After a recent discussion with @aftersound and @synist3r (as well as many others before that) it's become clear that further defining some of the hard conversations the DAO needs to have, and why I feel it could use some structure and guidance, would help make the case for why a project manager is so important. This is going to be a long one, so buckle up and let's do this. I'll break this down by topic to hopefully make it more digestible.
SPS as the Priority
The first big focus point is getting the DAO to prioritize SPS and driving value to SPS. It's my strong opinion that the SPS DAO should be the biggest SPS maximalist of all. It holds the most SPS, it mints the SPS, and any increase or decrease in the value of SPS impacts the DAO significantly.
If we don't prioritize the value of our own token, it leaves us in a position where we have less resources to work with, worse optics for the wider crypto community, and our own community sentiment shifting negatively. The whole community should be having conversations about this.
How does a project manager help? The project manager would be able to steer conversations into becoming productive and actionable proposals. Understanding the underlying technology, distribution models, and having experience in economics (especially crypto tokenomics) helps to take raw ideas and create something we can vote on and execute effectively.
DEX vs CEX
I've already started this conversation to some extent here, but it's a wider overarching conversation we need to all work on as a DAO. We have limited resources and need to figure out how to use them effectively to create value for SPS. The more value we drive to SPS, the more resources we have to work with.
Right now we certainly have enough resources to be expanding LPs and getting SPS listed on more DEX. We also technically have enough resources to go for a Binance listing. I have my own thoughts and opinions, but it's not about me. We as a DAO community have to be able to have productive conversations and come up with actionable plans on how to move forward and then execute on them.
How does a project manager help? The project manager would be tasked with the b2b communication aspect for sure. All projects need a point person for these types of interactions. A skilled project manager will help negotiate prices or incentives to develop and capitalize on these partnerships to both minimize expense for the DAO and to drive value to SPS.
In short, a project manager is the person that would take the idea of "let's go get a Binance listing" or "let's open an LP on this chain" and turn it into something the DAO votes on and then goes out and makes it happen if approved.
Strategic Partnerships
The DAO has so much potential to establish strategic partnerships that drive value to SPS. We could work with other communities to create promo cards or have AMAs or Twitter Spaces to raise our brand awareness and bring in new players to our ecosystem. We can work with defi platforms to set up LPs on new chains. We can work with influencers to help raise brand awareness.
We have the leverage of being the governance token for one of the top Web3 games in the world. People want to work with us, who do they talk to? Some structure and guidance as well as having a vested representative of the DAO be that person to point to helps out tremendously.
This is one big reason having a project manager is so critical. A project manager could discuss and formalize partnerships with other communities that the DAO would vote to approve or deny. The project manager would be the representative and point of contact to ensure that any partnerships are delivered according to the DAO's expectations and are first and foremost beneficial to SPS.
Liquidity Pools
The DAO needs to really assess it's positions in liquidity pools and the inflation we're paying out to them. How much volume do these pools do a day? How much are we paying to keep them operating? Do any of these pools detract more value for SPS than they add?
I have my own opinions on these topics, but again it's not just "what do I want or think," the point is these are conversations we need to be having as a DAO and then making actionable decisions on. If the purpose of the DAO is to drive value to SPS first and foremost, then we need to assess every faucet and every sink that we have.
A project manager with a deep understanding of what we're doing with LPs and the knowledge of alternative options could really help us restructure our liquidity positions to add more value and reach to SPS while maintaining or reducing the inflation rate. Ultimately adding more value to SPS without increasing expenditures.
Bridges
The DAO could push to bridge Splinterlands assets onto more chains. There was/is (in some state) a bridge to ETH for Splinterlands cards. My understanding is it was disabled when gas fees got too high. The DAO could leverage this knowledge and either work with Splinterlands to reopen that bridge and others like Matic and BSC or it could look to outsource and hire a dev to complete this work.
More players and marketplaces for cards have obvious benefits for all of us Splinterlands players, but could also drive value to SPS. Players need SPS for their ranked rewards. They will also need DEC, which can be obtained by burning SPS. If these bridges require minimal resources to build and operate, the benefits could greatly outweigh the cost.
A project manager would be critical on projects like these as we'd need to effectively communicate what we want and ensure it's delivered in working order and without security vulnerabilities. We'd also need someone contacting the marketplaces on the other chains to establish the related partnerships there as well.
Inflation
There are often many ideas thrown around about how to handle the current rate of SPS inflation. We have many tools at our disposal on how to help reduce SPS inflation that aren't entirely dependent on Splinterlands creating sinks.
A project manager can take those ideas that people bring up, gather relevant information and then share actionable ways to address these items and eventually get votes in place to determine if we take action. Examples include: adjusting token print rates or reallocating inflation targets to areas the DAO finds more valuable.
Sinks and Burn Events
We've already seen a few of these events between the DAO and Splinterlands, such as Vruz or the recent Great Burning event targeting the DEC oversupply. There are always more ideas tossed around in regards to how to do more of these events or how to do them better, yet somehow we haven't seen many actionable proposals.
A project manager would be able to gather the general sentiment, see that some sort of burn event is desired from the community, then discuss the ideas and gather a soft consensus before creating a proposal. If the proposal fails and the sentiment is still strong to do an event, the project manager would need to start over building soft consensus and adjust a new proposal more in line with the DAOs vision.
Sustainable Sources of Income for the DAO
The DAO needs to find more sustainable sources of income to ensure that it can provide rewards for years to come. The ongoing Rebellion presale event has been great and hopefully we see more collaborative approaches from the Splinterlands side going forward.
That said we need to have discussions about whether or not the DAO wants to pursue other sources of revenue not tied directly to Splinterlands. We can look into partnerships, converting token holdings into other tokens, and plenty of other strategies to drive value to the SPS DAO.
Asset Management
The DAO is already sitting on a lot of unmanaged tokens, which was the driving force for my previous (if ill-timed) proposal to start buying back SPS. If money is sitting and not creating value for the DAO, it's up to us to decide if we want to utilize it to create value or just leave it sitting there.
A project manager could help by researching options and exploring ideas brought forth by members of the DAO and then working to both present the data and turn their ideas into actionable proposals. Doing nothing cost us millions of dollars over the course of the bear market. Having these conversations is vital to the survival of the DAO.
So Much More
I don't think this list is anywhere close to comprehensive. I will probably think of another 10 issues we need to address within an hour of posting. It's not all about me though. I want to help and be of service to the DAO in any way that I can. If I can do that in an official paid capacity, it'll be the only thing I do for work.
That said, even if I am a project manager for the DAO, the DAO is not and is never meant to be one person. I'll have to be working directly with the community on an ongoing basis to push these conversations as well as hear other concerns that I may not personally see and to help facilitate those discussions as well.
I'm sure there are already some of you thinking about items I'm missing here (don't worry I will be too). This is a good thing. I may have a lot of experience and passion to put towards make this DAO a success, but I have no doubt that I will need a lot of help. No one could or should do this alone. We're a DAO, not one man's agenda.
It's going to take all of us working together to make the SPS DAO a success. I'd love to work full time to help drive these conversations and work to facilitate the needs of the DAO. If you see the value in what I'm offering to do and believe that I can help, then please support the proposal for the DAO to hire me. If you do not see the value in the proposal, I'm not going to take it personally. I realize it's a big ask. Hopefully this post will help give more clarity into why I think the project manager position is needed. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Clay, would it be worth setting up a site or something with literally all of the issues that you'd be working on, with progress status' of each of the milestones? A DAOshboard? Most people have 1 or 2 bosses, but you'd have over 150 bosses who would want to know the exact value you're adding and the exact progress you're making on each item.
It's hard for me to know how much work is required in each item, is a strategic partnership a 30 minute phone call or months of work? I have no idea... but I think if you have a space where you can clearly go over during a town hall what you accomplished in the 80 hours since the last meeting then people might feel better about spending the DAOs resources on your income.
Also, ah, what happens if you're sick for a week? Does this gig come with timesheets? I guess that's the kind of thing a DAO project manager might need to set up for future contractors to the DAO.
It's hard to plan for every eventuality in a proposal for a job that hasn't existed (in the scope of a DAO) before. We have no structure or outlines in place for how the DAO handles any of this. I tagged you in a comment on azircon's reply too as it addresses the organizational aspect of all of this info/what I'll be working on.
If I get sick, we'll have to deal with it when it comes. I don't think I had more than 1 or 2 sick days the entire time I worked for Splinterlands, but yea that's a bit of a blessing and not something you can really plan for or rely on.
Oh, I'm sure you're super unlikely to get sick, I just wanted to point out that it would be important in this project manager role to establish how this DAO might work as an employer for you and any future contractors/consultants.
Fully agree that the DAO #1 focus should be generating value for and to the SPS token.
Having 150 bosses is not a good scenario. You have to slowly peel yourself off from extensive discord conversations. You can have a short office hour there if you like, but your net presence there shouldn't be more than the net presence of say Cryptomancer. This is just to protect yourself and your mental health. Also sitting for hours on discord dealing with mindless chatter is unproductive.
The proposal will soon pass. As soon as it does, I like to see your contributions at this space. Here we keep a record of all conversations. Here we can be productive and generate true value for the DAO quickly and efficiently.
Well done on the post!
Agreed, the Discord time drain can get very unproductive. I'm actually taking the rest of the day off Discord right now for that reason. To touch on what @aussieninja said... I do like the idea of having topics set up almost like a progress board so the SPS stakeholders can comment and contribute in real time.
I'm currently getting a lot of feedback and processing. Leaning towards the idea of getting an SPS DAO front end for HIVE, sort of like SplinterTalk and maybe just having no reward system set up on it. That way anyone with a hive account can join into the conversation, we don't have to worry about rewards bickering (hopefully?), and we can have a space specifically organized for SPS DAO governance without having to "silence anyone" since it's all on chain. If people want to post off topic posts, we can mute them out.
Basically, clear out the noise and let's get the DAO mobilized and charging forward. Pretty sure I can just reach out to hive-engine and get this done.
Nothing special is needed. Don’t waste time. Just simple post and conversation on PeakD front end is adequate.
Also don’t even think about denying rewards. We like to reward you for your hive post.
Awesome. I think it might be worth have some sort of polls capacity for the smaller day-to-day stuff that some people in the DAO might have opinions on... things like "Should contractors of the DAO provide timesheets?", "Should we pursue this particular partnership?" - it's hard to really know what level of detail the DAO should get involved.
👍
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
I used to think big centralized exchanges were important, I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe we should be going a totally different direction, kind of working backwards making exchanges come to us. I've been hodling this other project for 5 years now and they don't prioritize big centralized exchanges, instead they prioritize what they call "velocity of money" - person to person transactions, phone to phone for goods and services like M-Pesa is used in Africa (phone minutes) to buy groceries and pay utilities. Ultimately what they care about is how many people use it for retail, to pay utilities, to buy phone minutes, etc.. and they keep expanding it. Statistics for real world use, for everyday needs is prioritized over any exchange volume. Perhaps at some point the Dao could hire developers to make a mobile wallet app and get everything audited by a white hat security group and release that and see how the developing world adopts it or instead if there are already existing secure mobile wallets that are used in the developing world get us on to those platforms.
Hive-Keychain already exists and supports transfer of SPS on hive-engine.
Thanks for the time and thinking put onto this, I'm not a big SPS holder whale but I think that precisely us little holders and players will benefit of a well-run DAO.
There is no other game in the world that currently is partly "owned" by its players, as far as I know. The potential is unlimited. I will try always to help with votes, opinion, delegations and diamond hands, as well as my own work on promoting the game (Im a Local Gaming Store owner here in Spain, been in MTG since 1994).
Again, thanks.
Thanks for the support! I played MTG and Pokemon TCG quite a lot in the 90s. LGS are one of my favorite things! If I ever end up in Espana I'll definitely be hitting you up to find your store lol.
For sure! Drop me a line if you get over here! We are in Valladolid, just north of Madrid, it would be the first Hive meeting in this city hands down haha