Address: morrismustang.eth
Short Bio:
Hi! My name is Avi but most people around here call me Morris. Came to Decentraland having been in the crypto space since 2016. Im a big fan of buffalo chicken wraps and I like to program stuff.
Relevant Skills:
Web3/solidity developer, web2 full stack developer, DCL sdk developer, data hoarder, grant beneficiary
My involvement in Decentraland:
Joined the Decentraland community at the beginning of January 2021. The open source nature of the project allowed me to jump in and start participating in my own way, no permission needed. Set out to become a data provider in the Metaverse, making use of the data streams from Decentraland to produce meaning analytics for different organizations in the community.
When the new snapshot voting space for the DAO was established, I realized there were ways beyond programming that I could contribute to Decentraland. I am an active participant in the DAO discussions in discord and on the forum.
I am developer with Atlas Corporation, a web3 development group started within Decentraland. Our team works closely with many different groups around Decentraland to provide infrastructure, smart contract development, and analytics.
Reasons for wanting to be a delegate:
I am a big believer in voter power delegation and the idea of liquid democracy. This drove me to submit the original proposal to bring delegation to the Decentraland DAO. Immediately following its implementation, I posted about being a candidate for delegation and was asked this same question. I had trouble answering this question at the time, because I still didn’t understand what the DAO really was, what it could do, or how power it can be. I just knew that I was willing to put in the time, and make DAO participation part of my normal routine.
Over the last 8 months, my reasons for wanting to be a delegate have become clearer to me. First and foremost, I live and breathe Decentralization above all else. This acts as a guiding light in my decision making. Delegation, by its very nature, while seemingly an act of centralization, allows for the decentralized pooling of voting power based on trust, and provides a force to equate the masses voting power with that of the powerful few who possess consolidated voting power.
Another foundational value that guides my decision making is the protection of the assets of Decentraland, across the whole stack. This means maintaining the integrity of the smart contracts that govern land and estates, names, wearables, and how they trade within the platform. Making sure Decentraland remains true to its open source nature is of vital importance to me.
Regardless of your delegate selection, I encourage you to participate in the delegation process if you are not an active participant in the DAO. Unlock the VP and allow for more meaningful outcomes for the Decentraland community.
5 year vision:
Its hard to imagine where we will be in 5 years as that seems to be an eternity in this space. I’d like to see many independent development teams form and start working on DAO funded projects, further moving Decentraland towards decentralized development. With that, I would love to see the DAO have a functional delegation program, and possibly introduce categorical delegation to elevate experts in their respective fields.
I predict we will see multiple clients introduced, free and paid, 2d and VR. Having multiple clients connect to the same content servers will begin to highlight the protocol nature of Decentraland rather than looking at it like a centralized game controlled by one group. Options are good and healthy, and ideally drive forward innovation.
Decentraland will stand alone in the next 5 years as 100s of centralized “Metaverses” are realized. Slow and steady wins the race.
Issues in the next 24 months:
Over the next 24 months, I expect to see a few issues come to light, specifically mana tokenomics, land contract integrity, copyright infringements, adult content, and gambling. The Mana tokenomics, a deflationary currency, is at odds with the use case. Its predictable that with mana/USD movements, DCL citizens immediately call for the repricing of goods and services. As we travel further down this path, we need to add stability to our ecosystem. Something will need to be done to address this issue so that we don’t get bogged down in repricing at every corner. We should be building, not retracing our steps constantly. I have some suggestions here but don’t want to drift to far down that path in this forum.
The second issue we will face repeatedly over the next 24 months is changing the land contract, either for lost land or to expand the map. With a fixed number of parcels and rising market, there will be calls from current or newer DCL citizens who did not purchase land early to add parcels in the name of fairness and equality. We will also be faced with the lost land discussion a few times. We need to hold strong. Social pressure to change can be overwhelming but we are here because we believe in blockchain and immutability. We cannot sacrifice all we have worked towards.
Third issue we will bump into is how decentralization is at odds with copyright infringements. Any scene owner can import any content, regardless of who owns it. Traditional brands typically have the legal rails to deal with this issue. Decentralizing the servers makes the process of a DMCA takedown extremely complicated if not impossible. While I am in favor of decentralization and all the disruption it brings, such systems will be in the spotlight over the next 24 months as traditional brands begin entering the space.
Not much adult content on the platform currently and you have to know where to look to find it. As more people join Decentraland, that niche will grow larger. Decentraland does not have any real way, nor should it, to verify age. Coupled with the decentralization of the servers, adult content on the Decentraland platform could pose a problem in meeting the laws of all the countries in which these servers are accessible. Regardless of Terms of Service on the use of the client and or the servers, this will still be an issue that needs to be confronted.
The last issue for Decentraland will be gambling and how it meets global regulation. With my experience over the past year, I can assure you that more gaming is coming to the Metaverse. Reegulators haven’t done much on this front and the organization’s in Decentraland are adapting ahead of any issues, but I could see this entering the news cycle, with the citizens of DCL having to defend that Decentraland does not exist solely for gambling.
