ENS name: metagov.eth
My reasons for wanting to be a delegate:
We believe that ENS is an important utility in Web3. How it is governed will have significant repercussions for the ecosystem. We want to participate in delegation in order to ensure that the governance of ENS is informed by best practices, and to bring reflexivity and reflection to the ongoing task of governing.
Metagov (aka the Metagovernance Project) was founded to understand and improve the governance of online communities across Web2 and Web3. We know what works from other projects and systems and will endeavour to communicate learnings derived from ENS governance for the benefit of others.
My views on each section of the proposed ENS Constitution
- Name ownership shall not be infringed: Agree (with comments)
This is a complicated issue. The .eth registrar contract is locked, though in practice there are ways for ENS team and keyholders to target a subset of addresses in order to āinfringeā on name ownership. But does ānon-infringementā mean that we can do nothing if someone manages to hack a substantial number of .eth names, such that the utility of the entire system suffers? Does it mean we have to guarantee the same prices for different TLDs, or the same governance? What if a child pornographer starts taking payments out of kidporn.eth? We believe that non-infringement is an important constitutional value to a decentralized service such as ENS. However, we believe that as a matter of practical policy, the community and DAO should recognize that (1) infringement is possible, (2) nothing in the real world is absolute, and (3) find ways to safeguard and check the use of this policy tool instead of saying ācode is lawā and ducking the issue.
- Fees are primarily an incentive mechanism: Agree
Fees for registration and re-registration are a reasonable solution and a tested business model for a service such as ENS. The economic trajectory of decentralised blockchain infrastructures has demonstrated that the ability to extract and accrue fees can also be a signal of a projectās use if not resilience. There are complex reasons for this, including treasuries being the āunforkableā component, an indicator of market share or future potential (possessing resources for ongoing development). These factors may influence the value of a token and present challenges for governance.
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Income funds ENS and other public goods: Agree
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ENS Integrates with the global namespace: Agree
DNS is a useful internet-wide utility, and Ethereum is part of the internet. ENS should integrate with DNS to the degree it can remain decentralized.
My web3 qualifications / skills:
We are leading researchers, academics, and founders in crypto. Metagov itself is a public charity dedicated to self-governance within online communities. Metagov.eth and the Metagov DAO are controlled by Joshua Tan, Ellie Rennie, Michael Zargham, Kelsie Nabbens, and Nathan Schneider.