01/24/21 UPDATE:
Pilot League is now accepting candidates! Applications will be open until 2021-01-29T12:00:00Z (we are trying to move quickly with this initiative, applications’ window might be eventually extended).
01/18/21 UPDATE:
We are moving this topic into a Snapshot poll and let the community express an opinion on this initiative. If positive, we can start formalizing it and get more deep into the parameters’ discussion and committee members’ applications.
I’ve just set up a FOR/AGAINST Snapshot poll – Let us know if you want to see this committee moving into a more structured proposal and then implemented!
Co-authored with: @william @Davide
Introduction
About one week ago, we started to brainstorm on an initial Treasury Committee to reward value creation in Idle. We now want to unleash our thoughts regarding this model and an initial pilot program we can spin out from it.
Here below we propose the structure of a possible pilot to test this concept, using the “Uniswap Grants Program v0.1” as a reference to outline Committee’s boundaries.
Committee Composition
UNI’s approach is balanced and can be slightly reduced for this initial pilot: the team is composed by 5 people, 1 (paid) Project Manager that proposes the beneficiaries of new grants, and 4 (unpaid) Supervisors that have to accept/decline the proposals.
This is a semi-decentralized structure and if the funds are controlled by a MultiSig wallet, the centralization is balanced by fast execution and deployment.
If the community will further develop this idea, please take into account that Idle Labs is not eligible as Project Manager, but might represent a Supervisor.
Key Parameters
We suggest allocating a small budget at the beginning and then increase it with Governance consensus if the team successfully reaches predefined goals.
Other teams can be formed in the future, as well as an organizational structure with departments to take care of the day-to-day maintenance of the protocol while maintaining a flexible DAO structure.
These are some parameters of this pilot that should be discussed by the community:
- Compensation
A fixed wage for the Project Manager, the most active member, might be applied for this initial trial (e.g. $500/month in $IDLE tokens). In the long term, the wage should be adapted to the DeFi market average. In addition, a further discussion would be regarding compensation for Supervisors (the effort is lower, but they still hold responsibilities).
- Mandate Duration
As this is an initial trial, the timeframe should be short while allowing us to understand how to iterate and measure results (2 months might be a good compromise). In the next versions, a quarter sounds like enough time to evaluate the committee’s performance. Technically speaking, this is an off-chain mandate, so the Governance cannot revoke the budget through blockchain transactions. On-chain mandates require code development and might be proposed for larger budgets.
- Mandate budget
Supposing a $500 wage in $IDLE for the Manager, $5’000 per month would represent a $60’000 annualized cost. A TVL of ~ $30M (mainly distributed across DAI/USDC/USDT) generates $18’400/month from performance fees. Annualized revenues might be worth approximately ~ $220’000 (despite it’s a bit early to use it as a cash-flow benchmark). The mandate budget for the 2-month case studies could be $10’000. The allocation of the mentioned monthly budget would then represent a conservative 27% of the estimated revenues, with enough room to route fees to other modules. At the current time, the governance should allocate this trial budget from the Ecosystem Fund.
- Supervisors Role
Supervisors are other signers for the Treasury MultiSig, and are empowered to accept/refuse proposals made by the Project Manager. If the Project Manager does not accomplish predefined goals, Supervisors might be able to propose a replacement by launching a Snapshot Poll. If many Supervisors are not able to do their job, community members have the ability to return funds with a Proposal (it’s a manual action in this trial, while on-chain mandates will automate this process).
Pilot League
An initial pilot program might work on low-effort bounties, grants, and development activities.
- This League’s team can foster content production on how Idle protocol works, reward creators of Proposals or products’ builders, and incentivize community engagement.
- Periodic reports (e.g. once per week) are expected, with specs/results, current status, and next steps
- Funds are managed through a 3-of-5 MultiSig wallet – one key for each Supervisor and one held by the Project Manager
If this “general-purpose” pilot will have a successful outcome, $IDLE governance can increase budget funds and adopt an organizational structure divided into different Leagues (e.g. protocol development, interface design, new strategies, and integrations, …).
We’d be definitely excited to support this initiative with our community, and rewarding active contributors seems like the best way to establish community-led development and growth.
Keen to hear your opinions! Jump in on the comments if you’ve something to suggest!