Updated Schedule:
April 5th - Final Call For Structure Proposals Cut Off
April 8th - Voter Registration Deadline
April 10th - 17th - Election For Structure Proposals
With the updated schedule, this gives the community 5 days to review the "Final Structure Proposals" before the election starts, as well as the full 7 day voting period. We hope those submitting the proposals will use this time to answer questions and get the word out about the election.
We are working to provide an objective comparison of the Final Structure Proposals. This will hopefully help the community be able to make a more informed decision.
Final Call For Structure Proposals (April 5th)
The final call for structure proposals will be done on this blog in post format. The official call will be posted on April 4th 3pm utc and all proposal teams have until April 5th 3pm utc to submit their final drafts into the comments.
Final Cut off - April 5th, 3pm UTC
To be considered a valid Proposal it must be submitted in the comments of the "Final Call For Proposals" post BEFORE the cut off time.
Only Proposals that are submitted before the cut off time will be included in the election.
Current Proposal Teams (@thehive, @bluefinstudios, @guiltyparties, @jackmiller, @impactn, @aggroed, @alexvan, @upheaver, @valued-customer) - If you plan on submitting a final proposal (to be considered in the election) please be sure to submit them to the post (that will be published tomorrow) before the cut off time listed above.
Note: Anyone can submit a proposal at the time of the final call. These are just those that have already publicly announced their proposal structures.
Extended Voter Registration Deadline: April 8th, 11:59 PM UTC
Due to some feedback from the community, we have extended the Voter Registration Deadline. This will hopefully help to ensure everyone who does want to vote in the upcoming election, has the ability to do so.
Please help us continue to spread the word!
If you want to vote in the upcoming election to decide the structure of this future community foundation, you must register to vote. If you do not do so, your vote will not count.
How To Register?
Go to --- > THIS POST and follow the link at the bottom to the dpoll interface and cast your vote.
Doing so does NOT count as your vote in the election, this is only an on chain method for users to register for the upcoming election. Those who do not register, will not count in the future election.
You only have 2 choices; "Yes" or "Absolutely", you can choose either! Both do the same thing! This is only an on chain way of registering users to vote.able to participate in the upcoming election of the structure of this foundation, you must register to vote.
Once registered, you are all set to come back and vote for the election which will be held April 10th-17th.
Official Election Dates: April 10th - April 17th
This will be an On Chain election using the dpoll interface. There will be a post published on April 10th announcing the start of the election as well as including important information about the Structure Proposals and clear instructions on the vote itself.
The Election will run for 7 days (final day being April 17th)
Voting Method will be stake weight with a cap at 250k (details below)
The community chosen structure will be announced once votes are reviewed and The Working Group feels they can confidently say it was a transparent and fair election.
Voting Method For Election
The goal for this working group was to find a solution to help balance the vote weight while still holding true to the Proof of Stake Platform that we are on.
After months of deliberation and testing multiple different voting methods, the following has been chosen:
Voting Weights Details
At a high level, the voting process for selecting the structure proposal mirrors how witness voting works, with one very important adjustment: the voting weight for very large values of SP is reduced.
So first, the voting weight takes into account the amount of SP (or equivalently, VESTS) you own. Meaning, delegations in or out are disregarded.
And as long as your SP is less than 250kSP (vests < 500 MV), your voting weight is proportional to your SP, (e.g. 1 SP, 1 vote). To mitigate the extreme imbalance towards the top stakeholders, while still allowing larger stakeholders to have a larger say, we implemented the following voting weight formula (where X represents VESTS. Roughly 1M VESTS = 500 SP):
If X > 500M, 500M * [log10(X) - log10(500M) + 1]
Otherwise, X
This is how it looks visually:
So it's linear up to a cutoff, and logarithmic after. The effect of this, when grouping the voting weight into buckets, looks as follows:
This data looks at active users in the last two years and groups them by bucket, and aggregates the total stake of each bucket, as well as the % voting weight for that bucket.
The cap affects the last 3 buckets, or the top 71 accounts, and adjusts the influence of these top buckets from ~53% of stake to ~25% of voting weight. Thus, still a significant influence on the vote, but not completely overwhelming the decision.
As you can see from the data above, this method will be similar to the current voting mechanism used for witness voting until it reaches the 250k cap. At that point, the weight percentage is "throttled" slightly. As the stake goes up, the vote weight goes up as well, just not as dramatically as in our current system.
Why not do just pure stake weight?
One of the biggest concerns we have heard is that be a more "balanced" approach to this structure decision. Since this is designed to be the Community's Foundation we wanted to find a way for the community's (all of the community) to have their voices heard, while not taking away from larger stake holders themselves.
This is our solution at this time
This method is ONLY for this specific election and does not mean future decisions on funding or anything else will be made in this way. This is only for the election of the structure of The Community Foundation.
Current Structure Proposals
The below is the current list of proposals (in order received) that have been submitted at this time. These are ideas on how this community foundation should be designed and the upcoming election is to decide what structure will be chosen.
Please take a look at them and ask questions, give feedback. The goal here is to build the best foundation, rather than have a competition.
@jackmiller Proposal: Steem United
https://steemit.com/steemalliance/@jackmiller/proposal-steem-united-1-0-by-jackmiller-witness
PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS <--- Read This First!
@valued-customer Proposal: Evergreen Funding
@upheaver Proposal:
https://steemit.com/witness/@upheaver/steem-alliance-foundation-proposal-by-witness-upheaver
The foundation structure proposal made by @upheaver focuses on making Steem the leading blockchain for decentralized apps and communities worldwide. Structure presents the foundation as independent and jurisdiction compatible legal entity governed by a board of directors and a professional leadership team, with on-chain advisory elements. Foundation will be able to sustain itself long-term through corporate membership programs and support a variety of functions including a project incubator, development grants, direct investment, training and events.
@alexvan Proposal:
https://steemit.com/tag/@alexvan/steem-foundation-proposal
PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS <--- Read This First!
@bluefinstudios Proposal: Grow the Chain
https://steemit.com/tag/@bluefinstudios/foundation-proposal-grown-the-chain
PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS <--- Read This First!
The Mission and Purpose of the non profit, GROW-THE-CHAIN, will be to raise capital, call for proposals, and provide Funding for Projects to make the general public, governments, and corporations, more aware of Steem Blockchain, enhance Steem value, and showcase Steem’s overwhelming advantages among cryptocurrency. The Non Profit will advocate for Steemians, and educate regulatory agencies and Governments worldwide.
The Non profit will work alongside hand-in-hand with other blockchain initiatives, such as the Worker Proposal System (DAO's), with the Non Profit focusing on the marketing, business, and regulatory sectors of the Steem Blockchain, and not focus on software and code initiatives.
@aggroed Proposal: Stars Align
PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS <--- Read This First!
The Stars Align foundation design is intended to decentralize the work necessary to mainstream Steem from Steemit Inc to the entire community. The plan allows the public to approach a board consisting of subject experts approved by the stakeholders with a proposal request for funding. A board of experts meets, reviews the proposal and gives it a vote. Proposals that have been approved go to the Executive Board to balance priorities and make sure everything about the proposal is kosher. From there the Board of Directors, comprised of Steem Stakeholders, approves the budget and the projects this community believes will help spread Steem receive funding.
@impactn Proposal: Decentra-Steem
Communities make Steem attractive and unique in the blockchain world. Thus, the purpose of the foundation, designed in this proposal, is to focus on and strengthen communities on Steem blockchain. Strengthening communities begins with the structure design itself. Decentralise it and you’ll strengthen the community as long as the setting is not dysfunctional. How to keep it functional? Organisations research shows: a network of working circles, driven by a strong purpose and supported by good rules is more efficient and effective than any centralised structure.
Thus, this proposal shows how such a decentralised structure may be set up for Steem-foundation. Working circles may cover any task: strategic and operational issues, software development or marketing, distribution or allocation of funds. A set of rules supports these working circles in interacting in favor of the common purpose: strengthening communities. Further rules ensure accountability and transparency.
@guiltyparties Proposal: S+
https://steemit.com/tag/@guiltyparties/s-foundation-proposal-v1
S+ is a professional yet decentralized model that leverages the strong audit, tracking and control mechanisms built into the Steem blockchain to create a cohesive, inclusive and ethical Foundation. It recognises that widespread collaboration and large amounts of funding will be processed by the Foundation. It also supports the existing collaboration models already in place and approaches a decentralized task-force from the perspective of long-term stakeholders and community members. Additionally, it aims to be universally inclusive and break down the barriers amongst community members, providing an avenue for the application of the existing professional skill-sets of members. The S+ model takes into account both the historical and existing conflicts of interest and avenues for exploitation and attempts to bridge those gaps through the existing strength of the Steem blockchain and ecosystem.
@thehive Proposal:
https://steemit.com/tag/@thehive/how-it-might-work-proposal-suggestion-logic
PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS <--- Read This First!
We will continue to gather proposals as this process progresses. You can always find the current proposals in the Steem Alliance Discord Server to stay up to date.
Community Feedback Needed
Those working on these proposals want to hear from you, the community. Ask questions, give suggestions and feedback. Let them know what you want to see in this Community Foundation.
Don't forget to go Register To VOTE and tell your friends to do the same!
This is the community's foundation, we just have to come together to build it first.
Thank You,
The Steem Alliance Working Group
What is the Steem Alliance?
The Steem Alliance is an idea of a community coming together to build a foundation with the collective goal of improving Steem as a whole.
The goal of this future foundation is to be the combined “face of the chain”, working alongside additional groups as well as Steemit Inc. to better the Steem platform together. With a main focus on helping to push Steem into the mainstream arena with focus on marketing, upkeep of Steemit.com, development of steemd, outreach and Steem events. Funding would need to be fundraising/profit based but also with large seed from Steemit Inc. itself.
The goal of this Working Group is to oversee the establishment of the future foundation while ensuring transparency, fairness and that the community's voice is heard. Once the foundation is established, Working Group is disbanded.