Seeking ConsenSys | BanklessDAO Weekly Rollup

Catch Up With What Happened This Week in BanklessDAO

Oct 2

Dear Bankless Nation, 🏴

Starting next week, we will be onboarding a cohort of contributors from ConsenSys, the company behind crypto’s most-popular wallet MetaMask, the news website Decrypt, and Ethereum infrastructure provider Infura. The ConsenSys staff will join BanklessDAO over the next three months to get a better understanding of the DAO ecosystem and to explore DAO governance in action. We can look forward to onboarding over 50 talented contributors to our guilds and projects over the coming weeks.

Will this influx of talent and contributors be good for the DAO? We explore some of the questions raised in the Forum proposal in our editorial this week, but the main takeaway is that this is an opportunity to stress test our operations and systems, and for ConsenSys, its contributors, and BanklessDAO to learn something along the way.

This week we also saw Gnosis’s SAFE token airdropped into many of the DAO’s multisigs. This generated lively discussion on how we should choose delegates to vote on behalf of our collective interests and what active governance looks like in other protocols and dApps, so stay tuned for an editorial in the coming weeks.

The DAOlationships Guild has concluded the partnership with ThriveCoin, and bDAO members are now able to claim THRIVE tokens based on their contributions, but rest assured you don’t need THRIVE tokens to thrive at BanklessDAO.

Be sure to check out Liquidiot’s short YouTube video breaking down last week’s Rollup, get updated on the GM Bus, and dig into all the amazing content the DAO created this week. Sorry for the late ship; Kali has been visiting. Take care friends, and more importantly, take care of one another.

Contributors: angelspeaks, anointingthompson1.eth, olokoji, HAshBrown27, ijeblowrider, Deewon, WinVerse, Lucent1, Liquidiot, Elemental, teeLEROO, AustinFoss, Jake and Stake, siddhearta, Trewkat, Hiro Kennelly

This is an official newsletter of BanklessDAO. To unsubscribe, edit your settings.

🙏 Thanks to Our Sponsor

MetaMask Institutional

Today there are close to 5,000 official DAOs revolutionizing the structure of traditional organizations and giving ownership back to builders and creators.

However, new structures breed new challenges. In the spirit of web3, we seek to overcome these challenges together.

On November 3, join experts from MetaMask Institutional and the ConsenSys Cryptoeconomic Research team as they share best practices and lead breakout sessions around core DAO ops problem areas including governance, treasury management, payments, community engagement and development.

Across these rooms expect to discuss the following topics: • The ‘hierarchy of needs’ around treasury management • Creating an investment policy statement for your DAO • What is decentralized identity (DID) and how to erect DID systems with your DAO • DAO governance and legal ramifications • DAO tokenomics • Popular web2 and web3 DAO tools

👉 Register now

🗓 Weekly Recap

Community Highlights

📺 Weekly Rollup Recap With Liquidiot

This week, we are honored to introduce a new section where bDAO’s very own master of the mic, Liquidiot (with brilliant assists from WinVerse), recaps the prior issue of Weekly Rollup into a five-minute video. It brings the Rollup to life in such a fun way, you won’t want to miss this!

Watch last week’s clip on the bDAO YouTube channel and as Liquidiot says, like that smash button!

🚀 BankessDAO x Rocket Pool AMA Session

BanklessDAO is hosting an AMA with Rocket Pool on Tuesday, October 3 at 23:00 UTC. Rocket Pool is a decentralized ETH staking protocol that enables users to participate in network validation with only 16 ETH (rather than 32) and also has a liquid derivative token. To learn more about Rocket Pool, please check out Jake and Stake’s article from the DeFi Download, and we’ll see you at the AMA!

BanklessDAO 🏴 @banklessDAO

🏴 x 🚀 ☁️

🌐 Global Events

Ghana Crypto & DeFi Summit 2022 is a two-day DeFi conference that will take place in Accra, Ghana, from November 3-4, 2022. BanklessDAO and Bankless Africa are pleased to be media sponsors of this event.

The main goal of this initiative is to create a common platform for all stakeholders, including the government and other institutions in and around Africa, to discuss ways in which blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and distributed financial protocols can help in building Africa's future economy.

The summit, supported by Uniswap Grants, explores the limitless possibilities of blockchain technology and its applications in finance, government, social good, and other sectors.

Follow DeFi Africa on Twitter for more information, and join the bDAO folks in the GCD Telegram group.

☀️ GM Bus Spreads the Positivity

BanklessDAO is the official sponsor and media partner of the GM Bus and Green Pill Trailer project. The GM Bus will drive across the United States, stopping at different locations (schools, events, conferences) with the goal to educate, inform, and evolve the crypto narrative.

Web3 is hard for newbies to understand. Scams and shitcoins are everywhere. Anons talk about the mystical metaverse on Twitter, but it’s hard to grasp these things IRL. So folks at GM Bus have decided to travel the road, meet people in different cities and raise awareness about the regenerative ethos of decentralization and the power of open-source ecosystems. The GM Bus will be at the following locations in October:

SmartCon 2022 in NY NYC, organized by Chainlink.
Cactus Hackalong, Arizona State University Campus in Tempe AZ.
Desert Dweller Gathering, in Taos, New Mexico.

You can follow the progress of the GM Bus across America and join in the vibes on Twitter.

#️⃣ WeAreDAO

Bankless IMN 🦇🔊🏴 @IMNbankless

#WeAreDAO is honored to present a contributor of powerful female energy. Remember that breath-taking, award-winning essay on "The Rise of DAO Culture"? Yeah, that was hers. She is also a language champion, a role holder, and a super helpful and friendly person. @MissHaveNoIdea ❤️

This week, McEal takes the stand. Congratulations, McEal, on your Level 2 nomination — and thanks for fitting Kat’s Roll Call into your busy schedule!

What is your favourite DeFi protocol?
Uniswap.
What is your favourite ice-cream flavour?
Strawberry and chocolate [Editor’s note: this is more than one flavour, but I’ll allow it!].
Which of the NFTs that you own is your favourite?
Epic Eagles #5703

Where would you love to travel to?
Greece, Norway
What did you aspire to before you discovered crypto, and has that changed at all?
F1 race car driver, no change — the dream is still on.

That’s it — short and sweet! If you would like to be featured in Kat’s Roll Call, answer the questions via this form, and keep consuming the Weekly Rollup goodness.

Fresh Content

🎙 BanklessDAO Podcasts

Get Involved

🥊 Fight Club x Global Coin Research Partnership

Fight Club, bDAO’s own venture subDAO, and its deal partner, Global Coin Research (GCR), is offering FC and bDAO members complimentary six-month GCR Gold memberships. Gold membership enables people to join the GCR Discord and participate in VC rounds. If you are interested, please fill out the application form.

🙋🏽 New Joiners Session #4

Do you wish to spend some time with seasoned BanklessDAO contributors to discuss your DAO experience and receive advice? This New Joiners Session may just be what you are looking for … a pleasant chat with no bots allowed. Join us on October 3 at 13:45 UTC to discover more about bDAO, connect with fellow newbies on the Bankless journey, and meet others who may serve as mentors on your path to DAO life. To get plugged in and feel the BanklessDAO vibes, RSVP via this sesh event and come have fun.

💻 AMA Recording — talentDAO

If you missed the AMA with talentDAO, you can watch the session on YouTube to get caught up with everything discussed. Learn how talentDAO uses science to fix DAOs and DAOs to fix science in order for us to experience a true decentralized future of work.

Learning Opportunities

🌈 LEVEL UP Session — Premiere Pro

Do you want to learn more about some of the media tools used in the web2 and web3 space? If so, join anointingthompson1.eth on Sunday, October 2 at 18:00 UTC in the AV Guild’s upstage voice channel. The session will help you LEVEL UP your color grading game with Premiere Pro. To set a reminder, RSVP to the event.

🧩 How to Discord Session

Are you feeling overwhelmed or frustrated navigating Discord? Learn how to get the most out of Discord and get answers to your questions at this ‘How to’ session. Join Ernest-of-Gaia on Tuesday, October 4 at 13:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel. To set a reminder, RSVP to the event.

🧑‍🎓 Knowledge Session: HODL and Staking

This is a brand new knowledge session about HODL and Staking brought to you by the Education Guild to help you in your journey into the DeFi world. Join Aloy, Teafeh, and Fine on Wednesday, October 5 at 13:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel. To set a reminder, RSVP to the event.

👁️‍🗨️ How to Etherscan Session

Etherscan is a block explorer and analytics platform that enables you to access details on any Ethereum blockchain transactions that are pending or confirmed. Do you want to know how to track the BANK and other tokens in your wallet? Join Ernest-of-Gaia on Thursday, October 6 at 13:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel to learn about this powerful tool. To set a reminder, RSVP to the event.

🎁 DAOlationships CharmVerse Demo

CharmVerse is an all-in-one DAO operations platform handling docs, tasks, bounties, proposals, and more. Join us for a demo walkthrough of CharmVerse on Monday, September 5 at 18:30 UTC in the watercooler voice channel. To set a reminder, RSVP to the event.

🙏 Sponsor: MetaMask Institutional → The DeFi Wallet and Web3 Gateway for Organizations

Seeking ConsenSys

Proposals on the BanklessDAO Forum provide a public space for conversation and debate about issues brought in front of our community. Often, the subjects of proposals serve as a proxy for larger topics that float at higher levels but are not publicly discussed. It’s a great place to hear from numerous voices in the DAO that we don’t encounter during the course of an average week.

This Monday October 3, expect a lot of new members to join the DAO, because ConsenSys is here! Wait, let’s rewind for a moment…

A recent proposal to onboard a cohort from ConsenSys drew a string of comments from the community. In the spirit of capturing some of these comments and diverse views, Elemental hosted a roundtable of Newsletter team members to tease out some of the main issues that were raised. Minor edits have been made to the conversation to adapt it for the Rollup.

The proposal suggests that 50 employees of ConsenSys join bDAO as contributors for three months. Unlike other proposals that have generated heavy commentary, this one does not actually need consensus from bDAO; 50 people from one organization are able to join the DAO whenever they want.

ConsenSys staff will be joining in an effort to better understand and contribute to the broader Ethereum ecosystem, particularly DAOs. ConsenSys has hinted at transitioning their current corporate structure to a more DAO-like model. BanklessDAO will benefit from the expertise and experience of these contributors over the next three months.

What Concerns Were Raised?

One concern would be that onboarding outsiders, and potential competitors, exposes our DAO’s proprietary information. However, this is not the case; the DAO is already highly transparent as part of our decentralization ethos.

Anyone can scrape our public data; all information is open to a single holder of a guest pass. (AustinFoss)

The duration of the DAO work period is three months, and after that ConsenSys employees are no longer obligated to remain, although they may choose to do so. A mass departure risks creating a vacuum.

The concern is that ConsenSys employees are involved in projects and various aspects of the DAO and then leave. That's a big disconnect when a key contributor disappears. (Elemental)

Should we expect contributors from ConsenSys to take on pivotal roles in projects? It’s certainly a double-edged sword. If they do take on a larger responsibility, they may want to continue to do the important work. On the other hand, they always have the ability to leave, creating a vacuum. Still, this risk exists regardless of where the contributor originates.

Projects should make a case-by-case evaluation of the contributors they onboard, determine their long-term interests, and create a mutually beneficial collaboration.

Contributor drop-off is a fact of life in DAOs, and the difficulty in retaining talent can be used as an opportunity to develop our strengths. If the project or idea cannot sustain itself and its workforce, then the project should be called into question. To mitigate the risk of lost project knowledge, we must make sure our documentation is comprehensive and current.

There were concerns raised about equity of compensation, and whether it is fair that the ConsenSys employees will initially be contributing during their paid working hours. It has subsequently been confirmed that “ConsenSys employees will not be receiving BANK for their contributions during this time”.

Roundtable Feedback Was Largely Positive

Much of the roundtable feedback was positive, inviting the presence of ConsenSys employees and their talent. The transparency from ConsenSys is appreciated. They could have joined, poked around, and told no one. The proposal is an opportunity for bDAO.

If ConsenSys can come in and figure out some ways to run DAOs better, I think that benefits the DAO ecosystem long term. (Hiro Kennelly)

This is a good time to get honest feedback too. As an uber-successful company, ConsenSys is in a unique position to give us actionable feedback.

Particularly in the onboarding process, I’d like to see documentation of what their expectations were, and then what the true experience was. (Trewkat)
We can see where it stresses the DAO, and use that data to make corrections in our operations. (Hiro Kennelly)

We’ll give the final words to Elemental, who has been working hard at amplifying the voices in our DAO through his work with the Making Bank Podcast.

If they bring some new ideas, new energy, and new skills that's fantastic; if they want to pick up shovels and start digging, I'm all for it. (Elemental)

As a result of the proposal, ConsenSys employees will find one to two projects that they are interested in working on and participate in their workstream. These include guilds, working groups, and other DAO funded projects.

ConsenSys employees will officially join BanklessDAO on October 3 and begin exploring different guilds by October 17. In mid-November, BanklessDAO and ConsenSys employees will convene to discuss the projects they’re collaborating on before the program concludes on January 9, 2023, at which time BanklessDAO and ConsenSys will share internal learnings with each other. And that’s when the real education begins.

🏛 Governance

Proposals in Discussion

🔐 SafeDAO Meta Governance Participation

As a part of the SafeDAO launch, BanklessDAO multisigs were airdropped around 78,600 SAFE tokens, which are vested over four years. This is a proposal to consolidate the voting power of the SAFE tokens through delegation to BanklessDAO (DAOplomats Working Group) to participate in SAFE governance. This action will increase our outreach to different communities and further our initiative to establish BanklessDAO as a critical player in DAO governance.

📫 GSE Deliverables (Cohort-1)

The GSE group was elected to solve the DAO’s greatest pain points. Manual and Rotorless focused on creating a risk framework and an extensive financial report. AAJ and Saul focused on creating a new compensation framework. 0xJustice.eth focused on the Constitution, the bDIP process, and what a new (sustainable) BanklessDAO 2.0 model might look like. All five GSEs weighed in on each other’s work. This Forum post summarizes the GSE group’s findings, deliverables, and recommendations.

🦦 bDAO Season Role Holder Badges (Otterspace Pilot)

This is a pilot proposal to generate seasonal badges for BanklessDAO role holders using the Otterspace protocol. This would include all Guild Coordinators and Project Champions who would then be permitted to issue other role badges required within their groups. Doing so will make our org structure visible on chain, create a more holistic representation of membership, create data for future reputations systems, and aid the community in communication. The proposal is a low-risk way to increase our resiliency, transparency, and reputation mechanics.