[Proposal] Formalizing Community Management

Authors:
@SeaSaltyFunk @0xSato @ChainsightLabs

with special thanks to @PEPO for collaboration & partnership in preparing this proposal


Summary:

A formal proposal to establish Community Managed aspects of the Keep3r network, in support of the core team & multisig.

Note, this proposal formalizes & supports previous discussions ‘Implementation of Coordinape for Keep3r’ which passed a community poll with 90% approval & ‘Job Scouters & Strategists Incentives’ which passed a community poll with 96% approval

Status:

In Discussion:

To be revised, updated 4th May 22 (see here)

Proposal Withdrawn, updated 9th May 22 - Revised Proposal available here

This proposal seeks to gain approval from the community to stand up, establish & empower a community-led team with an initial scope as defined below. After an initial period of 6-months, a formalization of continuation will be sought from the wider community.

This proposal recommends following the governance process as outlined in Yearn’s YIP-55 in the absence of a formally documented or precedent established process within the keep3r network community


Abstract:

If adopted, this proposal seeks to;

  • Staff a community management team made up of existing & contributing members of the KP3R community
  • Reopen official communications channels (Discord & Telegram)
  • Delegate certain powers to the community team, with an immediate focus on; growth opportunities for both the Keep3r network & Fixed Forex, creation of new official content in support of growth opportunities & community management, and formalization of new community member selection & onboarding
  • Establish an initial budget to compensate community member contributions &/or to commission bounties for required one-time contributions from non-community members
  • Ensure an obligation for an ongoing method of liaison between the multisig & the community management team

Motivation:

Recent changes in multisig members and the departure of previous core team members have left Keep3r without clear channels of communication or a line of dialogue with the community of token holders & protocol users.

Whilst the new core team focuses on setup & onboarding, a community-led & managed group can help immediately bridge these gaps whilst also supplementing the core team & multisig in promoting the keep3r governed protocols, supporting growth and relations with the community (inclusive of KP3R token holders & protocol users)

This will serve as a pilot program that if successful may lead to further authority and responsibilities being proposed for delegation to community-managed groups TBD in the future through approval of further proposal approvals.


Specification:

Initial team members

Initial community management team will be staffed by authors, with additional needs & roles identified & formalized over time

Introducing community management team

Adding additional community management team members

Forum & Discord channels will be used to promote the need for new roles, allow for nominations of new members & allow for interested individuals to express interest in participation

Initial scope

  • Moderation & management of official comms channels
  • Setup & moderation of additional community management tools (i.e. Dework & Coordinape)
  • Creation of new content to support Fixed Forex users
  • Support keep3r network & Fixed Forex growth opportunities & partnerships
  • Formalize governance processes, including management direct hands-on management of forum & snapshot processes
  • Screen & Onboard new community management team members
  • Act as liaison between users/community & core team/multisig (with support of Defi Wonderland team)
  • Work towards ensuring CEX & other token listing sites information held on KP3R token is correct

Example responsibilities & tasks to be managed

  • Management of official Discord channel, including recruitment of additional moderators
  • Management of official Telegram channel, including recruitment of additional moderators
  • Act as authors for any new proposals at the Keep3r network snapshot
  • Official publication of KP3R governed protocols medium articles, following approval of the multisig team, including; Why Protocols should use Keep3r network, Why working as a keep3r in the keep3r network could be for you, fee-generating activities & allocation to vKP3R, Overview of ibAMM, What differentiates ib stables from other stablecoins, guide on how to participate in forum & DAO, etc.
  • Creation & upkeep of Fixed Forex user documentation (for example, how to vest, how to redeem options, how to borrow using integrated Iron Bank features, how to use ibAMM, etc.), including seeking approval for sign-off by multisig team
  • Commission / create video guides for Fixed Forex protocol users
  • Formalization of governance processes, seeking approval of the broader community
  • Supporting the growth of keep3r network protocol through;
    • Protocol enrolment of new Jobs in the keep3r network
    • Support migration of existing keep3r network jobs from v1 to v2.2
  • Supporting the growth of Fixed Forex protocol through;
    • Seeking official protocol partnerships for Fixed Forex
  • Ensure the creation of an official domain address book (i.e. official protocol emails) to work with CEX & other listing sites, or entities to ensure correct information held on the KP3R token

Obligations of the multisig team

Should this proposal be successful in establishing a community-managed team via the governance process outlined then the multisig would also inherit an obligation to work in good faith to establish a successful method of ongoing lines of communication & liaison with the community management team

An immediate & prioritized task would be to share official communication with the broader community establishing clarity in ways of working & ongoing responsibilities between these two groups

Obligations of the community management team

The community management team will ensure that actions & tasks are managed to completion with the best interests of the token holders & protocol users maintained at all times

Initial Funding/Budget

We are requesting an initial allocation of funding at a value of 50 KP3R per month with several options available for distribution, benefits of each option are highlighted below;

  1. Funds allocated equivalent to 50 KP3R per month, distributed in stablecoin based on the market value of 50 KP3R TWAP for the previous period, ensuring budget scales with a market value of KP3R
  2. Funds allocated at 50 KP3R per month, distributed in unlocked KP3R tokens
  3. Funds allocated at 50 KP3R per month, with distribution at 15 KP3R unlocked + 35 4-year vested KP3R, ensuring the team has long term incentive to perform for the benefit of the protocols whilst retaining the flexibility to commission immediate needs

Total funds will be distributed between the team members based on contribution or to commission external bounties. Fund allocation is to be reviewed at the conclusion of the initial 6 month period & any increase

Tools to be utilized

  • Official Discord Channel (communication with protocol users)
  • Official Telegram Channel (communication with protocol users)
  • Establish Official Medium Publications (materials to support growth & raise protocol user awareness)
  • Snapshot (to complete the formal community voting ratification)
  • Dework (to nominate, prioritize, assign & sign-off tasks)
  • Coordinape (reward distribution)

What happens at end of the initial 6-month pilot period?

At the end of the initial 6-month period, a further poll will be held seeking feedback from the community to solicit sentiment on a continuation of the program, adjustments & the perceived success of actions taken in relation to

TL;DR

  1. Restore/Reopen official communications channels for keep3r protocols on Telegram & Discord with a new moderator team
  2. Establish a community management team with additional scope to support the keep3r protocols (as outlined above)
  3. Establish ways of working & responsibilities between the multisig & the community management team
  4. Secure funding for the community management team for an initial period of 6 months at a cost of 50 KP3R per month (based on one of the above options being approved)

Poll

A poll is included to gauge sentiment for this proposal & must achieve a greater than 30% level of support in order to move forward for snapshot voting by qualified token holders

Poll is open now and will continue for a minimum of 3 days is allowed for discussion of this suggested proposal. Note, users may change any votes already placed during the discussion period should sentiment change based on the nature of the debate

Please also note, the results of the poll are not considered binding & must be ratified by further governance stages as outlined in the ‘governance’ sections below

Finally, to be clear the intent is to establish a 30% level of support for this proposal overall (i.e. if 10% of votes are gathered in the poll each in support of the proposal but distributed across each of the three funding options then this will be considered equal to a total level of 30% support)

  • I support this proposal & agree with option 1 for funding (equivalent to 50 KP3R per month) distributed in stablecoin
  • I support this proposal & agree with option 2 for funding (of 50 KP3R per month) distributed in unlocked KP3R
  • I support this proposal & agree with option 3 for funding (with a total of 50 KP3R per month) distributed with partial unlocked & partially 4 years vested KP3R
  • I do not support this proposal

0 voters

2022-04-26T17:30:00Z2022-04-29T17:30:00Z


Governance: Discussion

This suggested proposal is now open for discussion by the community, with community members encouraged to share thoughts, challenges or amends to proposal in the comments section below. If further clarifications on this proposal are required then the discussion phase may be extended for a time in order to make suitable adjustments to the proposal

Governance: Voting

Once polling closes, if a 30% threshold of positive sentiment has been achieved then this proposal will be progressed to formal submission for voting on the Keep3r network snapshot

Any vKP3R token holder can join & vote on the snapshot page, voting will be open for 5 days. Snapshot vote must exceed a 50% threshold to be considered binding

Governance: Execution & Conclusion

The Keep3r multisig will ensure execution & allocation of funds from treasury upon completion of polling & snapshot voting phases if this proposal meets community approval.

5 Likes

Nothing more to add, strongly agree with the proposal. Official comms have been absent and I believe, since there is a community around the project (as per unofficial channel), that people should at least have the benefit of official comms, creating relevant info,support and engagement in that sense.

2 Likes

Thanks for the feedback (and support) there was actually quite an interesting point raised around thinking more deeply about the way the budget has been proposed here. The issue is that really within the current proposal there is a lack of incentive to add MORE contributing members to the group because if there are a few individuals working through a share of the compensation, then why would they want to lessen their share to bring in other talents?

I think it’s quite a fair point and poses a couple of additional risks that can also be pinpointed;

  1. Embedding of a DYI mentality within the community team, or wider community members rather than ensuring the right skills are used in the right ways
  2. Limiting the potential scope or pace of contributions that can be commissioned out of this team

Perhaps the best way with this would be to implement an overall budget allocation but create a more clear separation of what funds are going to the community management team, what can be used to commission & then when/how bigger scale requests for funds can be made - for example;

  • When dedicated roles are identified that would need full or part-time resourcing with specific briefs (for example, ongoing moderator team member, support team member, etc.)
  • Where time-bound or one-off larger-scale efforts are required (for example, moving forward with something like a time-bound piece of research or analysis, etc.)

In order to keep the momentum going on this proposal what I’d recommend is that if the proposal has enough support, we move to snapshot vote on a simple Support/Don’t support basis

In the scenario where snapshot passes, this team commits to come back with more clarity on budget management and methods & seek approval of final funding at this stage.

Does anyone have any opposition to that idea?

2 Likes

This is well-thought-out. Good for the project.

2 Likes

We are genuinely thrilled to read this proposal. In our opinion, this is exactly what the protocol needs. Moreover, we believe that there are no better people than you for this task.

Some comments from our side, which we hope can bring better clarity to your proposal but are nothing but a suggestion:

Tasks division

It would be nice to better understand which particular tasks and involvements each one of you would have. We are aware this is not easy to do beforehand and that the testing period might end up defining the details, but a basic initial idea might be useful for you.

Having this clear from the beginning might even prove useful to avoid potential conflicts.

Compensation

We are aware that your motivation here does not come from revenue, but rather out of love for the protocol. Nonetheless, we consider that the financial compensation should be fair and enough to strongly incentivize the 3 of you.

We propose taking into account the task division specified above to define a separate compensation for each one of you. This would further avoid potential conflicts in the long term.

In order to incentivize the stability of the proposal, we would advise to:

  • Define a fixed USD monthly salary. A linear vesting contract should be deployed with a 6 months deadline (the period of the trial phase), which would ensure your future payment. A new vesting contract should be deployed after the 6 months deadline if the community considers that the job was properly conducted.
  • Consider additional KP3R tokens to be vested on top with a long-term deadline. These tokens should have a strong price dependence in order to properly align incentives.

Both vestings could be halted at any time if the community considers that goals were not met. Already vested tokens would be always claimable.

Hiring budget

New hires should be formulated in future proposals, as they become necessary. Each proposal should include:

  • Candidate experience
  • Roles to be taken by the candidate
  • Proposed compensation

We applaud the initiative and wish you the best of luck.

4 Likes

Thank you for the kind words, the support & the constructive feedback @Wonderland

There are some really excellent points raised here that would undoubtedly strengthen some aspects of this proposal

We will take some time to discuss among ourselves & seek to provide some further clarity on these points to strengthen & amend the proposal before it moves forward to snapshot vote

We will aim to get back shortly.

2 Likes

I would love to be involved as well on a volunteer basis. There’s a lot we could to to make it easier to understand how the product works, and how the incentives work such as a vKP3R. FixedForex.live has no data for April or May.

I’ve also long advocated that we should also make a rebalancing strategy available across all ibAssets on PowerPool or Yearn. I don’t have time to do everything to become a Yearn strategist, but I’ll work to find existing strategists that might convince to work on it.

2 Likes

We would like to thank everyone for all of the constructive feedback given on the proposal. We were of course delighted to see that 93% of those participating in the poll were in support of the proposal.

As stated above, the main objective of this proposal is to listen to the Keep3r community and build from there, we wanted to provide a short update for all - we have taken account of all the feedback and have also taken some time to reach out to the multisig team to understand how best we can support them

We’re working through this feedback, and anticipate that we will undergo some significant changes to this proposal - therefore we feel it would be best to create an entirely new proposal, taking into account all this feedback & the revisions in scope, compensation, incentives etc.

3 Likes

Revised Proposal can be viewed here

Generally, I’m very supportive of a community managed approach and would welcome something that focuses on producing more available information for users and token holders.

However, I did want to ask some questions for clarity on this proposal;

  1. What is the plan for the moderator team that was in place before the official telegram and discord channels were shut? Will they continue or be replaced?
  2. Why 50 KP3R threshold, how was this determined to be the right level of budget?
  3. How can we be certain that multisig team would meet the obligations proposed here?

It is great to see a formal strategy put in motion for community management.

To reduce operational efforts of compensating the team, have we looked into any tooling that would alleviate this? Something like payroll automation can be considered, like via Coinshift’s integration with Superfluid.

This proposal was withdrawn