[2024 Council Nomination] Simon Hudson

Preferred name Simon Hudson

Ethereum address / ENS name 0x2Fb523a295a3b194Ee24Dc358BA98865E61Af6DE / hudsonsims.eth

Country of residence Canada

Relevant social links & NFT marketplace profiles twitter

Which best describes your role in the crypto art ecosystem? Artist Builder, I am co-lead of the Botto project

Relevant experience in line with the council’s responsibilities and scope.

• Working on Botto has me developing and thinking about decentralized governance in the context of art every day. Botto’s own set up of having a DAO vote on and guide the direction of an autonomous artist’s development has many parallels with the Rare protocol. We deal with the challenges of balancing plutocratic conviction with long-tail democratic consensus as it applies to finding culturally-impactful works.
• We are in a long-term process of progressive decentralization, where some parts of the BottoDAO that governs Botto is fully decentralized while many other parts are still heavily centralized. Aside from Botto I have over 17 years of experience in community-governed organizations, and I have become very comfortable with the idea that full decentralization of social and cultural organizations takes a long time. However, it starts by having the initial (centralized) leadership leading by example and consensus to discover and lay the foundation of the guiding principles for the organization. Much of my work is developing and writing proposals in conjunction with the community and ensuring what we put forward has strong popular consensus.
• My professional background prior to Botto is in science/tech communications and branding, helping organizations to refine and communicate their core purpose in a simple way. My goal on the council would be to help navigate that discovery of the core purpose and values of the protocol through supporting key projects that manifest and test those ideas.
• Conflicts: I want to also state that I retain my core responsibility to the Botto project and BottoDAO, so I will be proactive in pointing out anywhere that may be a conflict for my role on the council and abstain on relevant issues.

What do you believe are the DAO’s most pressing priorities, and how would you contribute to them if elected?

• I see confusion about the mission and interests of the protocol. Their are perceived conflicts and distractions, and it is imperative to simplify the brand perception through key activities and messaging. Below are two areas of activity I would highlight to this end, and I would contribute to the oversight of developing a simple protocol mission that can attract widespread adoption and buy-in.

• I believe it is critical to build the potential for the $RARE protocol beyond the crypto art market. Being successful in the art market will be a powerful case study, but we must build ahead for going beyond this niche. Extreme simplification of the experience and participation is necessary. I would advocate for clear narrative and keeping simple dynamics. I don’t know who to quote on this, but: complex dynamics can emerge organically from simple parameters; complex parameters are lucky to even see simple dynamics emerge.

• The protocol must build credible neutrality if it expects adoption among platforms that perceive a competitive disadvantage in using it. The biggest opportunity is in activating the $30M in treasury to build up the ecosystem through public goods funding and establishing sustainable infrastructures and institutions to support long-term growth. I would help in connecting with builders eager to make good use of those funds to build a new generation of art institutions.