TEC’s Schelling Point Initiative (SPI)
The TEC Schelling Point Initiative is the internal name referencing our new outward facing programs and initiatives that seek to bring the TE community closer together. As a core part of our Mission, becoming the “schelling point” for the TE community has shared many different meanings among TEC token-holders throughout our history.
In many ways the TEC was striving to BECOME the TE community, and as we have learned this is not a model that can sustain itself, and largely ignores many of the larger problems facing the field of Token Engineering today.
The TE community is vast, and many token engineers are unaware that they are actually…token engineers. The field is young, and there are many projects, researchers, students, teachers, and enthusiasts all learning for the first time what Token Engineering actually means to them.
The TEC is not here to define what token engineering is, but rather to become the navigation and resource hub for the individuals and organizations that make the TE community what it is. In order to become this, we want to focus on some of the larger problems that face the TE community and provide some utility in their efforts to solve them.
There are three basic problems that the SPI is attempting to address within the field of TE:
There are siloed pursuits within the field of token engineering that have resulted in a duplication of research & development efforts, and an over-allocation of public funding toward similar TE objectives.
There is a lack of clarity & understanding from researchers regarding the holistic needs of token engineering research & development.
Open source progress regarding TE developments are shrouded behind unknown projects and github repos that lack visibility & engagement.
In an attempt to solve these problems, the SPI is centered around three (3) independent objectives:
1.) Become a catalyst for growth and development for the next generation of token engineers. We accomplish this by creating awareness among online communities and individuals of the educational and research opportunities that exist within the TE community. We believe that by creating awareness of TE initiatives, we can foster an environment for collaboration among TE practitioners and organizations that reduces isolated efforts and better informs funding decisions that progress this nascent field.
2.) Facilitating solutions for token engineering problems on behalf of OSS and Web3 communities. The development of our Research Groups will enable the ability for individuals and organizations to publicly perform independent research, propose new on-chain primitives, and develop best-practices and standards within the token engineering community. The structure of our Research Groups will seek to inform and connect those with research needs to the groups and individuals capable of performing that research.
3.) Aggregating case-studies, research, models, frameworks, and academic education within the Token Engineering Knowledge Commons (TEKC). The TEC will be developing a curation service that can be implemented within token engineering communities that will allow for the consolidation of all TE knowledge and resources into a single database.
Core Structures of the SPI
Navigation Hub
The SPI is centered around the development and growth of a token engineering social network that provides perpetual engagement opportunities for token engineers to apply their skills toward educational and research outcomes. The TEC Navigation Hub will be a central resource that lists all token engineering activities that are hosted by TEC Sponsored Interest and Research Groups.
An important principle within the SPI is that we begin to meet the TE community where they are, and this means that we will not require Research & Interest Groups to conduct their meetings within the TEC Discord (although that option is available). The Navigation Hub is a method to connect token engineers to the communities and activities that best suit their interests and abilities.
Interest Groups
Interest Groups are small groups of individuals formed with the intention of exploring specific TE topics in depth as a tool for education and growth for the field of TE. Joining an interest group is the best way for newcomers to learn some of the basic building blocks of Token Engineering, learn from experienced Token Engineers, and contribute to the developing field.
Research Groups
Research Groups are small groups formed with the intention of solving specific TE problems.
There will be two types of Research Groups:
Open Research Groups - these research groups are permissionless (open to the public), and are centered around specific research outcomes. These groups are objective-bound and will dissolve after the completion of their research objectives.
Research Guilds - these research groups are closed to the public and are centered around a core group of experienced researchers. Research Guilds will have the ability to seek additional researchers based on their discretion and will have an opportunity to advertise their open research positions within the TEC Navigation Hub. In order to become a Research Guild, at least one participant within the Guild must have published TE related research prior to their formation.
TEC Sponsorship
TEC Sponsorship is about creating the right incentives for both interest groups and research groups to form and remain engaged within TE activities. The TEC will provide onboarding services, promotional resources, and informational pages that will support and promote the success of all groups participating. Additionally, there will be opportunities for interest & research groups to integrate TEC products & features.
There are 3 products that we seek to integrate within interest & research groups that will provide the right incentives for the expansion of these activities:
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The Inverter Network - The proposal inverter is a funding primitive that enables multiple groups or individuals to collaborate on common proposals, inverting the typical Proposal/DAO relationship to facilitate cross-DAO initiatives, such as co-funding shared research.
It serves as a unique tool to collaborate on research & development efforts and increases the likelihood of Research Groups to receive public funding. Likewise, grant-making bodies will become more willing to fund Research Group initiatives with the PI’s built in accountability processes. We believe the PI will be a key tool for connecting research teams with research needs. -
The Curation Service - The Curation Service is a simple bot that records inputs from community activity via communication channels. Each of these inputs can be tagged to categorize submissions such as academic articles, whitepapers, smart-contract audits, case-studies, and other various forms of token engineering research into a single database.
The development of the Token Engineering Knowledge Commons (TEKC) can be enabled through the full development and realization of the Curation Service. Each TEC Sponsored Interest & Research Group will will be encouraged to submit literature reviews, informational resources, and research outcomes within their respective communities. This setup will allow each Interest & Research Group to have access to this growing database of information. -
The !Praise System - The !Praise Reward System in the TEC is a bot that allows for community members to recognize one another for contributions to the TE Field. Integrating the Praise Reward System of the TEC into Interest & Research Groups will expand the amount of participants within TEC Governance by distributing $TEC to active and engaged token engineers.
This also provides a small financial incentive for the participants within both Interest & Research Groups to keep engaged, and become part of the larger TE !Praise ecosystem. Additionally, it provides a distribution and identity method for future reputation systems within the TEC to be developed.
We believe that the integration of these 3 products within the SPI will create the right incentives for growth as we move forward.
Current Roadmap
As with all grand visions, we will start small and build a good foundation. I believe that this short-term roadmap will provide context for how the SPI can help solve the problems stated earlier and illustrate its potential to become a focal point for the newly created TEC coordination team.
Phase 1: Growth of our Research & Interest Groups (February/March 2023)
The TEC will develop onboarding procedures, documentation, and additional resources that help expand the development/creation of new interest & research groups within the TE community. We will seek to standardize best practices, facilitation needs, and create QUALITY experiences for token engineers to both expand their skill sets and to learn from the best in the field.
Phase 2: TE Navigation Hub (April 2023)
The TEC will become the place to go when searching for anything TE related. The Navigation Hub is the first resource we will develop. The purpose being to identify educational and research groups that exist within the TEC, TEA, and other TE research communities (SCRF, cadCAD, tokenspice, RnDAO, etc.). The ability to guide the right individuals to the right projects within the field of Token Engineering will become the first utility we provide the TE community. We hope to integrate the Navigation Hub as a core component of the TEC website.
Phase 3: Product Integrations (May/June 2023)
The TEC will make sure that there is an MVP for each of our proposed product integrations (Proposal Inverter, !Praise, and Curation Service) that will include implementation and maintenance documentation. Further development of these products & features will be included in a separate product roadmap.
Potential future developments:
Token Engineering Digital Conference - a digital conference that prioritizes the distribution of research findings of TEC Sponsored Research Groups. This serves as a potential revenue generator for the $TEC economy.
TE Technical Associations - a series of firms that focus on specific topical areas within the field of TE that can be incorporated into the SPI which provides more specialization and networking opportunities for TEC members.
As always, I welcome any and all feedback to this current initiative. If you have any questions, please ask! Let’s build it together!