To give more context on my application, I wrote a thread about my future vision for the DAO.
1/ Why am I running for ApeCoin special council?
What does the DAO really do? In my opinion, it’s a decentralized machine created to build products, services and initiatives that benefit our ecosystem.
These products, services, and initiatives by virtue of their function + form, communicate the value proposition of $ape] both to our community and the broader market. If executed correctly, this should create a virtuous cycle that ultimately drives value and utility back to $ape holders and grows our community. Currently, this is manifest primarily around the Yugaverse, but has much broader and far reaching implications.
Examples:
- Products: staking (AIP-21/22), marketplace (AIP-98)
- Services: Boring Security (AIP-9)
- Initiatives: POAP Voting Rewards (AIP-106)
These are the first in a variety of potential products, services, initiatives and partnerships the ApeCoin DAO could and should create to drive value and utility to our ecosystem.
We together have the incredible power to create tangible value around a billion dollar ecosystem. This is a unique (possibly once in a lifetime) opportunity that absolutely should not be squandered… and right now, it feels like we’re not living up to our potential.
Although staking should have been a triumph of our collective achievement, it was fraught with delays, lack of transparency, poor communication, and bad process.
I think we can all do better, myself included. That is at the heart of why I’m running for special council.
2/ What experience do I bring to the table?
I’m an entrepreneur who has started, built, scaled and exited multiple businesses over the last 20 years. One of those was a billion dollar exit in an emerging industry that barely existed 20 years ago. I’m familiar with the operational, organizational, financial and structural challenges involved with building large functioning structures, from the ground up.
I’ve created digital products that consumers actively enjoy, and have built large cross functional and global teams specifically designed to solve hard problems. I’m currently involved in developing metaverse and web3 corporate strategy.
I started in crypto in December 2013, and I bought my first ape in September 2021. I’ve been an ape community member ever since. I absolutely love this community and I would love nothing more than to bring my talents and expertise to help push the DAO forward.
3/ What’s broken? How do we fix it?
I don’t have all of the answers, and some of what is outlined below falls outside the wheelhouse of the special council as currently defined. But it’s my opinion that all council members should have a vision for the future of the DAO which why I believe it’s imperative to communicate my thoughts.
Strategy Alignment: The mission and values of the DAO are clear, but how we collectively get there is not. The current strategic focus is providing value to core Yugaverse assets. Eventually this strategy will need to branch out to encompass products and services to a more diverse set of $ape holders. This broader strategy should be focused on spurring adoption across open metaverse platforms and experiences.
To be clear, the community will ultimately decide the final direction in strategy. Having guidance (and possibly a framework) from the council, who then works to proactively communicate and align stakeholders around this direction would be a huge step in the right direction.
Product Development: to be successful we need to vastly accelerate implementation of approved AIPs, and create a new system for incremental feedback after AIP implementation to ensure progress continues after the “easy” work of consensus is over. Builders know that for complex projects it’s nearly impossible to get it exactly right the first time. Things evolve incrementally beyond what they were originally intended or envisioned to do.
Given that AIP administration and oversight is the core function of the special council, this should be the most fundamental way for council members to contribute to the DAO… by vastly improving AIP administration in all manners.
New infrastructure, a participatory based reward system, a commitment to speed without compromise of quality, a framework for how we think about developing new ideas, among other things are required to further our product development goals.
Business Development and Marketing: as we create things, we will need to increase our expertise in business development and marketing. We are collectively responsible for evangelizing and forging new relationships with external parties that we want to align ourselves with. The core value of the DAO is derived by our collective IP, ability to execute on those ideas, and finally communicate those ideas to the world in various forms.
A simple example to illustrate this point: who is thinking about how we are going to get people to use the newly built marketplace beyond slapping a link on our website?
Communication and Transparency: the community needs much more communication than we are getting from the special council. Transparency Tuesday was a step in the right direction, but is entirely process focused. Communication is especially lacking with respect to insight into how / when / why decisions are made (see AIP-121 and AIP-142 for community suggested proposals on how to begin to tackle some of these problems). This has to become a non-negotiable for the community and for council members.
People and Resources: the earlier points can’t happen without the right people. When tasking ourselves with living up to our our mission while sticking to our core values, it becomes clear we are woefully under-resourced. Five ape council members, a project management team, and a few AIP moderators will likely not get the job done.
The special council should provide guidance on what resources are needed, while the exact details will be determined and approved by the community.
Data Driven Accountability: special council members (either individually or as a group) should be signed up for community aligned and approved key performance indicators (KPIs) that signal agreed upon progress being made. The council should communicate these KPIs at a regular interval via a report, and be subject to consequences if / when they fall short of the mark.
Examples:
- Increase the average AIP participation % by 25% within 6 months
- Reduce the average implementation time of AIPs by 20% within 9 months
- Host at least X Twitter Spaces a month about a community selected topic
The existing governance structure already allows for this, and could be expanded upon and codified with a new AIP.
Special Council Alignment: right now, the special council is required to work a minimum of 3 hours a week and is primarily serving an administrative function. “The purpose of the Board is to administer DAO proposals and serve the vision of the community.”
To achieve long term viability, we need leaders on the special council that can help the community do more.
The special council should:
- Be proactive in submitting AIPs that serve the DAO and help solve the aforementioned problems (community always has final say and authority in all matters)
- Work with the community to create new AIPs that align with our core objectives and strategy
- Be accessible at nearly all times to clearly communicate any and all administrative or project related decisions
- Provide market data, insights, or other information pro-actively with the intent of improving the DAO
- Provide thought leadership, guidance, engage contacts, and lend experience where the community needs
- Be held accountable to community set KPIs, and report back on a quarterly basis the trajectory of the DAO
- Proactively work to improve connections and the relationship between the community and special council
Expanding what is required of the special council keeps the power in the hands of the community, while requiring a tangible increase in output to serve the vision of the community.
Finally, there are a number of future milestones set out at apecoin.com/governance (section 04). The special council should be extremely pro-active in ensuring these concepts stay top of mind and move forward accordingly.
4/ What role does community play?
Community is everything. Without a vibrant, participatory community and the right tools to support our ambitions, the ApeCoin DAO is DOA. Community must play the primary role in our decision making, product development, governance, and long term roadmap.
It is a must that we increase participation in submitting and voting on AIPs to ensure a diversity of opinions are represented. Additionally, we need to increase discourse around AIPs to ensure they are refined to the community standards as efficiently as possible. To do this, we need the tools to on-board, engage, and reward community members for their contributions and feedback.
At the end of the day, the special council serves at the pleasure of the community, who has final say and authority in all matters.
