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 participation in advancing the goals of the protocol. The idea is to create a structure that will publish DAO-curated assignments and allow registered participants to complete them in exchange for SWISE awarded upon completion of tasks every week. The assignments are meant to align the DAO goals of growing the TVL & increasing the value of SWISE with the community’s talents. If the program succeeds, we will have created a strong feedback loop between TVL and the amount of activity, rewarding all the participants well in the process. So how can we make it a reality?
Specification
The key challenge is to avoid subjectivity and fraud in the allocation of SWISE for various assignments. In order to minimize the risk of both, several requirements would need to be met:
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Participating in the S.W.A.T. initiative would require opting-in (registration)
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Scoring would need to involve humans as little as possible, so a predefined and mutually agreed upon scoring system is a must
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All scores and submissions would be publicly available for cross-examination and dispute
Once the risks of subjectivity and fraud are minimized, additional considerations come into play. There needs to be a DAO-curated list of assignments that is always up-to-date, as well as a group of engaged members who “police” the system for presence of unfair dealing.
Electing a committee of core members (let’s call it The Bureau) would be required to come up with new assignments, perform the human component of the system, and monitor the submissions and SWISE allocations for the presence of attempts to game the system.
Engagement with the actions of the SWAT members is likely to be the main KPI for allocation of SWISE on top of just baseline reward for actions. Example: provided two identical pieces of content, the one that provably drew more engagement should receive more SWISE, on top of a baseline reward that would be similar for both submissions. utm links are likely to be utilized for tracking such data, as well as likes/quotes/shares. The public and The Bureau should be able to update such information in the system that allocates SWISE in order to ensure a transparent and fair process.
Finally, following a pilot period, the mechanism would require an effective front-end (for submissions) and back-end (for calculations, storing the data, and payouts).
Implementation
Personas
The Bureau - an elected committee that is responsible for:
- Coming up with new assignments for approval by the DAO
- Maintaining the DAO-curated list of assignments
- Proposing the baseline SWISE reward for assignment submissions
- Proposing the bonus SWISE reward for assignment submissions that exceed baseline criteria
- Monitoring assignment submissions for attempts to game the system
- Updating expected SWISE rewards of SWAT Members according to updates in engagement numbers & rules
SWAT Member - an eligible individual that may:
- Review and select appropriate assignments in the DAO-curated list
- Execute assignment actions
- Submit a completed assignment into the system
DAO - the collective governing the program:
- Review the Bureau’s proposed SWISE allocations
- Review submissions for adherence to the rules and voice potential concerns to the Bureau
- Vote for or against the proposed SWISE disbursements
High-Level Implementation
The DAO shall:
- Run an election for The Bureau members
- Assist The Bureau and help them get started in publishing new assignments and monitoring submissions for fairness.
- Vote on the Bureau’s proposal regarding the rules for SWISE awards for completing various assignments
- Review and vote on the Bureau’s suggested allocations of SWISE to S.W.A.T. participants based on performance & submissions.
The Bureau shall:
- Set up a Typeform to register new users and allow those registered to submit the evidence of them completing chosen tasks
- Link Typeform to a publicly viewable Google Sheets document that will automatically track all participants’ SWISE allocations and allow the public (including The Bureau members) to monitor submissions that attempt to game the system and The Bureau to update scores based on new information about engagement with the submissions
- Execute a recurring DAO vote to allocate SWISE rewards to the Merkle Distributor, where registered SWAT participants would be claiming their SWISE according to SWISE earned in the previous weeks. The ability to claim SWISE earned will be for up to one year after which the forfeited SWISE will be returned back to the Treasury.
- The Bureau must report to 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 with their following information:
- Their Discord handle
- Their StakeWise Forum handle
- Their Reddit handle
- Their Twitter handle
- ETH Wallet Address (for awarding of SWISE)
Examples of assignments
Assignments can be very different and delivered through a mixture of format & channels: memes, educational content, outreach campaigns, analysis threads, reviews and other content executed in text/one-pager/video/podcast form and shared on the StakeWise forum, socials, Reddit, Discord, and other DAO forums.
| Types of Tasks | Example | Channels of engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Talent acquisition | Refer a bomb illustrator for the DAO | |
| Content production | Explain the bull case for SWISE in blogpost | YouTube |
| Awareness growth | Organize community events with other DAOs | |
| Physical items/events | Create manufacturing & distribution plan for StakeWise merchandise | StakeWise Discord |
| Forms of Content | Types of Content | Social Channels |
|---|---|---|
| Memes | Educational | |
| Brief Text / Thread | Technical | YouTube |
| Long Text / Blog Post | How-To | |
| One Pager | Promotional / Outreach Campaign | StakeWise Discord |
| Video (Vlog) | Reviews / Comparison | Other DAO Forums |
| Audio (Podcast) | Analytical | StakeWise Forum |
We believe that there also needs to be an option for more creative tasks whereby someone with a great idea that may be more involved and require some additional work, can apply for a grant and receive it through the SWAT process.
Abuse
Any SWAT member caught abusing or attempting to game the system as determined by The Bureau will forfeit their SWISE earned and will not be eligible for any SWISE allocation in the future.
Risks & other considerations
There is an obvious risk of certain individuals finding ways to game the system. That’s why we suggest putting an emphasis on Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) links and related analytics, while keeping the process transparent and flexible.
It is important to acknowledge that fully automating the SWAT system may be impossible today, but we should nevertheless strive towards keeping the human component to the minimum. That’s why there will need to be strict guidelines on rules & scores for objectivity, but also a decentralized human entity like The Bureau to minimize trust required in the system.
If the DAO approves of this idea, the next steps would be to set up The Bureau, crowd-source the list of initial assignments and identify the scope for creating new ones, set up the initial SWISE reward system and rules, and put the whole SWAT mechanism to trial for four weeks.
So what are your thoughts on this DAO family? This is not a simple effort, the whole process would require coordination from those interested in seeing the SWAT Initiative become a reality.
Please let us know your thoughts below and share your ideas on how the whole campaign should be managed. If you like it, let’s make it happen!
