WG0: A Call for Contributors

General
1

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

AIP-196 will create an interim working group, tentatively named Working Group Zero (WG0), with a conceptual mandate of operationalizing the DAO, empowering and rewarding community members for domain expertise and work on DAO operations, while taking further steps towards decentralizing the DAO in order to eliminate single points of failure in core DAO operations.

This post is a formal call for contributors to WG0.

WG0 ELIGIBILITY

Summary

To ensure participants in the working group have the necessary prior experience with ApeCoin DAO they must meet the following eligibility criteria:

  1. ApeCoin DAO members who have achieved Trust Level Status 2 (Member) or higher on ApeCoin Discourse (the Official communication platform for DAO functions) on or before December 21, 2022; or

  2. $APE holders who have voted on at least 50% of the AIPs that have gone to Snapshot; or

  3. $APE holders with 50,000 APE or more in voting power and have voted on at least one AIP on or before December 21, 2022.

  4. For stakeholders in group 1 above, you’ll need to DM the author of this post (@badteeth) with the ETH address associated to your ApeCoin Discourse account to be given access to the WG0 Discord (TBA) in order to participate in WG0.

  5. For stakeholders in group 2 or 3 above, you will automatically be given access to the WG0 Discord (TBA) in order to participate in WG0 based on a qualifying ETH address.

  6. Steward nominees must complete two forms:
    a. Background Form
    b. KYC
    before January 7th, 2023 GMT to be eligible to be a participant in the Steward election for WG0.

SPECIFICATIONS

Summary

AIP-196 establishes Working Group Zero as a 3-month trial under the specifications listed below to assess the effectiveness of the initial working group structure so we can iterate and improve as necessary.

  1. Working Group Zero will determine and submit a budget to the Special Council on a monthly basis for approval to execute the functions transitioned from the current APE Foundation administrator and complete the additional functions listed below during the 3-month interim period. The first month’s budget will be pre-approved up to US$44,710 in order to be able to begin executing immediately upon the start of the interim term January 4, 2023. WG0 will review budget requests weekly with the Special Council throughout the interim term. Any money not allocated to expenses approved by the Special Council during the interim term will be returned to the APE Foundation.

  2. WG0 will determine and transition all functions that don’t explicitly require a Cayman foundation administrator to the DAO on a schedule as determined by WG0. Due to the corporate structure of the APE Foundation it is not legal for WG0 to take on all of the responsibilities of any Cayman foundation administrator.

  3. WG0 will run a transparent RFP process to elect the next DAO administrator in Q1 2023.

  4. WG0 will propose recommendations for the extension or evolution of AIP-1 prior to its next expiration.

  5. WG0 will propose future Official ApeCoin DAO Working Group guidelines and objectives via AIP that will also delegate all WG0 responsibilities to said working groups by the end of the 3-month term and dissolve.

  6. All WG0 processes will be managed by seven WG0 Stewards.

STEWARDS

Summary

A total of seven members who serve within Working Group Zero on behalf of the DAO.

  1. Stewards are responsible for:
    a. Administrative oversight
    b. Budgeting based on the needs of WG0 as approved by the Special Council
    c. Reporting on all WG0 activities between the Special Council, the Administrators, and the Community.

  2. The APE Foundation Special Council will appoint three Stewards by January 4th, 2023 (dependent on completion of AML and KYC checks) from amongst ApeCoin DAO members who have achieved Trust Level Status 3 (Regular) on ApeCoin Discourse on or before December 21, 2022, to lead the priority focus groups – Operations, Governance, Communications.
    a. The purpose of this appointment is to be able to have resources in place to hit the ground running immediately upon the commencement of the AIP-196 mandate.
    b. While the Special Council will appoint the first three Stewards, they will not be eligible to vote in the election of the remaining four Stewards.

  3. WG0 will elect the four remaining Stewards from amongst WG0 participants in a process to be completed no later than January 14, 2023, detailed below.

  4. Prior to taking their position as a Steward in WG0, all potential Stewards must pass AML and KYC checks. These are the same checks that anyone running for Special Council had to pass.

  5. Stewards will be compensated $6942 per month of work.
    a. For the first month, the 3 Stewards appointed by the special council will begin work on January 4th, 2023 (dependent on completion of AML and KYC checks) and receive a full month’s compensation.
    b. For the first month, the 4 Stewards elected by WG0 on January 14, 2023 will receive 1/2 pay ($3471) for the first month.

  6. Special Council members cannot serve in the position of Steward.

STEWARD ELECTIONS

Summary

To ensure the integrity of Steward elections, a Snapshot Space will be set up by the authors of AIP-196 with the “Whitelist” strategy listed here: Voting strategies - snapshot x

  1. All members of WG0 are eligible to vote during the election window for Stewards, but those members qualifying through the Trust Level 2 Discourse criteria will need to provide their ETH Address to the author of “WG0: A Call for Contributors” in order to have their address included in the Snapshot Space before January 7th, 2023 GMT.

  2. Authors of AIP-196 will gather the ETH addresses in the following ways:
    a. A historical snapshot of holders of APE on Dec 21st with 50,000 or more in voting power who have voted on at least one AIP.
    b. A historical snapshot of holders of APE on Dec 21st that have voted on 50% or more of all AIPs.
    c. The authors will request ETH addresses from all participants in Trust Level 2 or above who wish to vote or run for Steward. This list will be used to verify that a user registering their interest is eligible to participate and vote on the Steward elections.

  3. Steward nominees must complete two forms:
    a. Background Form
    b. KYC
    before January 7th, 2023 GMT to be eligible to be a participant in the Steward election for WG0.

  4. Stewards may be removed at any time by:
    a. A two-thirds majority vote among WG0, with the outcome of the vote communicated in the ApeCoin DAO governance forum.
    b. Stewards may step down from their position at any time by communicating their intention to step down in the ApeCoin DAO governance forum.

  5. In the event that a Steward is removed, steps down, or is unable to continue as a Steward, for whatever reason, any temporary vacant positions will be filled by a contributor within WG0, as voted on by WG0.

IMPORTANT!

Broken out for visibility:

  1. Steward nominees must complete two forms:
    a. Background Form
    b. KYC
    before January 7th, 2023 GMT to be eligible to be a participant in the Steward election for WG0.

TIMELINE

Summary

Upon the passing of AIP-196, WG0 shall go into effect January 4, 2023 - March 31, 2023.

  • The three Stewards for the Operations, Governance, and Communications focus groups within WG0 will be selected by the Special Council on January 4, 2023 (dependent on completion of AML and KYC checks).
  • The window in which members of the community can register their interest in voting on Steward elections and be registered as a voter on the Snapshot Space ends January 6, 2023 23:59 GMT.
  • The election window for WG0 Stewards will be live on a TBA custom Snapshot Space January 7, 2023 until January 14, 2023.
36 Likes
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Damn this seems interesting but too bad I’m not eligible! Good luck for those who will apply on this

10 Likes
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Will stewards be the only ones able to participate in WG0 or will they have teams? If they do have teams, will the same eligibility requirements be in place?

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Best of luck to all contributors :clap:

11 Likes
5

Stewards won’t be the only ones able to participate, I believe WG0 is ~400 members. They are the ones responsible for establishing budgets for the WG though and I expect the Stewards will make a budget available for sub work streams / groups outside of the Stewards. I think it makes a lot of sense to establish some funding for the primary focus groups working on communications, governance, etc.

The Stewards have $10k / month that they can use for operating expenses, but can request additional spending if needed from the SC, as approved by the SC.

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7

I like it… And looking forward to contributing wherever my skill sets can be of assistance.

2023 shaping up to be quite a year for establishing the future of ApeCoinDAO.

Love to see it.

11 Likes
8

Very succinct, thanks for this @badteeth.

As mentioned before, I’m still intrigued by the Community working group, but would need to be clear on the commitments necessary to participate. Will there be any upcoming discussions regarding how much time Working Group members should set aside in order to contribute fully to their respective groups?

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Thank you!

  • Stewards will be expected to put in 20 hours per week minimum.

  • There is no current time requirement to participate in WG0. This will be something WG0 can determine as specific roles and responsibilities are defined

13 Likes
10

Awesome, thanks. Looking forward to next steps.

5 Likes
11

Submitted my application. Happy New Year Everyone!

9 Likes
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You can count on me !

Looking forward to being able to collaborate as a contributor with the motivated people here around apecoin !

I wish you all an happy new year !

7 Likes
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Count me in for WG0! Time to get to work!

7 Likes
14

Ms. NFTy reporting for duty! ;o)

Let’s get it!

4 Likes
15

Thank you for this info. It makes sense to have a MISC. budget for minor costs needed swiftly.

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Can the person(s) responsible for administering this historical snapshot share more details on how this will be done? I like the format, qualifications and criteria. It would be reassuring to see someone respond that they’ve looked into the specifics of capturing the historical snapshots and we have it all covered.

Actually, there’s no reason that this historical snapshot can’t be posted now to allow an x day window for everyone to validate that they’re on the list in advance.

Will the snapshot include holders of 50,000+ that were staking at the time of this snapshot? Do we have that capture covered because I’d think it’s a different process than a historical wallet snapshot (which I wasn’t aware of and sparked my questioning in the first place).

Is the snapshot at 00:00 on 12/21/21 or some other time?

I’m editing and adding as I go btw lol. On like my 5th edit as I think of more things that could spark an “election fairness” type issue.

7 Likes
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Absolutely!

@ZastrowBradley worked on the 50k methodology which in its simplest form is to scrape all the Snapshot vote results for wallets with 50k APE or above and then eliminate dupes.

@Vulkan worked on the 50% voters and can share his process as I’m not familiar with the details.

Process is time-gated automatically to the two AIPs voted on December 21st which was the day we announced the requirements to avoid people gaming the system:

Our goal was to make this as simple, fair, and verifiable as possible.

Appreciate your oversight and please flag any concerns once Bradley and Vulkan chime in. Thank you

8 Likes
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Sure thing. As of 12/21, there were 45 DAO AIPs that made it to Snapshot. Anyone who voted on 23 or more reached the 50% voting threshold.

There is a table on Dune that holds records of each vote on these 45 AIPs that have gone to Snapshot.

Here is the query used to find the 222 wallets who had voted on 23 or more AIPs.

13 Likes
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Now that’s what I’m talking about! Thanks Vulkan

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Looking forward to learning how I can contribute. I just hit trust level 2 a few days ago, but I know there will be plenty more opportunities.

7 Likes
21

Awesome! Just a note that some people have definitely voted from multiple wallets.

6 Likes