AI Assisted Minswap Catalyst Voting System
Table of Contents
Proposal Overview
This proposal requests DAO funding to fund completed work for the Minswap Catalyst Committee.
Our goal was to create a long-term solution that supports the Catalyst proposal selection process by improving the presentation of proposal information and simplifying the voting process. However, since it is unclear whether future Catalyst rounds will be available, this proposal only focuses on completed work that was critical to supporting the needs of the Catalyst selection committee.
We expect this work to provide additional publicity to Minswap as a leader in DAO governance with better integrations with AI.
Motivation
We made this proposal under the direction of Minswap Labs during the selection process for Catalyst F13 who said that if the work was completed without pay in the moment, they would support a proposal to fund the work.
Feedback from Minswap Labs suggested that it would be unwise for the DAO to pay for further development of the tool if it’s never used, and that additional work be compensated based on future use. As the developers of the tool, it would likewise be unwise to perform work without knowing if we would be paid for it. As a compromise, this proposal outlines payment for work completed through Fund13 to support the work of the Catalyst Selection committee.
Thus, we present this proposal for current work completed. Future work can be outlined in a new proposal when more information about Catalyst is made available or if Minswap Labs or the community decide they would like to adapt this for voting purposes.
Ownership and Open Sourcing
Minswap Labs provided feedback on the proposal regarding concerns about ownership and making sure that if the DAO pays for work completed, that the DAO should own the work. However, the DAO does not currently exist as an entity (per Minswap Labs) so transfer of ownership to the DAO cannot happen. Since it does not make sense to transfer ownership of work from one centralized group to another (i.e. we transfer ownership to Minswap Labs), we propose a second payment structure where we maintain ownership but open source the existing code under GNU GPLv3 licensing. This would permit Minswap Labs or the future DAO entity to use it. The additional payment for open sourcing is due to the opportunity costs of open sourcing the code, where Minswap Labs or someone else might continue development of the tool we had outlined in the original proposal.
Total Funds Requested
30,000 ADA - Open Sourced GNU GPLv3 Licensed
Proposal Members
Elder Millenial, Mark, and Linda are long time members of the Minswap community and key contributors to the Catalyst selection process since it began in Fund 10. They have developed AI tools, UIs, and a structured process by which Catalyst proposals are selected by a committee of Minswap community members.
Elder Millenial - Co-author of Minswap sponsored research on dynamic fees and emissions, founder of SteelSwap.
Mark, a.k.a. MeZuny - SteelSwap development partner, Cardano developer working on Eternl wallet and Iagon.
Linda, a.k.a. cryptofly777 - Fund 13 Catalyst Committee leader, DeFi Advisor, Minswap advocate.
Background
Catalyst is a system in which treasury funds are dedicated to development of new projects, and are voted on by ADA holders. Minswap, as the largest single address voter, established a DAO committee to shortlist a range of proposals. From this list, $MIN holders then vote which projects Minswap will vote for. Emphasis is put on proposals that benefit both Minswap and Cardano.
Minswap has a Catalyst selection committee that has dedicated countless hours to selecting proposals for Catalyst voting since Fund 10. Elder Millenial has built a set of AI tools and developed the original process for selection that is still being used. This has not only benefited the Minswap committee to streamline the Catalyst selection process, but also brought attention to Minswap as one of the first protocols to adopt AI into their governance process (see Links for videos of discussions).
In Fund 13, spearheaded by Mark and Linda, a new and refined method of voting was introduced after the learnings from the previous three funds. Linda refined the process, while Mark spent over 100 hours creating a web application to streamline the process and integrate Elder Millenials AI work into an easy to use interface. This dramatically improved the voting procedures and gave Minswap a MVP to become one of the largest and most transparent Catalyst voting wallets on Cardano.
Definition of Work
Mark, Elder Millenial, and Linda were heavily involved in development of the Minswap Catalyst review process for Funds 10-13. Elder Millenial created an AI ingestion and clustering workflow with new features progressing from Funds 10 to 13. For Fund 13, due to time constraints, Mark was asked to create a UI to accelerate the voting process that Linda helped to oversee.
Below are screenshots of the UI that was generated. Since it is unclear if future Catalyst rounds will exist, no additional work to any of the AI or UI systems is being proposed here. If future Catalyst rounds occur, a separate proposal may be drafted for additional features, hosting, and support of the tool.
Stage 1 Voting Progress for each committee member Stage 1 Group Stage Voting on AI clustered proposals Stage 2 Individual Proposal Selection Stage 3 Group Stage Final SelectionsThe screenshots below are from a makeshift UI developed for Fund 13. It is not complete, and in its current form will not work for future Catalyst rounds. The screenshots are shown to provide an example of what the completed MVP will look like.
Completion Criteria
At least 3 of the Minswap Catalyst Committee members approve release of funds based on work completed for F13.
Links
YouTube videos of public conversations including Elder Millenial discussing how Minswap has incorporated AI into the proposal selection process.