#45 Signaling Proposal for election of the 2023 Economic Committee

Governance Signaling Proposals
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The Economic Committee members (EC) serve annual terms and are voted into office, via an Agoric on-chain governance proposal. On 15 September 2023 it will be one year since the members of the first Economic Committee were voted in. Accordingly, it is time to consider the composition of the EC for the next 12 months.

DCF has polled the current EC members and we’re pleased to announce that all present members of the EC have indicated their willingness to serve another term. The DCF feels that the present EC members have done an excellent job this first term, and that continuation of their service for another term is the least disruptive option and healthy for the protocol. Accordingly, the DCF is proposing to re-elect the existing EC members for another term.

The members are proposed to be:

  • Jason Potts
  • Chloe White
  • Thibault Schrepel
  • Chris Berg
  • Youssef Amrani
  • Joe Clark

For detailed information and deliberation of the aims and responsibilities of the Economic Committee, please see the original discussion, now available on the forum.

Members will serve until 15 September 2024, and will be compensated with an annual stipend of US$50,000 each, with the Secretary earning an additional $38,000 for the additional work that position brings (a total of $88,000).

FAQs:

Q: Why can’t there be a vote for each potential member and the candidates with the top 6 votes are elected in?

A: The way that Cosmos chain voting currently works is by binary vote, either Yes or No on a proposal. There isn’t a way to vote on multiple proposals and adopt the six that received the most votes.

Q: What if I would like to support additional / different members for the EC?

A: At any time the community may post a discussion to the forum as well as an on-chain governance proposal for BLD stakers to vote on. For this particular vote, having a comprehensive description of the proposed members and their qualifications is most helpful for the community to be able to have an informed discussion.

Q: What are the steps to post an on-chain governance proposal for the BLD stakers to vote on?

A: Proposals are voted on, Yes or No, in their entirety. It is recommended that any on-chain proposal be posted to the forum for a 10 day discussion period before posting an on-chain vote. Posting on-chain will require a deposit of 500 BLD, which will be refunded if the proposal is not voted no-with-veto. Voting is currently a three day process.

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What I’m missing in this proposal is the background of these people. I’m sure this will be one of the first questions from the community.

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There are brief bios on each EC member in the doc linked in proposal #15:

https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/Qmc53bGn7zXCu2LijRJe5XTE8mDP41WMirfcdgVTKGtXgj?filename=EC-Proposal-11Sep22.html

The initial Inter Protocol Economic Committee is proposed to be:

  • Chair: Jason Potts (Melbourne). Jason Potts is Distinguished Professor of Economics at RMIT University, and founder and co-director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub. His research on technological change, innovation and the design and evolution of economic systems has won numerous awards and is widely cited and influential in public policy. He is editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics, a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and an ARC Future Fellow.
  • Chloe White (Dubai). Chloe White is an award-winning independent crypto-asset consultant. She advises governments, start-ups and venture capital funds on policy and strategy. Chloe is best known for her work researching and advocating for balanced regulation, using principles-based approaches. Chloe is also a professional public speaker on blockchain and has a background in public policy, economics and finance.
  • Thibault Schrepel (Amsterdam). Thibault Schrepel is an Associate Professor of Law at VU Amsterdam, and Faculty Affiliate at Stanford University CodeX Center. These last couple of years, Thibault has been focusing most of his research on blockchain antitrust. His latest book, ‘Blockchain + Antitrust’, was published in September 2021.
  • Chris Berg (Melbourne). Chris Berg is an Associate Professor at RMIT University, and founder and co-director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub. He is a cryptoeconomist with a background in public policy and regulation, and is the author of eleven books including ‘The New Technologies of Freedom’, published in 2020.
  • Youssef Amrani (San Francisco). Youssef Amrani is a core Cosmos contributor and thought leader. He’s currently involved with the ATOM 2.0 whitepaper. He also serves as an advisor to Stratified Capital, a Singapore-based crypto fund. He previously worked at Messari as a Community Research Analyst with a focus on infrastructure and DeFi.
  • Joe Clark (Los Angeles). Joe Clark is a mechanism designer at Opyn. His principal concern is replicating unusual payoffs with defi contracts. He is a reformed options trader and economist.