TIP-1 - Establishing a new Squad

Proposals
#1

Authors

@lewi

Summary

This proposal would fund a ESD focused “Squad” to help establish ESD within the DeFi community. The Squad would help support development efforts, assist others in grant writing, integrations with other protocols, and contribute to reference materials.

Background

In the beginning there was a squad, the Empty Set Squad. They designed and developed ESD and released it into the world. After its launch, they helped develop and refine the protocol in collaboration with the community that has rallied around it.

The ESS it self, while present, has encouraged the community to flourish around the protocol. We’ve had numerous individuals step up to handle various aspects of the protocol’s day to day management: development updates, integration requests, community management, protocol design and evangelism. With the addition of the treasury, ESD is now able to support community members requiring compensation to commit time to the protocol for development, protocol integrations, community building, and evangelism.

We feel that it is time for a new squad to help keep up with the ever growing attention and use it is getting.

A new squad: Squad Number 2 (SN2)

SN2 is a group that will focus on supporting the ESD community as it grows and the protocol matures. The main focus will be on contributing to the communications, integrations, infrastructure and community of the protocol.

The squad will be led by Lewi. He has been an active participant in the ESD community since early in the bootstrapping phase. Since then he has acted to promote the community in many ways:

  • Developing ESD Tools which serves 4,000 community members each month
  • Writing the first widely distributed article on the protocol with 6k reads. (See Here)
  • Managing & moderating the Discord server
  • Designing & Developing the ESD website (See Here)
  • Developing a brand identity for the ESD protocol (See website)
  • Contributing to the documentation for the protocol, as well as funding/organising translations to Chinese & Russian
  • Development & Management of the documentation platform
  • Setup of the treasury governance platform
  • Creation & Management of social media platforms for the protocol

SN2 would continue to act in the same vein but with much better organisation and capabilities.

Specifics

  • A small group of up-to 4 individuals will come together to focus on supporting protocol
  • The squad will focus on communications, integrations, infrastructure and community of the protocol.
  • The squad will publish a report outlining the activities they have undertaken that month.
  • The squad will publish a proposal bi-monthly requesting funds to continue their work.
    • The 1st prop will only cover one month while things are getting started.

Funding Request

In order get the squad off the ground, the following funds are required:

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These funds are to be paid up front to 0x750eb0759F56a55cF0bb528fe4EFc6f8cFd27C56 after the vote passes and the remainder will be either:

  • Rolled into the next successful proposal for SN2
  • Sent back to the Treasury if the following proposal fails.

Voting

  • For: Yes, establish the SN2
  • Against: No, SN2 is lame
  • Poll: Link
4 Likes
#2

Very excited for SN2 :smile:

3 Likes
#3

hey lewi.

this looks great, but one small/major issue.

I think empty set dollar is solving “funding the commons” so much better than other protocols, that we should set a higher market rate for top tier talent than other protocols. If Empty Set Dollar establishes a brand value of “paying top dollar for top talent,” it will be an incredible asset in the marketplace for talent.

I would like the opportunity to vote NO on your current proposal for a 11.5K rate, while also having the opportunity to vote YES on a $15K monthly rate for you. You have shown good leadership on ESD tools, and I think we should send a signal that other driven developers will find a protocol that will appropriately value their contributions!

7 Likes
#4

:sweat_smile: oh wow, thank you!

I appreciate your support. I’ll submit a second vote with the updated budget for you and the rest of the community to vote on.

1 Like
#5

Strongly support this proposal as well as Scott’s addendum :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

I definitely support this proposal + suggested rate change. Thanks for all the amazing work you’ve done for the ESD community Lewi!

2 Likes
#7

TIP-2 - Supersede TIP-1 & Update Budget

New budget:

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See the new TIP which includes the new budget here:

#8

I think this is a great idea.
I like the structure where we fund for one month and use that time to come back with a more complete proposal and financial forecast.

Because the DAO is a bit nuanced and confusing for new (and old) members, and changes pretty frequently as the protocol iterates, I’d love to see someone(s) in charge of community (paid to take the load of newbie questions in the discord) and documentation (which get out of date rapidly to the extent it exists).

Lewi is your thought that you might act in a managerial capacity – so if say we compensated people for those activities, you would manage them? Or is everyone an individual contributor, or would you seek to hire someone else to manage?

#9

I support Scott’s addendum. $15k/mo is :+1:.

(Also, consider calling it the Power Set :wink: )

#10

Awesome idea, and I support the $15k/mo adjustment.

Logistical question: is the $15k paid out as 15,000 ESD or is it $15,000 USD worth of ESD at the time of distribution?

#11

Sounds good! I think there should be some reporting tho. Basically re-think the funding like once a quarter based on what has been accomplished, so funds are not spent blindly forever.

Don’t get me wrong, you are doing an awesome job @lewi and you definitely deserve that.

#12

Thanks for the support!

I’d love to see someone(s) in charge of community (paid to take the load of newbie questions in the discord) and documentation (which get out of date rapidly to the extent it exists).

These are areas that I’m definitely looking to continue to contribute to if the proposal passes. It terms of “ownership” we should be careful to install gatekeepers on common resources (ie docs, comms, etc) but look to keep the approach collaborative so other squads or individuals feel like they can contribute.

Lewi is your thought that you might act in a managerial capacity – so if say we compensated people for those activities, you would manage them? Or is everyone an individual contributor, or would you seek to hire someone else to manage?

I think the best case scenario is that SN2, or PowerSetSquad (thnx @onewayfunction), will provide an avenue for a few individuals to join together to contribute to the protocol while being compensated. Bundling grants like this will reduce overhead and increase efficiency so we can get shit done and have some semblance of stability, as focusing full-time on a decentralised protocol is a huge risk for some people.

Ideally the individuals in the squad will work in the areas they excel in. Management isn’t by best area, but to get this off the ground I’ll focus on mgmt alongside the community building work I’ve been doing.

1 Like
#13

Definitely, I’m not trying to ask for a blank cheque :sweat_smile:. In the TIP I mention that I will provide monthly reports of activity so the community can decide if they would like to fund the squad again.

Hopefully that provides some accountability

1 Like
#14

Looking forward to seeing lewi have more tools and some help in the upcoming months.

1 Like
#15

Sensible, thanks. I am supportive!

#16

So, we should vote no on 1 and vote yes on 2 if supportive?

#17

I 100% agree with this