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Clarifying the Bankless Brand | BanklessDAO Weekly Rollup

Catch Up With What Happened This Week in BanklessDAO

Jan 6

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Dear Bankless Nation 🏴,

Happy New Year! It's delightful to be back together after the holiday season. We hope you enjoyed a restful break and are ready to dive into the excitement the new year and season brings.

Circle the date on your calendars — our season launch is just around the corner, happening next week Friday the 16th of this month. With another 16 weeks of action-packed events ahead, let's gear up to make this season and the entire year remarkable for our community.

This season promises to be loaded with feats and achievements, as evidenced by the launch of Fight Club's monthly newsletter! It’s sure going to be very insightful so keep those eyes peeled for updates!

In the spirit of new beginnings, the DAOlationships Guild has undergone a vibrant transformation, now proudly known as OSPN (Open Source People’s Network). This dynamic community is on a mission to create valuable content for open-source projects as a public good.

Frens, as we eagerly anticipate the upcoming season, enjoy your weekends and stay refreshed.

Here's to a fantastic start to the year ahead!

Contributors: Boluwatife, Warrior, Paulito, Lucent, Vi-Fi, Tonytad, Kornekt, WinVerse

This is an official newsletter of BanklessDAO. Please subscribe and share to help us grow our audience as we fulfill our mission to build user-friendly crypto onramps.

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✍️ Share your thoughts in the recent Forum post from HQ

Proposals in Discussion

📖 Brand Clarity Between the DAO and HQ

David and Ryan, in collaboration with key contributors in BanklessDAO, have presented a proposal to address any brand confusion between BanklessHQ and BanklessDAO. This proposal aims to establish a clear path for brand clarity, with more details to be worked out once a consensus is reached. This proposal looks to:

Clearly outline the purposes of both BanklessDAO and BanklessHQ for better understanding.
Create a system that grants permission for the use of the brand and develop straightforward rules for BanklessDAO projects to adhere to, ensuring clarity and consistency.
Establish a legal entity within the DAO structure to hold intellectual property, providing a structured framework.

This proposal hopes to foster better understanding and cohesion between BanklessHQ and BanklessDAO.

Clarifying the Bankless Brand

Author: Boluwatife

The final Rollup issue for Season 9 mentioned that a proposal determining further relations between the bankless community was to be released. Well, guess what? The proposal is out! It was posted on Forum on December 22, 2023.

Today's editorial will provide in-depth analysis of the context, problems, and proposed solutions in the proposal, while also considering its implications on the bankless movement.

The Birth of BanklessDAO

To understand the brand confusion, we must revisit bDAO’s origins. BanklessDAO was proposed in 2021 by BanklessHQ founders — David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams — as an “experiment in growing a decentralized organization.” This was an intentional move to expand the bankless movement beyond its centralized media company roots.

Launching the DAO alongside the existing LLC created an ambiguous two-headed situation. BanklessHQ remained active as the legally recognized “head” handling trademarks and IP, but BanklessDAO took on a life of its own as a “headless” community. This divergence led to brand overlap.

Trouble Brewing: A Proposal Gone Awry

Tensions rose in November 2023 when a BanklessDAO proposal seeking funding from Arbitrum sparked backlash. Crypto Twitter conflated BanklessDAO with BanklessHQ, directing negative reactions at the media company. This event highlighted the urgent need to decouple the brands before further damage occurred.

Fortunately, both HQ and DAO leaders acknowledged the situation’s risks. After initial discussions, BanklessHQ issued this joint proposal to begin addressing brand confusion through greater transparency and formalization. The willingness to collaborate despite tensions shows a shared commitment to the bankless movement.

Key Solutions Proposed

The proposal contains four key steps to untangle the brands:

Clarify the distinct purposes of the DAO and HQ.
Create a permissioned system governing brand usage.
Establish a DAO legal entity to hold assets like IP.
Outline branding rules and responsibilities.

DAO Purpose vs. HQ Purpose

The first solution wisely differentiates the DAO and HQ by refocusing on their respective definitions. BanklessHQ represents the original centralized media company and brand owner. In contrast, BanklessDAO serves as a decentralized community managing its own projects and assets. Clarifying these divergent purposes forms a basis for dividing brand control.

Permissioned Brand Usage

The second solution addresses brand ownership. Since BanklessHQ holds the trademarks, an official system is proposed to permit usage of “Bankless” and “BanklessDAO.” This transparent structure would:

be on-chain for public visibility

grant the DAO authority over its own name
allow HQ to license the brand to aligned groups
enable revoking permission if issues emerge.

Notably, the system must balance permissionless innovation while maintaining brand integrity. Unrestricted usage could dilute or distort the movement, but excessive constraints risk stifling innovation. With these known constraints, careful implementation is key.

A DAO Legal Entity

The third solution establishes a formal legal structure for the DAO. Specifically, the proposal suggests creating a Panama Foundation. Benefits of this ownerless entity include legal recognition, enforceable bylaws, IP ownership, and defined roles mirroring on-chain governance.

Most critically, the legal entity grants BanklessDAO independence while formalizing its relationship with HQ. This provides stability for the DAO to hold assets, enter agreements, and interact with the traditional world.

Branding Rules and Responsibilities

The fourth solution asks teams and regions using the Bankless name to add disclaimers and accurately represent the brand. For example, projects could be required to explain the bankless movement’s background in the “About Bankless” sections. This transparency ensures participants understand the DAO's grassroots nature.

Additional rules may evolve as well, but starting with basic branding best practices institutes accountability and protects the brand.

Weighing the Trade-Offs

No solution is perfect, and this proposal contains inherent trade-offs to consider:

Centralization vs. Decentralization - More rules and constraints could limit permissionless innovation, but unfettered usage damages the brand. Where is the right balance?

Speed vs. Consensus - Moving quickly clarifies the brands sooner, but risks splintering the community if not built on collective input. However, a slower approach prolongs confusion. What pace makes sense?

Pragmatism vs. Purism - A legal entity gives the DAO legitimacy, but introduces centralized constructs. Is pragmatic legal recognition worth the ideological cost?

The DAO must carefully evaluate these tensions when finalizing its approach. Making progress without undermining the bankless ethos will require thoughtfulness and care.

While all these are being discussed, there are still various topics to consider. Some of those include clarity on the genesis proposal, BANK allocation, what’s next for tlBANK, and many others that have not made it to Forum yet.

The proposal is still in the discussion and voting stage. If you have any questions, need further clarity, or have solutions to propose, please head over to Forum as your views are direly needed.

We hope to solidify solutions and further relationships this new year. Welcome to Season 10!