TEMP CHECK - Guest Pass V2

Governance
1

Title: TEMP CHECK - Guest Pass V2
Author(s): @patrickworkman @Icedcool defibeats
Squad:Ops, Treasury department
Date Created: June 9, 2023
Date Posted: August 11, 2023

TL;DR

  • Today, our Guest Pass has unlimited renewals, effectively giving Guest access in perpetuity and limiting our ability to raise the bar of commitment in the DAO.
  • The BanklessDAO Constitution allows Guests to access bDAO for 14 days.
  • BanklessDAO should issue Four (4) week Guest Passes with Two (2) renewals
  • We must update our Guest Pass mechanics to convert Guests to Members and improve participation and contributions to the DAO.

BACKGROUND

Mission and Value Alignment

3.2.1 Guests of the [BanklessDAO constitution]

Guests are designated by their ā€œGuest Passā€ role tag. After completing an onboarding process, Guest Pass holders are granted 14 days to investigate, participate, and test the community waters. Individuals who desire to move beyond the guest status do so by confirming that they hold the required amount of BANK for Level 1 Membership.

The Problem

Our Guest Pass mechanics are flawed in many ways:

  • Guest Pass is infinitely renewable, enabling Guests to participate in bDAO without holding BANK.
    • This reduces the utility of holding BANK and incentivizes value-extracting contributors (i.e., earn BANK, sell BANK, and leave).
    • It discourages the retention of value-creating Members to stay and contribute (i.e., Members who believe in bDAOā€™s mission and want to increase the value of BANK).
  • The 14-day duration of Guest Pass and role assignments are managed at the application level, creating a reliance on third-party applications (Collabland, Guild, Discord)
  • Guest Passes are distributed to Guests who introduce themselves and their proposed contributions in #get-involved, requiring bDAO Members to grant passes when requested.
  • Level 2 contributors are enabled to renew a Guest Pass without limits.

ITā€™S TIME TO ACT.

The Solution

To remedy the flaws of Guest Passā€™s mechanics, we should align Guest Passes with their intended purpose, as documented in BanklessDAOā€™s Constitution.

  • Per the BanklessDAO Constitution, one 14-day Guest Pass should be claimable by one guest.
    • One guest = one DiscordID + Wallet
  • Guest Passes should be on-chain and created/allocated through a bDAO Guest Pass contract, reducing the reliance on third-party applications and bDAO contributors.
    • The contract will manage the duration of the Guest Pass
    • After 12 weeks, Guest Passes will expire, remaining in a Guestā€™s wallet and showing a balance of ā€˜0ā€™ when they attempt to verify the asset in bDAOā€™s Discord through Collabland or Guild.

The Benefits

Limiting the duration of the Guest Pass to 4 weeks days with 2 renewals allows Guests to join, engage, and participate in the BanklessDAO community and decide if it is for them. It provides a time-based incentive to foster relationships with Members, learn how to earn BANK and determine how they can contribute to the DAO.

Constraining Guests to a finite onboarding period creates a better experience, inspiring Guests to explore projects best suited to their abilities and desires quickly. It creates a better experience for members, raising the bar of commitment for new Members.

Limiting a Guest Pass to a finite amount of access will create demand for BANK. This will incentivize more capital and Members to join and contribute.

SCOPE OF WORK

The Guest Pass contract will be deployed on Unlock Protocol. Unlock Protocol is an open-source protocol that has created time-bound memberships as NFTs (ERC-721s) on EVM-compatible networks since 2018. The Guest Pass contract will be owned and managed by bDAO. Unlock Protocol has a stellar reputation in the space and is the leader in creating memberships as NFTs. Leading projects like Cabin and others have built their membership infrastructure using Unlock Protocol.

The Guest Pass contract will manage the duration of Guest Passes. bDAO can extend a Guestā€™s membership if necessary and agreed upon by the community.

Guest Passes will be claimed by Guests and airdropped to wallets associated with a Guestā€™s DiscordID. Each DiscordID is passed (hashed for privacy) as the data argument and stored in a programmable hook which would fail if a DiscordID has already claimed a guest pass.

Guests must attend a New Joiner Session before receiving access to the broader Bankless DAO Discord server. This will provide a better experience for Guests, encouraging rapid participation and exploration during their time in the DAO. A better onboarding experience will increase the number of Guests who become Members.

SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS

  • Conversion of Guests to Members compared to infinite renewals
  • The number of Guests to the BanklessDAO server compared to existing mechanics
  • Increase in BANK value due to increase in Membership

NEXT STEPS

  1. Solidity specifications and constraints of limiting Guest Passes to a finite renewal for community Members.

  2. Ops Department to align on the process for claiming a 4 week Guest Pass, Guest Pass contract ownership, community roles, and updating DAO-wide documentation.

  3. Dev Guild to align on the technical implementation (network, contract management, Discord access) of claiming a Guest Pass and any constraints/gaps.

  4. Treasury Department to align on the potential impact of their tokenomics efforts

  5. Education Department to align on updating onboarding sessions and documentation, focusing on acceleration within a 3 month duration to encourage Guests to become community Members.

  6. Determine budget and team.

  7. The cost to update claiming process and documentation revisions is TBD.

  8. The Guest pass contract is deployed through Unlock Protocol to manage claiming, duration, and management.

1. A custom programmable hook will be created to manage one claim to one Discord ID + Wallet

  1. Unlock Labs to support the above technical implementation at no charge to the DAO.

  1. The cost to update onboarding sessions, documentation, and supporting contributors is TBD.

  2. Get a consensus on the plan.

  3. Submit a request to the Grants Committee for funding.

  4. Implement and roll out.

THE POLL

Vote

BanklessDAO should change its guest pass system to Four (4) week Guest Passes with Two (2) renewals max
  • Agree
  • Disagree (I will comment below)
  • Abstain (I will comment below)
0 voters
7 Likes
2

I agree with this proposal, butā€¦.

A big reason why guest pass members are still guest pass members deals with being able to afford the L1 pass.

In theory, itā€™s not a lot of money. But itā€™s hard to afford it depending on the economic climate of the country youā€™re from.

My question would be this.

Are people going to have better opportunities to earn their way to guest pass considering the current price of bank? Are we only working towards being able to work for the DAO (respectable!) and not towards a persons ā€œfinancial independenceā€

I donā€™t think this revamp is going to be detrimental. I agree with it. However, considering how many people are just looking to continue to contribute in order to just survive, im curious how this plan is going to tackle that aspectā€¦

Iā€™m not sure how this creates the better experience. Iā€™m not sure if I see it yet. But I figure eventually it would? Iā€™m just confused.

5 Likes
4

First let me say I am VERY supportive of this effort! Thanks for putting it together, and I look forward to seeing it move forward.

That being said I have some feedback/concerns:

  • is two months enough to earn 35K BANK? Not really IMHO, there just arenā€™t enough bounty opportunities to do this in two months.
    • If we shut down the path for users to ā€œearnā€ their L1 I think some projects could be negatively affected. Iā€™ve had at least half a dozen members earn L1 through Bankless Card, but it often took more than 2 months.
  • how will guest passes be claimed by guests? If they have to go through unlock protocolā€™s website, it adds a significant hurdle for new people to start contributing. Right now they just get a discord role and start. This new proposal means they need to get a wallet, figure out how to secure their seed phrase, (maybe) figure out what Optimism is, and more.
    • personally I joined bDAO without a wallet, contributed to the writers guild and learned how to make a wallet when I earned some BANK. Not saying we need to do this, but it allowed me to ā€œcatch the vibeā€ before I had to figure out some confusing web3 basics
  • who is responsible for managing all this? Itā€™s a complex system (ie new joiners session + contract + discord/collabland + more), which is inherently more fragile than a simpler system
    • for instance, could we have a limited guest pass system using discord/collabland only? This would reduce scope of upfront work and maintenance for bDAO while reducing complexity for new joiners

Ultimately I agree we need to limit the Guest Pass, Iā€™m just worried about ending up with a complex, hard to use, hard to maintain system that results in barriers for valuable contributors to contribute. As an example, First Quest bot has had a significant bug for the last 6+ months that caused issues in our onboarding and no one was able to spare time to fix it.

Our job is to onboard people to web3, so making the onboarding process to our discord as smooth as possible will help us with that. Making it low-effort to use and maintain will go a long way.

Some suggestions:

  • create a POC that people can use to show how easy/hard the system is to use
  • look at alternative solutions like the collabland guest pass bot (currently being looked at by @brianl in ops guild)
  • beef up the area on discord where non-members can ā€œcatch the vibeā€ so even those who used up their guest pass can stay connected to Bankless even if they canā€™t afford/earn L1. Their situation may change later
  • create some sort of ā€œseason passā€ or tlBANK deferral so projects can keep valuable contributors by locking BANK on their behalf

Anyways, itā€™s a lot so I hoped I didnā€™t take away your energy! My feedback is given in the spirit of helping you improve, so I hope you wonā€™t take it negatively @defibeats and @Icedcool - you are killing it!

9 Likes
5

@Icedcool @patrickworkman @defibeats

Do you guys have sentiment data from guest passers investigating why they have GP Status for the length theyā€™ve had it for?

3 Likes
6

Thanks @defibeats I support this initiative and I strongly believe this will help plug some of the holes in our tokenomics. What is the estimated delivery month for this upgrade?

What happens if someone shows up with the same profile but with a different wallet or with the same profile name with a number next to it, such as jengajojo1, jengajojo2 etcā€¦

While 2 months may not be sufficient time as some have pointed out, the DAO can start a scholarship program for folks who have shown sufficient commitment and earned enough bank, such that we can bridge the gap between the L1 requirement and the amount of BANK the person is missing.

@links brings in some good points about reducing complexity and making it easy for the end user. I recommend limiting the onboarding to 5 clicks or less if possible

2 Likes
7

For clarity:
The proposed guest pass would be for 3 months - 1 granted pass and 2 renewals.

Also @defibeats is on vacation till the 28th, and he will move this forward in a more focused capacity then. In the meantime Iā€™m going to facilitate discussion :slight_smile: .

@links @Jengajojo

1 Like
8

Hmmm it is a challenge.
I think as a component of this, we will need to revise and refine our onboarding processes, and creating a wallet, etc could be a part of that.

I think we are going to have to bite the bullet on this, and just make sure the UX/UI is really good with good supportive processes.

I agree we need to make sure it is as simple in implementation as possible, and I think we can do it.

I donā€™t think we have any kind of quality solution with just discord/collabland.

I agree with all the suggestions!
I think this highlights that the scope of this is important and a multi-department effort (Ops, Tokenomics, education potentially).

1 Like
9

If someone has a different wallet, and SIMILAR name, there isnā€™t a lot we can do (impersonation kind of stuff).

As far as discord<>Collabland<> Unlock would be concerned that would be a unique individual.

This would be more on the infosec front in terms of making sure impersonations arenā€™t happening.
Maybe wick bot can help out with thisā€¦

3 Likes
10

Can we use Gitcoin Passport attributes with a threshold score to identify unique guest passers and L1s?

6 Likes
11

I agree with Links on that we want new members to feel it easy to join web3 with us, not having to figure it out on their own so they can join us.

Agree that the problem you mention is an interesting one worth looking into and I bet there are many solutions for it.

Rather than creating our own contracts and UX/UI, first doing POC using existing tools/wallets that use account abstraction and protocols like Gitcoin Passport as Jenga suggested could be a good starting approach. Iā€™d start doing interviews about why people join, why they stay, why they leave, those who stay how long take to become L1ā€™s, how they get their BANKs.

With the L1 change coming up, Iā€™d hesitate to make changes in guest passs until we see the effects of this new mechanics, but we could always start with the interviews.

Iā€™d be glad to help design, distribute them and analyzing the results. The results could be of benefit not only to this project but to edu, tokenomic, governance departments, so it could be a joint effort. (Maybe there has already been other iterations of this research done in the past we could look at to begin)

After writing this I did find out one survey form Research Guild, that we could start analyzing the results if they have some.

Only the form is too long and questions are complex/tricky so Iā€™d propose to design a shorter and more concise one for a narrower objective.

3 Likes
12

@anafante

I created the survey, and have analysis of the results. This would not necessarily fit as a reasoning or a guide for this process because it talks about general sentiment

Thanks.

I will be looking at an interview series of questions soon, if that would be more to your liking.

This group would do well to have a survey that is more focused to why guest pass members have been guest pass members for X period of time. So if there is a trend regarding why guest pass members stay as guest pass, figure out that trend and have an answer for it.

1 Like
13

As usual, thoughtful comments from @links .

Can we look humanistically at the human dynamics here?

When folk arrive in a new situation, they donā€™t want to be pressured into making a rapid, maybe poor quality contribution, using pyramid style or boiler room tactics.

Proper understanding of their interests, skills, experience, takes time, as does their orientation in an often chaotic environment like bDAO. And BTW, ChatGPT plugged into the huge Notion libraries here would make a much better job of onboarding than we mere humans, just saying!

Back to today, incentive schemes here wonā€™t be clear to folk on first arrival, and there is much variation guild to guild.

Iā€™ve done my own research into incentives, using ChatGPT, and they are many and varied. A rather one dimensional Guest Pass gating scheme is a pretty limp attempt at tackling this situation, which as @links points out is extremely complex. And itā€™s complex exactly because itā€™s dealing with a huge diversity of humanity. One size here doesnā€™t fit all.

If Bankless is serious about being in Web 3 and educating 1 billion crypto users, then for me this moves very much away from Web 3 and from the Bankless core mission, because thereā€™s insufficient room given for learning curves and individual learning paths.

Sure, gamers can probably find their way through complexity like this far faster. It took me 18 months to earn my way to level 1, largely through Coordinape recognition and some strategic early guild work as supported by @Brustkern . But I only stuck at it because I felt the open ethos of Bankless was genuinely revolutionary and opening doors to new ways of working.

Iā€™m currently still holding 35k bank, but if Bankless wants to move in this direction I would have to think about selling, because it feels like itā€™s attacking the open, Web 3 way of working.

For folk who arrived, earned Bank, and left, did they think they exhausted opportunities? Why point the finger at them, when we are the ones creating opportunity and seeking to educate.

Shutting down GPs rapidly because bDAO onboarding or opportunity creation is sub functional misses the point. Onboarding is an issue in every DAO. When pointing a finger at others, we need to remember there are three fingers pointing back the other way.

Iā€™m voting NO, because I think this is seriously retrograde and more akin to Web 2 thinking.

Blaming others, because we donā€™t want to take responsibility ourselves.

For me this is a hearts and souls issue.

Sorry for the upset / annoyance this will likely cause some.

:wolf::waning_crescent_moon:

@homie .

3 Likes
14

This is a good initiative, butā€¦

Considering the economic capacity of everyone joining the DAO from different countries, I think it will really be a bad idea to implement this changes, considering the fact that not everyone could afford to purchase the amount of bank needed to attain the L1 tag . If this be implemented, some folks who are still guest passers will find it difficult to contribute and share in the pushing forward of the Bankless movement.

2 Likes
15

This is more a question for the different DAO org units, than for the DAO at large. What contribution is needed is related to what opportunities people identify and different groups are working on.

IMO, this is less about the DAO creating the opportunities and more about the DAO enabling org units to create them.

This is very subjective for each contributor. Ultimately, I think it is up to each contributor to decide whether they can and want to work for BANK on the mission of the DAO.

Currently, contributors to BanklessDAO obtain a lot by being at the DAO, in the form of:

  • Positive and welcoming experimental atmosphere
    • You can build whatever you think would add value, and it adds to your skills and resume!
  • Social Capital
    • The Bankless brand is a big deal.
  • Airdrops, gitcoin grants, etcā€¦
  • Training

The guest pass and tlBANK is the beginning of value accrual to the DAO for access to these things.

2 Likes
16

I think we canā€¦
@patrickworkman is there plans to integrate unlock with gitcoin passport?

17

Agreed!

I think 3-4 months is plenty of time for someone to get involved at the DAO, and make a reasoned and rational decision about whether they want to be here or not.

Although it does highlight that maybe we need an additional avenue (beyond the above proposal) to enable people that are working to be involved to continue to get some kind of guest pass for an additional seasonā€¦ maybe a vetting process or somethingā€¦

Iā€™d be bummed to see you go. If you have thoughts on how this could be better, would love to hear them!

What is informing some of this is, the DAO has learned some very hard lessons in terms of the opportunities and limitations of permissionless open involvement vs permissioned or qualified involvement.

Additionally, I propose the models of web2 arenā€™t WRONG, just different. And there are some amalgamation that I think could add a lot of value related to this.

I think this is the DAO starting to take responsibility for this.

1 Like
18

I had a call with the Gitcoin Passport product team this morning.

bDAO could choose to have users verify their identity using Gitcoin Passport. After establishing a Unique Humanity Score greater than 20 before, users would be eligible to claim a bDAO guest pass. This process would require users to have a crypto wallet, which will create onboarding friction.

1 Like
19

Maybe we can ask folks to verify their passport score the second time they renew their GP thus reducing less friction during the initial/first onboarding. However we still need to guard against sybils considering the history of the DAO, so a passport verification on the second attempt would be very useful imo

Wdyt?

CC @Icedcool

1 Like
20

Iā€™m hearing the gitcoin passport would create a LOT of friction, but we would want to make sure that discord id is 1 to 1 with a wallet.

Worth further investigationā€¦

1 Like
21

If I may,

It sounds like income was not mentioned here. If income is not mentioned, and income is not considered, it would be a good time to state that now. Iā€™ve seen others consider that, and they have the fortune to be able to keep their bank. Not all people can. If you do this plan without considering those guest passers whoā€™ve worked hard, but canā€™t afford it (I think the scholarship thing could work here) then that could do a disservice to the mission.

There are mastermind groups that essentially can add value, skills etc for your resume for less.

The bankless brand is a big deal, sure. But is it a big enough deal for 1 billion users becoming bankless to head to financial freedom and independence? (Remixing the HQ podcast). - for some, sure, but not for the many.

So, you now how to decide on the following. If weā€™ve gone for however many seasons stating the ā€œfull time DAOā€ initiative, DAO punks, etc.

I just wonder if we instead need to take a look at the underlying aspect of the DAO, while taking a look at the guest pass. Because I agree that it does need a change, but I think there is more than needs to be looked at either in tandem or before guest pass