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Being a developer is not only about code. Any dev planning to create a project with commercial prospects must also consider those issues. Choice of programming language which determines what you can do and how you can do it. Choice of jurisdiction introduces similar constraints.
This proposal is to provide a community funded public service for 6 months. Doing two things. Both designed and intended to make it easier for devs to focus on what they do best.
- A continuation of the Fund 7 work that created teaming agreement templates.
Providing best practices while outfitting participants with tools that help safeguard proposers best interests.
Note: Final templates created in F7 will be submitted in about two weeks. Drafts which are useable are attached here - free for use. As an indication of the quality of our work and value of this work to the community. They include
Project Charter (Not a legal document, but a helpful reference)
Teaming Agreement (Describes how the team expects to function)
Deed of Accession (Binding those who join the team in progress to the Teaming Agreement)
General Contract for Services (Useful when engaging sub-consultants)
Pre-filled example of developer services contract
Fund 8 Continuing Work (2 examples):
- Address project management and financial management issues fundamental to success. It is important to avoid, manage and mitigate risks associated with any undertaking with commercial elements.
Distribution of funds
- ADA are being paid by Catalyst to one sole payee address: there's no guarantee the funds will be managed and distributed with integrity by the payee. This can be partially solved with a multisig arrangement involving a 'responsible and accountable management team'. That multisig functionality would be operating directly at an ADA wallet level regardless of the status of legal incorporation of the team itself.
KYC
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If there is more than one proposer, each should know who the other is.
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A simple KYC procedure among all team members gives some way of assuring the nature of the proposal team members.
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Without a multisig wallet to receive Catalyst funds, one person receives all funds. What would happen if the 'responsible and accountable' person abandons the project and/or vanishes. Taking the funds. Or simply doesn't respect agreements vis-à-vis internal team members and external counterparts. Creating a conflict then 'ghosting'. There would be no recourse for the affected parties if they do not really know the identity of their team members. They would not even know whom to go after to demand redress.
There aren't fool-proof solutions but good practice enables some protection.
Whether the adoption of such standards should be a pre-requisite for funding, is a political and governance decision that may be too complex or controversial to come up to at the moment.
2. Continuous updating news and status of regulatory and fiscal issues that can impact project teams
The proposal team will engage a consulting researcher (part time) to find current relevant news from reliable sources. The Co-Proposers will then curate that information to assure the information is relevant and useful for the proposers.
Additionally, the team will attempt to answer general questions posed by the community
An example is incorporation issues and DAO's. A subject that is thrown around without much if any discussion of the legal issues involved.
Incorporation issues and DAOs
There is a need for regulatory and fiscal clarity. Cardano Catalyst community is truly international. Less than 15% based in the US, but may be subject to US regulation (often the leader in regulation). Furthermore, wherever teams operate, either as unincorporated, or incorporated there are many options to do so.
When incorporating, a prime selection factor is overhead and administration cost, and time consuming hassle.
In addition, incorporating implies legal and governance duties that classically consume resources from business and technical development. Eventually serial developers and quick prototyping producers are constrained by limited cost and time bandwidth.
One choice is pivoting toward a still loosely regulated DAO model. Another is selecting a jurisdiction of choice for incorporation. Here is an interesting overview of what has been called the most lightweight legal framework for DAOs, the **Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (UNA).
[ https://a16z.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DAO-Legal-Framework-Jennings-Kerr10.19.21-Final.pdf ]
"DAOs share characteristics with partnerships, corporations, trusts and cooperatives*, but the operational and organizational functionality derived from the technology itself presents issues in being classified within those existing entity structures." (…)
*DAOs are analogous to partnerships, and yet not partnerships; analogous to corporations; and yet not corporations; analogous to mutual agencies; and yet not mutual agencies." (…)
"As such, clarifying the options available to DAOs to attain existence as an entity in the United States would be a significant benefit to the development of decentralized ecosystems by eliminating ambiguity and making the technology more accessible to the public at large. In addition, it would foster further development of this emerging technology within the United States and facilitate the payment of U.S. taxes, for which DAOs may already be obligated." (…)
But clearly, merely mentioning 'DAO' isn't necessarily a panacea to solve all issues unless one is operating out of, say, Wyoming where DAO LLC's may become legal entities.
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All are welcome to visit our Discord server to discuss your ideas and questions.
The health of the Developer ecosystem is not simply a "tech" / tool issue. Many proposals if not most (in all challenges), are intended to be self sustaining commercial ventures.
By providing guidance and ideas about best practices, developers can spend less time and effort on solving "teaming problems" and have more time and healthier mindset to devote to development.
Any tools, information or advice that helps avoid, manage or mitigate problems addresses the features of this 'Developer Ecosystem' challenge. Specifically
*Knowledge base & Documentation*
*Samples, recipes and templates*
*Support structures*
KYC and multisig control of funds are tools.
Information about emerging regulation and practices address a key issue of 'Developer Ecosystem' challenge, by providing a safer project management structure:
- legal and financial certainty protective of each team members interests
- sound business and management principles internally and toward external parties
- safeguard mechanisms for legal and financial management deterring bad actors.
Adopting accountability, and best practices, are likely to attract even more quality professionals to existing ecosystem. In other words, it's becoming more legit, more professional, more mainstream for adoption.
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Every proposal includes similar predictable risks, and plans or mechanisms to manage those risks.
Technology: Multisig technology is available for Daedalus CLI wallet. We understand there is a road map intention to make multisig features available in other wallets in coming months. If multisig capabilities are only available on Daedalus CLI wallet, that may limit usefulness of that aspect of this proposal. However since many of the proposers are devs, they should be able to use CLI wallets.
Human Resources: Recruiting for a talented researcher will be first aimed at Cardano community resources and then Universities such as London School of Economics, Oxford University where we have connections. Should we have problems recruiting a suitably talented researcher within the time expected the three co-proposers will fill that function.
Funding: It is possible that the funding we requested would not cover unexpected issues. In that case the proposal team has sufficient resources to cover that risk.
Time and Cost Overrun: Always an element of project implementation planning. Whilst we are eager to launch as soon as possible, it is possible that the website we want will exceed the amounts budgeted. In that case there are two mitigating approaches. Scale back on features. Fund overruns from personal accounts,
User Acquisition: In terms of introducing this resource to the community, the weekly town halls and swarm sessions provide adequate access. If community response is not as great as expected or desired, we can use video interviews and outreach
Teaming Issues: Teams are always weak points in new business ventures. Fortunately all three members of our team are well acquainted. Giving us a sense of each other. This is not the first project on which we collaborated. Nevertheless we will have a teaming agreement in place before the funding decision is final.
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