After returning from Lisbon, I found myself wanting to articulate my thoughts in a clear and concise manner. I abstained from sharing my own personal opinions during the summit, as I felt like I did not have all the information necessary to make informed statements while we were actively working. Each day my own biases and convictions were challenged and adjusted. My biggest fear has been relaying inaccurate information. Now that we’ve returned, I’ve waited to provide my personal opinion, as I wanted each user to read carefully and formulate their own opinion independent from any of our biases. Please do your own research, and I invite you to present your concerns to me here, or privately in DM’s as you feel comfortable.
In preparation for the summit, I spent a week going through every grant ever approved through the Decentraland DAO. I sorted them chronologically, and itemized how much each grant recipient has accepted from the DAO throughout the years (And also found some users accepted multiple grants from separate wallets, making it challenging to determine how much money specific projects have actually received). I also determined whether each grant could still be used in DCL today using the guiding question: “Can I go see or use this project in world right now?”
The results were staggering.
Identical projects had been funded over and over again. Grantees were handed blistering amounts of money; grants were paid out that took 5 minutes of research to know they had pocketed the funds instead of completing the grant.
Bottom line: This ain’t it.
We’re wasting not only money, but the most precious commodity there is: time. In my opinion we need to give the resources to qualified creators and let them do what they do best, build.
During the talks in Lisbon I at times disagreed with my group, as I felt that the direction some wanted to take this new Regenesis felt more centralized. It caused me to examine the word “Decentralized”, which is overused. We want a decentralized Discord and a decentralized forum and a decentralized everything… but in reality, the protocol is decentralized, the layers built on top are not. I believe it is crucial to understand where true decentralization begins and ends. Who takes the blame for failed grants? Who decides whether a grant is successful or fails? Who ensures that once we invest money into a grant, it won’t vaporize when the funds run out? The more I asked myself these questions, the more I supported having one person whom we can hold accountable for grants in the DAO. I especially liked that we can hire/fire based on this success, without requiring consensus from the community (Assuming that capable and fair council members are put into power) . In this manner, grants will no longer require the lobbying of community members, however it will require that we have capable individuals who have the best interest of Decentraland elected.
I see this as the most efficient way to get funding into the hands of builders who want to build. It prevents chaotic voting through whales with questionable VP accumulation. It allows projects to forecast expenditures far out into the future. It protects this DAO against future bad actors wishing to extract value.
I have seen far too many friends join Decentraland, navigate the social scene, discover the DAO, invest heavily in the governance process, only to leave, not just the DAO, but Decentraland because of the drama, toxicity, corruption and overall negative experience they encounter. I’ve had countless DM’s of people asking for my vote on their proposals that will give them monetary gain. I’m ready to let a governing body decide where the funds go, so that my friends don’t have to keep asking their friends for their vote. It has brought out an ugliness in people.
Likes vs Dislikes:
I like that people will no longer need to lobby/slide into our DM’s asking for our votes.
I like that we will have a single person we can hire/fire if they underperform
I like that projects will stay funded and no gaps in productivity will occur
I like that our focus can now be on building
I like that our founders were a part of this process (and genuinely wanted my feedback)
I don’t like the risk of putting unaccountable people into the council.
I don’t like that the person in charge of the operation arm will have a BIG job (BIG stress!)
I don’t like the risk of losing a community voice (MUST have community representation IMHO)
I don’t like that we did not address the climate and culture of the DAO Discord during the summit
I don’t like the temporary uncertainty this will cause
Ultimately, the success of this DAO will depend on people, not protocol . With the right people in the right positions, we can go far. The past 3 years has been an expensive experiment. We’ve learned. We’ve lost. And now it is time to realign our ship and move FORWARD.
~Canessa