GM,
Albeit not an OG, I joined the Bored Ape community in 1/1/22. Technically a bit before with my MAYC purchase but the first sentence just sounds better. As a Tech exec for a large Tech Services Company, I am passionate about how technology changes the world and Web 3 will be by far the largest disruption - and opportunity - since the first instantiation of the Web.
The ApeCoin DAO, gifted to us by the BAYC founders, comes with a responsibility by the community to be actively involved. Every new endeavor comes with its challenges and the Apecoin DAO has seen its share. We must accept our failures as experiments while simultaneously take the lessons from them so as to not repeat them. This is particularly relevant in this latest AIP proposal offering to extend the term of the Special Council for 3 months.
The initial delays and false starts to the ApeCoin DAO is what led to the current AIP Idea of extending AIP-1 for a duration of 3 months.
The mission of “THE BOARD”, was defined as follows in the creation of the DAO:
“A special council on the APE Foundation (the DAO’s “Board”) provides, at the behest of the ApeCoin DAO members, oversight of the Foundation administrators. The purpose of the Board is to administer DAO proposals and serve the vision of the community. It meets on proposals requiring administrative review under ApeCoin DAO rules. The initial Board serves a term of six months, after which DAO members will vote annually on Board members”
In other words, the Board, or “Special Council” had 3 jobs:
Oversight of the administrators: The administrators of the DAO are the Cartan Group, selected by the Council and confirmed in the AIPs. The budget that they administer was voted in AIP-1 with $2M set aside for the setup of the DAO. Furthermore, they manage the Ecosystem fund which I’ve never gotten full clarity on but ranges well north of $100M.
Administer DAO proposals. This has been the subject of many debates, a number of iterations ranging from complete failures to process issues at best. With some improvements, the process now inches along.
Setup a process for the new elections after 6 months. While we can debate the success or failures of items 1 & 2, #3 is not debatable. This was in their charter and with less than 30 days before the end of their term, they now are asking for an extension with very few options available, setting up the whole community for the typical prisoner’s dilemma.
In return for this job description, their remuneration and subsequent term was confirmed in AIP-1: “Each Board member receives $125K in ApeCoin for their 6-month term, subject to equal monthly vesting over the course of their term”
It is also noteworthy that the administrators of the DAO are the Cartan Group, also confirmed in AIP-1 with a modest fee of: “$150K USD per month, company contracted for a 6-month term”.
In business and in life, the best outcomes arise from events when incentives are mutually aligned. Unfortunately, the current proposed change to the AIP does not align the incentives of the Special Council members & the Administrators with those of its community members.
Board members, who are largely tied to broader investors in the DAO are incented to extend their term, continue to be paid and be re-elected.
As-written, there is no reason to believe that the 3 months extension will lead to any different outcome serving the community since there is no outcome or consequences to either the extension or further failures of setting up the DAO for success.
The primary stated objectives of the extension is to “provide time for the development of a proper and thorough Ape Foundation election framework and process“ and to subsequently “allow the community to better understand and ultimately engage with whatever process emerges“.
What the proposal lacks is a) an acknowledgment of the Special Council’s failure in achieving its objectives to date and b) consequences / rewards for achieving or not the stated objectives of this extension. The proposal further lacks consideration for a transition period between possibly changing board members. Transitions are often overlooked and quite important if we wish to maintain proper continuity of operations for the DAO.
To that end, the proposal should specifically includes milestones to achieve objectives 1 & 2. Given the second objective of the community involvement into the selection of election process, I would argue that the goals/milestones should include:
30 Days to Provide a proper and thorough Ape Foundation election framework and process and;
30 Days following the above to "allow the community to understand and engage with said process
30 Days to provide appropriate transition services between departing and arriving Special Council members and review of the Administrators’ contract prior to further extension
The Monthly fees for each Special Council member as well as the Administrators (The Cartan Group) will be subject to achieving each milestone. Furthermore, Board members may only seek re-election if they achieve the stated objectives above.
While the above can be fine-tuned, I believe this sets the framework necessary to align the incentives of the Board Members, the Administrators, the Community and the interests of the DAO at large.
As the community at large evaluates the proposed amendments to the extension for AIP-1, here are further thoughts that I recommend should be included in the election framework and mission of Board Members.
For the Culture: First, for the love of everything that is Ape-related, please formally change the name of the Board to the “Bored of Directors”
Community Representation: Just as external board members of large companies require “Independent Directors”, 50% of the elected Bored of Directors should be from community members and/or not otherwise representing large corporations, large investors and/or providers of services purchased by the DAO.
Apecoin Adoption: Currently lacking is a clear mission statement of the ApeCoin DAO and its Bored Member to enable and facilitate the adoption of ApeCoin across the ecosystem. Outside AIP-36, none of the implemented AIPs truly encourage the use of ApeCoin in the ecosystem. This should be a clear lens through which every AIP should be evaluated.
The current AIP-Idea to simply extend AIP-1 by three month is not providing the right alignment between Board Members, Administrators and Community Members to meet the DAO founding principles. The simple proposed changes could improve this alignment and we have proposed additional considerations to the community to review and embed into the proposal to be voted on.
While acknowledging the difficulties of standing up one of the largest Web 3 DAO, we as a community have a responsibility to try to get this right. This is my attempt at doing so.
If you went through all that, I thank you for the consideration and leave the rest to the community and current DAO Board Members.
Sincerely,
GeekApe