[CarlFravel] - DAO Council Postulation

Resume and Relevant Professional Experience:

My professional resume can be seen at https://linkedin.com/in/cfravel

Highlights of especially relevant experience for Decentraland:

• Technology Management and Software Development - more than 40 years, including a senior manager of Java and C++ tools at Borland
• Serial Entrepreneur - Founder of a number of startups, two of which have current activity in Decentraland
○ Gentle Electric - Synthesizer accessories and custom audio compoents
○ AFI - hardware and software for musicianship training
○ Synchron Networks - Enterprise software for system management - VP Engineering, COO - grew team to 40 employees.
○ Applied Talent - technology and management consulting.
○ 3DChess - virtual-world chess play and tournaments
• Fund Raising - led successful Angel and Venture Capital fundraising of over $18M
• VP of Engineering at TurboSquid (Online 3D model marketplace, 2007-2009)
• Early adopter of virtual worlds and scene-building (Second Life since 2009, Decentraland since 2017)
• Retained by the DCL founders on at 2 year contract as a consultant in virtual worlds, district formation support, and community development (2017-2019)
• Founded the Decentraland Conference Center, cofounded the Decentraland Film Festival.
• Authored a book on creating virtual experiences (Kindle)

Cover Letter / Vision statement for Decentraland’s future
I have seen Decentraland grow from a brilliant idea and evolutionary platform development, to a rich ecosystem of visitors and creators.
I can see it growing in traffic and experiential quality far into the future.
To do this we need to put the right attractions and incentives into the environment for creators to make engaging, innovative and improving experiences for visitors to want to return, to stay, to bring their friends and social networks. This is truly a need for collaboration, great communication, alignment, and mutual support between the DAO, Creators, and the Foundation. Where I see the DAO playing strongly in this mix is to be very engaged with the Creators - listen to their needs, understand what brings and retains visitors, and bring both support and appropriate resources to those things that will build long term value and traffic.
I think that the DAO and its leadership could have its ears closer to the ground of what the strengths and opportunities of the world and its community are and could be.

Evidence of expertise in the Decentraland ecosystem
• Served as a retained consultant by the founders (2017-2019) for my previous experience in virtual worlds and to help with community and district development.
• Provided days of online user support to the community during the terraforming event.
• Purchased land in the original auction and contributed to 9 districts.
• Founded the Decentraland Conference Center and built it out in time to be live and highly functional on day one of the public opening of Decentraland in 2020
• Hosted over 20 conferences and 10 Film festivals, bringing in new, external traffic to Decentraland
• Hosted twice-weekly dance and social parties with live DJ in the Unity Café since 2020
• Hosted monthly 7-hour Music festivals in the Unity Café since 2021
• Hosted creator (vendor) events both in the conference center and the “Vendor Row” in the VRS district, enabling DCL creators to show their wares.
• Created numerous scenes in Decentraland including 44 in the Conference Center and 6 in the VRS district
• This creative work includes design, model creation or enhancement, and software development.
• Provided consultative help to several companies formed to provide services in Decentraland.
• Have had over 375,000 visits to scenes I have created since I started monitoring them in July of 2020
• Have assisted many other creators to structure their content into functional scenes and get them deployed.
• Have developed many functional code modules to support advanced interactive behavior in scenes, and have collaboratively made those available to other Creators.
• Provided documentation for Creators - created early documentation for Creators in the original DCL doc Wiki, taught a Decentraland University course in scene building, created documentation for district leaders to do DCL land management, and created documentation for the conversion of SDK6 scenes to SDK7.
• Have submitted dozens of issues to the Decentraland code repositories, of which nearly all have been accepted and resolved
• Authored an appeal to the community for improving the culture of communication in the DAO
https://decentraland.org/governance/proposal/?id=4da45e6e-0ad6-41d8-976a-948fec72a699
• Have voted on about 60 proposals in the DAO, with 83% alignment with the community
• Have initiated a monthly series of successful Chess tournaments in Decentraland, with cash prizes and enthusiastic spectators.

I am changing my working arrangements to have more time available for Decentraland work starting Jan 1 2025.

I hope to be able to contribute significant value to the community through serving on this council

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What about your role as DistrictX leadership and refusal to comment on its failure to honor its comitnent to contributors?

What about the fact that 60 props is insignificant number and many, if not most, of the ones you voted on were questionable grants the community didnt want and resulted in nothing if substance comingvfrom the funds used?

I didn’t comment in public because I had withdrawn from leadership of that district early on to focus on the Conference Center, and therefore really had nothing to add, and because conversations about that district have always brought personal attacks.

I have not voted on most proposals because I have a lot of VP and wanted to let the community decide on most things. Where I have voted it has been largely (83%) aligned with the community.

If you were to look at DistrictX’s “community alignment” percentage, it would also be very high. But it is high because that VP was used to force through unpopular things. If you were to vote only on things RobL has decided to push through, you could easily achieve a high “community alignment” score without having your votes align with the community’s sentiment.

Given how easy it would be to have a misleading percentage, I do not believe that community alignment is a statistic one should lean into when presenting their resume.

So you are not, and never were, one of the signers of that district’s multi-sig wallet?

Yes or no, your resume and knowledge were used to garner trust and support in the future of DistrictX and once the work was needed to be done you “stepped down” though I have never seen any announcement of any kind in any place publically available to support that statement, and I’ve spent more time reading about DistrictX then anyone.

It seems like you have many commitments across DCL, Aetheria, Conference Center, another half dozen districts you are (or were) leadership on)

Do you think you have time to execute as a member of this council properly? Would Aetheria contributors and deed holders who can’t use their VP, despite past promises, agree with you?

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Thanks for the clarifying questions, Jar0d.

I was part of the DistrictX team for a short period of time, at the suggestion of Decentraland because of my role as a district support consultant to DCL, and because forming a DistrictX in the wake of Decentraland rejecting the leadership and pornographic direction of the original “Red Light District” made formation of the pivoted district challenging. During that time, which began before the district transfer agreements were issued by Decentraland, I was an advocate for clearly defining benefits for district contributors, and that can be seen in the original startup plan for District X, That plan was approved by its contributors and that occurred before Decentraland issued the land transfer agreements.

A bit of additional history… although District X formally requested Decentraland to use a form of land transfer agreement that was specific about contributors’ status, Decentraland chose not to do so, and instead required district leaders to sign a transfer agreement that was focused on liability indemnification and did not define any rights, ownership or role for contributors nor create any specific obligations of districts to the contributors. Personally, I surmise that this was because Decentraland was being careful to steer clear of Mana being describable as an investment/security. The form of this transfer agreement came as a surprise to many district leaders, and was presented after district startup plans had been approved by contributors, including the District X startup plan. This has thrown a lot of confusion into the process, for sure.

I resigned from the District X team about 6 years ago, shortly after the transfer agreements were received, in 2019 as I recall, in part because I didn’t feel I could any longer influence its direction, and in part because I wanted to devote the limited time I had then to the Conference Center, VRS and Aetheria districts.

Hence, I am not a spokesperson for District X.

My memory is that my resignation was communicated in the District X Discord server at that time, and it was communicated formally to Decentraland.

District Multisig wallet signers are generally confidential for security and safety reasons. I have not participated in the District X wallet transactions since I resigned, and another account was put on the wallet so that I would not be needed.

As to Aetheria. Few contributors claimed their DEEDS, probably for a combination of reasons – few actually were scene builders, and the gas fee for claiming DEEDS has been quite high much of the time. So that tokenization plan didn’t work great and certainly would not have created good voting arrangements in the district. This is why the new tokenization plan was put in place (ALOR tokens, documented on the Aetheria.io website). These will be airdropped to DEED holders, or original contributors, for every parcel in Aetheria. The process of making this work (map design, automation, efficiency of airdrop costs that will be borne by the district, etc.) has taken some time (all our labor in Aetheria has been volunteer). AlonzoC is finalizing the ALOR tech, and estimates completion in 2025, perhaps Q1. There has not been a decision about how the Aetheria DAO will function exactly, but there is a commitment to create it, probably using Snapshot, once the ALORs are live.

As to the availability of my time… If I am elected to serve in this role, I will be able to devote the time needed, as I am leaving my current job as of 1/1/2025, enabling me to devote more time to Decentraland matters.

I currently have no further questions about your own involvement; this answer satisfies most Carl-related frustrations around DistrictX over the last 2 years.

I do wonder what you think about DCL’s decisions to change district ownership after contributors had already contributed and if it could potentially be a legal pitfall for the platform in the future.

I also wonder if you have any thoughts on why DCL didn’t just do what it did with other failed districts and refund contributors and disband districtX, given its complete failure to live up to the idea contributors had intended to be a part of.

Those are probably questions for another thread, though.

Thanks, Jar0d. Yeah let’s have a voice chat sometime. I do have thoughts on those questions and perhaps some historical details of interest. We could connect by Discord voice or such. I am in Central time.

Is there an explanation for staying so distant from any conversations around the progress of Decentraland’s largest district, Aetheria, which lists you as part of its board of directors?

I even tried to offer help in building Fractus, and was ignored entirely. Not even given the courtesy of a “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Can we expect more transparent communications with you as a member of the DAO council?

My communications about news and progress in Aetheria has been in the Aetheria discord server, in published plans, and via the Aetheria website.

Not sure what Fractus offer you made to whom where when. I am not finding that you and I have ever communicated via Discord DM or in either of the Aetheria discord servers, but maybe i am missing something.

Yes, re council comms transparency, definitely

I have owned deeds in Aetheria since 2021 and am quite familiar with the progress that has been made. Or should I say, the lack thereof.

Have you tried the #fractus channel? Or #general? When is the last time you yourself actually provided an update on Aetheria in the Discord server, Carl?

The last announcement in that Discord server was in January 2023, nearly 2 years ago.

Alonzo goes through cycles of reassuring us that the procedure to distribute our VP is right around the corner, and then disappearing for a while and blowing past promised deadlines.

Just because you never give me the courtesy of a response when I ask questions and tag you in your own Discord server doesn’t mean “You and I have never communicated”

It means the attempts at communication have been very one-sided, and that’s what I’m asking you to provide reasoning for.

Why should someone like me, who feels that you have shown very little interest in my mere existence as a resident of your district, trust you to play a role in the direction of our DAO?

And also, how convenient that ALOR will STILL not be done by January 2nd, ensuring that not a single person in Aetheria who has been completely screwed over by the lack of VP ownership, can use any of the VP they SHOULD have as land owners, and vote against you.

You don’t find that in any way corrupt-looking?

When will Aetherians be able to vote for new board members? Are you going to ignore the term limits we set for this board as well, and deny us a way to vote you out like is the case in Aetheria?

I have so many questions…

Thanks, Unknower, for asking

I went back and did find your July 2023 offer to build and operate Fractus.

I do now remember the question, but not who had asked it. I recall seeing the “build and operate” wording, and remember feeling unsure how that would work, or that I could approve that without a community evaluation process for which we didn’t yet have a mechanism.

I apologize that I didn’t comment at that time but really didn’t know what to say. I considered asking for more info about your portfolio but I realized that would be implying that a decision would be made e.g. by me. Ultimately my attention went to other demands (especially migrating scores of scenes I am responsible for from sdk6 to sdk7 and documenting that process for the community). And then when the thread turned negative, I didn’t feel like wading in to correct some mischaracterizations.

I have always viewed Aetheria as structured differently than say the Conference Center which I proposed and actively operate. I have always seen Aetheria as a decentralized community where people have the ability to create, or not, as they please and am surprised when some folks expect centralized action. It will become even more decentralized with the ALOR tokens, so we have not been inclined to centralize things like the Fractus development until that is sorted out. Tech dev of the tokenization isn’t in my wheelhouse.
I imagine that things will evolve more quickly once there is a community DAO.

Curious to see what you built on the Aetheria land allocated for your private use via DEEDs. If there is something, do share the coordinates.

Thanks again for the questions.

Disclaimer: on-the-need-for-professional-level-interviews-of-the-council-postulants

From a member who claims to be actively involved in the community, I would expect intimate knowledge of its principle actors.

Personal conversations with this applicant revealed a surprising lack of awareness in this domain.


From a mentor with a lot of years of experience, I would expect a certain degree of confidence in one’s own expertise.

The capability of using AI to find answers to questions is commendable, but it truly is not the mark of someone who already possesses the expertise.


From a community leader who has first-hand experienced the need to hold events in the client 1.0 as they would not function in the client 2.0, I would expect a strong response against the deployment into production of the latter, as it is clearly an unfinished product.

The postulant has simply joined the crowd of users who have tacitly accepted the purely un-businesslike practice of the DCL Foundation.


I think “build and operate” is not only a misquote but ignores an entire “OR” at the end of that statement.

If I create Fractus and run it OR create some turn-key system for the community to schedule and run their own events, would you be in support of that?

I just wanted the opportunity to build a community music venue that utilized my grant project. I posted my work in the message. I built an open source real-time content management system and analytics platform for DCL and got a grant from the DAO for it. My demo for it has been hosted in Aetheria at 104,60 for over a year. My first event in Aetheria was at my first build at 100,154 back in 2022, I still have the NEAT from it: https://opensea.io/assets/matic/0x5b213f167a79cbf4867b5cc8909748a6e8df4c30/63315655265588965732085039586627892603688710282921058704152042116817869543671

We do agree on one thing so far, and that’s this. Aetheria doesn’t have the means to collect community consensus on anything. For over 3 years now since I’ve been a resident, we have had no way to vote on anything related to Aetheria. And to make matters worse, we can’t even vote on anything related to Decentraland itself either because we don’t get the VP for our land.

If I didn’t mention it already, the founding documents state that the board of directors of Aetheria are supposed to be voted on by the Aetheria DAO 4 years after the ratification of the district. What is the reason we’re heading into year 6 without any means of voting still? Is that because of “decentralization” too?

This is going to sound incredibly cynical, but what I’m hearing is this… To keep things “decentralized”, you shrugged your shoulders when 4 years passed with no voting system, because it was “outside your wheelhouse”, yet you conveniently kept power in the board.

And yet when an active community member offers to build something for free because NO progress is being made, all of a sudden you’re completely powerless! Can’t do anything without the DAO that you’re doing nothing to create. And yet somehow someone posted something on the land dedicated to Fractus…


ooh what’s that say? by Carl Fravel? But you don’t have any power to decide what gets deployed there. And Aetheria has no DAO to decide what gets posted there in a decentralized manner. So how did it get there?

No need to answer, I get it. You didn’t know me, so I didn’t get the hook up. And you weren’t going to get to know me, because you assumed I just wanted something from you with nothing in return. I’m not an idiot, I understand how people operate.

I don’t think that kind of nepotism belongs in a “decentralized” council though. Aetheria is what, 1/10th of Decentraland? You already have the power to make 1/10th of Decentraland better and in the three years I’ve been here you have not, and when pressed you say it’s been out of your wheelhouse. Why should we give you 1/5th control of the DAO treasury too? Why is this in your wheelhouse?

My words will probably fall on deaf ears and I will never have the VP to make a difference but at least I can say I called out the BS when I saw it.

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