RFC-14 University Governance Program

Proposals Requests for Comment [RFC]
#1

1. Summary/Scope:
Create a governance program for university blockchain organizations to request POP specifically for the use of governance. Many universities have blockchain organizations with a governance component, where they (or an affiliated DAO) hold tokens and dedicate a team to research, propose, and vote on proposals for that given protocol.

The POP tokens transferred would be contingent on a recurring renewal of participation in the program, to be used solely to stake for vlPOP and participate in governance, and are not to be used for trading, investing, or any other activity.

The university blockchain organizations can also become delegates on Snapshot, allowing POP holders to delegate their votes to these research-focused entities.

2. Link to previous DAO discussions:
Previous conversation of involving university blockchain organizations: Proposal: Vanderbilt Blockchain + Popcorn Scholarship Fund

3. Main Objective:

  1. Increase involvement and awareness of Popcorn through participation of large blockchain organizations at reputable universities
  2. Provide POP holders with reputable delegate options who can vote on their behalf
  3. Boost rate of RFC/PIPs and their discussions through the involvement of dedicated governance teams from these organizations

4. Contracts/Technical Requirements:
n/a, would simply require POP transfer to wallet controlled by university blockchain organization (or affiliated DAO)

5. Organizational/Partnership Requirements:
Non-developer teams would focus on outreach to potential organizations, processing their application, transferring POP, and onboarding them to Popcorn governance

An outline of a potential application form: University Blockchain POP Governance Program - Google Docs

Outline of vlPOP and governance:

PopcornDAO Governance Guide:

6. Next Steps:

  1. Outreach to universities with blockchain organizations. Potential partnership targets include Vanderbilt University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, University of Texas, University of Pennsylvania (Franklin DAO)
  2. Onboard organizations (ideally ahead of beginning of January academic term)

7. References:
Academic Web3 Community: Web3 Academic List
TRON university program: The Block: TRON Academy Expands as University Blockchain Clubs Thrive
Harmony university program: University Hackathon
Telos university program: Telos Sparks Harvard University Hackathon

4 Likes
PIP-15 University Governance Program
#2

Nice proposal.
Include RMIT (Australia) in this list.
RMIT is the leading Australian tech education provider, with most students undertaking post grad cert/diploma/masters level courses.
There’s a growing blockchain alumni spanning a huge range of sectors, and the alumni (which I’m a part of) has formed a Blockchain Taskforce to create a DAO focused on providing blockchain related education outcomes.

#3

Onboarding University DAO’s to PopcornDAO is an integrity booster and further legitimizes our approach in funding public goods. I can definitely see a larger program grow out of this RFC.

#4

Sounds good!
I would try to reach a diversity of universities, e.g. from all continents in the world.

Is there a range of how much vlPOP we want to “give” for this purpose?
Also related, what criteria should universities use to decide the “amount of vlPOP requested”?

1 Like
#5

@mettodo this got pushed into a PIP PIP-15 University Governance Program. Distributions would be between 5-10k POP, which they would then stake for vlPOP. I love the idea of diversifying globally, but our initial list primarily targets US and Australia-based universities since that is where we have existing connections.

Once approved, will continue to outreach to clubs on these lists 1 2.

1 Like
#6

Sounds like a good plan!

#7

I like the experiment. The contributions of the University organizations will help propel Popcorn