[SWAT] Moving forward with SWAT

[kiriyha]

Summary

Turns out creating a task force is no easy feat. A lot has been said since the last discussion on SWAT but not much was done, so today I am resolved to (finally) change that. For reference, here’s the original thread:

The StakeWise Acceleration Taskforce (S.W.A.T.) Initiative

As was originally discussed in Community Call #2, there is a lot of untapped potential in how we coordinate as a DAO to achieve objectives like Total Value Locked (TVL) and community growth. This proposal seeks to address said opportunity with a structured program called the S.W.A.T. Let’s dive straight in! Motivation The StakeWise Acceleration Taskforce, or S.W.A.T. in short, is an initiative designed to coordinate informational campaigns around StakeWise and incentivize community…

First things first: the original proposal for setting up the StakeWise Acceleration Taskforce (SWAT) gathered a substantial amount of positive feedback and perhaps not because of the specifics of the implementation, but because of its mere existence. This is important because what is going to follow is an updated proposal that considers the launch of SWAT as a given because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback, and takes it one step forward i.e. opens up the election process into the Bureau.

Despite the new implementation, SWAT substantially has the same purpose - generate more awareness about StakeWise & allow the community to steer the creative process towards achieving TVL & community growth.

The timing for launching educational & informative campaigns couldn’t be better: the Merge is upon us, the liquid staking ecosystem is experiencing an identity crisis due to the massive centralization around a handful of providers, and StakeWise itself will soon have important things to share with the world. Starting now, we can still make the most of the opportunity to spread awareness & attract more people into the protocol, so let’s not beat around the bush and do it.

Updated implementation

Instead of using a collection of various (potentially clunky) services and proprietary software that would need to be developed, the suggestion is to use a combo of Dework and Discord as means of publishing the tasks, receiving & reviewing submissions in the open, discussing them and choosing the winners, and facilitating payments to contributors.

The main advantage is the ability to connect to the interface with your wallet (for receiving or making payments), and give different permissions to the contributors based on Discord roles (e.g. the Bureau members can publish assignments; SWAT members cannot).

If you are new to Dework, here is a short review that will give you a glimpse of what the platform is capable of: Dework presentation to the Phonon DAO.

In order to further simplify the system, I suggest introducing a degree of centralization in the beginning but with proper checks and balances. Therefore, the DAO’s role in reviewing successful submissions for correctness & processing payments has been assigned to the Team instead, who will also (at least initially) sponsor the program to keep things simple. Please find the updated breakdown of roles & responsibilities below.

Personas (updated)

The Bureau

The Bureau - an elected committee that is responsible for:

1. Coming up with new assignments for approval by the Team.
2. Maintaining the published list of assignments.
3. Proposing the baseline SWISE reward for assignment submissions.
4. Proposing the bonus SWISE reward for assignment submissions that exceed baseline criteria.
5. Monitoring assignment submissions for attempts to game the system.
6. Updating expected SWISE rewards of SWAT Members according to updates in engagement numbers & rules.

SWAT member

SWAT Member - an eligible individual that may:

1. Review and select appropriate assignments in the Bureau-curated list.
2. Submit assignments into the system.
3. Get paid for successful submissions.
4. Propose new assignments to the Bureau.
5. Request funding for special projects.

The Team

The StakeWise development team - the collective sponsoring the program:

1. Review the Bureau’s proposed SWISE allocations.
2. Review submissions for adherence to the rules and voice potential concerns to the Bureau.
3. Approve and pay out or veto the proposed SWISE disbursements.

High-Level Implementation

The DAO shall:

1. Run an election for The Bureau members.

This starts now!

Interested candidates may submit their bids for joining the Bureau in this thread:

[SWAT] Election of inaugural Bureau members

[113246_0480b4] Motivation The Bureau is a team of individuals within SWAT that are responsible for curating SWAT assignments, reviewing submissions and assigning rewards for the successfully completed tasks. As a team of 4, they will be the driving force behind coordinating SWAT members and spurring them into action. These will be the individuals that implement the Bureau’s agenda, specifically: Increase the availability of information about StakeWise in all possible sources, setting prior…

The Team shall:

1. Assist The Bureau and help them get started with setting internal guidelines for decision-making, publishing new assignments and monitoring submissions for fairness.
2. Set the budget for the Bureau to work off
3. Review, decide and act on the Bureau’s suggested allocations of SWISE to S.W.A.T. participants based on performance & submissions.

The Bureau shall:

1. Set up a Typeform / Discord bot to register new SWAT members and assign them the relevant role in the StakeWise Discord to enable access to the StakeWise Dework dashboard.
2. Create internal guidelines for decision-making and external guide for using Dework as a SWAT Member.
3. Maintain the StakeWise Dework dashboard, and allow the public (including The Bureau members) to monitor submissions that attempt to game the system and allow the Bureau to update scores based on the new information about engagement with the submissions.
4. Process the completed assignments to the pay-out stage to reward chosen contributions from SWAT members.
5. Report to the Team & the DAO on the progress with certain frequency and implement changes to the program according to the results.

Registration

SWAT Members must register in the Typeform / through the Discord bot with the following information:

• Their Discord handle
• Their StakeWise Forum handle
• Their Reddit handle
• Their Twitter handle

Members will have a choice of not providing anything besides the Discord handle if they don’t plan to contribute to the social media-related assignments. Otherwise, information must be submitted by the Member in advance to avoid plagiarism (i.e. SWAT member claiming someone else’s work).

Flow

1. The DAO will choose the Bureau members from the candidates who have made their bids and will periodically re-elect Bureau members.

2. The Bureau will regularly publish new assignments on the StakeWise Dework dashboard, specifying the evaluation and scoring criteria, deadline, type of assignment and compensation. It will then review submissions and have the decision making power to mark them as successful. Such submissions will then receive a pay-out from the Team. The Bureau will also publish feedback on their decision in the related channel on Discord. Assignments with performance-based bonuses must be monitored to track engagement and make additional pay-outs.

3. SWAT members will regularly visit the StakeWise Dework dashboard to review & pick new assignments. Submissions should only be made via Dework, and all the evaluation criteria listed for the assignment must be met in order to be considered eligible for evaluation & pay-out. Scoring criteria will determine the final pay-out. Once the assignment from a Member was marked as successful, the payment will be processed by the Team.

4. The Team will regularly review the work of the Bureau and release payments for successful assignments to the SWAT members.

Abuse

Any SWAT member caught abusing or attempting to game the system as determined by The Bureau will be kicked out from the SWAT team and have the role on Discord revoked.

Next steps

The election period for the Bureau members officially starts now! I suggest to run the election process with the following schedule:

• Aug 19 - Aug 26 (7 days): the application process is open and candidates can post in this thread to make a bid
• Aug 26 - Aug 31 (5 days): the public discussion process whereby DAO members can ask candidates different questions and see their responses
• Aug 31 - Sept 3 (3 days): Snapshot vote to determine the winning 4 candidates.

Those interested in filling one of the four available positions need to submit an application in this thread:

[SWAT] Election of inaugural Bureau members

[113246_0480b4] Motivation The Bureau is a team of individuals within SWAT that are responsible for curating SWAT assignments, reviewing submissions and assigning rewards for the successfully completed tasks. As a team of 4, they will be the driving force behind coordinating SWAT members and spurring them into action. These will be the individuals that implement the Bureau’s agenda, specifically: Increase the availability of information about StakeWise in all possible sources, setting prior…

[TobiWo]

@kiriyha Actually I was wondering how it is going with the SWAT initiative a couple of weeks ago so your update and push of going forward with this topic is very welcome.

However, I have a short question: I’m now an active contributor in the stakewise charts repo. Sometimes I work on it in my regular work time (as employee for a upcoming node operator), sometimes I do it in my spare time. Will my private contributions be eligible to get rewarded? With that regards, is a SWAT member also eligible to create assignments? This refers to that fact that I fixed a coupe of bugs in the charts but I wouldn’t be as fast if I need to wait until there is an assignment for that specific task. Maybe it is a good idea, if code contributions will be eligible for assignments/payouts, to create some general code assignments which can be used for any general code contribution (e.g. fx small bug, refactor a feature, add new feature etc.).

Best,
Tobias

[cryptochrome]

Definitely something the bureau should take a look at, e.g. having a general code contribution assignment.

[kiriyha]

Hey Tobi - thanks for the interest and the contributions! Unfortunately, I cannot say for sure - deciding on the merits of rewarding such personal contributions will be up to the Bureau. However, the way I see it, they should be eligible for one-off rewards based on “proposed assignments” whereby if something useful & valuable has been completed for the DAO by a SWAT member, said member could request a reward from the SWAT program by submitting their work in the “Proposals” section. I’ll let the Bureau think of the exact mechanism & eligibility, but I believe Dework should be able to handle this type of submissions and the eligibility should probably be extended to anything showing a personal initiative that benefits the protocol. Just my 2c