Understanding and Improving tlBANK Functionality | BanklessDAO Weekly Rollup
Catch Up With What Happened This Week in BanklessDAO
Dear Bankless Nation 🏴,
When it comes to building in the web3 space, it is a gradual process, one served well by contributors’ willingness to implement new ideas that add more value for users.
To this end, Crypto Sapiens has some updates for us. After a long-time focusing mainly on podcasts, the project team has decided to try out a new strategy — the newsletter-first strategy. The newsletter is now the Crypto Sapiens home page, and the podcasts and other business initiatives will support newsletter growth. This decision was made due to the cost and time commitment involved in production of each podcast episode.
Crypto Sapiens is also in the process of creating community forums where folks can join conversations or start their own. One idea under consideration is making the Crypto Sapiens Discord server private and creating a listener NFT which will serve as access to the server as well as other utility. The goal is to grow and bring more value to users.
Likewise, the DAO is looking to bring more value and utility to tlBANK. For this week’s editorial, Boluwatife investigated some of the questions around the locking feature of BANK ownership which has the potential to change the way contributors hold and are rewarded with BANK.
Speaking of hodling, the combined OP voting weight of BanklessDAO via DAOStewards is up to 30,000 OP! This is thanks to our awesome delegatoors. Great work is also going on in ArbitrumDAO governance thanks to DAOStewards.
This week’s Rollup features updates from Bankless Academy and the Global Events team at Ibiza, as well as the usual essential info on governance, education sessions, and consumable content. Enjoy!
Contributors: Boluwatife, Warrior, theconfusedcoin, anointingthompson1.eth, Paulito, Vi-Fi, NF Thinker, Ornella, Trewkat, HiroKennelly
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👍 Subscribe to Bankless Publishing on X and Substack and be free of FOMO forever!
🎥 AV Guild is open for YouTube upload submissions at 1250 BANK each.
🔴 Donate to Bankless Academy on Giveth’s Optimism Quadratic Funding Round.
🏃♀️ Catch up: Review this week's Community Call notes or listen to the recording.
Proposals in Discussion
📚 How To DAO — Educational Video Series
This proposal talks about crafting concise tutorials to enlighten and engage the community on topics such as DAOs, DeFi, Regen, and NFTs. The team requested 540,000 BANK to fund this project. Add your thoughts on this proposal on the Forum.
🗣 [TEMP CHECK] GC — CC Update Requirement
The DAO is doing exciting things, but it's challenging to track activities across different units. To support awareness, the GC is proposing a new requirement for funding, that all org units do an update on the CC once a month as part of their seasonal responsibilities. Drop your thoughts about this in the Forum.
🛂 [TEMP CHECK] — BanklessDAO Citizenship Upgrade v1
The authors of this proposal believe that to address issues around BANK distribution, values alignment, and overall community health, it’s necessary to restructure the rights associated with DAO membership levels. Guest Pass holders could still renew indefinitely, while roles and voting rights would move to L1 members (citizens). This is a first step, with future revisions for L2, L3, and L4. What's your take on this? Hit the Forum to read the discussion and add your thoughts.
Understanding and Improving tlBANK Functionality
Author: Boluwatife
Part of the cycle of innovation involves new discoveries and iterative improvement once an idea is launched. One recent situation in the DAO demonstrated that there is not as much clarity around tlBANK as is needed, so this article aims to improve our contributors’ understanding about the tlBANK mechanism as well as prompt some thinking about ways the DAO can further implement tlBANK.
Let’s look at what happened, and address some of the questions raised.
Last month, a DAO contributor's wallet was hacked and he lost all his digital assets, including his tlBANK. This caused him to lose his L1 membership an and L2 role. Members of the DAO sympathized with him, of course, but then questions started coming up, questions like:
I thought once BANK was locked it cannot be traded until it’s unlocked?
If the BANK was locked in BanklessDAO’s mechanism, how was it stolen?
All other assets might have been stolen, but shouldn’t tlBANK have ensured he kept his membership status?
Well, we have the answers to these questions…
The tlBANK mechanism was developed to enable contributors to signal alignment with the DAO’s long-term mission and also to help the DAO mitigate value erosion and stabilize the BANK economy. With over 12 million BANK locked and 180 holders, it is evident that folks believe in the vision.
However, time locking BANK is in no way a security measure. While it prevents the locked balance of BANK tokens being exchanged for the equivalent value in tokens such as ETH or USDC (that is, ‘sold’), there is no barrier to the transfer of ownership of the locked amount, which is represented by an ERC-721 standard token, or NFT.
What Is tlBANK and How Does It Work?
tlBANK is the abbreviation for time-locked BANK. The process is initiated when you connect your wallet to the tlBANK site, choose the amount you want and the duration, then lock. Now here’s the interesting part: according to Icedcool, when you lock BANK, in return you are transferred a ‘note’ that represents the tlBANK. This note is an ERC-721, a NFT which is visible via your wallet.
Therefore even though the locked BANK can’t be unlocked until the specified duration has passed, the tlBANK NFT representing the locked BANK can be sold or transferred by the wallet holder.
The reason this contributor lost Level 1 and Level 2 roles was that these are linked to wallet balance — or to be clear, Level 1 is based on holding 35K BANK or a tlBANK NFT, and Level 2 is contingent on holding Level 1 membership. Once the tlBANK NFT was transferred out of the wallet, the Discord validation for those roles would have failed. The new holder of the tlBANK NFT — the hacker — would not be able to join the bDAO Discord and use it to validate L1 membership, but will be the owner of the BANK once it is unlocked.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness month; while building and discovering, we would also like for you and your digital assets to stay safe. Bankless Publishing has previously published articles about wallet security and what to do if your web3 wallet has been hacked. If you haven’t yet, do check them out, update your mental files, and stay SAFU.
What Is Next For tlBANK?
Different work streams in the DAO are now actively ideating on how tlBANK can be used to reward contributors and also get more folks into this value-aligned system. Although nothing is decided yet, here are some ideas that have popped up around the DAO:
MissHomie had the idea of creating a cohort where folks research a product and once completed submit it for review. This product will be weighed by some certain standards and if it passes, the contributor will be allocated rewards in tlBANK.
Contributors’ discussions in the Marketing Department and Bankless Publishing have ideated the concept of giving new contributors a chance to earn tlBANK NFTs in smaller units than the current 40K or 80K BANK. Perhaps they would earn these instead of BANK tokens for bounties. After they earn enough smaller denomination tlBANK tokens for L1 membership, they would have full access to earn BANK tokens for while retaining L1.
While there is no documentation for these ideas yet, it shows some of the thought process happening in the DAO. We are still looking for more ways to implement the tlBANK strategy into the DAO ecosystem. If you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to drop in to the Treasury Department channels in Discord. We would be excited to have you!
🤩 Gitcoin Citizens Round 2
The Gitcoin Citizens Rounds aim to reward work contributing directly to Gitcoin’s mission, the deployment of tools that enable communities to build, fund and protect what matters to them. In this second round, Gitcoin is shifting the focus to increase support for individuals who need funding for new or ongoing work.
Explore the round or follow these direct links to donate to these BanklessDAO contributors (apologies to anyone we missed!). The donations close on October 24 at 23:59 UTC.
🚀 Bankless Academy Update: New Optimism Governance Lesson and ETH Milan
Author: Ornella
gm, Bankless Explorers. The Academy Squad continues to build and push web3 education forward, but this time, in six languages! That’s right, the only way to reach new audiences is by breaking down the language and accessibility barriers to proper web3 knowledge.
🌐 Multilingual Governance Lesson
Bankless Academy collaborated with Bankless International Media Nodes to launch a multilingual Optimism Governance Lesson. The specialized content is now available in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, and German, making web3 education more accessible worldwide.
🔴 Optimism Quadratic Funding Round: Join us live on Giveth's Optimism Quadratic Funding Round. You can donate starting at just 1 DAI, supporting the growth of web3 education.
🇮🇹 Bankless Academy at ETH Milan: Our Marketing & Community Lead, OrnellaWeb3, presented a Wallet Onboarding talk in Italian, inspired by Bankless Academy's Wallet Basics course.
You're only a click away from starting your Bankless journey with Bankless Academy. To stay updated with the team and to be the first Explorer to take new lessons, give them a follow on X and level up with web3 knowledge with confidence 🚀 LFG!
⚡️ bDAO Spotlight
RetroPFG, a community initiative promoting Retroactive Public Goods Funding on Optimism, which is supported by Giveth and General Magic, highlighted bDAO and all that we do on their X page. Check it out and show the post some love!
🗣️ Non-Violent Communication in DAOs
In a system where progress depends on collective opinion, emotions may sometimes run high. DAO ecosystem leaders join in in this edition of bDAO’s Leadership Roundtable Discussion and share their experiences and advice on how to effectively communicate in DAOs. Lots of alpha here.
⛱️ Ibiza NXT Conference Held 4-6 October
Author: NF Thinker
Our BanklessDAO Global Events team returned to the tropical Balearic Sea for a second year running at the Ibiza NXT web3 conference. This year saw a departure from the standard corporate feel of a blockchain conference, and we leaned into the relaxed vibe of southern Spain at this diverse gathering of students, teachers, and founders.
Morning sessions were held in TheHub Ibiza, a laid back co-working environment fit for any digital nomad. Presenters from a variety of different projects took to the stage, with professors from Balearic University and UCLA, the Klima DAO team, founders of AI and metaverse projects, musicians, NFT artists, and even NF Thinker and Reinis from Bankless Card. Our very own Anaphant was the star of the show as co-host for the event, and she absolutely crushed her first appearance in this role. We’re backing you for your next speaking gig, Ana!
Evening sessions took place in the Castell d’Eivissa (Ibiza Castle), a setting fit for a king. With guest presentations from Bruce Sterling (founder of the Cyberpunk movement) and many more, followed by live DJ performances and a killer set from the one-and-only March 401 an avid wordsmith and Bankless Card contributor.
The three-day event was capped on the final evening with NFT art exhibitions and, in true Ibizan style, a club night to remember.
The Ibiza NXT team is exploring sustainability in web3 education, and will be working with TheHub to host regular events throughout the year. If you’re interested in attending or hosting an educational event with them, be sure to reach out to the team via the Ibiza NXT website.
⛴️ BanklessDAO Content
🗞 The Rug Newsletter
👺 Moloch Traps: Capitalism
Within the dichotomy of capitalism, the invisible hand can either uplift societies or leave them shackled in the chains of inequality. The choice lies in our collective will to ensure fairness. In episode 5 from the podcast series From Aa to Zz, ZombieShepherd and 0xZFi discuss Moloch and Capitalism.
🌏 Bankless Africa Newsletter
✍️ Bankless Publishing
🧠 Crypto Sapiens
🤩 New Joiner Session S9 x 03
Join the New Joiner Session to learn more about BanklessDAO and how to get involved. You will meet mentors who could guide you on your journey into DAO life and other new joiners who may become fellow travelers. This session will be held on Zep. Please put your Discord Handle as your display name (e.g. Quietfox#2574), and be prepared to share a little about yourself.
RSVP to have Zep meeting details emailed to you nearer to the event, which will be held on Monday, October 16 at 14:00 UTC.
🛄 How To Dework
Are you interested in learning how to create and claim bounties on Dework? Join the Education Department on Tuesday, October 17 at 14:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel to learn more about these tools.
💬 How To Discord
Are you eager to gain a comprehensive understanding of how BanklessDAO operates within the Discord platform? Look no further! Join the Education Department on Wednesday, October 18 at 14:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel. In this session, we will guide you through the intricacies of using Discord to engage with the BanklessDAO community effectively.
📖 How To BANK (Governance)
Join the Education Department on Thursday, October 19 at 14:00 UTC in the watercooler voice channel to learn about the BanklessDAO Constitution, and in particular, how the DAO is structured.
