Project Champion: senad.eth
Authors & Editors: senad.eth , Ernest_Of_Gaia, Joe_King, Shaun/dancingpenguin, Feems, Sandeep, Sprinklesforwinners, SpecialagentK
Date Created: June 20th, 2022
Date Posted: Aug 28th, 2022
SUMMARY
Bankless Research is an organizational unit seeking grant opportunities and developing research reports for projects & protocols in Web3. We aim to establish ourselves as a research focused externally facing entity of BanklessDAO. The project team is fully aligned with the Bankless DAO mission of onboarding 1 billion people into crypto and aims to achieve that by creating the highest quality research content in the Web3 space. Ultimately, we want to position ourselves as thought leaders in the ecosystem and represent the Bankless brand in the best way possible.
BACKGROUND
The project has come a long way. Over the course of Season 3 and Season 4, the Research Guild has been supporting interest groups who opt in to conduct research together. One of these interest groups, called the Stablecoin Research Workgroup, has been formed based on the Interest Group Charter and was the main force behind the creation of the Bankless Africa Stablecoin Journal. Research Guild incentives, such as monthly coordinape rounds and proposals for joining a scope squad/project planning workgroup proposed to the research guild during the seasons have been used to compensate workgroup members’ contributions. In cooperation with the BC Grants Team, we managed to secure a grant from TribeDAO to develop a research report for them. The result was a 45-page long breakdown of the TribeDAO ecosystem, which has been handed over to the translator team to create an educational series [we are aware that TribeDAO is going to dissolve; we plan to keep connections with projects their ecosystem]. Saddle Finance was the second Web3 project for whom Bankless Research members have conducted research for. We see an opportunity to generate revenue by creating professional research reports for clients and applying for external grants. Through the publication of work funded by external grants Bankless Research will display our industry-leading talent pool and expertise within Bankless DAO.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
We want to establish a professional research workstream for clients. Our competition mainly consists of Web2 companies which generate profits by charging monthly/yearly subscriptions from readers as well as grants they get approved for clients to create research reports for the projects. The content often:
- Barely scratches the surface of the project’s contributions in the space.
- Contains outdated information about the project behind the client.
- Is published before showing the content to the client.
- Distributes profits unequally between researchers.
Bankless Research aims to solve these problems by:
- Forming a team of subject matter experts with experience in web3.
- Utilizing the procured team of experts to conduct professional research.
- Collecting trusted resources for analytics data.
- Applying qualitative and quantitative analysis to deepen the understanding of a project.
- Establishing and maintaining a deep connection with the client/grant donor, enabling the facilitation and collection of feedback after the final report is ready to be published.
- Using a Private Revenue Share Model
MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT
Bankless Research is made up of BanklessDAO members whose skills are in need for the grants we aim to get and client needs we want to fulfill. We want to actively apply for external grants to continue doing professional work and compensate our members. Our goal is to strengthen BanklessDAO, and make a first step towards self-sustainability and to produce high quality and impactful research for clients.
BANKLESS RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Bankless Research Management is made up of three groups, which are part of the organizational unit. The Board of Directors meet specific requirements for the project leadership, such as upholding and maintaining the L1 status. The Board of Directors are working on workstreams. Members can participate in these workstreams. The overall team will ensure that we make progress with workstreams, they contribute to the overall health of the project and will help us to focus on our desired priorities, which are currently to leverage our expertise and apply for grants offered by various web3 projects and ideally pitch Bankless Research to clients in the Web3 ecosystem.
The Project Champion will automatically be elected as Executive Director and has a personal veto on multi-sig spending. Five more Bankless Research Members will be elected to the Board of Directors and contribute to the best of their abilities. The Board of Directors are automatically appointed to be Multisigners. The Board of Directors will meet once per week in order to assign and complete tasks. Teams will be formed to work on workstreams. Notes will be taken and recorded in Notion. The teams will work in public at all times and try their best to onboard clients to bDAO discord server. Some teams can open group chats with clients to better organize communication streams before onboarding them.
Defining the Teams
There are two workstreams Bankless Research will form teams around. The first workstream focuses on recruiting grants and the second workstream focuses on creating research reports. The grants team is developed once the grant is approved. It’s important to define the responsibilities of the grants seeker, project manager, researchers, (consultants) & and editors in order to hold people accountable, measure success, scale and deliver the final product which is the research report. The responsibilities are defined in our Working Agreement which we will ratify in the coming days.
Board of Directors
As Directors procure work for clients or secure grants they will recruit the talent needed to service the client. The Recruitment Phase will be completed before an agreement to do client work is confirmed, to ensure that the resources are there to either do grant or research work. The Directors have several responsibilities and their commitment is critical for the overall health and management of Bankless Research.
Executive Director: Their primary job is to execute strategies and create business plans for the project. They are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project and making sure that the work streams are functioning for the benefit of the client or grantee as well as for the benefit of Talent Development of the Project Members. They will facilitate general Bankless Research weekly calls (or delegate to board members) and provide project updates on monthly DAO CC.
Product Director: Their primary job is to direct the operations of workstreams for clients or grantees. This includes working with the Human Resource Director for workstream recruitment. The Product Director is also responsible to keep the workstream section on the Bankless Research Notion up to date and usable for members and expressing innovative ideas for compensation models, project guidelines & processes.
Governance Director: Their primary job is to help hold Directors accountable for their participation and to direct the Governance of the project. They possess awareness of DAO and project governance procedures and will track KPIs throughout the Season to report to the board of directors. They will also raise awareness for changes in governance and represent the project in any governance related activities.
Human Resource Director: Their primary Job is to be a liaison to the BanklessDAO talent pool. They are also contributing to the coordination & collaboration with other guilds BR is collaborating with. The HR Director will also direct & optimize the onboarding and development of Talent within the project and maintain Notion table of active members. Encouraging and developing members is the priority alignment.
Finance Director: Their primary Job is to handle all finance-related issues and manage reporting & accounting as well as the initiation and execution of multi sig transactions. The Finance Director will also report project spending to the Treasury Guild and administer compensation for workgroups.
Marketing Director: Their primary job is to ensure branding alignment with BanklessDAO, develop marketing strategies & social media strategies and to be the Point of Contact with Marketing Guild and Design Guilds. They are also responsible for POAP administration for grants completion.
Talent Pool Members
Our talent pool of Members currently consists of Writers, Editors, Researchers, Consultants, BetaTesters, Marketers, Project Managers, and Grant Seekers.
Bankless Research will organize around providing 2 Client Services, a workstream for Research Reports and a workstream for grant procurement. As the Directors procure client work or secure a grant they will recruit the talent needed to service the client. The recruitment phase will be completed before an agreement to do client work is confirmed to ensure that the resources are there to either do grant or research work.
Joining a team
- The internal operations are open to any BanklessDAO member who wants to join and contribute. Introduce yourself in #bankless-research if interested.
- The grants team is gated based on Real-Life Work Experience. This allows us to maintain a talent pool of professionals familiar with the DAO and that are already familiar with the work we do.
- All Directors must be at minimum an L1 (at the time of writing 35K $BANK) at the time of nomination and for the entirety of their term. This must be held in their wallet that is connected via collab.land through the Bankless DAO server. If a role holder lost L1 status, they will have three days to recoup L1 status before termination.
- Nominees are limited to individuals who actively participated in the previous season, i.e. did not lose their Bankless Research tag.
Previous Success
In cooperation with the BC Grants Team, we managed to secure a grant from TribeDAO to develop a research report for them. The result was a 45-page long breakdown of the TribeDAO ecosystem, which has been handed over to the translator team to create an educational series. Saddle Finance was the second Web3 project for whom Bankless Research members have conducted research for. Two more grant proposals are currently in the works for both 1inch and MolochDAO. We are also collecting a list of potential partners, who are aligned with BanklessDAO mission, and with whom we will form strategic partnerships based on our objectives.
Intra DAO Collaboration
- Analytics Guild - We will recruit and bounty out work to the analytics guild for appropriate quantitative analysis, particularly on-chain analysis.
- Marketing Guild - We will recruit Marketing Talent and work closely with Marketing Guild to promote our services and to ensure Branding alignment with the DAO.
- Writers Guild - We will work directly with the EPA for publishing our research if we have the rights to do so per the Client Privacy Agreement. Looking for an EPA advisor. We will utilize and bounty out talent for editing our work.
- Research Guild - We will work closely with the research guild in order to find the talent needed for research and testing. We are the Profit Arm of the Research Guild and will also represent in general, to the public, an image of the Research Guild that aligns with DAO Branding.
- Project Management Guild - As we scale up in the services we offer and in the number of clients serviced, we will have a need to recruit project managers for small time frame projects. Currently each grant and each report requires a Project Manager. Currently the Board of Directors is managing projects, thus we are looking for a PM Guild Advisor.
- Bankless Consulting - Currently the grants workstream is managed via the BC Grants Workstream. We will continue to develop that workstream within and in collaboration with Bankless Consulting. Bankless Consulting will also be used for periodic reviews of our organization. We are currently looking for a Grants Advisor from the BC Grants working group.
GRANTS DISTRIBUTION - REVENUE MODEL
RESEARCH REPORT SERVICE COST
The cost might adjust depending on the difficulty of analysis for the project. What bankless research offers/asks will differ from what messari and other research organizations offer.
BRAND USAGE
Branding ourselves as Bankless Research will strengthen both the Bankless and Research Guild brand. The name of Bankless carries weight in the Web3 industry and we take this as a serious responsibility to engage in high quality, unbiased, and ethical research while representing Bankless DAO. #BanklessResearch #web3research
NEXT STEPS
- doing a retrospective and identifying gaps in our process.
- ratify working agreement by poll decision.
- Recruit more Talent for Teams and perhaps Board.
- Submit S5 budget proposal to the forums in 2 weeks.
SQUAD BACKGROUND
senad.eth - L2 Contributor, Bankless Research Project Champion and DAOlationships Guild Coordinator. Former steward of the Stablecoin Research Workgroup, recently quit his day job to pursue a Web3 career.
Joe King - Bankless Dao L2 contributor, research lead on the Fei/Tribe Dao grant, writer for the Defi Download newsletter, Maker Dao delegate with Governance House, tokenomics consultant with Tokenomics DAO, defi expert and contributor to Bankless Consulting. Crypto class of 2016 and Defi Degen. Bdao Strong baby!!
Shaun/dancingpenguin.eth - Web 3 consultant, Lead Co-coordinator for Saddle.finance grant. Data Scientist, Expert in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Previously has worked as a researcher at a Harvard medical school affiliate and at Los Alamos National labs.
Feems - BanklessDAO L2 contributor, Bankless Researcher, MSc in Public Policy. DAO Governance advisor and web3 consultant having worked on a variety of projects in the area of governance design, web3 advisory and research for NFT projects, protocols and DAOs.
Rascole - BanklessDAO L1 contributor with experience in product management and breaking down complex subjects into digestible mediums. Rascole’s project experience spans in-depth research and identifying best practices across Web 3, new product development, and strategy design and implementation. He is a Web 3 and DAO generalist. Rascole is excited to help build the future of Web3 through research, education, and supporting new projects through launch, growth, and scale.
DeFi Beats - Talent coordinator at Bankless Consulting, Bankless Dao L2 contributor, Treasurer at gmDAO. DAO governance and tokenomics expert. A proud defi degen and overall Web3 obsessed.
SpecialAgentK.eth - Bankless L1 Contributor, Researcher/Contributor for Stablecoin Project, IT Professional of 21 years and deeply involved in crpto since 2021. I love researching DeFi and Web3 infrastructure while seeing the technology landscape evolve. I also run a local Web3 user group Web3YYC.
keneeze.eth - Bankless DAO Guest pass Contributor, Legal and DeFi M&A Trainee Consultant at Bankless Consulting, DeFi Operator at Wildfire DAO. Typically advises on DeFi projects, Meta-Governance, Operations, Tool Innovation and Legal Wrappers.
Zijo - Bankless DAO Guest Pass, Researcher/Contributor for Stablecoin Project, Contributor for Test DAO - Bankless initiative for testing DAO tools, Contributor/Member of Block Dev United. Writes crypto content in Medium, Substack, Mirror. #cryptothinker #web3believer #daosarethenewworklife. Joined the crypto life in 2017. BDAO Strong!!
Ernest_Of_Gaia - Bankless Research Editor & Project Advisor
Permaculture Designer, Web3 Educator, V-Tuber, BetaTester, and NFT Builder. BanklessDAO Contributor, DAOPlanet Co-Founder, and Digital Nomad. “DAOing as an adaptation to a rapidly changing environment”. Climate Refugee on Turtle Island (occupied by the USA) CoinTr.ee
0xHunter - BanklessDAO L2 Contributors, Bankless Consulting Associate and Tokenimics Lead, Crypto native since 2013 with deep understanding of defi, L1 blockchains, tokenomics, and always up-to-date context of the everchanging crypto landscape.
Adz - BanklessDAO L1 contributor, Bankless Consulting Associate and contributor in the Marketing office, formerly 10 years in brand and business strategy (consulting and FTSE 100), Cambridge University graduate, now web3 brand and marketing consultant.**
sandeepdas - BanklessDAO Marketing Guild core contributor and role holder, formerly 20 years of experience in consumer research, brand and growth strategy (Kantar, Ipsos, McKinsey & Company, Prophet, Interbrand), independent brand and marketing consultant.
Poll: How do you feel about launching Bankless Research in BanklessDAO?
- Yes, move forward to the next steps.
- No, don’t move to the next steps.
- Maybe, comment below.
0 voters
