• Author: Jonathan Perkins (CPO, SuperRare Labs)
• Status: Sponsored
• Implementer: RareDAO Governance Council & SuperRare Labs
• Sponsor(s): @hudsonsims
• Created Date: September 30, 2024

Background & Motivation

RareDAO introduced Spaces in 2021 as a beta initiative to broaden support for artists with marketing and curated exhibitions. The vision was for the community to elect a network of galleries to support artists in exchange for a percentage of sales.

While successful in mobilizing a passionate community of curators, artists, and voters to give this gallery network model its best shot, the Spaces program has had mixed results, especially during the prolonged NFT downturn. Further, its implementation led to a fragmented user experience on the SuperRare platform. After careful consideration, we’ve made the tough decision to recommend the suspension of the Spaces program.

This decision stems from two key challenges. First, the market evolved differently than we anticipated, with a contraction in the crypto market and in NFT collectors, rather than the broadening and diversification into sub-niches we expected. Second, in hindsight, SR Labs took on more responsibility for Spaces development than was sustainable, given the demands of simultaneously maintaining the core platform.

This proposal follows many discussions with Space operators and other members of the community, aiming to gracefully wind down the Spaces UI while keeping the underlying smart contracts accessible for future use. The goal is to free up bandwidth and resources toward new opportunities to expand the cryptoart ecosystem and better support artists.

For more information about how these changes will affect artists, operators and collectors, please read the FAQ here.

Specification

This proposal seeks to indefinitely suspend all off-chain and administrative operations associated with the Spaces program. Specifically, this proposal overwrites the SIPs Establishing Space Race Curation Parameters, Governance Methods, and Procedures to suspend the admission of spaces via the Space Race and I’ll Take the Omakase to suspend the admission of spaces by SR Labs and DAO Council appointment. However, we do not propose any changes to the existing onchain smart contracts related to the Spaces Program.

Benefits

• Provide artists and collectors a more consistent, easier to navigate platform experience
• Development resources can be channeled to other areas more likely to improve the user experience and increase DAO revenue
• Replace siloed Spaces with the much simpler concept of Splits – the ability for anyone to collaborate and support artists for a sale split
• Space contracts remain open and accessible, so anyone can build bespoke frontends for Spaces and reboot the gallery network concept in the future

Drawbacks

• The primary drawback is the discontinuation of the SR Labs hosted Spaces UIs, necessitating a change in workflow for Space operators. However, Space operators (and anyone else) can now take advantage of Splits, in order to collaborate with creators and earn upside in exchange for helping sell artworks.

Proposal Execution

Upon execution of this proposal:

• No further space Operators shall be registered via Space Race or Omakase appointment, unless overwritten by a future proposal.
• No changes shall be made to the smart contracts underpinning the spaces program at this time.

Further Considerations & Discussion

One potential opportunity that came up in community discussions is the possibility of a developer grant to build a refreshed version of Spaces as a 3rd party or community initiative. We'd be happy to discuss this further and provide support if strong interest and the right fit for the project arises.

If you have questions about what implementation of this proposal looks like from a near term product perspective, please review this FAQ outlining implications for artists, operators and collectors, and drop comments below.

Thank you!