Brainstorm ideas for Darknode Community Fund

Idea by @davidbrent101 from Ren TG:

Do you have plans to allow me to convert from BTC directly into ZEC, ETH etc, without the need to do multiple transactions? I.e. Can I do a mint and burn in one transaction soon via the UI? For example:

  1. BTC → RENBTC
  2. RENBTC → RENZEC
  3. RENZEC → ZEC

Me: Do you (and other guys) think that this is something that can be in demand?

Well I don’t think people using privacy coins HODL them. They want to hold something more stable/secure, and they want to get hold of it without using a CEX. So I definitely think being able to convert into and out of ZEC from BTC/ETH without using a CEX would be very useful.

2 Likes

That would be great indeed. Much in favor of this one.

Random idea that is out of my wheelhouse.

Create a renVM powered ATM to allow for exchange of native BTC, DOGE, FIL, ZEC, etc. inside of the decentraland ecosystem into the Decentraland currency of MANA.

There are currently ATMs in DCL that utilize 0x and allow swapping of erc-20 to MANA (erc-20). I propose improving on this design by integrating renVM to allow swaps from renXXX>MANA via the ATMs.

Probably not a high volume of transfers but a fun project with some visibility. The current ATM can be found at: https://metazone.io/metas/dcltokenswap

2 Likes

Pay for the native integrations of renXYZ on any new chains.

Peer to peer private key pay-to-use compacted into an easy to use UI that has ren in the background as the key escrow and ultimately final home, from whence it could be called by the new owner for a fee.

Current market: veCRV
Arb rate: difference between unboosted CRV pools and boosted CRV pools
Service fee for escrow: e.g. 5% to person allowing someone else access to their private key, and 1% for ren darknodes

Pros: person providing addy could reclaim it, no one ever saw their private key

3 Likes

I believe that Keeperdao will be using our technologies for their Keepers. Could create a mutualistic relationship between the two projects.

Has anyone mentioned investing some of that in marketing of some sort? I have concern that what Ren needs is an investment to more strategic marketing. We are the cheapest bridge around, why doesn’t our network get more traffic? It might be a lack of awareness. Just recently, I saw Vitalik Buterin talking about Elon musk saying if Doge had a bridge on Ethereum it would be great. I about fell over realizing how oportune that mention would have been for us.

2 Likes

I’d say we should open communication with actual financial institutions and start marketing / showing use cases for their future plans to get involved in crypto currency. Some institutions have started to play around with crypto currency and offering possible investments to clients, mainly high net worth individuals – but at least it’s a beginning. Ideally if and when these institutions start really getting on board with these currencies, and there is some form of official regulation and clear rules from the SEC and other organizations, REN should be the bridge to all their transactions to move any crypto asset to any chain seamlessly. It is a matter of time before banks get on board and institutionalize these currencies. We should be there first. Get some major bank figure on board to work in the background.

1 Like

I like the $50,000 / epoch allocation to the Darknode Community Fund.

I think as long as $50,000 is less than 10% of the overall fees collected it should be the standard amount allocation to the Darknode Community Fund each epoch.

Once $50,000 is broken, I think moving to a 10% allocation to the Darknode Community Fund is fair. This means that each epoch the Darknode Community Fund would be allocated 10% of the overall fees collected.

Hey guys, my idea is very simple. Let us use the Community fund to purchase Darknodes and secure the network further and use the REWARDS over the next months years for fresh ideas.

This would be reinvesting in the project that we all love and believe so much in, it would generate continuous Revenue and grow our fund in the long term as well.

We are already in a position to secure the first one - We can nominate someone trustworthy to run it for the community.

1 Like

Had a similar thought. Leave the CF alone and let it grow for at least a year (maybe even 5 year plan). But instead of just letting it sit there, use the CF to stake back into getting community dark node(s) going. This will provide some yield and grow value internally.

Security wise, at this stage, project does not need more DNs online.

What you’re proposing will reduce DNO rewards (per node). Will do nothing with RenVM volume (!) and will incentivize other less diamond-handy operators to shutdown their nodes and sell.

Aim of the community fund should not be to dillute DNO rewards, but to generate more volume, which in turn will increase DNO rewards, thus making it more lucrative for other DNs to come online, thus creating more demand for the REN token itself. This is an example of a positive cycle.

Grow CF. Invest in volume increasing opportunities. Everything else will come naturally.

2 Likes

I would like to see a bounty to incentivize any developer to build ren specific capabilities on a UI. 50k/25k/10k seems like a starting point for an app/feature request that would not need to be built by the ren team. I’ve seen several different community members bring up ideas that would fit under this bounty program. Looking forward to others comments on this idea.

the effect should be neutral/insignificant if we capped at a participation percentage. The system is designed for 10 thousand nodes isn’t it? At the current level of participation, if we stay at around 2 thousand nodes, adding a couple of nodes as community operated for yield generation isn’t really going to make much of an impact on the overall picture for DNO rewards. Say at 10 node cap, with 2 thousand nodes operating, that’s only 0.5% participation. We could certainly cap it at less, I doubt we’d see much more than that if the market value of Ren token takes off to $10, we’d be lucky to get a couple nodes up and running with community funds. So overall, the net effect to DNOs would be very minimal, I think.

CF fund should be used asap to fund rens sphere of influence; whether that be in bounties, hiring, yield farming etc.

better use of funds would be to have a bounty for a pooling ren UI for those with under 100k. Custody would be another problem but there are enough community members for a comprehensive multi-sig

I think in general there are four threads that make sense for use of the community fund treasury

  1. Growing awareness of REN through paid media
  2. Incentivizing developers to build tools on top of REN
  3. Temporarily incentivizing yield on new liquidity pools
  4. Holding some funds in reserve in low-risk, yield-bearing instruments

Point 1 is something we can do now, probably a maximum of a couple thousand dollars for a good video with some reach would be likely. Point 2 we could do to an extent. On the community call today someone mentioned offering a bounty for building of features we want. How about we offer a $10,000 bounty for someone to build something DNOs can use to convert dust into renBTC? Just a thought. Point 3 we do not have enough in reserves for. Point 4 would be smart to have a strategy for while we’re twiddling our thumbs on the rest.

As far as what to keep reserves in, I think the obvious choice would be in renBTC liquidity pools. Let’s put our bitcoin where our mouth is. From there we can use Convex or yEarn to improve yield. Probably yEarn, since it compounds automatically.

Next, I think we should build out a list of topics that we want to have covered in videos. Can help with this when I clear this load of work off my plate…

2 Likes

Great points on the categories. Could also throw in to make the treasury net positive every month where yields are covering bounties etc.

So many suggestions and ideas in this thread. I didn’t finish reading all of them all before having an idea that I want to share.

My pitch is for putting some funds aside for a team of dedicated video-makers/youtubers focussing on everything REN.

The format of these videos could start with the inception of the project, how to set up a Darknode with ease, minting on the bridge, moving on to regular what DEFI products that are just around the corner Frens can take advantage of…

These videos I think could potentially increase awareness to the REN ecosystem boosting usage regardless if the viewers are current nifty renners with golden hands or numpty-noobs looking for ways to forge their fortunes.

I am all ready to view ,how about you?

It is an interesting suggestion but as a DNO I am strongly opposed to this for the reasons Arviee mentions. It is important to keep in mind that the community fund will be funded by taking a percentage of DNO fees. For this to make sense to DNOs, this investment must increase RenVM volume and lead to a net positive result.
Using the community fund to operate DNOs would a) not lead to increased volume, and b) reduce the amount of fees received by DNOs, as fees are now split between more nodes.
Also, it would take many months to earn enough funds to pay for a DN (and hopefully it’s about to get even more expensive). After waiting a few months to gather the funds and launch the node (who would operate the community nodes?), the community fund would receive a few hundred dollars worth of BTC each epoch. This will not be sufficient to fund further initiatives. IMO we should focus on opportunities that can demonstrably lead to a direct increase in RenVM volume.

2 Likes