Written by Dan Singjoy in July, 2024
Over the past two years we’ve made great progress by fostering countless collaborations, building tools for fractal decision-making processes on multiple networks, inspiring many fractal communities, and producing over one hundred amazing videos of our events. With the next generation of tools nearly ready and opportunities on the horizon, we need to refine our approach to achieve our mission and actualize our vision. It’s time for the next epoch of Eden Fractal.
I propose that we start the second Epoch of Eden Fractal on August 14th, following a four-week summer break. This epoch will introduce several changes aimed at enhancing community engagement, improving the quality of events, and positioning Eden Fractal to achieve our mission and vision. I propose that we make the following changes after returning from summer break next month:
Switch to a Biweekly Event Schedule: Starting August 14th we will shift to a biweekly schedule to provide people interested in fractal decision-making processes with higher quality and more impactful events.
Start Playing Respect Games Again: The Respect Games will measure contributions and recognize efforts towards achieving our mission. The consensus results will be posted on Base with the new software as soon as it is technically feasible to do so.
Bootstrap/Reboot our Consensus Process: Establish a consensus process for community decision-making based upon Respect earnings to ensure fair, fast, and fun decision-making. We’ll practice what we preach.
Introduce Discussion Spaces Based on Demand: If/when there is sufficient demand for a variety of discussion topics (like we’ve done for the past eighteen months playing while Cagendas), we can introduce town hall or office hours events to provide a place for this.
More details about each of these proposed features, the summer break, and the second epoch of Eden Fractal are below. I’m curious to hear your thoughts about these and would appreciate feedback.
Table of Contents
I think it’s best for Eden Fractal to take a 4-week summer break with the last event of our first epoch on July 10th (next week) and a return for the next epoch on August 14th. Additionally, Optimism Fractal will take a two-week summer break starting on July 25th. During this time I plan to host biweekly office hours where we can have open discussions related to fractal decision-making processes in a more private setting.
Benefits of the Break:
Quality Improvement: The break will allow for less frequent, more carefully prepared events, resulting in higher quality and more impactful gatherings.
Strategic Positioning: The break can position the Eden Fractal community well for opportunities like RetroFunding, enhancing our ability to achieve our mission and goals. I plan to pursue opportunities throughout the EVM ecosystem to support builders and community leaders who implement fractal governance processes.
Sustainable Participation: A less demanding schedule will be especially helpful for the Eden Creators and Optimystics teams, who bear a large burden of responsibility for topic creation, event promotion, video production, and other related tasks for two events each week.
We’ll shift to a biweekly schedule to provide the community with higher-quality, impactful events. This change will give everyone more time to engage meaningfully, contribute effectively, and avoid burnout. By reducing the frequency of events, we can ensure that each gathering is well-prepared and more valuable for all participants.
Benefits:
Community Engagement: A biweekly schedule allows for more focused and meaningful participation from all members, enhancing the overall event experience and making each gathering more special.
Syncing Schedules: The biweekly schedule will allow everyone to join Optimism Foundation Office Hours every other Wednesday, which can help build relationships and attract funding.
The Respect Games will begin as soon as it is technically feasible. These games will be played with consensus results posted on Base, focusing on achieving our mission by measuring contributions and recognizing the efforts of all community members. The Respect Game is crucial for fostering continuous improvement within the community and it’s important to practice what we preach. I think that the new software will be ready to use in the next few weeks, which would allow us to start using it when we return.
Benefits:
Contribution Measurement: The Respect Game allows for fair measurement of each member’s contributions, which could be used for funding allocation or other decisions later.
Driving Towards Mission: The Respect Game aligns community activities with our mission, providing a direct way to motivate efforts that contribute towards our shared goals.
Consensus Primitive: The Respect Game is essential to bootstrapping our consensus process for community decisions.
We will establish a new consensus process for community decision-making, using Eden+Fractal, the Council model pioneered by Optimism Fractal, and/or OREC as our consensus process. This will be enabled by weekly Respect Games in Epoch 2 and may at some point involve porting over previously earned Respect from Epoch 1 to Base.
Benefits:
Practicing what We Preach: We should lead by example by using our products and making collective decisions with fractal consensus processes.
Fair Representation: Ensures that decision-making power is distributed based on actual contributions as evaluated in weekly Respect Games.
Advanced Tooling: Using advanced EVM open source tools like Snapshot and Hats Protocol for consensus processes enhances transparency and efficiency within the community.
If/when there is sufficient demand for more discussion topics, we can consider introducing another event like Office Hours or Eden Town Hall. This space can be dedicated to diverse discussions facilitated by the Cagendas community agenda game, where players vote on topics with Respect earned during the Respect Game.
Benefits:
Tailored Discussions: Provides a space for discussions on topics that matter most to the community, based on their votes.
Flexibility: Introducing Office Hours or Eden Town Hall only if there is demand ensures that we are meeting the community’s needs without overextending resources.
Enhanced Engagement: Facilitates deeper and more diverse discussions, enriching the community experience.
