Link to Snapshot: Snapshot
Preferred name: Daylon
ENS name: daylon.eth
Forum username: @daylon.eth
Twitter profile: @feraldread
Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?
I am among the most consistently engaged, well-informed, and longest contributing candidates.
After trying in all three of the previous term’s steward elections, I began to feel a little disillusioned with the whole process, as if it’s more or less a popularity contest, rather than a way to select the best candidates, based on their relevant merits like qualifications or experience, but in spite of that… here are a few reasons why I would make a good steward:
- I have been an active participant since the DAO started in November 2021.
- One way to see just how active is by checking my admittedly absurd amount of governance forum activity. (535+ days visited, 8 days read time, over 12k posts read, etc.)
- DAO data-tracking platform Karma shows me as the 2nd-most active contributor in ENS DAO, behind only nick.eth, the founder of ENS.
- I have participated in 100% of all DAO votes, both on and off-chain.
What have I contributed during my time in ENS DAO?
- I think the most widely appreciated and significant contribution is the ENS DAO Newsletter. Since first proposing and starting it in March 2022, the research and editing involved to publish two new editions per month has required me to stay informed and up-to-date with the latest ENS developments every single day.
- In November 2022, I was offered the opportunity to provide support in the Governance Forum, which I am happy to continue doing however I am able to, and for as long as my assistance is wanted.
- During the start of this term, I acted as “archivist” by providing note-taking and call summaries whenever possible. However, since moving back to Seoul in February, the time zone difference made it much more difficult to attend the calls like I was able to originally at the start of the year. However, I’m still willing, able, and happy to assist whenever needed!
What would I do if elected as Steward?
I have maintained a Steward Platform containing a work-in-progress list of ideas I would like to develop further with ENS DAO, if given the chance and support.
The TL;DR is below if you don’t want to click the link.
- Secure the .eth TLD.
- Develop a second airdrop.
- Implement a variation of quadratic voting.
- Redevelop the delegation process to include an expiration function.
- Request regular financial audits from ENS Labs in order to safeguard against potential corruption and embezzlement.
Some of my other previous ideas include…
- Here’s a fun one - The first idea I presented to the DAO was the formulation of an official Mission Statement. It never quite reached maturity, but that’s alright. It got the wheels turning and helped the early DAO members begin exploring the collaborative process.
- Another big idea I developed and presented was a Community Contribution & Steward Performance (CCSP) Awards Campaign. This one also didn’t gain enough traction to be implemented, despite getting a decent showing of support in the forum responses… but I like to think that it at least in some way provided inspiration for the current ENS Small Grants program.
- ENS Social Club was another small idea that unfortunately didn’t develop past the initial brainstorming steps.
- (Unreleased) Press & Public Relations Working Group
Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)
The responsibilities of a working group steward as outlined in Section 5 of [EP1.8] Working Group Rules can be boiled down almost entirely to “using discretion to disburse working group funds to people and/or projects.”
I believe it is important that there should not be any conflicts of interest, especially financial, in those that hold the position of working group steward.
I worry that with programs like ENS Small Grants, as well as the other grant programs offered and being developed, there are many opportunities for “kick-back” type situations in which an “in group” works to continuously benefit themselves while excluding those “outside” of their group. An example would be a delegate with a large number of votes making arrangements to vote for recipients that would then give them back a portion of the awarded grant money - the approval voting system and lack of thorough applicant vetting in the current Small Grants process is particularly vulnerable to this type of exploitation.
Another example would be if a small group of individuals that hold a large amount of voting power act together to keep themselves in the types of positions wherein they can receive unjustifiably large amounts of compensation, often budgeted by and for themselves, without any type of check or balance in place to monitor or account for where the money is going, and why.
Also, I believe there should be an absolute minimum commitment a steward agrees to in order to justify receiving compensation. Attending each of the weekly working group meetings, unless there is an emergency, seems like a reasonable starting point in my opinion.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
-Daylon