Bankless Advisor: Fiduciary Planners + Non-Custodial Defi

Grants/Funding
1

Title: Bankless Advisor: Fiduciary Planners + Non-Custodial Defi
Authors: Coffee & Crypto#0444, Larseny#3336
Date Created: 10 SEPTEMBER 2022

SUMMARY

Bankless Advisor will equip a generation of financial advisors with the education, technology and legal tools to introduce one billion people to the Bankless life.

We are proposing that Bankless DAO provide an initial landing and incubation space for this project (which may be spun off into its own DAO or sub-DAO in the future). We are not requesting any $BANK tokens; Bankless Advisor will purchase $BANK on the open market to pay for bounties…

We have an agreement with a company that provides Defi software for financial advisors who will whitelabel and revenue share with Bankless Advisor.

Bankless Advisor will be a source of revenue for BanklessDAO within 90 days of approval.

You can see the Bankless Advisor Pitch Deck here.

BACKGROUND

  • Finding fiduciary advice in Crypto & DeFi is hard
  • Finding fiduciary advice in Crypto & DeFi that doesn’t require taking custody of assets is even harder
  • Bankless Advisor is a complete solution for financial advisors that allows them to provide a guided DeFi experience for their customers that anyone would be comfortable referring their mother to
  • The initial target market is the 1,300+ members of PlannerDAO and 400+ advisors who have completed the Certified Digital Asset Advisor (CDAA) course
  • Larseny#3336 has been accepted into the Superfluid Reactor program to integrate streaming payments into the software

MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT

  • The mission of Bankless DAO is to “help the world go Bankless by creating user-friends onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media and culture”. This organization is designed to be in alignment with that mission, and specifically targets the enormous ecosystem of fiduciary advisors and their customers
  • This tool will be used to educate both fiduciary advisors and their customers on wallets, custody and defi, but will also be used as a platform to provide ongoing educational content (Bankless Academy integration anyone?) to all users and consumers of the platform.
  • By incubating the project in Bankless DAO we will be able to crowdsource ideas and opportunities for improvements and additions to the platform as we move beyond the beta test into mainstream financial advisor channels.
  • It is our intention to source as much of the work as possible (legal, development, design, etc.) from Bankless DAO itself.

SCOPE OF WORK

  • The objective of this proposal is to provide a landing and incubation space for the Bankless Advisor project inside of Bankless DAO and for the DAO to provide talent for the initial design, marketing, and website work. It is our intention to use external funding or revenue generated from the platform if/when any would be required.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

  • Total Addressable Market (we covered the initial PlannerDAO market above) is 300,000 financial advisors with over $100 Trillion of assets under management
  • A realistic model is the XY Planning Network which has 1600 members that charge financial advisors approximately $260-$460 in fees per month
  • Our current model requires that all fiduciaries who use the software are required to own (stake)10,000 $BANK tokens and 10,000 $PLAN tokens (this will be enforced in a TBD way through the software application itself).
  • An author of this proposal (Larseny#3336) is the Founder of the first legal, fiduciary financial advisor software built purely in Defi. Upon approval, Bankless Advisor will receive a white label version of this software and a 10% - 20% revenue share for all fees generated by Bankless Advisors.
    • The software itself generates revenue through the following mechanisms which will allow Bankless Advisor to be self-funding:
      • Swap Fees
      • Streaming Fees
      • Nexus Mutual Insurance
      • CDAA Education
  • How Bankless Advisor will build the BanklessDAO ecosystem:
    • Require staking of BANK tokens
    • Contracting Certified Digital Asset Advisor (CDAA) education to Bankless Academy - approximately $1,000 per advisor
    • Using other Bankless DAO resources
      • Bankless Advisor Logo/Branding (Design Guild)
      • Development Resources (Dev Guild)
      • Ultrasound Mech (Bankless Advisors T-Shirts & Coffee Mugs anyone?)
      • Project Management Guild (Maybe possibly?)
      • Bankless Academy/Education Guild (courses/content for Bankless Advisors)

BRAND USAGE

Bankless Advisor believes that its education and investment activities should be under the Bankless DAO brand, which would be beneficial for both Bankless DAO, Planner DAO, and Bankless Advisor itself.

We already mentioned possible integration with Bankless Academy for education content, and our intention to source as much work as possible from the DAO itself.

On top of that there is the potential for revenue from Bankless Advisor, increased tokenomics through demand for the $BANK token and mandatory staking/owning for the fiduciaries, hundreds (thousands?) of new Bankless brand ambassadors as well as an influx of financial talent to Bankless DAO.

Thus, all activities of Bankless Advisor should be under the Bankless DAO brand to strengthen the overall Bankless mission but also to strengthen the Bankless Advisor competitive position.

SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS

  • Internal Metrics
    • Approved by Bankless DAO
    • Ten advisors onboarded into Alpha test
    • Advisor software whitelabeling completed

NEXT STEPS

  • Formalize Bankless Advisor as a Guild/Sub-DAO
  • Begin to source potential advisors for Alpha test (and what the test will look like)
  • Formalize Bankless Advisor branding
  • Formalize legal structure & entities

SQUAD BACKGROUND

@Coffee&Crypto is is a 17 year IT veteran and a lifelong technology enthusiast with over a decade of experience in virtualization and cloud computing. He “fell down” the Crypto rabbit hole nearly a year and a half ago and became enamored with and excited by the potential of blockchain technology to revolutionize and upgrade every facet of our lives. He is incredibly passionate about how technology empowers individuals and communities to create solutions and solve problems that improve the qualities of their lives and the lives of everyone the technology touches. I have been hanging around the DAO for a year or so now and have contributed things like the Web3 Security Fundamentals Workshop as well as being one of the Genesis Team members of CryptoNexus.

@Larseny3336 is a CPA, CFP®, and the Founder of Defi Steward, where he helps Investment Advisers safely manage digital assets for their clients. He is also the Co-Founder of PlannerDAO, a decentralized community of financial advisors, and the Certified Digital Asset Advisor (CDAA) designation.

Previously, Steve built a $250m Registered Investment Adviser in the Pacific Northwest, serving as President and Chief Compliance Officer. In 2022, he merged his continuing education company for accountants with Interaxis to create the only full-service digital assets education platform for financial advisors and accountants.

As a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner, Steve has spent most of his career as an independent fiduciary financial planner. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Gonzaga University, where he teaches classes in Cryptocurrency and Financial Planning along with developing continuing education courses for CPAs and CFPs.

Do You Support Bankless Advisor?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

1 Like
2

I think this is a fantastic idea that will go a long way in helping to mainstream and legitimize crypto.
I particularly appreciate that you are already considering how to integrate with and leverage BanklessDAO guilds and projects and have thought through the revenue possibilities and how this can increase the value of BANK tokens.

Since you’re not requesting BANK tokens, I’m curious why you’re posting it for a forum vote.

3 Likes
3

@Elemental We posted it for a forum vote because we intend to use the Bankless name, we view this as a long term and mutually beneficial arrangement. and we want to have the support of the DAO.

5 Likes
4

Good idea and leveraged approach which will pave a pathway for resolution (I hope) in the USA of an appropriate oversight/regulation framework. The very concept of fiduciary responsibility and crypto investing need support and promotion. Now one huge obstacle to overcome toward adoption is thought that crypto is a game, a ponzu, or pure speculation not a new asset class for investment. A fiduciary responsibility for advisor might help.

5

Thank you for the proposal and welcome to the community @CoffeeandCrypto

In your pitch deck the suggested BANK amount (10000 BANK) for an advisor is lower than an L1 member, I suggest that this amount should be atleast equivalent (if not greater) than L1 membership = 35000 BANK

As for the revenue sharing, do you have a specific suggestion on what % of the revenue will flow to bDAO treasruy?

Finally, as I understand, to participate in this project a member necessarily has to KYC themselves and/or acquire certification, is that correct? Is there a no-KYC way to participate? Can the education required for certification be acquired by open-source means or what is the barrier one must overcome?

2 Likes
6

Great questions @Jengajojo. 10,000 BANK was a placeholder that should have been updated. We agree that 35,000 BANK is a minimum and should probably be higher.

For bDAO revenue sharing, we would like to be similar to what other sub-DAOs are doing. @CoffeeandCrypto will have better insight on that.

The Bankless Advisor project is for licensed financial advisors (or their home country equivalent) committed to Defi and a fiduciary standard. Licensed advisors have their information publicly available, so not technically KYC, but basically the same thing.

A non-licensed, anonymous member could participate but likely wouldn’t receive enough benefit as the solutions are designed specifically for advisors. That said, we plan to outsource everything possible through bDAO so others can participate.

Lastly, the Certified Digital Asset Advisor (CDAA) is required as it signals a commitment to the Bankless ethos. We don’t want thousands of advisors joining because they think it’s a great marketing opportunity.

The CDAA certification process is available to anyone, and we plan on working closely with Bankless Academy to set up a revenue-producing course helping advisors become certified.

For those newer to the finance space, I would like to point out that Advisor does not mean Wall Street. Bankless Advisors will be individual advisors and small teams taking clients from big firms and banks and introducing them to non-custodial solutions.

I appreciate the time and thought you put into your questions, let us know if there is anything else we can clarify!

3 Likes
7

This is a great idea and i love that it will drive revenue to the DAO and encourage purchasing / hodling of the BANK token. These are the kind of initiatives that move the DAO forward and help us accomplish our core mission of onboarding the next billion people into Web 3. Nice work yall!

4 Likes
8

I think having a fiduciary advisory is a great idea that would help referrals to the BDAO, as it will provides quality assurance for projects and it would provide Defi experience to customers.

2 Likes
9

@Eagle I think we should at legal implications. Using DAO branding to provide financial advice might not be best and there is a visible material risk (unless there is a wrapper). What do you think?

CC: @teresacarballo @omen @MDLawyer @lawpanda @rotorless

3 Likes
10

I really love this initiative and can only second @Joe_King. It’s in our best interest to support the adoption of BANK and to back projects which help to get our name out and onboard new members to BanklessDAO.

I also want to second @Jengajojo on his recommendation to increase the amount of BANK up to at least L1 membership status, which is currently 35k. To better reflect future changes in the amount of BANK required for membership status, I’d recommend to change this requirement to “becoming a member = purchase L1 membership”, as we might increase the amount of BANK required to be considered a member. Another idea worth exploring is to consider these members to deposits liquidity for ETH/BANK pair, representing at least 150k BANK and its equivalent pairing of ETH, in order to be granted L4 memberships status. More on our current membership levels in the BanklessDAO Constitution & Community Handbook V1 on page 5-6.

3 Likes
11

Great point @lion917, this does need additional clarification.

Bankless Advisor will not be giving investment advice, it will be an association of financial advisors who are building products and services to introduce clients to the Bankless life. Associations of financial advisors are well established (i.e., Financial Planning Association) as revenue-generating entities that don’t need investment licensing.

You make an excellent point that advisors should not offer investment advice under the Bankless Advisor brand. They will advertise that they are a member of the Bankless Advisor sub-DAO, which is committed to Bankless principles.

Advisors will still deliver financial advice under their brand and legal agreements.

An example of this can be found here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/
The “Network” has its own brand, but it lists member advisors by the company they are licensed with.

I’m happy to provide legal and compliance details in this forum or on a separate call with the Legal Guild. Thanks for the feedback!

1 Like
12

I would also like these legal and compliance issues covered in their entirety. Until we have protection as DAO members, this could open massive liability to not just bDAO, but every single BANK holder and Snapshot voter.

cc: @Eagle @omen

1 Like
13

I really like the idea. Congrats @Larseny and @CoffeeandCrypto.
Education and Bankless life are our core and creating an association around these values fits very well with the Bankless mission. I also see it as important that some sub-groups of Bankless create some well organized sub-organizations with particular goals.

Well said @Jengajojo about the 35k BANK. It’s the requirement to be part of the community.

From a legal standpoint, I would only higlight 2 issues:

  1. It would be wise to incorporate a separated entity before the “official” launch of the project. I frankly don’t see many risks in what has been proposed, given that the licensing of the advisor follows the rules of the State in which he/she is located. Nevertheless, it seems important to clearly differentiate the new org from the DAO, given the duties and liabilities that may arise towards third parties;

  2. The use of branding and trademarks is actually something that shoud be referred to Bankless HQ and not to the DAO. I don’t know if @rsa and David would have issues with such a use case. As a precedent we have the case of Bankless Consultancy and the approach appeared to be very permissible, but I am not aware about the details.

Happy to discuss more if needed! Congrats again for the great initiative.

2 Likes
14

We just released an episode of Making Bank featuring @Larseny and @CoffeeandCrypto discussing this proposal. Gives great context!

Bankless Advisor episode

Here’s a one minute excerpt
What is Bankless Advisor?https://link.assetfile.io/3EFqIcvwJKPzSnfYXgsOl6/AG1+What+is+Bankless+Advisor.mp4

Making Bank twitter feed
https://twitter.com/makingbankpod

My comments are in the pod :wink:

2 Likes