[BIP-21] Funding Proposal for Ecosystem Ops and Development Squad

Leader(s): LuukDAO

Pledge to abide by the DAO’s Code of Conduct (or link to your own): We pledge to abide by the Balancer DAO’s Code of Conduct.

Pledge to abide by the Accountability Guidelines: We pledge to abide by the Accountability Guidelines set forward by Balancer DAO.

Domains of Operation: DAOops, Business Development, Design

Length of Engagement & Budget: 6-month engagement with a total budget of 108,000 USDC for 4 fixed contributors (1.8 FTEs) and on-demand support with potential vests up to 9,130 BAL depending on milestones accomplished by the team.

ETH Address to Receive Funds: 0x5D82fA4F29fB22A9ed9E64E1c9C36873EE4D93bA

Link to SLA (if going through the Foundation): TBD

Link to the gDocs version of the Proposal

Call for Collaboration
We’ve attempted to coordinate closely with Ballers and potential service providers, including Orb Collective and Daoism systems. We are 100% committed to turning Balancer into a synergistic ecosystem. We invite any ecosystem stakeholders who want to align vision and workflow to engage with us. Let’s continue to develop the Balancer Ecosystem into a thriving ecosystem.

Introduction
The BalancerDAO has seen steady development over the past 9 months and is now in the transition to becoming a full-fledged DAO managing the Balancer Ecosystem.

To support this ongoing transition, we propose creating the Ecosystem Ops and Development Workstream consisting of three different squads (DAOops, Ecosystem Development, and Content Creation) with the primary aim to streamline ecosystem efforts, BalancerDAO assets, and process over the next 6 months to allow BalancerDAO to establish a strategic roadmap and scale towards it in the years to come.

The contribution group consists of Ballers and Kolektivo Labs members who have all been exposed to BalancerDAO and the wider-DAO space for a longer time as specified in the contributor breakdown further in the proposal. We aim to combine our knowledge, network, and efforts to help develop the Balancer Ecosystem towards becoming the most used AMM.

For Q3 and Q4 - we aim to focus primarily on internal alignment within the BalancerDAO ecosystem by collaborating closely with other SPs to enhance the effectiveness of the Balancer Ecosystem as a whole.

Objectives and KPIs per Focus Area (Squad)

Focus Area Objectives Success Criteria
DAOops - Improve and maintain the BalancerDAO workspace and resources. * Successfully manage Notion, gSuite and other accounts related to Balancer.Community and Balancer DAO for the full proposal period. Managed by up-time of workspace.
- Establish a streamlined process for issuing and managing @balancer.community domains and access to contributors’ resources. * Create clear guidelines and effective processes for issuing and revoking @balancer community emails by the end of Q3
Ecosystem Development * Establish a shared CRM with Orb Collective and potential other Balancer DAO Ecosystem Teams. * Establish a shared database for tracking different connections in the Balancer Ecosystem. Measured by an effective solution existing by end of Q3.
* Establish different funnels for potential integrations & partners * Establish funnels that directly lead to the correct groups depending on their ask. Success will be measured by the effectiveness of the funnels.
* Host a monthly Ecosystem Development Session where Team Leads and contributors can gather, share updates, and discuss. * Plan, host, and document 6 Ecosystem Development Sessions and digest the outcomes to make ecosystemic suggestions.
* Create a map of the Balancer ecosystem * Create an overview and visualization that can be easily shared and digested that showcases the entirety of the Balancer Ecosystem
Design * Support the creation and maintenance of the re-worked Balancer brand guidelines * Create and distribute Balancer brand assets. Measured by the ease of finding the right Balancer brand assets.
* Create template assets to be used by the Balancer Ecosystem * Develop templates that can be used by at least 2 ecosystem members to easily create Balancer visuals. Measured by having a clear template set by end of Q3.
* Create marketing assets using the Balancer brand guides * Ensure design needs are met timely and in line with Brand assets. Measured by timely delivery of marketing assets.

Team
Ecosystem Ops and Development Workstream combines Ballers and Kolektivo Labs Contributors. A total of 4 people will be contributing a fixed amount of time for the full duration of the proposal - estimated in Full Time (40 hrs) equivalents measured of a monthly timeframe for 1.8 FTEs.

Fixed Contributors

  • Senior Ecosystem Developer & DAOops (Luuk) - 0.3 FTE
  • Business Developer (Will) - 0.5 FTE
  • Senior Graphic Designer (Jaap) - 0.4 FTE
  • Graphic Designer (CryptoComical) - 0.6 FTE

Contributor Backgrounds
Kolektivo Labs: An experienced Web 3.0 collective with about 25 contributors and offices in The Hague, Lisbon, and Switzerland. Has with and for DAOs for the past three years. Are actively contributing to PrimeDAO, DAOhaus, The DAOist, Kolektivo, and BalancerDAO. Will be responsible for streamlining contributor rewards and project management.

Contributors to this proposal

Luuk: Senior Ecosystem Developer with over four years of work experience in the DAO space. He started his journey contributing to DAOstack and is now mainly involved in PrimeDAO, Kolektivo, and Balancer. Has a background as a DeFi fund manager and a wide network in the ImpactDAO space.

Will: Strategic Consultant and project manager who has contributed to Symmetric Finance as Ecosystem Builder. Has a strong connection with the Gnosis ecosystem and understanding of the Balancer technology.

Jaap: Senior Graphic designer with 1.5+ years of experience making DeFi Applications and Web 3.0 Brand Assets. Has worked on The DAOist, DAOhaus, PrimeDAO, dHedge, and more.

CryptoComical: Designer who has contributed to BalancerDAO for the past half-year.

Budget

Initiatives Description Monthly Budget Quarterly Budget Total Budget
Ecosystem Development 0.8 FTE equivalent of contributors will be supporting Ecosystem Development. $ 7,000 $ 21,000 $42,000
Design 1 FTE equivalent of contributors will research, create and design assets for Balancer. $ 7,000 $21,000 $42,000
Expenses Buffer for costs accrued by Workstream contributors related to BalancerDAO works - such as Gas costs, travel expenses, and Legal & Accounting support. This also covers the costs of operating and maintaining all subscriptions. $ 4,000 $ 12,000 $ 24,000
TOTAL USDC $21,000 $63,000 $108,000
Bal Vests for Fixed Contributors equal to 50% of fixed rewards. Description Amount in BAL USD value at current spot Milestone
Start proposal (20%) 1825 $8,400 At the start of Proposal
First tranch unlock (30%) 2740 $12,600 When 4 out of 9 Successes Reached
Second tranch unlock (30%) 2740 $12,600 When 6 out of 9 Successes Reached
Final tranch unlock (20%) 1825 $8,400 When 8 out of 9 Successes Reached
TOTAL 9,130 $42,000

veBAL rewards based on Success
An important part of this proposal is the desire of all contributors to align with Balancer for the longer term. To align incentives between contributors and lower the USD asks, a series of veBAL incentives are proposed as part of this Proposal for the fixed contributors of this proposal (1.8 FTEs).

  • The veBAL incentives will be issued based on the milestones accomplished by the Ecosystem Ops and Development Workstream and will be matched with 25% WETH from the contributors’ own resources and locked by each individual for the full ve duration (1-year).

  • The BAL vests are valued in absolute BAL numbers and will be distributed to fixed contributors pro-rata based on their fixed rewards.

  • The value of the vest is taken by multiplying the fixed income times 0.50.

  • The group will submit Milestones to the Foundation based on completion. The Foundation will confirm whether Milestones are met or not and will do the payout.

Iterative Proposal Process
The initial proposal of the Ecosystem Ops and Development Workstream aims to follow an iterative proposal process where we absorb learnings in the coming months and actively support BalancerDAO in creating a multi-year ecosystem strategy that will allow us to shape up a value-aligned proposal for the full-year of 2023.

We will be documenting learnings and publishing it to the wider community, similar to the process we followed in the Grants Sub-DAO.

1 Like

I don’t think this proposal brings value in line with the funding request so I will be voting against.

Managing notion and website/email can be handled by Balancer Maxis at cost. A shared CRM when Orb Collective should be the only entity handling partnerships seems like a waste of time.

SP’s should have their own design budgets like Grants does. Orb has their own Design and Marketing departments. There is no need to fund salaried design work in the ecosystem - designers should apply to work at Orb Collective or be used on a contract basis from SP’s like Grants.

Spending $108k & 9,130 BAL per six months on the above endeavors is a gigantic waste of money in my view.

4 Likes

We could have been more clear in the proposal about how this group will directly support Orb and fill their needs.

On the BizDev front, I will support Orb in establishing processes, tools, and frameworks that streamline the BizDev process. At the same time, Will focuses on Gnosis Ecosystem mapping and engagement ahead of the Balancer expansion into the Gnosis Ecosystem (as he has an extensive network there). Orb does not have people for these roles, and we will be filling that gap for the next six months, after which we can evaluate how to best proceed.

On the Design front, Orb currently only has 1 Lead Designer responsible for all the work. Through this proposal, we will bring in a Senior Designer who can support Orb’s designer in Brand & Product development, and provide Guidance to CryptoComical, who can continue to create DAO assets while staying in line with Brand Guidelines.

Notion Management would go beyond just " paying the bills" and includes updating and maintaining the current structure. For the emails, this also consists of a process for issuing and managing these emails. A FIAT bank account and assurance that these tools are used per BalancerDAO guidelines are needed for the subscriptions. I, therefore, think this should sit in a Legal Entity, which could alternatively be the Foundation or Orb.

I hope this shed’s more light on the proposal.

You’ve had six months to establish processes, tools, and frameworks in the Partnerships subDAO while you collected the maximum salary the entire time. The problem is I don’t think you are capable of delivering on the points outlined in this proposal and your reply based on my experience with you in the DAO. You regularly skip meetings with no explanation, don’t collaborate in an effective way, and often don’t listen to advice from others. Symmetric FF being a classic example of an avoidable disaster but you didn’t listen to feedback and didn’t inform others as discussions continued in secret.

In my opinion, you are not qualified to support Orb as you’ve outlined or map our engagement into the Gnosis ecosystem. I am open to being convinced otherwise if you can point to some of your accomplishments over the last six months in the DAO.

The initial " Partnership SubDAO" was extremely under-resourced - in terms of budget, information, and support. Processes we tried to set up have been neglected by various actors and the participation in the group dropped to a low point where sitting in a room with 3 people that are all under-resourced would not lead to meaningful developments.

For this exact reason, switching to a set-up where all individuals working on Partnership (and also Design) are resourced (information, funds) and share one workflow is crucial.

I think everybody in the DAO could have done things better. We can’t change the past, but can now commit to building out a better future - which I intend to do.

Luuk tell me truthfully, did you really think that because you were working behind closed doors with Solarcurve, Kristen and Mog on the SP formation proposal, that you will get a light treatment?

Solarcurve is here to ask tough questions about every SP proposal except for Orb’s 4 mil USD ask - for that one there is no need to ask anything because he knows his place and he knows where he can and can’t push it and he knows who delegated their votes to him.

There was never any intention to have multiple actually independent SPs working for Balancer DAO. There is not even enough money for that because the treasury subDAO did fuck all during an up only market and got caught with their pants down when the tide came.

You helped Solar make the rope that he now hanged you with it. But could you really not see that it was inevitable?

There are powers stirring this from behind and no matter what nice politically correct words you use to justify it, what services you offer, it’s not gonna pass because SP formation proposal was designed from day 1 to dissolve the subDAOs and myself and Andrea asked tough questions internally when we discovered the SP formation proposal being worked on secretly in Discord and called it for what it was which was an indirect way to get rid of DAO members during a bear market.

I came to realisation by how ballers have been treated for months with multiple proposals thrown our way as obstacles that the DAO is nothing more than a legal protection scheme for [redacted] and Solar is just here doing the dirty work and the last couple days he’s definitely taking it to the next level trying to shit on many people’s reputation.

And Luuk this is nothing against you, but I will not beat around the bush and I just want you to have a bit of a wake up call so that you don’t let greed blind you next time and support someone that was working to stab you in the back.
Solar is questioning your competence but this isn’t about your competence, you are a very competent guy capable of great things, I mean look at Prime - it’s impressive what you and your team built. You also tried to push forward many great partnerships in the partnerships subDAO and I can personally acknowledge your work at Balancer DAO. And you also want Balancer community to thrive and noticed early on a lot of problematic things in the DAO and tried to address them (when ops subDAO wasn’t capable/interested) which I respect. Having someone with your connections, commitment and experience is only beneficial for Balancer.

But the SP formation proposal was a shameful way to dispose many ballers now that they are not needed, because they have the foundation, Blabs can call itself as Orb, work as SP, all this show. But rather than tell you directly how it is and lay the cards on the table, they will beat around the bush for months and waste your time to then call you incompetent on the forum as a goodbye.

And now, sadly, you’ve been like a mercenary they used to help dissolve the subDAOs with the SP formation proposal and now that you’ve done your job, they can dispose your corpse in the forest in the DAO grave.

I speak bluntly because I don’t rely on any SP outcome financially but I know many ballers do so even though they share my opinion, they will not address many things here on the forum which I understand.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened

6 Likes

Sorry to hear this, all along, I think Balancer Lab and The DAO are a very respectable organization and I appreciate the enthusiasm of every Baller. But today I was disappointed to see the many internal inconsistencies exposed, and a poor budget plan for overall SPs.

I think as a great project, frankness and transparency are crucial, any questions and doubts should be discussed on the table, and people who have put energy and enthusiasm into the project should not be disappointed. As a veBAL holder, I hope that in this time of chaos and suffering, as the founder of the project, @Fernando can handle the current situation well and give clear suggestions that are in the interests of Balancer as a whole, instead of letting the community fall into the conflict of their own interests. veBAL holders do not understand the overall situation and details, and it is difficult to vote objectively and correctly.

5 Likes

Thanks for this proposal @LuukDAO!

I have already commented the other proposals and will try not to be too repetitive here.

I’m convinced you are passionate about Balancer and have only good intentions towards it, I’m glad no one is questioning this but instead bringing up objective and constructive criticism which you responded to very well and politely.

@ReptilePresidente regarding your comments: I truly admire your work and think you add a lot of value including the Spanish speaking community in the Balancer world. I understand your frustration but think we should try as much as possible to avoid sarcasm and irony for the sake of constructive communication.

Nothing is “inevitable” or decided “behind closed doors”: veBAL holders will transparently vote and decide on approving or not these SP proposals and many of them (who don’t have the time to be so involved) will likely judge from how professionally these discussions are held by the teams proposing them.

5 Likes

Fernando, none of my words is irony or sarcasm. Everything what I said, I meant it. I simply speak up my mind in a blunt and clear way without sugar coating anything. This is a public forum and I am a small veBAL investor and future ex DAO contributor so I reserve my right to do that.

Thanks for admiring my work but you are confusing me with Cosme. I don’t even speak Spanish. Although I do agree with you on this one, he’s been doing a great job on the Spanish community side.

The SP formation proposal has absolutely been worked on behind closed doors until Andrea called out the group working on it and it’s only then that Solar, Kristen, Mog and Luuk had no choice but to prematurely reveal it to the rest of the DAO. Many ballers were against the SP Formation proposal and raised concerns internally because they understood what the proposal meant in practice, it destroyed the morale and it was going to dissolve subDAOs which we’re now witnessing. Ballers raising concerns were given reassurance by Kristen, by Solar which I find cynical because now Solarcurve is off the leash to shit on many people’s reputation on this forum while they are following the new proposal structure that they’ve been asked to follow.

What would have been the right thing to do in my opinion, and your failure to try and do this as Balancer CEO is why I’ve lost my respect for you is to address this internally and directly and just say “hey we gotta trim some parts of the organisation, sorry”. I would have respected such approach.

Sometimes you let people go in an organisation. Whether it’s because of lack of performance, lack of funds, duplication of work or some other strategic reason. These are all valid reasons but it’s how you guys decided to address these (through governance, indirectly, leading to some of the most toxic discussions this forum ever witnessed, stab in the back type of behaviour and turning people against each other) that I am speaking out against.

I acknowledge this is not an easy thing to do, but it could have been addressed by yourself, or Kristen who’s the COO or Solar who considered himself the DAO leader. All three of you have failed to let people go in a way that gives them dignity and shows appreciation for the work they’ve put in. This could have been solved internally and quick in a professional way, but instead it’s through a thousand little cuts and with unnecessary humiliation and shenanigans.

Many crypto companies get rid of their employees when necessary. Now I understand ballers were not employees so really no one owns them anything. They were still active and committed contributors who put countless hours and effort into Balancer. I also understand that letting people go especially in a bear market can attract bad press which you guys desperately want to avoid.

In the end what happened is that people are being removed through governance in a humiliating way and the way Solarcurve is attacking multiple long-term contributors, it blows my mind what a thin ice you guys are walking on and that this whole thing is one bored DeFi journalist away from becoming a PR disaster.

We all know things I have said don’t benefit me in any way personally and I have crossed the point of no return. But I still consider it the right thing to do to speak the truth and I put my personal benefit to the side.

You know how the meme goes “some things are better left unsaid. Recommend no more news like these, for the sake of the people, our industry (and your business)” well today is not one of those days.

8 Likes

I felt the same way. As colleagues who are all working toward the same goal, I wish we can be more open and straightforward when faced with adversities, and tackle the problem honestly and professionally.

4 Likes

Apologies for the confusion: I still appreciate your work with the main DAO Twitter account anyways. Some comments below:

As CEO of Balancer Labs this is how things work when employees of Balancer Labs go. Ballers are members of the DAO/community and I have no power to fire anyone “internally and directly” as you say. I’m not your boss, Kristen is not your boss, Solar is not your boss so none of us can fire anyone.

It became obvious that not all Ballers worked well together (this has nothing to do with me or Blabs), and that’s normal and they should not be forced to. The new structure solves this issue by allowing for groups that work well together to join forces and propose to be funded by the DAO (or the Foundation if you need contracts with a physical entity) in return for some work the DAO needs. I don’t know why you disagree so much with this model: you can literally propose anything and get it voted on. Let veBAL holders decide.

This is a free forum: your opinion is always welcome, as is that of anyone. I thank you for expressing your thoughts and concerns.

However, it would be good if you clarified if you are still interested in being part of BCG, it seems that is not anymore the case and it would be nice with the other members of the proposal (@Andrea81 and Co) if you talked about it and updated the proposal. I personally think you are giving up too early if you are interested but think the proposal will be rejected. But you are free to do whatever you want and there won’t be any hard feelings (at least on my side) either way :slight_smile:

7 Likes

RP is not going anywhere. He is straight as an arrow and I admire his honesty and the sharp mind. The DAO has certainly been through turbulent times and, well, some of us may have felt down after reading some of the comments on the forum.

But let’s fight the good fight and move on. veBAL holders will eventually decide our fate in the end and whatever it may be, we will accept the result with dignity. The team is made up of great people and a lot of talent. All exceptional members who have devoted endless hours to Balancer. And let me tell you, it would be a real shame to see them go. @Fernando you once said to me, if we push people away we will die. We are now at that turning point once again.

It goes without saying that we all work for the same team here and it’s true, most of us anticipated the situation we are going through today. The last 2/3 months have been surreal because the uncertainty removed the focus from what is really important: making Balancer a success.

It hurts to see so much bitterness and deliberate attacks made in a public space with the sole intention of denigrating and humiliating others.

All I can say is that I’ve learned from my mistakes and I hope others will too.

6 Likes

I don’t understand the animosity towards the Orb collective here. The Orb collective is comprised of Labs members who are moving to the SP entity, all with existing proven track records.

But the SP formation proposal was a shameful way to dispose many ballers now that they are not needed

If there was a proper need for other SP’s run by existing ballers that didn’t overlap heavily with Orb operations and provide actualy value outside of redundant processes, this would make sense.

5 Likes

Commenting from Orb’s perspective, I do see opportunities for collaboration between our teams that would generate value for the DAO. I’m going to keep this as objective as possible and leave out any personal relationships I have with individuals on this team.

Jaap is a senior designer with a quality portfolio. Teaming up with Pon, Orb’s director of design, on UI/UX and branding work would create a boost in design output compared to what Pon can get done solo.

Cryptocomical has been creating graphic design assets for the DAO and for Balancer Labs (images for tweets, blog posts, etc). He’s been an asset to Meghan’s team; not having him around would leave a hole that needs to be filled. Marketing would take a hit as they need a dependable graphics resource.

Luuk has a wealth of talent, experience, and insights into the DeFi space. He can make a direct impact by adding his strategic vision and streamlined processes to our partnerships team’s work.

I’m not familiar with Will’s work and can’t vouch for it. However, having a bizdev specialist focused on building a partner ecosystem on Gnosis chain sounds intriguing. A question that arises for me is whether he would have access to the technical resources needed to execute those partnerships.

I want to also acknowledge that sacrifices must be made in bear markets and tough decisions are required to find the right balance between making sure Balancer is growing and improving its market position while cutting excess spending without harming the project. Being too conservative can stunt our own growth and bring us out of this bear market with a treasury that’s higher in quantity of tokens but not in value.

6 Likes

However, it would be good if you clarified if you are still interested in being part of BCG

Fernando, if the token holders vote in favour of the BCG SP proposal then I will deliver on my responsibilities and KPIs for Q3 as outlined in the BCG proposal.

If they vote against it, then I will respect their choice and no longer be a DAO contributor and will not be reapplying with another SP proposal. At that point, the only active work I will do to support Balancer technology will be through my side project lbplaunches,com dedicated to liquidity bootstrapping pools.

6 Likes

Hi @saf ,
Did I miss anything?
This proposal is about Luuk’s Ops and Development Squad, not Orb.

The past weeks have been intense for everybody, but I’m grateful to be part of the Balancer Ecosystem. Now it’s on to the Governors to decide what the next cycle of BalancerDAO will look like.

If the proposal is accepted, the team and I will give it our all to deliver on our objectives and pro-actively support the Balancer Ecosystem.

If not, I’ll continue to be active in the community and explore alternative pathways to be helpful to the Balancer Ecosystem by leveraging my network and skills. This is a marathon and we still have a long way to go to become the number one source of Decentralized Liquidity.

6 Likes

https://snapshot.org/#/balancer.eth/proposal/0x0fbc04a1a13743793cf0587ff4a4b0d63477970b1744e2d53e77d155bcd16e01