A Partial Treasury Distribution (PTD)

Author: CryptoGotchi GotchiID: 8612 Quorum requirement: 7.2M Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/732491344970383370/1392863251741802527

Summary:

Currently, the DAO Treasury owns funds worth upwards of 8 million USD. With GHST at 0.27 USD, it only takes one OTC swap of 2.5 million USD to 9.25 million GHST to take complete control of our DAO—and with that, our treasury. Our non-GHST holdings are upwards of 3 million, so this is already, right now, a lucrative attack waiting to happen.

In addition, the DAO has—over the past few years—voted to give out at least 4.43 million USD worth of crypto to projects that either ended up doing something completely different, ended up being much more expensive than initially advertised, or simply did not deliver at all. To put that into perspective, at today's GHST prices, that amount is equivalent to 10 (!) seasons of Rarity Farming. The little successes we had were few and far between. We have also repeatedly refused to implement or insist on any safeguards, guarantees, or KYC when it comes to funding projects (the AGP tried at least 3 separate times and was voted down every time).

Therefore, it is clear that the funds of the DAO would be safer in the hands of its individual members than as part of a Snapshot-controlled treasury. Hence, in order to prevent future (intentional or unintentional) exploitation of the DAO's naivety and goodwill, this proposal plans to distribute a part of the treasury to the individual DAO members. Please vote on "PTD-A: Distribution amounts" (as well as the other satellite Snapshots) to determine the amount and other implementation details of the distribution.

Introduction:

Aside from the danger of someone taking control of our DAO and treasury, let's take a look at the projects we funded in the past.

In the past, we, the DAO, have not shown a great deal of fiscal responsibility. We funded many projects that either:

1. Pivoted away from what was outlined in the funding request:

• AGIP 133 (3 million USD), outlining Pixelcraft's plans for GEIST, and how the DAO would receive 20% of their gross revenue. One year later, the DAO hasn't received a single payment. PC claims its revenue has been below 100k USD (which would net us less than 20k USD in the first year). If we project this into the future, the DAO would receive their investment of 3 million back in about 150 years.

2. Continued to be a drain on the treasury by asking for funding for ever-new versions of the same game:

• GotchiBattler

  • AGIP 86: 146k DAI
  • AGIP 108: 120k USD
  • AGIP 132: 190k USD
  • AGIP 146: 245k USD
  • Total: 701k USD
    For a game that was supposed to cost us 146k, is currently not available to play, and already has a backlog of 2 RF seasons.

• Dropt

  • AGIP 91: 58k USD
  • AGIP 102: 353k USD
  • Total: 411k USD
    A proposal for a third version (for about 364k USD) was denied by the DAO, after which Oliver, one of the two team leads, bailed. Dropt is currently not available to play.

• Strategotchi

  • AGIP 101: 12k USD
  • AGIP 114: 197k USD

• Grid / Ghostly Gladiators

  • AGIP 124: 6.5k USD
  • AGIP 134: 8k USD

3. Are no longer available to play:

• Dropt, Strategotchi, MECHAGOTCHIS (20k USD), Gotchichain Battleverse Demo (25k USD).
  While there are efforts to bring some of these back, the fact that the DAO—after funding these projects—has to beg for them to be brought back online shows how little control and safeguards were put in place for the vast amount of funding we have given out over the years.

4. Did not finish production and have nothing to show for:

• Guilds: AGIP 68: 27.5k USD
• FAKEwaar: AGIP 115: 18k USD

This list is not meant as an accusation or to shame anyone, but simply as a track record of the DAO's investments. While we already heard from some of the biggest beneficiaries "oh this is the last time we ask for money" (which they themselves may very well believe), should know better than to bet on that continuing to be the case in the future.

Implementation Details:

The proposal will consist of several Snapshot votes. This (Partial Treasury Distribution) vote will be the signal proposal, which will require quorum. The other (satellite) votes are simply majority polls for which implementation details the DAO would prefer. If this signal proposal passes, the core proposal would combine all the Snapshot votes into one comprehensive distribution proposal, featuring the winning options from each of the votes regarding implementation questions.

This proposal aims to distribute a part of the DAO Treasury via 3 equal pools:

• 1/3 to replenish the Rarity Farming pool
• 1/3 to a pool that gets distributed based on voting power
• 1/3 to a pool that rewards holding our assets for a long time

To be clear, those three thirds do NOT mean three-thirds of the treasury. Simply: whatever amount of the treasury we end up green-lighting for distribution via this proposal will be split into 3 equal parts for these 3 pools.

In order to make it impossible to frontrun this distribution, the creation time of this proposal will be used for a snapshot of VP. In order not to disadvantage any of our friends, the amount of voting power will be the sum of a wallet's VP on both Polygon and Base, including the GHST in Gotchi-Pockets on Polygon and Base. This way, people who have yet to reach into their Gotchis' pockets or have not yet migrated their GHST to Base have nothing to worry about.

In order to refine how exactly we distribute the pool that rewards holding of our assets for a long time, please vote on "PTD-B: Long Term Holder Weights."

FAQ

Why not simply continue RF with the ETH?
RF is an important part of our ecosystem and hence does receive 1/3 of the distributed amount. However, it leaves out a lot of our friends who do not make it into the top 7500. In addition, a lot of our funds came from the Curve, which was funded by GHST purchases. GHST holders do not benefit from RF. If anything, RF has, in the past, presented significant sell pressure on GHST, putting pressure on GHST holders. GHST holders are the reason your RF rewards are still worth at least something. Without them, we would have seen 2-cent GHST a long time ago. Every type of VP deserves to benefit from a distribution. RF champions still get to double dip, since they receive funds from the RF pool, the VP pool, and the long-time holder pool. Sharing some of the funds with the rest of our VP-providing tokens is only fair.

What about parcels?
Parcels are among the cheapest VP to acquire, giving them a proportionally higher ROI in both the VP and long-time holder pools. Given how much parcel prices have decreased, this seems fair. By the way, Gotchiverse Player Rewards are not part of this distribution proposal and will not be touched by it.

How will we fund ongoing or possibly even future projects?
In any case, the DAO will be left with enough funds to continue operations. Even larger projects would still be able to get funding. Depending on the size of the request, it might simply require a more direct approach (primary sales, or asking for contributions directly from members—Kickstarter-style, etc.). There are many other options, many of which will hopefully include more scrutiny and due diligence than the DAO has shown in the past.

Are we going to dissolve the DAO? Is this the end?
No. This proposal only outlines a partial distribution of treasury funds (likely less than half). This not only protects your share of the DAO funds from being siphoned off via bad investments, but a more lean DAO Treasury will also lead to better fiscal responsibility. There is no effort to dissolve the DAO nor to leave it in a state where it cannot function!

Yes, let's distribute a part of the treasury.
No, let's keep ourselves vulnerable.