Proposal to Execute FORTH Inflation directed towards Public Good through Partnership with Gitcoin Grants

Ampleforth Governance
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Overview

FORTH can be inflated 2% per year according to the code, and this opens up on 4/21/2023. Gitcoin is a web3 platform dedicated towards the proliferation of much needed Public Goods, and the upcoming Grants Beta Round will run from 4/25/23 - 5/9/23. Important categories include Decentralized Science, Climate Solutions, web3 Community & Education, Token Engineering, Ethereum Infrastructure; and more can be found here: Gitcoin Grants

DAO should vote for FORTH Inflation and become a funding partner.

Rationale: Decentralization & Peer-to-Peer Consensus

Decentralization

We’re all here for Decentralization, right?

In the pursuit of Decentralization, Gitcoin Grants is funded through a mechanism known as Quadratic Funding. This values the Voice of the People and the end users – the N – by weighting influence of the number of Individuals contributing to causes, more than the number units of Money going towards them. Example; 10 persons contributing $1 each is matched with far greater magnitude than 1 person donating $10:

Quadratic Funding Example
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From the inaugural Decentralized Science Gitcoin Grants Round in Q3 ’22 emerged important insights that informed, at least in part, the soft launch of AMPL-SPOT System. Discussions about Free Energy, Markov Blankets, Endogenous vs. Exogenous Collateral unfolded in the official Ampleforth Discord Server. Neuroscience of Ethereum: Decentralized Science for a Human Node Network project was funded by web3 citizens like you via Decentralized Finance, and our collective understanding of Active Inference (how we are actively modelling the world of Ethereum after our Nervous System) further helped to elaborate the significance of Decentralized Elastic Finance & Rebasing Digital Assets.

In this sense, the behavior of Supply Elastic Digital Assets on Ethereum appears to be modelled after Neurotransmitters in the Nervous System.

Horizontal & Vertical stratification of Risk (Free Energy & Uncertainty; by way of Neurotransmitters) in the Nervous System assisted our understanding of Rebase & Tranche mechanisms and motivated this video on Zero Liquidation Loans. Going even deeper, integration of Insights from Analytical & Depth Psychology, Game Theory, and Computational Neuroscience – it can be said – have been applied towards the Nature of (Ideal) Money. We go from Ideal Money to Asymptotically Ideal Money, as we go from the Prima Materia AMPL to the Philosophers’ Stone SPOT.

Now that Inflation-Resistant Store of Value Peer-to-Peer Cash (what a mouthful) – let’s just call it Ideal Money? – has been invented, it behooves us to put it to good use towards those things that will advance humanity, extend our longevity, and promote well-being & prosperity.

Participating as a funding partner in this Gitcoin Grants Beta Round is likely to confer the following advantages to FORTH DAO, AMPL-SPOT, and the broader Elastic Finance Ecosystem (Ampleforth, Buttonwood, HourGlass):

  • Awareness, Recognition, and Marketing across the Ethereum Ecosystem
  • Decentralization & Distribution of AMPL-SPOT
  • Deeper FORTH Liquidity
  • Interest to BUIDL upon the Elastic Finance stack
  • Community growth
  • Potential potentiation of a Flywheel Effect
  • More; see “ThinkBoi” Funnel :rocket:

Peer-to-Peer Consensus

To balance the disseminating forces of content in the Information Age, Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology appears to have emerged as a conduit for collectively ascribing meaning to that Information which can create Value. Peer-to-Peer Consensus emerges through the chaotic ocean of Information Entropy; Order emerges through Disorder.

It seems Science is at a pivotal moment in this regard. Over the better part of the 20th Century, Science has progressed under the “development-by-accumulation” view driven by a mandate of falsifiability of hypotheses conducted with empirical testing. This has worked well in the previous paradigm. Today, do we need to rely upon falsifiability to decide whether Distributed Ledger Technology & Digital Assets create Value for Society?

We can make sense of the world in other ways.

E.g., if the Philosophers’ Stone SPOT exemplifies an Elixir of Life by resolving uncertainties of the web3 end user by relieving their burdens tied to financial uncertainties, must we run empirical testing to validate this reality?

It’s important for the pendulum to swing back towards Verificationism from Falsifiability, where it is asymmetrically dangling at present.

It is imperative for Science to be Decentralized #DeSci

Consensus?

Method/Specification

For this, I will present options and leave the rest up to our DAO and Community as we gauge interest through a temp-check.

The most straightforward path would entail n% FORTH Inflation and conversion into a “stablecoin,” though we have something better so we can go with SPOT. At current prices:

  • 2% Inflation → 15,297,897 x 2% → 305,958 x $3.36 = ~$1M USD
  • 1% = ~$500K
  • 0.5% = ~$250K
  • 0.25% = ~$125K

Currently, there is a $75K matching pool for the DeSci core round. It could certainly benefit from more.

More elaborate processes could constitute selling inflated FORTH to finance:

  • An AMPL/ETH Geyser dedicated towards DeSci Gitcoin Grants Core Round
  • A SPOT/USDC Geyser dedicated towards DeSci Gitcoin Grants Core Round
  • Both
  • Deepening of PALM Liquidity, and repurposing heretofore accumulated ETH towards Core Round Matching
  • Selling FORTH for AMPL → Minting SPOT with this AMPL → Using this minted SPOT for matching pool

Concluding Thoughts

I’m a staunch proponent of Applied Science. We’re in the midst of multiple crises, so it’s necessary for us to take Action. The growth of Decentralized Science is part of a broader game plan to collectively deploy what can be analogized as the modern-day Archimedes’ Lever.

Archimedes' Lever cropped
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This can lead to dramatic improvements in Individual & Public Health through the construction of a “web3 Assembly Line” (.e.g., Sleep 2 Earn) which can come to our homes, but we have to activate the puzzle together. Health can become Wealth.

We have to get there first. Learn more about the Archimedes’ Lever.

Your Time & Attention to this pressing matter is much appreciated; thank you :pray:

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Hi Bhau,

Hi hebbianloop here! Some of you may remember me from the discord or authoring the ETH/AMPL/BTC balancer pool proposal.

Thanks for posting! A stablecoin gains adoption through utility. Distributing SPOT through Gitcoin is a Gigabrain move for encouraging the adoption of a new digital asset.

I think even a symbolic gesture such as the ForthDAO voting on the top 10 projects to disseminate $SPOT would also go a long way for marketing. The meme power of public goods is undeniable and cross even out of web3 into web2.

I cannot support this proposal enough!

Disclaimer: I do have an active grant in the DeSci category.

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With all due respect to Gitcoin/DeSci/Saving humanity -

Ampl/Spot/Forth are fighting for their lives right now…

If there is sny Forth inflattion this year, it should be 100% allocated to the growth of Spot - towards direct marketing, development of dapps featuring spot, incentivizing Spot liquidity/rollover vault’s, hackathons, etc.

While noble, i think this cause is misaligned with what needs to happen right now.

I think this is something that will be a good idea a few years down the line after Ampl/Spot/Forth have gained some footing.

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Appreciate your feedback, though - respectfully, did you read through the post? You might find we’re all saying the same thing.

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Yes and half the post is speaking about DeSci.

How does contributing to DeSci bring immediate impact to the Ampl ecosystem and the Spot growth initiative?

Isn’t better to align with whatever the team is trying to do to drive Spot adoption?

Just seems like we’re going in these different directions in a really critical time.

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If it’s better to align with whatever the team is trying to do, then why masquerade this as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization? Seems a bit disingenuous, no?

As @hebbianloop stated, this would be easy marketing and a good opportunity to distinguish stablecoin vs. flatcoin vs. perpetually redeemable tranche or whatever the appropriate sub-category of this novel digital asset should be. SPOT should be used for public good over degen speculation & coin flipping.

One thing this community has historically struggled with is neglecting to be one.

However, if this is your way of engaging in discussion to highlight importance…then very clever, Mr. Pascal.

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Thanks for the valuable input, everyone! @Pascal @Degen_Autist @hebbianloop

Conceptually speaking, decentralization entails the distribution of vectors in different directions so miscommunications can be exchanged not uncommonly. Decentralized Governance is not easy! If it were easy, we’d already have a kind of “Crypto-Utopia” by now.

From what I can gather, it appears as if we’re all aligned towards at least one common goal:

Adoption of SPOT

Aligning with the team’s efforts and opening up swim-lanes with the community are likely to effect synergistic outcomes.

E.g., utilizing SPOT to help cover gas costs in this upcoming Gitcoin Grants DeSci round would establish a Co-Incidence of Wants: DeSci Community can fund important projects with less friction, while ForthDAO benefits from much needed awareness that will reach some of the brightest minds in the web3 space :slightly_smiling_face: This concern was raised in the DeSci TG b/c this round, built on the Allo Protocol, will not integrate ZkSync or Polygon like the previous rounds have.

From the beginning, I’ve advocated the use of AMPL-SPOT for Public Good. Hebbianloop has articulated similar lines of thought above, and I couldn’t agree more.

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Hi Bhau,

I think we need deep markets and Protocol Owned Liquidity first then funding gitcoin grants could be considered.

Still I think its a different story of the projects are talking about using $SPOT in some way in their project, but if they are just going to sell to ETH for gas how is that synergistic to AMPL ecosystem?

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Hi Nestor,

Deepening of Markets and Protocol Owned Liquidity drive adoption of SPOT ⇔ adoption of SPOT feeds into deep markets & Protocol Owned Liquidity.

These policies are synergistic, though I surmise that they might be perceived as mutually exclusive by some readers.

As a matching partner, the DAO would seed the Quadratic Funding pool. If there is Consensus, incentives could be designed to promote awareness and education of the AMPL-SPOT system. E.g., X% greater match if a DeSci project decides to actively mint SPOT.

This still drives adoption of SPOT, no? In this way, at least n persons more know about SPOT than is the case now. If we’re buying into M x V = P x Q, then the more hands that exchange SPOT the greater the Velocity. The selling of SPOT to cover gas would be a relatively minor fraction of the use case.

The Game is Multiplayer & Co-Op.

In the interest of growing Decentralized & Regenerative Finance, Players are naturally motivated to use a decentralized alternative to centralized stablecoins. Consequently, organic supply of liquidity to seed the geysers and/or V3 pools would not be surprising - given the proper context and edification is provided.

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So what is the ask here, in plain english?

75k of Spot directed towards funding a DeSci project?

Also didnt one of you get kicked out the discord? And now you’re back to ask for funding?

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Hello Pascal,

The Recommendation for this Proposal is to direct FORTH towards the

DeSci Matching Pool (could be via conversion into 75k SPOT, or some other amount).

As stated above, this is likely to surface awareness of SPOT and help drive adoption.

This is not the appropriate forum to ask for individual funding. In the context of Decentralized Science, this would be a good opportunity to understand why it’s important to make the unconscious conscious - as Carl Jung has wisely counseled. Following the AMPL “Red Book,” perhaps this could be a segue into a “Black Book” with AMPL-SPOT :nerd_face::slightly_smiling_face:

If this organization is not decentralized and there exist significant conflicts of interest over intellectual property that remains proprietary, then this should be clarified to serve the best interests of our broader community.

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I am reading Decentralized science (DeSci) | ethereum.org trying to understand this proposal.

Are the grantees the ones that gain awareness of SPOT? Then shouldn’t the DAO spread SPOT across all the public good rounds to reach all the grantees? Why should the DAO limit funding to only DeSci?

How much awareness do grantees gain from receiving SPOT? Do they immediately swap it for a stablecoin to fund their projects?

Does DeSci have a list of projects available for funding? What is the spread of funds in past DeSci rounds?

I assume not all of DeSci is aligned with the DAO. What is the expected percentage of the DAO funds going to projects that benefit the DAO? For quadratic funding to benefit the DAO, donaters need to firstly be aware of those projects and secondly be willing to vote for those projects. How likely is that? Is there a catch-22 where projects to raise awareness of SPOT get little funding because there is little awareness of SPOT in the first place?

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@Bhau the voice of reason is like kryptonite to these folks. Trust me, I’ve been here since the days when other projects that were sidelined and deprioritized without disclosure of reasoning.

Sounds like a nerve was struck.

American Psycho Meme

I looked a bit more into this Jung guy. Bad things tend to happen if his advice is not heeded, according to communities.

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Hi coldpress,

Thanks for taking the time to understand DeSci, Gitcoin Grants, and Quadratic Funding.

Asking the right questions, friend :sunglasses: Indeed the DAO shouldn’t constrain itself with only DeSci; more the merrier.

Awareness is binary. Currently they’re unaware; after SPOT enters their awareness, this will change. What the grantees do next with SPOT is their prerogative, as is the case with any kind of cash. Though notably by this time, the primary aim of driving adoption of SPOT vis-a-vis raising awareness will be accomplished.

This round - soon. For the previous round, there is this report: Gitcoin Grants Round 15: Round Results & Recap | Gitcoin Blog

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In principle, Decentralization “Maximalists” are aligned with the prospect of a decentralized censorship resistant “stablecoin.” Such indirect alignment can be made more direct by bringing the DAO front and center as the creator of inflation resistant store of value peer-to-peer electronic cash.

Projects can be incentivized to align with and benefit the DAO by configuring something like an X% greater match if, for instance, a project decides to convert the SPOT into AMPL and mint more SPOT with that (effectively leverage; but very importantly, this is liquidation free and the Action would serve to drive this point home). Or something akin to “retro-active public good funding” effected by Optimism. This could additionally preempt familiarity with the upcoming launch of Rollover Vaults. Positive & Negative Feedbacks come in many varieties.

Sounds like a great reason for our communities (Ampleforth, Elastic Finance, DeSci, Gitcoin Grants) to mobilize and coordinate.

No Risk, No Reward. Something like the Educated AMPLifier - SPOTifier? - quiz can be used to motivate learning and understanding. The new pitch deck can be easily converted into a Q&A.

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Appreciate your input, @Degen_Autist

Things are not always as they seem. I’m sure the Team had very important reasons that may have contributed to such a perception.

Carl Jung has entered the Game, so let’s :handshake: and call that a Positive-Sum Outcome

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Mate, it seems disingenious to throw a Yuh-gi-Oh! fueled temper tantrum in the general discord of all places, and then have the audacity to make a proposal for funding a few weeks later. We have to question the character and integrity of the people making these proposals as well.

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That was simply a theatrical play of a response to your “throw the dog a bone” attitude towards community members volunteering to create and add value.

So, the questioning goes both ways, mate.

But if we’re going to take the Game so seriously, then how are we ever going to accomplish anything?

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Let’s Apply the Knowledge of the Geniuses who came before us and avoid these dogfights, yea?

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@Bhau you got kicked out for Yu-Gi-Oh!?!? Hahahaha

Based

Apparently, Jung was an Egyptian fan. I read he wore a ring from Egypt.

But yea, don’t get your hopes up too high @Bhau. Wait a few more days for a defensive response like the one above, then rinse n repeat

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Jung was a Psychiatrist and he is considered the founder of Analytical Psychology. Some also consider him a Magician, a Seer, or a Sage. Evidently, he foresaw the coming of WWII. Nailed the timing too ~1940. So, probably a good idea to heed his advice

Partly, I was ejected from the server because the Synchronicities became too real as we traversed closer to the Shadow Realm of the Collective Unconscious

Anyhow, in relation to this important proposal - Elon was on Bill Maher’s show the other night, and gave an alternate spin on Occam’s Razor: the most ironic explanation is the likely explanation

Interesting, I thought

And then I read this in a book written by a Psycho-Analyst:

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If feces is like money, and hoarding represents psychological developmental arrest in the Anal Phase…then maybe we ought to apply some Analysis.

Rather, Anal-Lysis

Irony :poop::rofl:

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Whatever he’s smoking, I’ll have some of that

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