All NEAR Foundation and NEAR Inc employees have been asked to leave DAO councils in their official capacity so that these entities are not under scrutiny as legal ‘extensions’ of NEAR. The same mindset may also extend to Guilds or any other entity requesting funds from NEAR Foundation.
The individual working for NEAR would be encouraged not to apply for or receive funding on behalf of a Guild as it can present a conflict of interest.
By the above logic, requesting that an individual working for NEAR be a representative for a Guild hoping to receive funds from NF, in order to bypass another representative going through KYC, would be inadvisable and will not be encouraged.
I mean, before, I just submitted proposals, all the funds went to the DAO.
But in the DAO, even I did not manage them, because I am not a participant in it.
What I don’t understand and I think some agree with me, is, that we as individuals now have to write proposals every month to get our “salary”, when in fact with the new Connecteam tool we submit a report every day that can be exported at the end of the month.
I can only agree with @Vladislav_vl25 here. We should not introduce new processes that slow down internal processes. Isn’t one of the advantages of a Web3 project that it is faster?
I really do support the new KYC process, but not at the expense of the community!
This is more bureaucratic work, which should actually be optimized, reduced, or avoided in a Web3 project.
I support this initiative as long as it doesn’t make things more complicated as @Vladislav_vl25 mentioned I also want to give a heads up for the Onfido.
Less bureaucracy and faster approvals will help community work more efficient. In my opinion marketing/community proposals should be reviewed as soon as posted and should be approved/denied in 3 working days. There may also some kind of appeal mechanism.(in case the proposer thinks his case is reasonable and needs to be considered again)
I also want to express my main concern about the new contract you introduced. We all live in different countries some of which are 3rd world countries. In most of them there aren’t yet clear laws about taxation of crypto earnings. Some demand/may demand crazy taxes in these earnings despite the country is rolling down in high hyperinflation (i.e. Argentina, Turkey)
If these contracts to be shared with authorities and then somehow with our govts. these may put us in very difficult situation and may result in us paying retroactive penalties.
My last concern is about us Community Builders/Full time workers getting paid in USD. It’s totally reasonable to ask lower the amount of $Nears we used to get a little because $Near went parabolic in last 6 months and I believe it will keep going up in the long term as we build and keep adding value to the crypto space.
Project founders, developers, VC’s, getting advantage of these parabolic moves why wouldn’t Community builders/workers? Aren’t we trying hard enough, contribute to the growth of ecosystem/community and maintain a healthy one? Or is what we’re doing less important, negligible?
My proposal is all full time workers who work for Near community (developers, community builders, marketers, dao council members, NF people) should get paid in NEARS+USD combined
i.e. if someone is working for 5k let him get at least 10% of his salary in $Nears = 4500 USD and + 50 Nears regardless of what Near price is.
Or we may work out with quarterly additional compensation to be paid with a preset amount of $Nears
This is crypto most of us are pioneers & investors.
Let’s not kill the spirit. Peace!
NOTE as we figure out the quirks of the Onfido system, please be aware that certain documents are not being accepted.
The following documents are not supported by the Onfido KYC software:
Driver licenses from India
Voter cards from Ghana and Nigeria*
Unique Identification Authority ID (India)
National Identification Number Slip (Nigerian)
New York, US State Identification card
EDIT: For the full list of supported documents by region of origin, please visit the Onfido website.
The individuals who have attempted to pass the KYC using the above forms of identification will be contacted to try again with an additional form of ID.
*voter cards in general may prove problematic so please try another form of ID if you can
***Please also be aware of the following when it comes to the Onfido KYC:***
For the Document / Form of Identification:
Document image must be clear and not blurry
Document must be valid and cannot have expired
Document must be uploaded in the form of an image and NOT a scan - take pictures not scans of the document in question
For the Selfie:
The selfie CANNOT be edited or manipulated in any way
The selfie must be taken live during the KYC process and cannot be older than 24 hours
Mac desktops may prove troublesome for connecting camera on Onfido so be aware of this and have another device at the ready to be able to take the selfie and upload it live instead
There are some other members of the Community, like DAO councils, that are going to keep a fixed amount of NEAR, so it is reasonable that we receive a fixed amount of NEAR too as Community members who contribute with the Growth of the Near Community and Ecosystem.
Thanks @mecsbecs ! I´m following everything!
I sent all documents, id, company contracts, everything. I want to be Clearly.
If you need more information, send me a msg.
At onfido land page my status is:
CHECK SUBMITTED
This check has been submitted. You should hear back from NEAR Foundation soon after it is completed.
That’s a great support.
Thank you for sharing my fears.
And if the documents are suddenly published somewhere or leaked online, it could be a big problem for some people.
1. Submission of the proposal on the forum. 1.1. Those who will submit proposals, pass KYC — (once a year) and recorded in a special base, you can create a special badge(a timer can be added for the badge for 1 year) on the forum for such people.
The form includes: the guild, the data person. 1.2. If a person leaves the guild, the guild leader must report it so that the person is removed from the base and the badge removed. In a new guild — you have to go through KYC all over again! 2. The deadline for consuls to review the proposal and give an answer — 3-5 days. 3. If the proposal is approved, it goes to AstroDao. 3.1. For each amount of 10k — Make a separate proposal to AstraDAO with link to the main post. 3.2. Deadline for consuls to vote for proposal — 3-5 days. 3.3. If the guild(or a person from the guild) is belongs to the 1-2 tiers allow to send the amount immediately to the DAO. 4. If the loss of $USD is more than 10% during the voting period, the proposer must indicate this and send an additional proposal to AstroDAO for payment.
Addendum
Optimize the work of the consuls, to take more from among the active participants of the community.
This is what an ideal work plan looks like to me.
The maximum term in this case will be 10 days, which is a lot, but not so critical.
Hey @KriptoRaptor@Vladislav_vl25@FritzWorm - love the enthusiasm and views being expressed here and in particular the payout denomination conversation I am flagging for my colleagues @Community-Squad to be addressed separately. The desire to support everyone for their contributions in times of abundance and scarcity in a way that is fair for all is one we consciously consider and why we are looking to the installation of stablecoin in Astro DAO + through NEAR Foundation Finance with such interest. Other arrangements in the meanwhile that take advantage of token-valued abundance and DAO Council approval process like what you’ve outlined @KriptoRaptor@Vladislav_vl25 could definitely be further discussed.
Back to the overall process as it stands right now:
We need a smoother, better process for sure and as mentioned above, we are working on it. However, we couldn’t stop payouts indefinitely until it was ready.
Why the delay for this better process? A one-stop-shop kind of tool for all of these signatures, KYC checks, acknowledgements, and information gathering doesn’t exist for us yet. Not in a way that is usable at scale for 100+ Guilds and other community actors. But it will be.
Why are there so many stages and steps that will inherently slow down the process? You should’ve seen earlier iterations! But in full seriousness, until we have built one web3 tool that can do it all, we must make due with a series of web2 + web3 hybrid tools. If there are individuals who have already built tooling that could solve our core problem or minimize any of the above steps as outlined in this process, I would be delighted to discuss your tool and its potential utilization with you.
In response to the use of terms like ‘salary’ when it comes to referring to these payouts…
It is important to remember that these payouts and funds from the Community Funding Channels are not regular set sums of money received by individuals on a monthly basis by way of a wage or salary. Nor can they be. Funds are disseminated based on the value of work proposed and/or completed in a more ‘freelance’ view and on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the relevant Guild Leadership & DAO Council(s). They are not set amounts but are flexible and are open to the Community to productively scrutinize and discuss.
To address:
NEAR Foundation as a Swiss legal entity will not be sharing contracts or documents with other regions or nations. The Reward Agreement acts as a proactive measure in case NF should be audited by the Swiss authorities. They would then need to be handed over as proof that we know who we are sending funds to and we are not sending funds to those in sanctioned countries but these documents would not be publicized in any way. These agreements are a protection for NF but not at the detriment of our community members.
Lastly, please remember, this will not be our new process forever.
It was a priority that we deliver on the superior process for payouts across all of NF before this week - and we definitely now know based on your comments here that it is an urgent need as well!
@KriptoRaptor , reply for you.
Your comment is interesting to increase NEAR’s market cap and encourage our community to Stack NEAR. This relationship of just withdrawing NEARS from Binance is very good for Binance, in my vision. But i can be wrong. But our ecosystem is the big deal in all of this! in my work experience, that i have been working remotely for 11 years.
I can say that:
we are doing is a realization of an incredible dream for many peoples here! it is incredible to work in a decentralized way with people from all over the world! At least for me, I think NF is a revolution. We are adjusting our policies, transparency, and opportunities in a very cool way. I am satisfied with the developments that have been written here at NF.
thanks to all the collaborators of this new payout process discussion. I´m liking this new process!
Peace too
Ghana just introduces the “Ghana Card” last year 2021 the registration is still ongoing and most citizen don’t have it. Voters ID card is what we use for KYC at the moment at banks, fintech companies, and everywhere. ID cards like passport, driving licence etc are not available for everyone since it require additional processes and payments to get it. I therefore suggest to onfido team to accept Voters ID which is used for KYC in Ghana, at least for now until all citizens are given the new Ghana card which is still in process. Thank you
Perfect @mecsbecs ! Understood and agree your last reply!
Blockquote
Hey @KriptoRaptor@Vladislav_vl25@FritzWorm - love the enthusiasm and views being expressed here and in particular the payout denomination conversation I am flagging for my colleagues @Community-Squad to be addressed separately. The desire to support everyone for their contributions in times of abundance and scarcity in a way that is fair for all is one we consciously consider and why we are looking to the installation of stablecoin in Astro DAO + through NEAR Foundation Finance with such interest. Other arrangements in the meanwhile that take advantage of token-valued abundance and DAO Council approval process like what you’ve outlined @KriptoRaptor@Vladislav_vl25 could definitely be further discussed.
Back to the overall process as it stands right now:
need a smoother, better process for sure and as mentioned above, we are working on it. However, we couldn’t stop payouts indefinitely until it was ready…
Hi Becs, mad respect for the work that you are doing. This is a mammoth of a project and I admire the energy and determination that you are tackling it with.
I understand that compliance is not optional and that we are largely responding to a growing set of legal requirements. However, I also need to voice my concern with the current structure:
The amount of changes and the way in which they are being communicated means that only insiders may be able to figure out how to apply (mostly mods engaging in discussion here). Existing projects are struggling to maintain their level of funding, I struggle to see how this scales. We should be sharing these on the NEAR Blog and giving a permanent location to these documents on the relevant NEAR properties.
The level of bureaucracy is outright intimidating and confusing to most newcomers. Unless someone REALLY needs the money, most can’t be bothered. This creates some serious self-selection bias issues - while we may be deterring some scammers, we may also be deterring a lot of very valuable, honest contributors that simply can’t be bothered to spend so much time dealing with admin. I do not believe that NF funds should go to only people who are desperate enough to endure the process, nor do I think we should be subjecting anyone to such drawn out processes.
There is a significant gap between the expectation we have created from projects and the expected payout. We went from passion projects and community initiatives to full fledged private contractors. However, no private contractor is willing to undergo endless governance forum debacles, being KYCd multiple times in batches of $10k, etc. Compare this to the way in which the actual service providers the NF engages with: large budgets, zero accountability (to community) and straightforward working relationships. Both now dealing with the exact same legal team…
Either we are a DAO or we aren’t. It is clear to everyone that the current ‘DAOs’ are neither Decentralised nor Autonomous. I think it is strange and unnecessary to jam this old structure (Vertical DAOs) on to the new structure (Foundation disburses money directly). It pains me to suggest this as I have been an integral part of the Marketing DAO but either we fund DAOs properly (establish foundations in Switzerland for each vertical with clear mandates of what the money can be used for, KYC council members who assume liability, assist us in setting up KYC for grantees at our level if required, and allocate bulk funding per quarter) or we should consider scrapping them as part of the community reset.
I would pay close attention to processing time of applications, drop-off from existing projects, burnout from existing Council members as we are the public face of a process we have been excluded from, growth (or lack thereof) of new applicantions, reputational damage and how to reverse any of these negative effects as we (inevitably) move on to a different structure.
Once again, I commend you for all the work that you are doing leading this project. Looking forward to addressing some of these issues and improving the process over time,
This is definitely bad news for me because I already tried both. The funny thing is that these are the documents I have been using for all things-KYC on CEXs and ICOs (when they were still a thing). I’d have to apply for a passport given this recent update now.
But it’s worth pointing out that NIN slip is the official document being used for KYC/AML exercises (even in banks and other financial institutions) since it contains each citizen’s NIN - National Identification Number.
