[PROPOSAL] Signaling Proposal ~ HackATOM Seoul 2022

Dear all,

After all the excellent feedback I have received in the last few weeks, we finally have the final draft of the governance proposal that will soon be submitted on-chain. There have been changes in form, though not in intent, so I would be grateful if you could take a last look at it. The proposal will be submitted on-chain early next week (barring unforeseen circumstances)

[FULL TEXT PROPOSAL ~ FORUM VERSION]

Cosmonauts,

In collaboration with Interchain, KryptoSeoul is organizing one of the most exciting HackATOMs ever, the first in-person Cosmos Hackathon after 3 years, to celebrate our amazing community and all the incredible achievements of the past years! Before proceeding further, please read the blogpost available in the Cosmos Medium Publication in which we introduce this event and what inspired it.

HackAtom has been a key event for attracting high-quality talent and developing partner relationships that benefit the entire Cosmos Community:

Just to mention a few of them.

As you know, prizes are key in attracting good talent to compete at any hackathon. There are 5 challenges, of which 3 directly benefit the Cosmos Hub and are aligned with its public goods mission. With this signaling proposal, we would like to know if ATOM holders wish to support this long-awaited event by funding the prizes for the winners of these challenges via a community spending proposal.

  • INTERCHAIN PRIZE: INTEROPERABILITY
    Build something that pushes IBC forward
  • HUB PRIZE: INTERCHAIN SECURITY
    Spin up a Consumer Chain that showcases the power of the Cross Chain Validation (CCV) protocol and experiment with the application layer
  • APPLICATION PRIZE: COSMOS-SDK
    Build either a blockchain with the Cosmos SDK, a rewrite of an existing module, or a tool that improves the user experience of developing with the SDK.

(See the FAQs at the bottom for why we chose these 3 challenges to sponsor, and you can read more about the challenges on the website linked below)

As per the competition’s rules, the prizes for each category are:

  • 1st Place 6250 ATOM (~USD $50k)
  • 2nd Place 3750 ATOM (~USD $30k)
  • 3rd Place 1250 ATOM (~USD $10k) (two winners)

For a total prize pool of 37500 ATOM*.

Important to note is that the judges will award prizes only and exclusively in case the submissions are of high quality and meet all the criteria outlined in the various challenges.

In case this proposal is successful, the multisig which is assigned to distribute the tokens to the winners are:

To better evaluate our proposal and to better understand why we think it’s so important for the Hub and the whole ecosystem, you can read the Announcement Blogpost and find below a list of key information regarding the event + a dedicated FAQ.

Location: Dreamplus ~ Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. HackATOM Seoul represents the first step toward the realization of a dream for our hackers, which is why as the setting for this incredible trip we could only have chosen Dreamplus Gangnam, a place that has seen the birth and is home to some of the most successful startups in all of South Korea.

Dates: July 29 to 31, 2022 right before Buidl Asia and Eth Seoul, the perfect timing to attract builders & teams.

On-site Organizer: KryptoSeoul (headed by Erica Kang) - a well-known, global event planning team located in Seoul with many crypto-related projects. Erica’s team was behind the HackAtom that took place in 2019 in Seoul and that is considered one of the most successful ones.

Website

Judges:

Main goals:

  • Attracting new devs, teams, and investors into our ecosystem
  • Educating developers and their teams about the Cosmos Stack & Interchain Security-based solutions
  • Having hackers develop on top of Interchain Security, the IBC protocol, the Cosmos SDK and the rest of the Cosmos Stack
  • Kickstarting new projects that could bring value to the Cosmos Hub or the Cosmos ecosystem at large
  • Consolidating partners relations
  • Growing our community

Vote:

  • By voting YES you agree that the Cosmos Hub should allocate xxx ATOM to fund the primary prices of HackATOM Seoul 2022.
  • By Voting NO you are letting the community know you do not believe the Cosmos Hub should fund this event.
  • By voting ABSTAIN, you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.
  • By voting NOWITHVETO you express that you consider this proposal malicious or harmful for the Cosmos Hub and you would like to see depositors penalized by revocation of the 64 ATOM deposit, which contributes towards an automatic 1/3 veto threshold.

FAQ:

  • Why is this proposal being submitted only to the Cosmos Hub Community pool?
    The Cosmos Hub has always been recognized as a pioneer of public goods in our Interchain ecosystem, this is true, but in this specific case, the Hub has a particular interest in attracting new teams and effectively promoting solutions such as Interchain Security and improvements to IBC and the Cosmos SDK, on which the Cosmos Hub relies heavily. We really want to capture value for our community and we don’t think there is a better way to do this than putting devs and Core Teams members in direct contact with each other.
  • Why sponsor only these three challenges among the others?
    It is our opinion that ATOM holders would benefit considerably from successfully developed solutions in these chosen categories. In contrast, a connection with the other proposals [Cosmwasm Challenges] might have been less clear. Since we believe it is right that Cosmos Hub community pool funds are used to encourage innovative ideas and implementations that promise to bring value to the Hub itself, we felt that these 3 challenges were the most suitable.
  • Why does this proposal only cover hacker prizes? Are there no other organizational costs?
    Yes, there are other organizational costs, especially considering that the event will be in person (the first in 3 years). The Interchain Foundation has offered to fund the operational costs as this HackATOM represents the beginning of a turning point for all Cosmonauts. We should additionally thank our sponsors who were generous in their willingness to contribute to this long-awaited event.
  • If this signaling proposal passes, will the requested tokens be sent to the multisig immediately?
    Yes. Unlike the first version of this draft that was posted in the Cosmos Forum (and viewable here) which proposed to make a signal proposal and a community spend proposal right after, it was discussed to opt for a single governance proposal since 2 proposals had the following drawbacks:
  1. There was no guarantee that the follow-up proposal would be approved, so we could not say with 100% certainty that our winners would get the prices.
  2. prolonged the timeframe by a lot, and winners would have to wait more than 2 weeks to receive their winnings
  3. added a lot of unnecessary complexity to operations
    Of course, in the event that one or more prizes are not awarded, the proposer and the multisig agree to send back to the cosmos hub community pool the unallocated tokens within 15 days of the end of the competition.
  • Why was Seoul chosen as the location for the first offline HackAtom?
    Cosmos as an ecosystem has always been based on being inclusive and fair. Given that Europe and America have had multiple opportunities for Cosmonauts to get together in the past months, it seemed natural for us to strive for this same possibility to be possible for our dear friends on the Asian continent. As for Seoul, it was chosen both for logistical reasons (to date one of the few nations that have reopened their borders to foreigners), and to thank and show our appreciation to the Korean community for being one of the first to warmly support Cosmos since long before its genesis, and to attract new builders and local teams into the cosmos ecosystem.
  • How will the contribution of the Cosmos Hub Community be highlighted?
    Cosmos Hub will rightfully appear as the main sponsor of this event, along with Interchain Foundation which has committed to cover the operational costs. The logo will be properly displayed on the HackATOM website as well as integrated into any communication pertaining to the event.
  • Is this Spend Proposal sustainable for our Community Pool?
    Let’s do a quick calculation: as of today, the Cosmos Hub community pool contains around 1 million ATOM, with a total value of $9 million when taken at today’s value of ~9 USD. Of this 9 million, the amount required to cover HackATOM is ~$300,000, which is about 0.3 % of the value of the community pool itself. Given the obvious benefits that Cosmos Hub and the entire ecosystem would benefit from this event, we believe this figure is not only sustainable but appropriate.

Have any other questions?
Please comment below!

Want to help us make this HackATOM even more epic?
Write to @catdotfish on Twitter or Telegram!

[CUT ~ ON-CHAIN VERSION]
Make the Cosmos Hub the main sponsor of HackATOM Seoul 2022

Summary
We are requesting 37500 ATOM from the Cosmos Hub Community Pool to make the Hub the main sponsor of the event and cover the prizes of the HackATOM Seoul challenges.

Details
This is a community spend proposal to fund the prizes of the three main challenges that are part of the upcoming HackATOM in Seoul. Previous HackATOMs have demonstrated to directly benefit the Cosmos ecosystem and the Cosmos Hub by enabling the creation of innovative projects that spin off into successful products (e.g. CosmWasm, Osmosis, and many more)
We are requesting 37500 ATOM that will be sent to a multisig maintained by a committee that consists of:

  • Zaki Manian | Co-Founder Sommelier
  • Jelena Djuric | Interchain Security Product Manager & Marketing Lead at Informal Systems
  • Marko Baricevic | Cosmos SDK Product Lead at Interchain

The multisig committee agrees to send the prices to the winners no later than 15 days after the event (August 14 at 8 UTC). In case some challenges do not have a clear winner, any surplus will be returned to the Cosmos Hub Community Pool.

The full text of the proposal with all details and a FAQ can be found here: [PROPOSAL] Signaling Proposal ~ HackATOM Seoul 2022 - #7 by catdotfish

Official event announcement is here: Announcing Cosmoss HackATOM Seoul | by Catdotfish | Jun, 2022 | Cosmos Blog

Vote

  • By voting YES you agree that the Cosmos Hub should allocate 37500 ATOM to fund the primary prices of HackATOM Seoul 2022.
  • By Voting NO you are letting the community know you do not believe the Cosmos Hub should fund this event.
  • By voting ABSTAIN, you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.
  • By voting NOWITHVETO you express that you consider this proposal malicious or harmful for the Cosmos Hub and you would like to see depositors penalized by revocation of the 64 ATOM deposit, which contributes towards an automatic 1/3 veto threshold.
10 Likes

Great that Asia is getting some from Cosmos! Might actually be able to make it to this event.

2 Likes

Hoping Hackatom 2022 will come up with an industry-changing project like previous Hackatoms! All for this prop

2 Likes

Seeing the confusion over the last few proposals, I believe structuring and wording the proposal for simplicity is crucial. I love the FAQ you have at the end; it answers most questions I had. However, I think you need a tight summary at the start saying exactly what this proposal is about.

I’d like to offer a version of this summary in case it helps!

“We are seeking community approval to fund USD $300K worth of prizes at the 2022 HackATOM taking place in late July in Seoul, Korea. HackATOMs are a key event for attracting high-quality talent and developing partner relationships that benefit the entire Cosmos community. While this signaling proposal secures our prize budget prior to the event, we will be following up with a final community spend proposal only after the event so funds can be withdrawn at the going ATOM/USD conversion rate at that time. Given market volatility in token prices, we believe delaying the community spend proposal to after the event is the best way to ensure fairness for the community and the HackATOM competitors.“

4 Likes

It is certain that your summary helps to understand, thanks!!.. However the long signling post is absolutely necessary because it includes in every detail all the information required.

My assessment is that this is an excellent proposal about a great event that, in addition to being the best advertisement, also contributes to the empowerment of the community.

Looking forward for prep infos… :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

Thanks for the write up @uditvira , agree that the proposal could do with a strong summary.

Just FYI everyone, we’re currently discussing with the multisig holders whether we can just create one community spend proposal straight away, and then swap to USDC on Osmosis right after, instead of needing two proposals as drafted right now. This would make the process a lot easier imo.

2 Likes

Continuing the discussion from [PROPOSAL] Signaling Proposal ~ HackATOM Seoul 2022:

Dear all,

After all the excellent feedback I have received in the last few weeks, we finally have the final draft of the governance proposal that will soon be submitted on-chain. There have been changes in form, though not in intent, so I would be grateful if you could take a last look at it. The proposal will be submitted on-chain early next week (barring unforeseen circumstances)

[FULL TEXT PROPOSAL ~ FORUM VERSION]

Cosmonauts,

In collaboration with Interchain, KryptoSeoul is organizing one of the most exciting HackATOMs ever, the first in-person Cosmos Hackathon after 3 years, to celebrate our amazing community and all the incredible achievements of the past years! Before proceeding further, please read the blogpost available in the Cosmos Medium Publication in which we introduce this event and what inspired it.

HackAtom has been a key event for attracting high-quality talent and developing partner relationships that benefit the entire Cosmos Community:

Just to mention a few of them.

As you know, prizes are key in attracting good talent to compete at any hackathon. There are 5 challenges, of which 3 directly benefit the Cosmos Hub and are aligned with its public goods mission. With this signaling proposal, we would like to know if ATOM holders wish to support this long-awaited event by funding the prizes for the winners of these challenges via a community spending proposal.

  • INTERCHAIN PRIZE: INTEROPERABILITY
    Build something that pushes IBC forward
  • HUB PRIZE: INTERCHAIN SECURITY
    Spin up a Consumer Chain that showcases the power of the Cross Chain Validation (CCV) protocol and experiment with the application layer
  • APPLICATION PRIZE: COSMOS-SDK
    Build either a blockchain with the Cosmos SDK, a rewrite of an existing module, or a tool that improves the user experience of developing with the SDK.

(See the FAQs at the bottom for why we chose these 3 challenges to sponsor, and you can read more about the challenges on the website linked below)

As per the competition’s rules, the prizes for each category are:

  • 1st Place 6250 ATOM (~USD $50k)
  • 2nd Place 3750 ATOM (~USD $30k)
  • 3rd Place 1250 ATOM (~USD $10k) (two winners)

For a total prize pool of 37500 ATOM*.

Important to note is that the judges will award prizes only and exclusively in case the submissions are of high quality and meet all the criteria outlined in the various challenges.

In case this proposal is successful, the multisig which is assigned to distribute the tokens to the winners are:

To better evaluate our proposal and to better understand why we think it’s so important for the Hub and the whole ecosystem, you can read the Announcement Blogpost and find below a list of key information regarding the event + a dedicated FAQ.

Location: Dreamplus ~ Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea. HackATOM Seoul represents the first step toward the realization of a dream for our hackers, which is why as the setting for this incredible trip we could only have chosen Dreamplus Gangnam, a place that has seen the birth and is home to some of the most successful startups in all of South Korea.

Dates: July 29 to 31, 2022 right before Buidl Asia and Eth Seoul, the perfect timing to attract builders & teams.

On-site Organizer: KryptoSeoul (headed by Erica Kang) - a well-known, global event planning team located in Seoul with many crypto-related projects. Erica’s team was behind the HackAtom that took place in 2019 in Seoul and that is considered one of the most successful ones.

Website

Judges:

Main goals:

  • Attracting new devs, teams, and investors into our ecosystem
  • Educating developers and their teams about the Cosmos Stack & Interchain Security-based solutions
  • Having hackers develop on top of Interchain Security, the IBC protocol, the Cosmos SDK and the rest of the Cosmos Stack
  • Kickstarting new projects that could bring value to the Cosmos Hub or the Cosmos ecosystem at large
  • Consolidating partners relations
  • Growing our community

Vote:

  • By voting YES you agree that the Cosmos Hub should allocate xxx ATOM to fund the primary prices of HackATOM Seoul 2022.
  • By Voting NO you are letting the community know you do not believe the Cosmos Hub should fund this event.
  • By voting ABSTAIN, you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.
  • By voting NOWITHVETO you express that you consider this proposal malicious or harmful for the Cosmos Hub and you would like to see depositors penalized by revocation of the 64 ATOM deposit, which contributes towards an automatic 1/3 veto threshold.

FAQ:

  • Why is this proposal being submitted only to the Cosmos Hub Community pool?
    The Cosmos Hub has always been recognized as a pioneer of public goods in our Interchain ecosystem, this is true, but in this specific case, the Hub has a particular interest in attracting new teams and effectively promoting solutions such as Interchain Security and improvements to IBC and the Cosmos SDK, on which the Cosmos Hub relies heavily. We really want to capture value for our community and we don’t think there is a better way to do this than putting devs and Core Teams members in direct contact with each other.

  • Why sponsor only these three challenges among the others?
    It is our opinion that ATOM holders would benefit considerably from successfully developed solutions in these chosen categories. In contrast, a connection with the other proposals [Cosmwasm Challenges] might have been less clear. Since we believe it is right that Cosmos Hub community pool funds are used to encourage innovative ideas and implementations that promise to bring value to the Hub itself, we felt that these 3 challenges were the most suitable.

  • Why does this proposal only cover hacker prizes? Are there no other organizational costs?
    Yes, there are other organizational costs, especially considering that the event will be in person (the first in 3 years). The Interchain Foundation has offered to fund the operational costs as this HackATOM represents the beginning of a turning point for all Cosmonauts. We should additionally thank our sponsors who were generous in their willingness to contribute to this long-awaited event.

  • If this signaling proposal passes, will the requested tokens be sent to the multisig immediately?
    Yes. Unlike the first version of this draft that was posted in the Cosmos Forum (and viewable here) which proposed to make a signal proposal and a community spend proposal right after, it was discussed to opt for a single governance proposal since 2 proposals had the following drawbacks:

  1. There was no guarantee that the follow-up proposal would be approved, so we could not say with 100% certainty that our winners would get the prices.
  2. prolonged the timeframe by a lot, and winners would have to wait more than 2 weeks to receive their winnings
  3. added a lot of unnecessary complexity to operations
    Of course, in the event that one or more prizes are not awarded, the proposer and the multisig agree to send back to the cosmos hub community pool the unallocated tokens within 15 days of the end of the competition.
  • Why was Seoul chosen as the location for the first offline HackAtom?
    Cosmos as an ecosystem has always been based on being inclusive and fair. Given that Europe and America have had multiple opportunities for Cosmonauts to get together in the past months, it seemed natural for us to strive for this same possibility to be possible for our dear friends on the Asian continent. As for Seoul, it was chosen both for logistical reasons (to date one of the few nations that have reopened their borders to foreigners), and to thank and show our appreciation to the Korean community for being one of the first to warmly support Cosmos since long before its genesis, and to attract new builders and local teams into the cosmos ecosystem.

  • How will the contribution of the Cosmos Hub Community be highlighted?
    Cosmos Hub will rightfully appear as the main sponsor of this event, along with Interchain Foundation which has committed to cover the operational costs. The logo will be properly displayed on the HackATOM website as well as integrated into any communication pertaining to the event.

  • Is this Spend Proposal sustainable for our Community Pool?
    Let’s do a quick calculation: as of today, the Cosmos Hub community pool contains around 1 million ATOM, with a total value of $9 million when taken at today’s value of ~9 USD. Of this 9 million, the amount required to cover HackATOM is ~$300,000, which is about 0.3 % of the value of the community pool itself. Given the obvious benefits that Cosmos Hub and the entire ecosystem would benefit from this event, we believe this figure is not only sustainable but appropriate.

Have any other questions?
Please comment below!

Want to help us make this HackATOM even more epic?
Write to @catdotfish on Twitter or Telegram!

[CUT ~ ON-CHAIN VERSION]
Make the Cosmos Hub the main sponsor of HackATOM Seoul 2022

Summary
We are requesting 37500 ATOM from the Cosmos Hub Community Pool to make the Hub the main sponsor of the event and cover the prizes of the HackATOM Seoul challenges.

Details
This is a community spend proposal to fund the prizes of the three main challenges that are part of the upcoming HackATOM in Seoul. Previous HackATOMs have demonstrated to directly benefit the Cosmos ecosystem and the Cosmos Hub by enabling the creation of innovative projects that spin off into successful products (e.g. CosmWasm, Osmosis, and many more)
We are requesting 37500 ATOM that will be sent to a multisig maintained by a committee that consists of:

  • Zaki Manian | Co-Founder Sommelier
  • Jelena Djuric | Interchain Security Product Manager & Marketing Lead at Informal Systems
  • Marko Baricevic | Cosmos SDK Product Lead at Interchain

The multisig committee agrees to send the prices to the winners no later than 15 days after the event (August 14 at 8 UTC). In case some challenges do not have a clear winner, any surplus will be returned to the Cosmos Hub Community Pool.

The full text of the proposal with all details and a FAQ can be found here: [PROPOSAL] Signaling Proposal ~ HackATOM Seoul 2022 - #7 by catdotfish

Official event announcement is here: Announcing Cosmos’s HackATOM Seoul | by Catdotfish | Jun, 2022 | Cosmos Blog

Vote

  • By voting YES you agree that the Cosmos Hub should allocate 37500 ATOM to fund the primary prices of HackATOM Seoul 2022.
  • By Voting NO you are letting the community know you do not believe the Cosmos Hub should fund this event.
  • By voting ABSTAIN, you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.
  • By voting NOWITHVETO you express that you consider this proposal malicious or harmful for the Cosmos Hub and you would like to see depositors penalized by revocation of the 64 ATOM deposit, which contributes towards an automatic 1/3 veto threshold.
1 Like

This is an excellent prop about a great event for our community, BUT…
In a period of extented volatility, a pre-defined number of ATOMs as a total prize would be probably a much better idea. In my point of view, the total prize must be in ATOM (like prop 72 for example).

Why should the ATOM-USD ratio be so important as to exists xxx in this great prop?
Why the winners should be paid in USD?

This is the only point I disagree with…
In this way we act as if we don’t believe in ATOM.

3 Likes

Thank you very much for your feedback!
I think it is only fair to clarify this point before submitting the proposal on-chain since you have moved since it is extremely important:
We all firmly believe in ATOM, and we wish those who want to join this ecosystem to do so as well, which is why we didn’t submit the proposal in USDC or other stable coins. At the same time, I think it was just as right to give people a fiat counterpart (it could have been euro or Korean won as well, we used dollars to make it more digestible and immediate for everyone without having to use coingeko).
The goal of the proposal is to be as clear and transparent as possible so that Cosmonauts can cast their vote without having to invest hours in researching additional content (as many times happens). I’m sorry that this came across to you as not believing in ATOM.

2 Likes

Thank you for your feedback and for your quick response!
I can see what you mean, however allow me to still disagree with it.
All of us here strongly believe in ATOM, its potential, its vision and its future value.
This is certain and there is no doubt…

That’s exactly why I can’t find any reason for the USD prize.
In my eyes, in this way we recognize ATOMs value only in ratio with USD or any other FIAT currency and finally, as we discuss for a community spend, I think that a pre-defined number of ATOMs would be preferable and more fair for the community than an xxx amount.

3 Likes

After having reviewed once more your concerns, the proposal will be revised to address your points and reflect a pre-defined number of ATOMs :3 will be shared as soon as ready!

4 Likes