Kora Discussion Tool - Grant Application - Phase I Deck

Our team recently came together to build a governance solution during the ETH San Francisco Hackathon.

We propose building an open tool for structured communication and discourse, preceding voting and other signaling processes, enabled by structured decision-making templates that outline clear goals, expectations, next steps, accountability, and follow-up.

The goal is to encourage transparency, engagement, and discussion for all relevant stakeholders across the Web3 stack who are participating in on-chain governance activities in these complex ecosystems.

Transcript

1. Kora Kora is a research, development, and deployment studio building practical governance tools for the new Web3 ecosystem
2. Kevin Nielsen Strategy, PM Arpit Agarwal Back-End YJ Kim UI Agnieszka Zimolag UX MEET THE TEAM (ETH SF ‘18 HACKATHON WINNERS) • Senior Strategy and Research Associate at Transform Group. Advisor to Node Haven and Previously at Oracle BI. Entrepreneurial Finance and Economics at Cornell, contributing to Crypto Underground and the Capitol Records 360 Innovation Lab. • Google and Semantics3 (YC W13). Currently on an Educational Sabbatical learning Ethereum Development. Won the ETH India, ETH SF, Status Digital Hackathons, and Volunteering as Head of Community for BEN India. • Software Developer at Parity, focusing on UI/UX on the Polkadot Project. Previously worked at Xendit (YC S15) and Part-Time Solidity instructor at SkoolMentor. Cognitive Science and Computational Modeling from UC Berkeley. • Product Designer at BCG DV. Worked as a UX Designer for Democracy Earth Foundation, Pulse Blockchain, and Dusk Network. MA in Design/Aesthetics & Politics at Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam NL.
3. A DISCUSSION PLATFORM FOR WEB3 USERS
4. 3 LACK OF STRUCTURE IN STAKEHOLDER DISCOURSE 03 Diverse Stakeholders 01 Communication The lack of structured discourse and deliberation forums enabling distributed conversation hinders the subsequent governance and decision-making process. Telegram, Slack, Twitter, etc... are plagued with spam and cannot be used as community signaling tools. 02 Transparency Founding teams are still exploring different avenues concerning the governance of their project, and have not facilitated diverse stakeholder participation in their decision-making processes. This has created miscommunication, misalignment and minimal feedback between them; most seemingly "informed" decisions are still siloed, centralized, and carried out behind closed doors. There has been a lack of focus on stakeholder identification, communication, and discourse tools that help projects properly manage their governance layer in the long run. This infrastructure will be especially important for projects that prioritize token utility and governance.
5. 4 OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION An open tool for structured communication and discourse, preceding voting and other signaling processes, enabled by structured decision-making templates that outline clear goals, expectations, next steps, and accountability. The goal is to encourage transparency, engagement, and discussion for all relevant stakeholders across the Web3 stack who are participating in on-chain governance activities in these complex project and protocol ecosystems. Built on: To align diverse sets of goals, varying stakeholder groups should remain informed, and their participation in relevant decisions should be facilitated. Will lead to the engagement of stakeholders, better governance, loyal communities, and a diversity of insights fostering innovation A Solution that can provide: • Conversation Structure • Stakeholder Identification • Web3 Integration
6. 5 Interface - V1 Mockup
7. 6 DISCUSSION INTERFACE – V1 MOCKUP
8. MVP 7 • Please find a link to our submission for ETH San Francisco, which also includes a Demo Video of our Proof of Concept, on Devpost here: https://devpost.com/software/kora-vji6xw • You can also find the Demo Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSyji7suojE • And the GitHub Repo here: https://github.com/atvanguard/ethsf-kora
9. 8 PHASE 1 - FEATURES From the Discussion Owner Perspective • Owner Homescreen • Stakeholder Participation - Criteria Selection • Open Participation • Based on Token Ownership • Based on Specific Address Whitelist • Parameter Selection • Minimum Participation Requirements • Timebound Conversation • Template Selection & Generation • Forwarding Action • Make an Arbitrary Call to a Contract (Voting App) From the User Perspective • User Login (ETH Address View Only or Metamask Login) • User Dashboard • Pending Conversations • User Verification Interface • Active Conversations • Discussion Interface • Comment, Signal, Upvote, Downvote • Closed Conversations • Link to Forwarding Destination • Request Access to Conversation • Send Request to Specific Conversation Owner
10. PHASE I - PROJECT TIMELINE & MILESTONES 9 2018-2019 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 November December January February March April May June July August September October Open Participation Setting Signaling, Upvote, and Downvote Functions Discussion Interface Create New Conversation Function Commenting Capabilities Address Whitelisting & Token Ownership Settings Sponsor Interface Sponsor Settings User / Discussion Interface Stakeholder Verification Other Pending Conversations Tab Active Conversations Tab User Verification Interface & Functionality (Pending Conversations Tab) Manage Conversations Interface Testing, Debugging, and Alpha Launch Time Expiration and Minimum Participation Settings Forwarding Action Functionality PHASE 2 – PLATFORM
11. CASH BUDGET 10
12. 11 PHASES I & II – CASH BUDGET 11 Nov-18 Dec-18 Jan-19 Feb-19 Mar-19 Apr-19 May-19 Jun-19 Cash In Grant Funding 60,000.00 $ 105,000.00 $ Venture / Angel Total Cash In 60,000.00 $ - $ - $ - $ 105,000.00 $ - $ - $ - $ Cash Out Variable Costs Founding Team Arpit (Back-End) 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ Kevin (Product, Business) 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ YJ (Front-End) 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ Agnes (UX) 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ Milestone Completion Bonuses 3,000.00 $ 3,000.00 $ 3,000.00 $ 3,000.00 $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Team Implementation Specialists - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Back Office - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Sales - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Engineers - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Fixed Costs Startup & Development Costs Travel - $ 1,000.00 $ - $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ Services and COGS 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ User & PoC Testing - $ - $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ Miscellaneous 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ SG&A Co-Working/Office Space - $ - $ - $ - $ 1,800.00 $ 1,800.00 $ 1,800.00 $ 1,800.00 $ Accounting & Legal - $ - $ - $ - $ 200.00 $ 200.00 $ 200.00 $ 200.00 $ Marketing Sponsorships & Bounties - $ - $ - $ - $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ 500.00 $ General Marketing, PR, and Outreach - $ - $ - $ - $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ Taxes - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ - $ Total Cash Out 14,000.00 $ 15,000.00 $ 14,500.00 $ 15,500.00 $ 26,500.00 $ 26,500.00 $ 26,500.00 $ 26,500.00 $ Net Cash 46,000.00 $ (15,000.00) $ (14,500.00) $ (15,500.00) $ 78,500.00 $ (26,500.00) $ (26,500.00) $ (26,500.00) $ Cash Balance 46,000.00 $ 31,000.00 $ 16,500.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 79,500.00 $ 53,000.00 $ 26,500.00 $ - $ 2018 2019 8 Month Cash Budget Phase I - Grant Funding / Initial Development (Pending Milestones) Phase II - Platform Development Please contact kkn24@cornell.edu for a copy of the full financial model ☺