After hearing the community sentiment, key stakeholders, and the Core Units regarding how we can mitigate toxic lobbying and how the DAO can ensure a higher-quality investment in projects, the Grant Support Squad has gathered a few ideas that we’d like to bring to discussion to hear your thoughts:
A) Grants Selection Committee: This committee, selected by the community for a set duration, will be responsible for reviewing and selecting Grant applications, and their work would be remunerated.
Following the framework of creating the Revocations Committee and the DAO Committee, we would establish the Grants Selection Committee (GSC). The GSC’s primary role is to decide which projects receive funding, considering factors like feasibility, team experience, contribution to the DAO, and impact. The committee should be diverse and qualified, comprising community members with expertise in areas like SDK late stable version, blockchain, marketing, finance, 3D modeling, governance and content curation. Additional desirable qualifications include previous grantee experience, involvement in the DAO, and participation in governance proposals.
Pros:
- Mitigate the passing of grants that are not technically feasible or that do not comply with its category impact metrics
- This Committee would aim to ensure a more structured, professional, and efficient evaluation process for grants in Decentraland, involving specific knowledge in decision-making and ensuring that proposals are reviewed and aligned with the DAO objectives.
- Mitigate whale-passing
Cons:
- Will have a cost to the DAO, to be defined if this option is chosen.
- Selection will be based on community voting (hiring process), and there is a risk of whale-passing the members who are selected.
B) Qualified Voting: Generate a verification -based on a criteria to be defined- of community members qualified to vote on grant proposals.
Pros:
- The community will have more context of the prospect grant to vote, mitigating the passing of grants that are not feasible or that do not comply with their category impact metrics.
- There is no cost to the DAO for people who engage in voting for grants.
Cons:
- There is no framework designed yet for this type of contribution, so implementation might take longer than other options.
- A scoring system to measure how much weight voters have will be needed.
C) Grant Feasibility Analysts: a group of people selected by the community for a set duration, will make a report on the prospect grants proposal page on its technical feasibility, compliance on impact metrics under their category, and then the community would vote as it is now.
For implementing this option, the prospect Grant analyzers need to consider factors like feasibility, experience, remuneration, contribution to the DAO, and expected impact. The members should be diverse and qualified, comprising community members with expertise in areas like SDK late stable version, blockchain, marketing, finance, 3D modeling, governance and content curation.
Pros:
- The community will have more context of the prospect grant to vote, mitigating the passing of grants that are not feasible or that do not comply with their category impact metrics.
- We would nurture an economy of DAO contributors by remunerating their work
Cons:
- Will have a cost on the DAO
- There is no framework designed yet for this type of contribution, so implementation might take longer than other options.
- This won’t mitigate whale-passing grants.
D) Grant Support Squad Analysis: The Grant Support Squad will make a report on the prospect grants proposal page on its technical feasibility, compliance on impact metrics under their category, and then the community would vote as it is now. To implement this option, we should amplify the capacity of a squad.
Pros:
- Experience in Decentraland to bring community members in the analysis depending on what’s needed to make the best assessment possible.
- Implementation would be faster than others.
- The community will have more context of the prospect grant to vote, mitigating the passing of grants that do not comply with their category impact metrics.
Cons:
- Centralization of grants selection and monitoring.
- GSS budget will be increased based on the needed capacity.
- This won’t mitigate whale-passing grants.
The Grant Support Squad along with other Core Units will work on a Governance Proposal to move forward towards the selected idea, to design the framework which might include a pause in the grants program for its implementation. It will be iterated and shaped along the governance steps with community input.