember to have fun! (And not get rugged).

[mattborchert]

Thank you for this 8zal! Appreciate you also making a quick sample. A few quick things to potentially add / update in the post:

• What’s a one sentence elevator pitch for this ideal?
• What are the steps to implement?
• Do you have an idea for cost to implement (outside of the cost of prizes, which I see you mentioned as a TBD)

Thanks for contributing!

[dc]

PLEASE!!!

As a new guy I would happily help/offer feedback/anything else to this. SO necessary.

[BojangleGuy]

Send me a DM on discord and lets chat! BojangleGuy#1198

[dc]

Just added from dc#0632

[adventurousape]

Hi @br00no,

I would like to encourage you to write a proposal for your idea. I believe that transparency and proper oversight are crucial for the success of any organization, including ours.

@br00no

I don’t think this can be done given the current leadership and most voters seem disinterested in - or outright opposed to - proper oversight

I cannot speak to what most voter’s views are, but as one of the Stewards for WG0, I would like to say that I have not heard any leaders of the DAO say anything about not wanting proper oversight. The problem is, someone needs to take the initiative and spend the time to solve for it. It’s not that the Stewards believe there should not be 3rd party oversite of the Working Groups, it’s just that we haven’t had the time to think through how to implement it in a meaningful way.

[Stonie]

Here’s an idea I gave on a Twitter space, so I’ll go ahead and write about it in quick detail here.

Apecoin Metaverse Community HUB

My idea is to create a metaverse hub to bring together the ApecoinDAO community, where members can connect and engage in open Discussions about proposals. The hub will serve as a space for everyone to share their ideas, and attend presentations and AMAs hosted by Authors, members, or the core team.

Immerse yourself in a virtual world where there are no limits. Engaging with other members in real-time audio discussions, brainstorming, and sharing ideas makes the community move forward. Members and future members will be able to access resources related to current proposals, and community discussions, through a single-click link invite to an in-browser metaverse hub.

I created a sample of the Apecoin metaverse hosted on Mozilla Hubs by Firefox. (not final design)
Apecoin Metaverse HUB - Enter Here!

Steps to Implement:

• Assess the needs of the Apecoin DAO members to determine the resources required.
• Design an engaging virtual world space
• Host a range of events to encourage member participation
• Train speakers and administrators to navigate the hub and ensure productive discussions.
• Launch the metaverse, provide a single-click invite, and promote it within the community via Twitter, discord, discourse, etc…

Overall:

I believe the Apecoin Hub is a great place to bring the community closer and engaged in real-time in a more communicative way as an alternative to text-based forums.

Cost:

The cost of this idea will be $7,500 USD to design, and a $3,500 monthly maintenance Fee to cover graphics changes, information layout updates, and weekly event hosting.

Answer:

If this wins, Yes, I will gladly work to implement it and create this metaverse hub for the Apecoin DAO community.

Thank you for reading my idea proposal, and please share any feedback.

apecoin.stonie.eth - 0xc278a0d25184a6f7695735b6db8ff9d93333c6f5

[Adz]

A very simple idea…

Pulling recordings of key twitter spaces and working group calls to generate transcriptions and summaries. That way the content is more accessible, especially to non-native speakers.

I tend to do this when I miss spaces as I find it easier to digest the key messages that way, but it might be effective to share them more widely.

It’s very simple to do but, on my own I can’t cover all of them.

Wondered if other people were interested in joining forces? Or in picking up the idea and running with it? Especially if we can get some kind of bounty associated.

Just a thought!

[Evil]

This is my idea about deploying small funding in a fast and efficient way.
I hope Idea-a-thon is still open and I’m eligible by posting this.
Idea is simple, people submit any idea, for this AIP its theme based but at some point in future it would be simply " Ask for a micro-grant in range of 500-2000 $ape " if you are struggling to work on something related to Apecoin and dont have enough resources or money for it.

DAZE Micro Grants

Proposal Name: DAZE MG Proposal Category: Process Abstract : A place for people to create anything they want, work on something they always wanted to do but didnt had time or resources, but had the determination to do so. This is where DAZE steps in with its deep roots within the Indian art and blockchain environment. Funding small teams, artist and developers to create something wonderful with $ape, mentoring them and help them grow their ideas into reality. DAZE Micro Grants ( DAZE MG ) is…

[wutwut]

1. PROPOSAL NAME: Adopt Apparent Consensus Governance to simplify the governance process


2. PROPOSAL CATEGORY: Governance process


3. ABSTRACT: The current governance process includes a complex web of “expert stakeholders”, and does not use that expertise in the most effective way possible. I propose to adopt a governance process that creates a single body of experts, which would use their expertise to both filter out fraudulent proposals and recommend proposals for passing. Tokenholders would then be able to veto the recommendations. This process would simplify governance as well as use the existing expertise more effectively.

4. MOTIVATION

The current governance process is a great start but I see two areas for improvement:

1. Complexity: As a proposal author you need to deal with a variety of gatekeepers that can request clarification and/or changes to your proposal (Stakeholders involved: Moderators, Board, Project Management Team)
2. Using existing expertise: The above mentioned stakeholders’ input is only considered to weed out bad proposals, not recommend good ones. However, as they are conducting a significant amount of analysis on proposals, they are in a great position to assess and make recommendations on which proposal would offer a significant contribution towards the DAO’s goals.

5. IDEA

To address the above, I propose an alternative to the current governance process. The proposed adjustment is based on a well known process called Apparent Consensus Governance (read more here). Apparent Consensus Governance works as follows:

1. Crowd consensus: A DAO member makes a proposal and posts it on a public forum. It is debated in public and can be modified and revised to adapt to public feedback.
2. Sophon Consensus: Expert members of the DAO, called “Sophons” who have been designated as reviewers, analyze the proposal and publish a recommendation on whether to adopt, decline, or defer.
   3. Tokenholder Consensus: Following Sophon consensus, Tokenholders are offered the chance to object to the recommendation using a token-weighted vote that only counts “no”s

There are 6 scenarios of how a proposal can go:

Sophons	Tokenholders	Results
Approve	Veto	Reconciliation
Approve	Approve	Approval
Dismiss	Veto	Reconciliation
Dismiss	Approve	Dismissal
Defer	Veto	Reconciliation
Defer	Approve	Deferral

What would change?

1. The DAO would create a Council of Sophons as the single body of expertise in the DAO. This council could either be the existing board, the moderators, or a mix of the two.
2. The Council of Sophons would be the single point of contact to the author
3. In addition to the existing recommendations (e.g. is it legal, does the proposal resemble DAO values) the Sophons would also issue a recommendation on whether or not to adopt the proposal.
4. Token holders could approve or veto the Sophon vote.
5. If Sophons and token holders disagree, the DAO would start a constructive reconciliation process where objectors explain their objections and negotiate revisions.
   
   
   The old vs. proposed process
   
   
   

6. BENEFITS

• Increased Simplicity: Instead of dealing with a multitude of “expert stakeholders”, proposal authors and DAO voters would only deal with one centralized “expert council”, i.e. the Sophons
• Increased speed: The closer feedback loop between Sophons and authors, will allow for much faster proposal revisions
• Increased impact: Making the default judgment an expert-led judgment likely increases the chance of proposal decisions being more impactful on the DAO’s goals
  
  
  7. IMPLEMENTATION

There are a few Details to figure out:

1. Sophon structure: Who would serve as the Sophon council?
2. Sophon election: When would Sophons be elected? The election process follows the same process as the general proposal process
3. Set quorum for Tokenholder Consensus: How many votes are needed to overturn a Sophon recommendation?

There are no costs attached to this proposal. It would mostly just require an internal project manager to manage the transition.

[Balou]

Submitted an idea I’d been thinking about for a while today. Linked below, feedback appreciated!

License for DAO to use BAYC #5569

Hi All, I’ve been mulling this idea over for a while now and have decided to submit for feedback. I’ve used the template to try and ensure I cover most aspects. Please let me know what you think! Proposal Name: License for DAO to use BAYC asset #5569 Proposal Category: Licensing Abstract I would like to offer the DAO the use of BAYC asset #5569. I believe this ape would be a superb representation for the Apecoin DAO, he’s a blue, perfectly bored four trait ape. The basic idea would be that …

[BojangleGuy]

I have made a doc of all the proposals if you want to see them all in one simple location.

ThankApe x ApeCoinDAO AIP Idea-A-Thon

[mattborchert]

Hey @BojangleGuy - thank you so much for putting this together!

We’re trying to get all of the submissions to have a similar format for judging purposes, would you mind checking out the below guidelines and adjusting as needed? Merci!

• Title
• One sentence summary of idea
• At least 1-2 paragraphs of description
• Steps to implement (bullet points)
• Cost (if any) of idea
• Answer: If this wins, will you do it?

[BojangleGuy]

Not all of the current ideas have all of this info. I wonder if it would be best to create a typeform or google form for people to submit for judging? And then continue to use this forum for community discussion?

[mattborchert]

I agree that a more structured form would be nice, although the transparency on the forum is also nice. I’ll be checking out all of the submissions and letting those who are missing some of this info know. I’ll also ping Feld about the typeform suggestion. Appreciate the feedback!