ProposalsProposal 177
ProposalsProposal 177
@ZachXBT is a public good serving the crypto ecosystem through tireless research exposing countless scams. Recent events have highlighted the dire need and importance of such work. This prop proposes to fund 100 ETH to their donation address: zachxbt.eth (address can be verified from their twitter profile).
Donations have always been somewhat controversial within Nouns governance. Prop 21 donating 169 ETH to Gitcoin grants was one of the most contentious votes in our early history. Prop 108 donating 500 ETH to Ethereum protocol development (via the Protocol Guild) was much more unanimous but still there was discomfort and discourse around whether the DAO was becoming "a tax inefficient way for DAO members to make donations."
I agree that we shouldn't resort to becoming a complacent vehicle of passive philanthropy. We should instead aim to actively contribute and be a net producer of public goods ourselves such that our meme (brand) can fully capture the provenance value (claim on originality of) the public work and thus leverage the virtuous cycle to do more than what capital alone could have done. However, there should be exceptions to this rule if there is an urgent and common public cause that warrants highlighting. I would like to suggest that this is such a case. Crypto needs more validators like ZachXBT.
With donations we need to be extra wary of conflicts of interest or self-dealing. Unfortunately there is no way to prove this cryptographically, but I attest that I have no prior (or planned future) relationship with ZachXBT and that today was the first time I contacted them (via twitter) to ask for their permission to make this proposal.
@ZachXBT is a public good serving the crypto ecosystem through tireless research exposing countless scams. Recent events have highlighted the dire need and importance of such work. This prop proposes to fund 100 ETH to their donation address: zachxbt.eth (address can be verified from their twitter profile).
Donations have always been somewhat controversial within Nouns governance. Prop 21 donating 169 ETH to Gitcoin grants was one of the most contentious votes in our early history. Prop 108 donating 500 ETH to Ethereum protocol development (via the Protocol Guild) was much more unanimous but still there was discomfort and discourse around whether the DAO was becoming "a tax inefficient way for DAO members to make donations."
I agree that we shouldn't resort to becoming a complacent vehicle of passive philanthropy. We should instead aim to actively contribute and be a net producer of public goods ourselves such that our meme (brand) can fully capture the provenance value (claim on originality of) the public work and thus leverage the virtuous cycle to do more than what capital alone could have done. However, there should be exceptions to this rule if there is an urgent and common public cause that warrants highlighting. I would like to suggest that this is such a case. Crypto needs more validators like ZachXBT.
With donations we need to be extra wary of conflicts of interest or self-dealing. Unfortunately there is no way to prove this cryptographically, but I attest that I have no prior (or planned future) relationship with ZachXBT and that today was the first time I contacted them (via twitter) to ask for their permission to make this proposal.
Nouncil Vote Results
43 Yes, 12 No, 3 Abstain
3 Nouncillors abstained from the decision
Vote Reasons & Discussion
Benbodhi "ZachXBT does amazing work and has a solid crypto audience. Probably wise to help fund him for the benefit of the space and some cross promo to his audience."
JoshuaFisher "supporting good works is Nounish"
profwerder "This needs more work & development. What are the deliverables? How does this proliferate the meme? Why not support 0xquit or foobar? Why him? I don’t think that has been explained in this prop OR any support for this particular person’s qualifications. Not fully against this but thats a lot of eth on a vague prop."
Sasquatch "zachxbt goat"
Don "Zach is a the crypto community's version of super heroes! Easy yes."
Brook *"- i wish there was more clarity in the proposal
^^^ all things that should be thought about as we move forward funding Public Goods / Persons."*
Mach "zach does great work, will love to continue supporting it"
ThaSwami "Not enough information provided that clearly defines the use of funds"
JoelCares "Hell ya - would be proud to support Zach's work."
RyanMac ⌐◨-◨ "ZachXBT is the Michael Jordan of uncovering crypto grifers & scammers. I’ve followed his work for a long time & he works off donations. About 3 months ago he almost quit bc he was making zero revenue & mentally taxed. The space needs more ZachXBTs bc we have so many bad actors right under our noses. This is a 100% yes vote on my end: hopefully this helps him add more players to his roster"
Mindtoasted "This is quite a big amount, but from how detailed Zach investigated and exposed several projects in the past this could be a good new insight for Nouns. Lately I personally follow several influential Twitter figures who provide concrete information both good and bad in the crypto space, in fact we need people like this so I vote yes."
Graphic.⌐◨-◨ "Looking through Twitter I see a lot of examples of Zach exposing a lot of bad actors in the space. This helps many people stay away from scams."
0xFloyd *"huge supporter of this - tweeted about it. i view this as a crypto public good in a sense. and its obviously super crypto native. overall great decision.
if Nouns would continue to do these types of props in the future tho, i wonder if a smaller amount becomes more standard. for example, i think 50 eth would largely have the same effect"*
nick "Zach's work is super important. Think this is a great idea. Public good for all"
CHEFFO ⌐◧-◧ "I am not very familiar with this builder, but I do think the space needs white hats and the nouns could experiment with funding this as public good."
Nouncil Discord
For more Nouns DAO proposal discussion join us here: https://discord.gg/nouncil
On September 6, Zach tweeted "Really am unsure how much longer I can continue doing this. It’s been fun but burnout is a real thing and it has taken a toll on other aspects of my life [...] To give even more context one single person operates this account, answers DMs, and does the research [...] balancing this isn’t sustainable."
If funding his important work exposing grifters and scammers helps to alleviate that burnout and allow him to continue providing this public good for the ETH ecosystem, that will be very nounish imo.
I strongly agree that @ZachXBT is a public good serving the crypto ecosystem. Nouns DAO signaling that we as an organization strongly value this type of work and want to encourage more people to perform their own due diligence and share is publicly feels Nounish. I don’t think Zach needs to acknowledge or brand anything with noggles for this to be a worth while contribution to our space.
I'm all for props supporting folks doing good, calling out the bad, and self-regulating the industry, in order to advance things in our crazy corner of the world.