NDC governance v1 - Sunsetting and Transition Period

NEAR Digital Collective
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Hello Enforcer & Trustees,

This have been around the ecosystem in recent time.

I have been contributing in the ecosystem from the past 3 years now. My opinion on current situation:

1- There’s no doubt NDC structure needs to be changed to increase the efficiency. But whenever I interacted about this to HoM, they have always said about the challenges they are facing to make any changes in the current structure, they were not able to change the structure due to some rules made by the previous gwg team.

Even if they approve to make changes in the framework, it will be implemented from the next congress (as per framework). This was a Red flag to improve the framework.

2- Despite of all these challenges, I feel current Congress made efforts to improve the impact. I think Congress should be empowered to make changes according to the situation. Suppose, if something is not working, we should always give a door for improvement. We should not force them to stick to the same process even if it’s not working.

3- Experimenting and establishing a new entity doesn’t look okay to me. Instead, we can improve the current NDC as they are repairable.

In my opinion, stake based voting and changes in framework can improve the current NDC situation and results.

4- Around 15 DAOs were established during the NDC v1 period, which are actively working. I agree some of them need a direction, that’s why new changes are necessary.

So, I think leaders should sit and find some solution for this. Of course, creating new entity is not at all a solution as I don’t see any surety of any success there.

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First, thanks to the Enforcer and Trustees for their wisdom over the past six months. Even though they did not have complete autonomy, decisions were balanced.

Essentially:

Having been in the Ecosystem for a long time, I observe that all financial flows are managed by the three main political towers, which occasionally fight with each other for resources and influence. It takes a lot of time, so much so that there is sometimes more time for actual development. I will not explain which people are in which towers; I am sure everyone understands everything perfectly. Most people in them are apolitical or observe what is happening from the sidelines. But there are also apparent leaders. Approximately In the summer of 2023, when all grants were put on pause, and for some time, NDC (v0, v1.5, v1) became almost the only source of money. At the same time, a new fourth tower appeared—the community tower (NDC).

I will skip election time and results. It’s for a separate topic and discussion.

The elected congress team was quite strong, even though it consisted of approximately twelve real active people (eight of whom were from HoM). It prepared a budget and work procedures and launched NDC v1 for the Community.

Issues:

  1. Politics, based on fighting between Towers;
  2. Now, going back in time, I understand that some representatives of the towers participated in the elections only to observe what was happening and prevent the development of decentralized management;
  3. Such a vast machine was not needed to manage the NDC;
  4. The guilds’ and DAO’s leaders who came to build and empower the Ecosystem (and it’s perfect) wanted to avoid being involved in politics. As a result, there was a low level of participation in governance.
  5. Public reporting was another reason not everyone wanted to receive funding from the NDC or participate in it;

In disputes about the results, one should remember that NDC is a newborn baby that is not even half a year old, so one should not expect phenomenal results. Although they certainly exist. More than 100 projects in the Ecosystem have been funded. NDC successfully took over some of the key NF responsibilities. Moreover, NDC became a place where ecosystem projects and builders could receive support rejected by other nodes.

What we have now:

  1. All funding is mainly limited to DevHub, Infrastructure Committee, and NF. Lack of other funding verticals.
  2. A new voting mechanism and governance are being developed but have not been publicly discussed. Many brainstorming sessions are ahead. NF will organize public discussions for the Community.
  3. Overall, we need to decide whether to have more decentralized nodes for competition, which will result in new projects and ideas or to completely stop funding. This is the only way to moderate these political wars.

In conclusion:

  1. Strong and well-standing DAOs should analyze their work, unite with each other, and propose their solutions for NF. In preliminary discussions, NF can consider some of them.
  2. I am grateful to our outstanding community leaders, primarily Globe DAO, Degens DAO, Gaming DAO, Build DAO, Aurora Community DAO, Service DAO, Research Collective, Freelancer DAO, Africa DAO, Onboad DAO, NFT DAO, and others for participating.
  3. We especially thank the leaders @cizi31 @derymars @iamanansari @zubairansari07 @HaiVu @IgbozeIsrael @johanga @Psalmy @techdir @Lolson_tg @baxoff , @jlwaugh , @Dabbie3229 @Bakaka and many others with whom we have already conducted five? similar experiments. I am glad to see new leaders. This is NDC’s best achievement. The story has not ended; it has just begun.
  4. Thanks to hard-working HoM members for their commitment: @kiskesis @rexux_in @Dk_51 @haenko @Chloe @DDeAlmeida @AlexUstas @vadim_hom and other. Thanks to the founding fathers for overseeing.
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Allow me to share my personal testimony, purely without coercion or influence from others.

I joined the NEAR ecosystem back in 2021, and here I am today, collaborating with fellow members at Globe DAO alongside regional leaders from various countries.

As a “regular dude” without the same level of confidence as some OGs, famous for speaking up, I’ve witnessed the twists and turns, starting from direct oversight by NF in steering the community, then gradually transitioning autonomy to DAOs, and now at the point of guidance from NDC.

I can say I’m grateful and fortunate because with NDC in place, we and other leaders (Hai, Cizi, Aman, Ihor) , truly with no political agenda, have become the focus, being people who care more, we can actualize our visions and ideals to the existing Globe DAO.

Now, we can see remarkable progress: there’s Gaming DAO, NFT DAO, Onboard DAO, Globe DAO, and even Africa DAO, which I consider a significant advancement in shaping the community ecosystem.

But fate has its say, too much drama unfolds. I highly appreciate the HOM @Dacha @haenko @DDeAlmeida @AlexUstas @Dk_51 @rexux_in @chloe @vadim_hom @Cameron @odin ,Kis , TC, and CoA members who stayed responsible until the bitter end, rather than leaving without clarifying to the community.

May the NEAR ecosystem continue to improve and become even greater in the future.

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:wave: Hey, everyone.

I’m truly thankful to the Hom members who backed AC DAO. It’s heartening to witness how any community member can propose their own project, DAO, and secure funding. With the launch of the NDC, we’re witnessing the ecosystem spring to life. In my three years within the ecosystem, this is the first such experience. Sure, there might be some hurdles, but I believe they’re all surmountable, either through fixes or by relaunching initiatives with similar community backing.

Throughout the NDC’s duration, we’ve seen numerous projects and over 15 DAOs emerge, which is a remarkable outcome.

Once again, a big thank you to all who contributed to this. Your help and support mean a lot for us
Wishing everyone week ahead. :pray:

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Thank you for the update on the v1 NDC governance framework, and I truly appreciate the effort you’ve made in handling its complexities. The meticulous way you’re assessing and improving the governance structure is truly inspiring.

Exploring new community-driven governance methods has been very impressive. Despite the various challenges, these endeavors are crucial for refining future frameworks and ensuring they align more closely with the needs of the NEAR ecosystem.

Your commitment to maintaining transparency and striving for continuous improvement is laying a strong foundation for the future. I’m looking forward to seeing the new plans unfold and am grateful for keeping the community well-informed!

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Thank you to all the members of the NDC houses, not everyone has done their part, but the active members of the community have done a lot of work, a huge thank you to them for supporting AC-DAO and other GDAOs. I hope we will continue to work on this, including troubleshooting.

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Thank you for the explanation, your answer about the new system is reassuring, but where can I find more information? And one more question, what will happen to the money that remains blocked?
Thank you for everything!

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Hello, as a member of the community, I’d like to share my observation that the NEAR community seems to have become more systematic and engaging than before. Things that happen with a snap of the fingers only happen in movies, not in reality. The change has been gradual rather than dramatic, and with time, I believe it has transformed to a point where it’s incomparable to the past.

For a decentralized NEAR!

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Thanks for the update on the v1 NDC governance framework and the hard work navigating its complexities. It’s really inspiring to see such a thoughtful approach to evaluating and transitioning the governance structure.

Experimenting with new community-driven governance methods has been impressive. Despite the challenges, these efforts are key to refining future frameworks and better aligning with the NEAR ecosystem’s needs.

The commitment to transparency and continuous improvement is setting a solid foundation for what’s to come. Looking forward to the new initiatives and appreciate keeping the community in the loop!

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Greetings to all.
Although NDC and the resulting DAOs have not been perfect in their short existence so far, with its ups and downs, triumphs and failures, I must say that they have been the ONLY means through which many base communities have been able to move forward and gain support.
For some time, some of us were adrift.

In addition to the aforementioned leaders, with their agreements and disagreements, pillars, and groups that have shaped and evolved the current process through debate and diverse ideas, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest respect for all those grassroots communities and their local leaders who have been working tirelessly, despite the political situation upstream, but remain unwaveringly committed to the growth of our ecosystem, and especially to the group mentored by @NearGlobeDAO where we work together as community builders.
Congrats to all of you!

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The Communities have received great support, thanks to Globe DAO. :+1:

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I am experiencing it in teamwork with NEAR ES, thanks to the support of NEAR Globe DAO it is possible for us to bring educational content to our blockchain enthusiasts, who show us their interest in Web3 every day. Through this sponsorship, everything is possible to carry out the difusion of the ecosystem projects. Let’s continue like this, straight to Proxima Centauri :rocket:

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Greetings to all.
@NearGlobeDAO has supported us as a community and we thank you for your work. :hugs: :blush:

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We (The community) highly appreciate the work done by NDC and all house members (Hom,Tc,CoA), Although judging the work in this short period of time can’t be justified.
And we cant deny that NDC is an experiment, It takes some trial and errors to make the experiment more feasible, and it comes with time.

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In the past months the NEAR community

  • received 7/24 support in their own language
  • could organize developer activities and workshops (online / offline) in their country
  • had the chance to build on NEAR and share ideas with other ecosystem leaders
  • used dApps on Near and has increased the DAU and TVL
  • received educational support on YT
  • could share NFT related proposals
  • could share Gaming related proposals
  • and many more…

or just enjoy voluntarily the beautiful communication in their own language between NEAR belivers / friends and families and be active on-chain

Thanks to NDC and all Grassroot DAOs for giving the community this opportunities.
We should stop changing things all the time and come together and solve issues / communicate and continue building the best ecosystem in the Blockchain history

Especially Thanks to @Dacha @haenko @DDeAlmeida @AlexUstas @Dk_51 @rexux_in @chloe @Cameron @odin @kiskesis Vadim, TC, CoA for making this happen.

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Watching the active discussion around the NDC v1 governance system, I am confident that the NEAR community can overcome any challenges and ensure sustainable growth of the ecosystem. I suggest focusing on finding compromises and further refining NDC v1 to better serve the interests of the entire community.
Thank you for your efforts, and I would like to see more transparency in this process.

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Hello Enforcer and Trustees!

I would also like to leave some comments as well.

I am an active member of the ecosystem for 3 years now, I am a member of the Ukrainian guild, I am also one of the members of the Degens team and I am a consul of Globe DAO.

I would like to express a big thank you to all NDC V1 for the work done, everyone who helped us together to develop the NEAR ecosystem, and did their job, and the work was done a lot.

After reading the comments under this post I see that some people write that NDC V1 is a complete failure and so on, well, my opinion is different from their opinion, Yes, of course NDC V1 was not ideal and had its shortcomings, but I would like to emphasize that NDC V1 is the first experience when the community really managed the funds, and I want to say that it turned out very good for the first experience.

For example, Globe DAO was funded, I will tell you a little bit more, our DAO specializes in supporting and developing regional NEAR communities, during NDC V1 we supported more than 12 communities, these communities held various events, led social networks in their regions and actively interacted with the ecosystem. This is just one example of how NDC V1 has helped the NEAR ecosystem, and there are many such examples.

Of course there were some disadvantages, such as long processes, political intrigue, etc., but it’s all experience, alas, but without it there is no way, we got it and made a conclusion about what to do and what not to do. In general, NDC V1 did a great job and showed no bad results, thanks to all who were with us. I hope we will correct the mistakes and continue to develop NEAR.

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I’d like to share my opinion as the one who has experienced many “ecosystems” within NEAR, even as a member on the project side (Spin), since 2021:

  • Pros: The NEAR onboarding process is easy to access for newcomers, friendly, and easy to contribute to NEAR growth.

  • Cons: Some take advantage of the pros to drain the funds with their inefficient proposals, or experiments, then go away or restart a new project later with the same purpose.

No matter what they said, the on-chain results are what matter most in terms of new wallets, IAH, TVL, partnerships to bring new projects into NEAR, Devs training activities, and Social media presence.

Under this direction, real results from real contribution, I would like to thank the journey with @NearGlobeDao and NDC Congress in the last 4 months allowed us to demonstrate that to build a DAO system with reward based on the committed KPI of each community (50% based on plan, and the remaining based on results).

However, the time is short to retain the real results and we have to start from scratch again as usual. I feel this is a waste, and people should continue to improve the system instead of leaving and spreading FUD on their proposal and want to start a new system again.

OR Near Foundation can step in, and conduct it properly in a centralized but efficient way.

Finally, I’d like to thank HOM, COA, TC members (@Dacha @haenko @DDeAlmeida @AlexUstas @Dk_51 @rexux_in @chloe @ vadim_hom @ Cameron @ odin) who stayed responsible until the end, rather than spreading FUDs and going away.

I hope Near can develop more efficiently in the future.

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As a community member since 2021 and leader of the German NEAR community i want to add my personal view to this discussion.
As i am not a person for these political games i don’t take part in such political discussions very often. Many think i am not active but as a silent observer i can assure you all that i know more than you think about these political games in the NDC.

First of all i want point out the outstanding work of the @NearGlobeDao. After months without support the Globe DAO gave us the opportunity to revive the NEAR German community. Since January we have grown massively, currently the NEAR German community is more active than ever before.
It would be very sad if this support will end in the next weeks. We made a very interesting partnership a few weeks ago with a German project but without any support it’s impossible to continue with such partnerships.

But there are some major problems within the NDC which I discovered as a silent observer:

  • Cartels: We all know that there exists cartels in the NDC. I don’t want to mention the cartels neither the persons that belong to which cartels but these cartels destroy the whole community, NDC and NF. I hope that these persons will take responsibilty.
  • Unfortunately some members of the Governance framework don’t take time to read reports and check the results. Without putting an effort in their work they are not able to make fair decisions in the votings.
  • Community members are forced to take part in political votings. This is a clear sign of manipulation. Why should a member of a regional community take part in a political voting for the NDC governance. Our members want to play the HOT game, want to stake Near, want to develop smart contracts and many more things but why should they take part in votings for the NDC governance???
  • Too many members in Councils (HOM, TC, COA, Grassroot DAOs). The idea was to decentralize the governance more through a high number of councils but we all should have learned that it slows down the processes.

As i hope that a solution will be find and a new version of the NDC will be set up i want to provide some suggestions for improvement:

  • Remove all persons from Councils who belong to a cartel immediately. These persons destroy us all.
  • Reduce the number of councils in the governance framework. By reducing the number of councils decision processes will be much more efficient.
  • Pay the councils an appropriate salary: If they are paid appropriately they have more time to check reports and are able to make results-based decisions. It will not increase the governance costs if the number of councils is reduced.
  • More “centralization”. Add persons from the Near Foundation to the councils. This will facilitate to work on a common strategy with the NF. And by the way, it will reduce corruption.
  • More support from the NF: For example Regional communities: Why do we not get support from the NF? Why do we not work directly with the Marketing department of NF. It would make many things so much easier.
  • Get back former members: Many good members have left the ecosystem because of the political wars. We should fight to get some of them back to the ecosystem.

This is a personal view about the current situation of a community member, leader and silent observer since 2021. I hope a solution can be find. Thank you!

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Greetings, everyone!

I would like to share my thoughts and comments as well.

As an active member of the NEAR ecosystem for the past three years, and a proud member of the NEAR Vietnam DAO, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those involved in NDC V1. Their hard work and contributions have been instrumental in the development and progress of the NEAR ecosystem.

I am particularly grateful for the new leader we received from NDC V1 and the monthly fund that supports our efforts in building and growing our regional communities. I want to extend a special thanks to Near Global DAO for their exceptional role in driving progress and development. Their innovative KPI system, combined with continuous guidance, has been a game-changer.

While NDC V1 had its share of challenges, it also brought about exciting developments. For the first time, we witnessed the community taking charge of funding and governance. It was an experimental phase that presented us with numerous obstacles, but we persevered and developed various processes that could prove valuable in the next phase of NDC.

Overall, I am grateful for the collaborative efforts of the NEAR community, and I’m excited to see how we continue to grow and overcome challenges together in the future.