Please find the Q2 budget hosted by the GWG to steward the delivery of NDC V1 Gov led by the NEAR Community. The GWG will steward and facilitate Gigs, RFPs, and Roles to BuiDL and deliver NDC V1 Gov by late Summer '23.
About the NDC
The NDC is a Community-Led movement to BuiDL Web3 Gov on NEAR.
Hey @Vanya Appreciate you jumping in on the topic however I would advice you to refrain from tagging Marieke and Illia in your comments. If there is anything that needs escalating you can ping any of the mods and we can take note of them.
Since you’ve asked for clarity it is also advisable you wait for the OP to reply to your concerns
Please see all the info shared above for the allocated budget. I recommend reviewing the Vison and Q2 Strategy and the products built to bring NDC V1 Gov online. What’s remarkable is that these products are being built by the Community via Gigs and RFPs
No, a $2K stipend for up to 4 people per mo.
A Marketing agency responsible for the NDC, and I am Human Brands, along with content authoring. This service is now being transitioned to the Community via gigs and a new WG.
Please see the OKRs above. We have objectives to ensure 5 Grassroots Constellations have completed Charters and processes to receive Funding from NDC V1 Gov. This will fully restore funding to the Grassroots Community. Workgroup guides help review and guide the workgroup to Charter completion.
This is the new WG forming with gigs to have the Community facilitate grassroots marketing
These bounties are for Community contributors that help in workgroups with Charters, Moderation, Coordination, Meetings, etc.
2 Full-Time Product managers as contractors, not incentives or benefits (as with all NDC Contributors)
Contingency is standard in any budget of an initiative of this magnitude.
Overall, the GWG has come in under budget for every QTR.
This QTR aims to Reboot the NEAR Community via Contributions and Rewards to bring NDC V1 Gov online.
This budget is comprised chiefly of Funding the WG’s, NDC Product BuiDL, and Marketing to invigorate the NEAR Community to become a HUMAN ON NEAR.
To be able to vote for Funding, Elections and determine how We, the Community (NDC) will Govern.
The Onboarding for IamHuman is underway and a Key focus of the OKRs in Q2, which is why there is a heavy focus on Marketing to the NEAR Community to onboard.
We have a bounty up to add Human Powered Polling on EasyPoll:
The IamHuman initiative is powered by the NDC and has only gone live a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure all stakeholders are eagerly looking forward for it to be fully implemented in all governance processes but it may need some battle testing and fine tuning as users start testing out its features
Thanks for sharing the budget and for always been open and transparent with community.
I have some questions and some comments.
Qs -
1. Is the budget paid out in NEAR or in USDC (or stable coin equivalent)?
Most people would agree the budget is chunky. If it were to be extrapolated to a yearly budget ($2m+ per year) that would be 25% more than the entire Grassroots DAO budgets combined ($1.5m) under v0.
My key concern is that the market is ROUGH. If paid out in NEAR, I worry the sell pressure would be immense - NEAR keeps dropping in CoinMarketCap rankings, OG holders and projects keep getting rekt and losing faith. I would support budget getting paid out in USDC only (interesting how changing the unit of account automatically changes the perception of just how much money we are talking about here…)
2. NDC is ‘Community Led’ - who is the decision maker on this budget?
As it is to be expected of a Chunky budget in the midst of a rough bear market, most community members I’ve had the opportunity to talk about are a mix of surprised, sceptical or against it. Which leads to the key question - who is the real decision maker here?
I am worried we are sleep walking into spending very large amounts of money with very:
a) little input from the community
b) feedback, questions and concerns being automatically dismissed because this ‘community led program’ doesn’t actually need the community to approve spending
As I’ve outlined on my Vision for Grassroots DAO post, the only I way I see governance being valuable long term is with things being Default Dead: nothing move forward unless there is sufficient buy-in from the community. If we were to apply this to GWG and this budget: is the budget simply being communicated to us or are we being asked whether we want to proceed?
3. How does NDC determine value creation?
I have a very simple principle - you should always create more value than you extract. While it may be true that NDC has the potential to create and unlock several orders of magnitude more than the requested budget, the key questions are:
What is the simplest way we can achieve our goal?
Can we achieve our objectives in a more cost-efficient manner?
Do we have the best people for the job?
Are we doing what matters the most right now? (Unlock maximum impact)
Are there inefficiencies, redundancies that need to be eliminated?
There is always the risk of the NDC becoming too bloated which leads to polarisation: some people concentrate on the things that are adding value while some people concentrate on things that may not be needed or working as intended. The truth lies somewhere in the middle: can we cut the budget in half and achieve the same results?
The aim is not to hamper people doing greta work. But to acknowledge that we are closer to a Brussels level of bureaucracy than the vision of Decentralised Governance as an engine for growth of the ecosystem.
4. What are the current oversight mechanisms?
Expanding on the questions around value creation above, who determines and approve each item of this budget? I’ve seen a proliferation of working groups - some without clear leadership, reason for existing, or even much activity recently and they are more likely than not to be funded.
I want to be clear that I do not believe that anyone has bad intentions. But I am worried that realistically - there is no one keeping track of ‘part time hours’ worked, or asking tough questions prior to disbursing money.
5. What happens if the NDC fails?
The reason why most of us are in crypto is because of corrupt politicians and bloated bureaucracies that then significantly hurt the economy and our ability to work, progress and succeed. Perhaps the biggest lesson from recent financial crises is: ‘too big to fail’ is a recipe for disaster. Entitlement and immunity is what kills you.
I thin we should all be reminded daily that the NDC can fail.
Everything we do - and ask funding for - needs to be seen through a very clear North Star:
Is this creating value for the NEAR ecosystem? (NEAR as a blockchain can also die)
Is this more or less likely to lead to the long term success of NDC? (as measured by community approval, participation. Big assumption is that NEAR doesn’t die first as a blockchain because all the focus went into governance and not enough into fostering an environment welcoming and supportive of builders)
Overall, it’s a strange feeling to be considered an OG, to spent countless hours trying to catch up with all the discussions, countless more hours contributing what I hope would be valuable insights, and not see myself reflected in a huge budget (have never received $1 from NDC). I believe the sentiment is similar with many founders and builders operating on shoestring budgets, grinding just to keep their project alive on NEAR (many have to go to other blockchains out of necessity).
Please find the detailed breakdown now added to the sheet, the PM’s are full-time.
Group
Public name
Internal name
April
May
June
Total Q2
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
EasyPoll (IamHuman Integration)
$0
$6,000
$0
$6,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
Kudos / Upvote / Nominate
$0
$7,500
$7,500
$15,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
NDC Academy
$0
$0
$0
$0
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
Wiki / NearDocs
$0
$7,500
$7,500
$15,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
TrackMyBounty
$0
$7,500
$7,500
$15,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, NDC Dashboard
NDC Dashboard, Pikes Peak RFP
$16,000
$4,800
$4,800
$25,600
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, NDC Dashboard
NDC Governance Gateway
$0
$7,500
$7,500
$15,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, UI/UX Work
Graphical Support
$6,000
$0
$0
$6,000
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, UI/UX Work
UX work, cross widgets
$4,000
$4,000
$4,000
$12,000
Bounties & Gigs
General Bounties
General Bounties (referral, graphics, content, amplify)
$12,500
$12,500
$12,500
$37,500
Bounties & Gigs
Bounties, BOS Widgets
Martin
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$7,500
Events
Community Events
Community Events
$6,500
$6,000
$6,000
$18,000
Events
Swag
Swag
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$7,500
Events
Travel
Travel
$9,000
$9,000
$9,000
$27,000
Governance
Core Team, Governance
Governance
$4,250
$4,250
$4,250
$12,750
Governance
Core Team, Legal
Legal WG
$4,500
$4,500
$4,500
$13,500
MarComm
Community Moderators
MarCom, Mods Lead
$800
$800
$800
$2,400
MarComm
Community Moderators
MarCom, Mods, Senior
$1,200
$1,200
$1,200
$3,600
MarComm
Community Moderators
MarCom, Mods, Junior
$800
$800
$800
$2,400
MarComm
Core Team, Community Mgr
MarCom, Community Mgr role
$3,500
$3,500
$3,500
$10,500
MarComm
Core Team, Near Studio
MarCom, Near Studio
$22,500
$900
$900
$24,300
MarComm
Core Team, Social Media Strategy
MarCom, Social Media & Mods Lead
$4,500
$4,500
$4,500
$13,500
MarComm
Core Team, WG Coaching
Core Team, WG Coaching
$4,250
$4,250
$4,250
$12,750
MarComm
IAH Incentives, Guerilla Marketing
IAH Incentives, Guerilla Marketing
$0
$25,000
$25,000
$50,000
Program Mgmt
Bounties, Charter Drafting
Bounties, Charter Drafting
$5,000
$5,000
$5,000
$15,000
Program Mgmt
Bounties, Note Takers
Bounties, Note Takers
$1,200
$1,200
$1,200
$3,600
Program Mgmt
Core Team, Project Managers
Core Team, Project Mgr
$10,010
$10,010
$10,010
$30,030
Program Mgmt
Core Team, Project Managers
Core Team, Project Mgr
$6,500
$6,500
$6,500
$19,500
Program Mgmt
Tools & Subscriptions
Tools & Subscriptions
$500
$500
$500
$1,500
Tech
Core Team, Architect
Tech, Aarchitect
$8,000
$8,000
$8,000
$24,000
Tech
Core Team, Full Stack
Tech, Full Stack role
$0
$0
$0
$0
Tech
Core Team, Full Stack
Tech, Dev Ops role
$0
$11,000
$11,000
$22,000
Tech
Core Team, Full Stack
Community SBT, KYC SBT, IAH Dashboard
$4,000
$4,000
$4,000
$12,000
Tech
Core Team, Full Stack
NDC Voting UI
$0
$0
$0
$0
Tech
Core Team, QA
Core Team, QA
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$7,500
Tech
Core Team, Smart Contracts
Core Team, Smart Contract Dev
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$7,500
Non-costs
Treasury Buffer
Treasury Buffer
$20,000
$0
$0
$20,000
Non-costs
Contingency
Contingency
$7,276
$8,561
$8,261
$24,097
Total
$172,786
$186,771
$180,471
$539,527
The marketing budget mostly comprises rewards for the NEAR Community to onboard the existing Community to IamHuman to bring Governance online with voters. A new WG has started with the Distro, DEGEN, NFT, and SWARM WG’s to create a campaign and budget and tracking around incentives for Projects, Communities, and Verticals.
Event budget seems even more luxurious. Where can I find more detail? Many huge projects don’t spend anywhere close to $2,500/month on swag.
NEAR Asked the same question in general once NDC V1 Gov is online, it will be higher. The Trust has no stables. The Legal WG also referenced that Treasury Management in terms of impact, is not a purpose of the Trust. The Trust purpose is toward NEAR.
Please find our forecasted yearly budget.
The GWG has consistently come in under budget every QTR as the NDC movement had not started. Happy to report the movement is gaining a lot of traction and much more is now happening. With over 20 workgroups, 100’s of Community created documents, Charters, Budgets, Design docs, NDC Tooling
The budget was created based on over 4 months of research by many Community members including expert input. You can now find the detailed supporting documents on NDCDocs
NDC Q2 Budget Supporting Docs:
NDC Overview:
NDCDocs (nearDocs v0.01) ON BoS | ON near | by NDC bit.ly/3nC7EFA
editable | comments | view history
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
honorable mentions:
Core contributors INC4, MetaPool,
EugeneTheDream (@ekuzyakov), and the NDC
…
The goal of the Governance Working Group (GWG) is to be the steward of bringing NDC V1 Gov ONLINE which establishes governance for the NEAR Ecosystem that allows the Community to vote on how funding (Community Treasury), representatives, and governance are managed.
Instead of doing it in a completely centralized way we have been actively working on the governance process and interacting with the Community to define how V1 Gov will function. The GWG is actively decentralizing while actively brining NDC V1 Gov online by empowering devs to BuiDL NDC Gov, Community members to define governance processes, and revitalizing and onboarding the Community to the NDC through rewards for onboarding to IamHuman.
MVP Gov products and processes that are lean and iterative.
What are the costs to BuiDL a decentralized society? The effort is massive multi-year and expansive. It’s surely north of 1M USD
We have industry-leading experts in the GWG with immense experience in enterprise-level Fortune 500 delivery, budgeting, and execution who our the stewards of the process.
What matters most right now is onboarding OG’s projects, communities, and verticals. The NDC is massively growing and new OG’s come forward weekly.
++++ NDC IS UNDERGROUND ++++
REVITALIZE
—----------------------------------
Community | Funding | Governance
—----------------------------------
By and for the NEAR Community
The Super Power of the GWG is, however the Community Contributors! There is absolutely no way that NDC could be at its current state of progression without the support of the Community, Founders, Backers, NF, Pagoda, Proximity and the rest of the nodes.
Simply put it’s never been done at this level, it’s raw, organic, evolving. We will not get it right upfront, it will take time, it will be iterative, it will be community-led.
Advisory Panels, Ecosystem Roundtables, Community Feedback Loops (as this one)
75% of things fail in the first five years. This is not contemplatable. In my view, if we fail to assemble the Community to NDC V1 Gov due to infighting, gangs, disbelief or not revitalizing our Community then it will fail massively and no more funding will transition to the Community Treasury.
Web3 is stressful, most Community members are managing 3-5 gigs to make it. NDC has the potential to be the Gig Economy in Web3. Shaped by the NEAR Community.
NDC PRINCIPLE II - You will be rewarded if you are a contributor to the NDC, directly contributing to BuiDL Web3 Gov. It must be verifiable via two other contributors. You can be removed from your gov contribution role for misconduct. No hiring process is required. All Gigs are outcome-based. We learned last cycle upfront payments should only be given for a high enough reputation level.
WE ARE ACCEPTING Q4 RETRO BOUNTIES. IF YOU
CONTRIBUTED TO A CHARTER
MODERATED A WG (workgroup)
SCHEDULED MEETINGS
CURATED A WG CONVO
WELCOMED NEW MEMBERS TO A WG
THE NDC (the Community) HAS SAID IT NEEDS A Q4 OR Q1 CONTRIBUTION JUSTIFICATION
What did you do
What is a modest reward for your contribution
JOIN THE NDC HUB, SUBMIT YOUR CONTRIBUTION
WILL IT BE MORE THAN BUDGET IN NEAR REWARD?
NDC REWARDS ITS CONTRIBUTORS - NDC IS ON NEAR - JOIN THE NDC
THE NDC IS COMMUNITY-LED | THE NDC IS ON NEAR | NDC IS LAUNCHING
If you wish to engage in this topic please address your concerns in a respectful manner. Your subsequent comment had to be removed because of poor use of language, which is against the community guidelines
These are forecasts. Names are not present as rewards are issued retroactively, the ids will be present in the issued rewards.
Please find the details of my grant here:
I am not included in the GWG budget. Unless there are specific expenses like pre-paying events or swag. Which will be disclosed in the rewards with payments and quotes.
Not every workgroup is focused on Charters. Here are the areas of focus outlined in the docs shared above:
My hope is for our entire Community to be revitalized. Yes, that includes DEGENS and every Collective that provided value that has left or is dormant in the darkest reaches of the NEARVerse. I think that is what many do. How was value / is value measured?
Hmm, a DAY 0 community member is not part of the Community? We the Community (NDC) are working to make a better change. Who is the community, well, we’ve been discussing it for some time. Here’s what NDC (the Community) came up with.
We needed NDC police to investigate cases against community and share them with authorities in the real world. In agenda relationships between Blaze and INC4, corruption between NDC and NDC trustees.
These are very serious allegations. If you cannot support them with convincing evidence I suggest you refrain from making such comments. It’s ok to be in disagreement but accusing community with unbacked claims is not something we tolerate and is against our community guidelines