AIP IDEA
Proposal Name: Dedicated delegation site

Proposal Category: Process Proposal

@maariab @bwags

Abstract:

This AIP improves the delegation experience by adding an application process and allowing users to easily delegate and re-delegate directly from the ApeCoin site.

Motivation:

Delegation is a common mechanism used by DAOs to ensure better representation and participation within their communities. Gitcoin, Compound, and ENS have all implemented delegation mechanisms, ensuring the DAO represents the interests of members who can’t personally consider and vote on each proposal.

The motivation for this proposal is to improve the UX for delegating ApeCoin, as well as provide a better process for users to identify delegates aligned with their interests. While anyone will be welcome to self-delegate and vote independently, we know not all $APE holders can commit to take an active role in the APE ecosystem. An improved delegation system will allow the individuals and groups who want to take an active role in APE governance to have their voices heard.

Rationale:

Many $APE holders don’t have the time to participate in governance and would prefer to delegate their votes to a peer. The current Snapshot delegation system is opaque and unhelpful because users need to know the wallet address of the delegate, and there is no easy way to identify how the delegates will govern.

We propose creating a dedicated site for delegation. Delegates will answer a few basic questions about how they would govern, and delegators will be able to filter and search through their responses to find a delegate aligned with their interests.

Delegation increases vote counts and community feedback, and also holds governance participators accountable.

Specifications:

• Will create a dedicated site for delegating or re-delegating ApeCoin
• New UX will make it easy for holders to filter/search through delegates and for delegates to campaign
• Will also create a DAO leaderboard for tracking participation / delegation stats
• Will build as open source tooling for other DAOs to leverage
• ApeCoin.com will link to the delegation site (TBD - but will work with Cartan and the DAO to figure out the best solution)
• v1 requires full delegation of votes, while v2 will implement partial delegation options

There are three improvements made in this proposal: 1) Process For Delegate Applications; 2) Dedicated UI/UX for Delegation; 3) Creation of Governance Leaderboard; and 4) Open Sourcing the tech

1. Process For Delegate Applications

• Candidates who seek to campaign for delegation will connect their wallet to the delegation site and complete an application (see appendix).
• Holders do not need to self-delegate in order to vote on proposals. Delegation is only for holders who do not want to vote.

2. Dedicated UI/UX for Delegation

• A site or subdomain will be created where holders will be able to view all the candidates who completed delegate applications and click through their profile to read their applications and voting history
• Users can use this site to delegate or redelegate at any point in time.
• Candidate profiles will initially be shown in a random order, but can be filtered in the following ways:
  • Delegated vote count
  • Voting history
  • Recently applied
• Delegates who complete applications will rank higher in the UX, but users will be able to delegate to any wallet address.

These updates to the delegation experience should make it easier for holders to delegate, and should indirectly increase voter participation in the DAO. It also creates a democratic system by which any community member can have a meaningful impact on governance, regardless of their financial status or how much APE they own.

3. Creation of Governance Leaderboard

• Leaderboard will aggregate voting data and allow users to filter through various views including by:
  • Proposals
  • Delegates
  • Voters
• We can aggregate voting information via Boardroom.io’s governance SDK and API or other community tools that have been built.
• The team plans to leverage existing tooling when possible, but will prioritize safety and security when selecting partners or building in-house.

4. Open Sourcing

• Delegation system will be open sourced
• We strongly believe that the NFT and crypto ecosystems benefit from working together and by open sourcing this tool, we give teams the opportunity to focus on building new things for the space.

Steps to Implement:

• Funds will be managed from a multi-sig at 0x10836A2Ba38cCb9CAE3b5624FC5A7e1389AF61f3 managed by maaria.eth and bwags.eth

Timeline:

• The estimated time frame to build a basic v1 is 4 weeks
• More complex functionality like delegating custodied tokens or partial delegation will likely take another 4-8 weeks depending on how complex the architecture and tooling ends up being.

Team:

• Maaria will act as the project manager along with Brian Wagner. Maaria will not receive payment for this role.
• Brian Wagner is an engineer who has built data pipelines/APIs, iOS SDKs and apps, lots of React web apps. He founded Campground and was the lead product engineer at a stealth startup prior to that. He has run a lot of web3 experiments, including making the gm app, being a core team member of ConstitutionDAO, and blockchain dev for Yolo Dice and their upcoming Everworlds game.
• Additional 1-2 developers, 1 designer, and a PM to be hired after proposal passes (have already identified and started conversations with resources here → community members can also nominate themselves to help with the build)

Overall Cost:
Up to $150,000 APE pending milestones being met

• $50,000 APE funded upon proposal passing
• $50,000 APE funded upon launch of v1 delegation UI, which will include the delegate application, delegate discovery interface, delegation ability, and a basic DAO dashboard
• $50,000 APE funded upon launch of v2 delegation which will include more streamlined UI/UX flows, advanced leaderboard, partial delegation (if technically feasible and reasonable to build), and delegation from custodial wallets (if technically feasible and reasonable to build)

Here are our estimated project hours broken down by function and category.

APPENDIX: APECoin DAO Delegate Applications
After connecting their wallets to the delegation site, users will be directed to answer the following application questions:

ENS name or wallet address:
Reasons for wanting to be a delegate:
Web3 qualifications / skills:
What voters can expect of you:

Delegates who submit an ENS name must set their Primary ENS Name to the ENS name chosen Do this at app.ens.domains > My Account.

…and you’re done!

That’s it! You’re all set to become an ApeCoin delegate. Start campaigning for your delegation to garner support from the community.

Stay tuned for more updates. Happy campaigning!

Proposals submitted to the AIP Ideas category can be vague, incomplete ideas. Topics submitted here are not required to be submitted as a formal AIP Draft Template, however, you may still use the template if you wish.

ENS name: redvulkan.eth

Reasons for wanting to be a delegate: Simply put, I want to be a leading voice of the DAO but I don’t have enough Apecoin to have a vote that carries as much weight as the votes of the Apecoin whales. Becoming a delegate will allow me to increase my voting power to have a larger impact and be a “voice of the people” so to speak. I am currently an author of an official Apecoin newsletter (Vulkan’s Vote) and am in contact with many community members discussing their proposal ideas. I want to use my involvement with the community to be an advocate for them in the voting process and ensure their best interests are kept in mind.

Web3 qualifications / skills: Official Apecoin Newsletter author (Vulkan’s Vote), Reidar DAO member and newsletter contributor, experienced software tester.

What voters can expect of me: My “Vulkan’s Vote” newsletter analyzes each proposal that advances to the Live AIP stage as well as other intriguing proposals in the AIP idea and AIP Draft stages. Every Monday, voters can expect me to provide this analysis as well as reasons why I voted for or against each proposal. I am dedicated to doing everything I can to ensure proposals that pass have the best interests of the DAO in mind. I want to be a “voice of the people.”

[OPTIONAL: DELEGATES CAN SELECT VARIOUS CATEGORIES THEY ARE INTERESTED IN. THIS COULD ALLOW DELEGATORS TO FILTER THROUGH APPLICATIONS]

I am interested in all categories

This is just a draft, not the official delegation application!!

If this AIP gets to a vote and is passed, then we will set up the official delegation application section on the Discourse.

Haha I was thinking that too but figured I would post just in case so I didn’t miss out! Sorry for jumping the gun!