[VOTE] Establish DAO POOL: $GRAPE Rewards Incentives Pools for Realms Proposers & Voters

1. Proposal Purpose:

Create a DAO Rewards Pool to incentivize DAO Participation, Proposals, Voting & Engagement in the GRAPE DAO and Community.

Below are 5 Key Objectives of the DAO Rewards Incentives Pool for Governance Participation

  1. Increase GRAPE Community Member participation to maintain/commit/lock/stake $GRAPE in GRAPE Governance on Realms.
  2. Incentivize creation of valid, relevant, and proposals supported by the DAO & Community votes. (Avoid: Spam / Gamification - Example: see projects like dfinity (ICP) for proposal creation rewards causing spam.)
  3. Incentivize voting participation with relevant, and, germane votes cast on any/all proposals submitted (typically, within an Epoch/Month).
  4. Determine the Rewards Pool and any rationale for dynamic adjustments based on key metrics.
  5. Propose a simplified rewards formula that enables and accounts for key considerations, milestones, and individual commitments.

RECAP: This is a specific proposal arising from the concepts outlined in the Emissions/Rewards Incentives Pools Proposal April 2nd 2022. These ideas were discussed numerous times on Weekly Sunday & Tuesday GRAPE DAO Calls/Talks that followed, this proposal is specifically put forward to establish a focused approach to incentivize and drive DAO Proposals & Voting Participation ONLY. This proposal is aimed at implementing the formation of a DAO Rewards Pool for Governance Participation ONLY, following the success of the proposal for DAO Rewards Incentives Pool for Bounties.

2. Grape Proposal Overview:

TL;DR Version (A-E) -

  • 2 DAO Rewards Pools to Promote Proposal Creation & Voting Engagement
  • One (1) Rewards Model & a Pool for Proposers
  • One (1) Rewards Model & a Pool for Voters
  • Two (2) Sets of Eligibility Criteria
  • Two (2) Rewards Formulas (enables automation in the future)
  • Doc/Spreadsheet: $GRAPE Rewards Incentives Pool Formula - see Reward B: Qualified Rewards - for Voting

A. Reward Proposal Creation (or not) = Formula: GRIP * (PRPu / PRCa)

GRSu = $GRAPE Realms Staked (user)
GRIP = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (proposer)
GRAP = $GRAPE Realms Stake Participating in All Proposals (all proposers)
PRPu = Count of Qualified Majority Successful Proposals Created By (user)
PRCa = Count of All Proposals Created (all)

B. Reward Voting Participation (or not) = Formula: GRSu * (GRIV / GRAV) * (PRVu / PRCa)

GRSu = $GRAPE Realms Staked (user)
GRIV = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (voter)
GRAV = $GRAPE Realms Stake Participating in Voting (voters)
GRAS = $GRAPE Realms Staked in Realms (all)
PRVu = Count of Proposals Voted On (user)
PRCa = Count of All Proposals Created (all)

C. DAO Rewards Pools = Formula: GRID = GRIP + GRIV [Combined Pools to not exceed 500,000 $GRAPE]

GRIP = 50,000 $GRAPE or 0.1% of GRAS whichever is less. (Max CAP: 100K $GRAPE)
GRIV = 50,000 $GRAPE or 0.1% GRAS whichever is greater. (Max CAP: 400K $GRAPE)
GRAS = ALL $GRAPE Realms Staked in Realms (all)

D. Proposal GOAL (BRIEF): Define & Implement a DAO Rewards Pool that incentivizes current and future Community Members to participate in DAO Proposal creation & active Voting, with an involved approach. DAOs utilize 3 key mechanisms for decentralized consensus and community governance:

  • Forum for Discussions
  • Formal On-Chain Proposals
  • On-Chain Voting

These mechanisms enable greater decentralization, autonomy, transparency, and awareness of potential strategic objectives, required deliverables, or desired and expected outcomes to accomplish goals viewed as critical to the operations of a DAO Community. For GRAPE, providing rewards for those efforts is possible in an outcome and metrics-based way thanks to the use of Solana Realms Governance.

E. Proposal Explained (LONG):

  1. To earn DAO Rewards, a Grape member must be eligible and “participate”. At a minimum, participate means VOTING. Proposals are more challenging and complex to incentivize appropriately, as nearly any rewards approach can result in actions that can lead to spam/gamification. As a result, this proposal focuses on a mutual-rewards model to incentivize and reward participation, with important qualifiers and methods to cap rewards from unwanted behaviors. NOTE: Incentivizing voting could be enough of an incentive to create proposals, since without proposals, there can be no votes - so it is in every community members interest to generate proposals that the majority of the community will support. Nevertheless, this proposal has considered a model of reward BOTH Proposals AND Voting, separately.
    a. PROPOSAL Requirements: Grape Members with 200,000 $GRAPE or more can create a proposal as of the writing of this proposal. Proposals must contain and reference sufficient documentation and supporting explanation.
    b. VOTING: All Grape Community Members who commit and lock $GRAPE holdings on Realms are eligible and can vote in GRAPE DAO Realms Governance. Votes must be cast on each Realms Proposal to be considered a valid Participant Vote v.s. Total Votes (All Votes across All Proposals).
  2. To incentivize creation of valid, relevant, and thoughtful proposals supported by the DAO & Community votes, and avoid spam or gamification of proposal creation - For this reason, this proposal will follow a unique rewards structure and a shared pool that incentivizes proposal creation, but disincentives “excess” or “unsuccessful” proposals (success defined below) as it would dilute the overall Proposal creation rewards for all Proposers, not just themselves.
  3. To incentivize voting participation with relevant, and, qualified votes cast on any/all proposals submitted (typically, within the a time-frame i.e. Monthly = Epoch).
  4. Rewards Pool Sizes: This proposal seeks to define the 2 Separate Rewards Pool as static or dynamic mechanisms to increase with the overall success and growth of Governance participation across ALL Grape Community Members. EXAMPLE: For Proposals, the Pool is a fixed $GRAPE amount. For Voting, the suggested model would be 0.1% of the GRAS (or a fixed $GRAPE amount minimum) whichever is greater (NOTE: Per prior analyses, a Max CAP of 400,000 to 500,000 $GRAPE is recommended - if less if Proposals rewarded, more if Proposals not rewarded)
  5. Proposed 2 simplified rewards formulas that enable and include key considerations, milestones, and individual commitments - like Proposal Success is a super-majority/qualified majority, or, Voting Participation is a % of all Proposals Created v.s. Voted On by an Individual.

EXPANDED Details: DAO Rewards Incentive Proposal v.s. Voters

1. Proposal Creation Reward Model: 2 Options

a. No Proposal Creation Reward - Since Voting is rewarded, there is an organic indirect incentive to create proposals for both individual and community benefit.

b. Proposal Creation Reward - If the DAO prefers Proposal Creation be rewarded individually, the optimal approach would be to Reward Proposals deemed “Successful”. Success means Proposal must exceed quorum receiving a four-fifths qualified majority Approval vote of (>80%), is not veto’d by the DAO, and, does not manipulate this rewards process.

  • b1. Reward Fixed Reward of 5,000 $GRAPE per Successful Proposal. (Although, this promotes Proposal Creation without limit unless capped. Not recommended.)

  • b2. Proposal Dynamic Reward Pool: Allocate a static 50,000 $GRAPE total per Epoch (Does not roll-over and can be adjusted by DAO Proposal/Vote to alter or changed up to 100,000 $GRAPE per Epoch.).
    Eligibility: Proposal Participants would be rewarded as a % of the “Successful” Proposals a Member Created divided by the Total Count of ALL Proposals Created within an epoch (I.e. Your Successful Proposals/Total Proposals Created). This should help reduce unnecessary proposals and reward proposal creators, where there is no reward today.

  • Reward Proposal Creation = Simplified Formula: GRIP * (PRPu / PRCa)

  • GRSu = $GRAPE Realms Staked (user)
  • GRIP = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (proposer)
  • GRAP = $GRAPE Realms Stake Participating in All Proposals (all proposers)
  • PRPu = Count of Qualified Majority Successful Proposals Created By (user)
  • PRCa = Count of All Proposals Created (all)

2. Voter Participation Reward Model: 2 Options

a. Reward Fixed Rate - Reward Participating Class members in Tiers (C) 100, (B) 500, (A) 2,000, or (N) 4,000 Grape per Epoch Multiplied by Participant % (= Count of Proposals a Member Voted On / Total Proposals Created).

b. Reward Dynamic Reward Pool: Formula: [(Realms $GRAPE Staked) multiplied by (GRAPE DAO Rewards Pool* divided by (Participant Stake= Total Realms $GRAPE Staked where Vote Count > 0) multiplied by Participant % (= Count of Proposals a Member Voted On / Total Proposals Created)

  • Reward Voting Participation = Simplified Formula: GRSu * (GRIV / GRAV) * (PRVu / PRCa)
  • GRSu = $GRAPE Realms Staked (user)
  • GRIV = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (voter)
  • GRAV = $GRAPE Realms Stake Participating in Voting (voters)
  • GRAS = $GRAPE Realms Staked in Realms (all)
  • PRVu = Count of Proposals Voted On (user)
  • PRCa = Count of All Proposals Created (all)

3. DAO Rewards Pool: Funded by the $GRAPE Realms Treasury multi-sig (Review Instructions/Tools Capable of Dispersing rewards - I.e. MeanFi or other)

4. Pool Governance: DAO Votes can reference, alter, change, prohibit, add, or remove Pools at any time, based on a Community DAO On-Chain Vote and the criteria that constitute consensus.

5. Eligibility & Guidelines:

  • a. Participation will be reviewed prior, during, and/or, at the end of each of the 12 Governance Epochs per calendar year (Alternative: Can be extended to 4 EpoQs = Epoch Quarter / 3 Month Intervals)
  • b. Each Member must commit and stake a $GRAPE amount balance for entire duration of each Epoch or EpoQ Governance to receive rewards. The amount staked at the start of the Epoch will be the Amount used to determine rewards at the end. Increases in Governance Stake may be averaged across all days within the Governance Epoch.
  • c. Each Epoch or EpoQ must have at least 1 Proposal created by the DAO and at least 1 Vote Required per GRAPE Member to be eligible for GRAPE DAO Rewards. No Proposals = No Rewards
  • d. ALL Grape Members are encouraged to Vote on Every Proposal & Gov Epoch to earn max rewards.
  • e. Every Proposal to be voted contains a link to supporting Documentation (i.e. Discourse).
  • f. Eligible Grape Members claim rewards after each Epoch or EpoQ ends.
  • g. Reward levels can be altered or tied to the Realms Grape Staked per Member, Calculated as a % of Rewards divided by Total or Qualified Realms Grape Staked, Calculated by % Qualified Proposals out of Total Proposals, or Calculated by % of Votes Cast out of Total Votes Possible within Epoch or EpoQ

6. Milestones:

  • Total $GRAPE Staked > 50% of $GRAPE Circulating Supply
  • Total Successful Proposals (per Epoch) > Avg 20 Per Epoch / 5 per Week
  • Total Votes Per Proposals (per Epoch) = ALL GSAS

7. Key Metrics to Calculate Participation: PROPOSALS

  • Proposal Discussions Initiated per Grape Member (i.e. Discourse/Discord/Documentation)
  • Realms Proposals Created per Gov Wallet / Grape Member
  • Realms Proposal Status per Proposal
  • Realms Total Proposals Count (Date Range)
  • Realms Total Vote % per Proposal (Super-Majority, Approve, Deny, Other)

8. Key Metrics to Calculate Participation: VOTING

  • Vote Amount per Proposal per Gov Wallet / Grape Member
  • Vote Choice per Proposal per Gov Wallet / Grape Member
  • Total Vote Amounts per Choice per Proposal
  • Total Vote Counts (Date Range)

3. Stakeholders

  • ALL GRAPE Community and DAO Members Staked on Realms Governance
  • Realms Governance Participants
  • Proposal Creators on Realms Governance
  • Voters on Realms Governance

4. Costs/Resource Requirements:

DAO Rewards Pool Rubric: DAO Rewards pool for each Epoch period/quarter is voted by DAO Vote and can not exceed 10% of Grape Emissions and/or can not exceed 0.10% of Circulating Supply (Unless otherwise altered by DAO Vote).

  • $GRIP = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (proposer)
  • $GRIV = $GRAPE DAO Rewards Incentive Pool (voter)

GRID < 500,000 $GRAPE = GRIP + GRIV [Combined Rewards of both Pools to not exceed 500,000 $GRAPE]

Key Metrics to Calculate Reward Pool Sizes

  • Total Circulating Supply of $GRAPE
  • Total $GRAPE Staked in Realms v.s. Circulating $GRAPE
  • Total $GRAPE Voting in Realms v.s. Total Staked in Realms

5. VOTE/SURVEY: Please Vote on All 5 Questions (A, B, C, D, E)

All 5 Questions related to GRAPE Realms DAO Governance

A. Establish $GRAPE Rewards for Proposer Creation?
  • APPROVE - Fixed Reward: 5,000 $GRAPE per Proposal
  • APPROVE - Dynamic Reward: 50,000 $GRAPE Pool x % Epoch Successful Proposals/Total Proposals
  • DENY - Change Amounts
  • DENY - No Proposal Creation Rewards
0 voters
B. Establish $GRAPE Pool for Proposer Creation?
  • APPROVE - 50,000 $GRAPE or 0.1% of GRAS whichever is less. (Max CAP: 100K $GRAPE)
  • APPROVE - Static Pool Set by DAO (Start: 50,000 $GRAPE)
  • DENY - Change Amount
  • DENY - No Proposal Creation Pool
0 voters
C. Establish $GRAPE Rewards for Voter Participation?
  • APPROVE - Fixed Rewards Tiered by Class Member.
  • APPROVE - Dynamic Reward: $GRAPE Staked x % RewardPool-to-QualifiedVotingStake x % VotedProposals-to-Total Proposals
  • DENY - Change Amounts
  • DENY - No Voting Participation Rewards
0 voters
D. Establish $GRAPE Pool for Voter Participation?
  • APPROVE - 50,000 $GRAPE or 0.1% GRAS whichever is greater. (Max CAP: 400K $GRAPE)
  • APPROVE - Static Pool Set by DAO (Start: 50,000 $GRAPE)
  • DENY - Change Amount
  • DENY - No Voting Participation Pool
0 voters
E. Choose 2 Statements You Agree With Below
  • Dynamic/Auto Rewards & Pools for Proposal Creation
  • Dynamic/Auto Rewards & Pools for Vote Participation
  • Fixed Rewards & Pools for Proposal Creation
  • Fixed Rewards & Pools for Vote Participation
  • NO Rewards & Pools for Proposal Creation
  • NO Rewards & Pools for Vote Participation
0 voters
4 Likes

Quite good idea!!!

On A, I would suggest a little tweak: APPROVE - if successful proposal per epoch <= 10 than Fixed Reward (5,000 $GRAPE per Successfull Proposal), if successful proposal per epoch > 10 than Dynamic Reward (50,000 $GRAPE Pool x Proposer’s Epoch Successful Proposals/Total Epoch Successful Proposals).

On B, the way you wrote the Max CAP will be always 50k $GRAPE which I agree.

On C and D, I would go with Fixed Rewards Tiered by Class Member (C: 100, B: 500, A: 2,000, N: 4,000 Grape ) * Count of Proposals a Member Voted On / Total Proposals Created UNTIL we reach the max CAP of 400k GRAPE.

My concern here is the same with the membership reward system.
If I have 72k Grape, I would create 3 different accounts and split equally between them. I would stake on Realms and get the membership class A for each of the accounts.
As a consequence I would be rewarded for having three gorilla accounts PLUS max 6k for voting participation.

2 Likes

Interesting! I had contemplated a similar approach initially to guarantee the first 10 Proposals, however, consistency of “successful” proposals means ($GRAPE Pool x Proposer’s Epoch Successful Proposals/Total Epoch Successful Proposals) ensures the ALL proposals are treated equally and incentivized the same, and weighted equally, with an appropriate review to ensure they reach consensus. We don’t need to agree on everything, but formal proposals where over 20% (1/5) of the community/GRAPE holders disagree implies it may not be beneficial to “all” holders.

Or raised to a maximum 100k $GRAPE, if voted by DAO. Limitation in this type of reward seems the only way to address the negative behaviors that come with it, since proposals are complicated to make dynamic.

On C&D → I totally agree with you. I never liked the Tiered system, preferring % based metrics rewards approaches as a function of (My Work Completed / ALL Work Requested = My Reward). However, I feel it is important to express the option to allow anyone who disagrees with the other models, can express it - and then rationalize for me to understand, because I’m slow :wink:

One thing I keep thinking - because I think these are novel rewards mechanisms inspired by a few other models, is how the formulas are so much better than alternatives :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Very well thought out and presented. The fact alone that I really can’t add that much speaks volumes to me how long it might have taken to write it up, I salute you!

Here are my general thoughts:

Small edit and just a formality really: PRCa = Count of All Proposals Created a User Can Vote On (all)
As there are cases where a user might not be able to vote, e.g. council votes.

I’m in favor of this option b/c I think a static reward could lead to all kinds of unwanted behavior. At the same time, I also think that a dynamic pool should be capped. Either way, what we need to make sure is that the proposal creation rewards aren’t too high and I’d opt for capping them at like 1,000 - 2,500 $GRAPE at the beginning. We need to absolutely make sure that we don’t incentivize the creation of fruitless/pointless proposals (or even duplicates) that people would vote on since they’d get rewarded. The rewards shouldn’t be more than an allowance/fringe benefits for the creator (and I’m saying this as someone who has and is willing to continue to create proposals, even at 0 rewards).

I voted for this option but I think a tiered element in it, based on Member Class would be a good idea since I believe we should try and increase incentives tied to Member Class regarding DAO participation whenever possible.

I think we should be a bit more specific with the criteria that a proposal needs to fulfill. Like a mandatory template or several templates for that matter (that we can agree on).

In general, I believe that incentivizing voter participation is what we should focus on. Proposal creation is a means to an end, a necessary task on the operational level and part of the ‘job’ of running a DAO. It should be compensated but not especially incentivized. It’s like house cleaning. If you compensate the kids for doing it, fine. If you reward them for making a mess and THEN cleaning it up over and over, your house will be in constant chaos and you go broke :smile: