TLDR: Decentralized credit protocol Goldfinch affirms the importance of community management by funding the roles of Community Manager and Community Moderator.
Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol whose primary focus is to enable crypto loans that are collateralized off-chain (that is, with non-crypto assets). This supports Goldfinch’s mission of expanding “access to capital by creating a single global credit marketplace.” As the protocol’s documentation points out, while most DeFi protocols out there allow crypto loans when collateralized with other crypto assets, that prevents “the vast majority of borrowers in the world from participating.”
In February of 2022, a roadmap for Goldfinch was proposed — and approved by governance. “Community” is one of the three main pillars of the roadmap, understood as essential to achieving the protocol’s articulated goals:
“None of this is possible without an amazing community to make it happen. We need to foster the community of people who will build this engine and improve people’s access to it.”
As participation in Goldfinch rapidly increased, it was determined that clear community management was needed, with responsible people in defined — and compensated — roles. The latest evolution of the structure for community management was recently proposed through Goldfinch governance, as we describe below.
The Proposal: GIP-37: New Community Management
The proposal describes two roles, both of which would be active for a period of three months — when a new proposal for continued community management is planned.
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Community Manager. This role is responsible for “supporting and evangelizing Goldfinch” in Discord, increasing engagement, keeping the community abreast of Goldfinch news, and encouraging governance activity while managing much of the governance process — among other things. It is estimated that the role requires ~22 hours per week.
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Community Moderator. This role requires welcoming new members to Discord, supporting those who are formulating a proposal, translating Goldfinch announcements and articles, and generally “leaving no question unanswered in Discord” — among other things. This role is estimated to require ~7 hours per week.
The proposal splits the hours required for each role between four longstanding Goldfinch community members (brief bios are provided). Community Managers will receive $41.75 per hour while Community Moderators will receive $36.75 per hour, which creates a total budget request of $19,200 for the three-month period (to be issued in USDC).
As of December 2022, Goldfinch had ~50k Twitter followers and ~40k Discord members. The three main languages used in Discord are Russian, English, and Ukrainian.
Governance Process
Proposal ideas are first discussed in Discord, then drafted according to a prescribed template and posted for further discussion in the forum. Once a “rough consensus” is formed, the proposal can be posted for a Snapshot poll (72hrs) by anyone holding at least 10 GFI (the governance token). If a majority of participating GFI holders vote in favor of the proposal, the Goldfinch Governance Council holds a “soft vote” (24hrs) and posts the result as a comment on the proposal in the forum. If needed, code is then written, tested, audited, and deployed, and the Council votes again to execute the code via the Governance multisig.
GIP-37, the proposal at hand, received widespread community support (although one forum member balks at the budget, apparently due to misunderstanding the request), and passed the Snapshot poll with almost 100% voting “Yes.” The proposal also enables backpay for previous community managers and allows GIP-36, a budget request to support “community-driven activities,” to fall partially under the purvey of the new Community Managers.
The Big Picture
“Community management,” as a term of art in crypto, can sound tedious — especially when compared to the perceived glamor of devs, traders, and charismatic founders. “Community management” evokes visions of disentangling brawls between anons, blocking bots, and repeating the same, basic information ad nauseam in Discord at all hours of the day and night. In truth, expert community management is vital to the health of any decentralizing organization, and it is extraordinarily difficult to do well — on the level of the skill required for international diplomacy. As protocols go through cycles of expansion and contraction along with user participation, communities shift and change, requiring different levels and kinds of care. What we see here from Goldfinch is an attempt to adapt to current community needs in a thoughtful manner appropriate to the mission of the protocol.
We’ll be tracking this proposal activity closely at Boardroom. Follow our newsletter to stay up to date. If you’re a voter in a protocol, make sure to check out Boardroom Portal.
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