Hello fellow citizens! As communicated in the KONG Land Senate Formation proposal, this thread will be used to nominate Senators for the inaugural Senate term.
IMPORTANT: Whether you’re nominating yourself or another, please be sure to leave an explanation as to why you feel that person is qualified for the position. This will greatly help others make an informed come time for the Snapshot election vote.
Note: A temporary Discord channel has been created for any nomination discussions and campaigning. You can find it under the ── SENATE ── category in #🗳┊nominations-t1.
If you haven’t yet read the proposal, it’s highly recommended that you do so before making any nominations. Below are some important highlights from the proposal as they relate to the Senate and Senator requirements, terms, and compensation.
The primary role of the Senate is to provide strategic direction, and structural enactment for the functions necessary to achieve the KONG Land mission “to bridge the physical world to the digital metaverse through global adoption of its public good chip technology.”
Senators must be KONG Land $CITIZENs in good standing
To be nominated for a Senate seat, an individual must be a $CITIZEN for at least three (3) months from the time they acquired citizenship, whether via $CITIZEN/$CTZN redemption or purchase/transfer of a Citizen ERC721 token
Senators must retain their Citizen ERC721 token for the duration of their term
Senators must remain active throughout their entire term and fulfill all duties as identified in this proposal
Senators will serve six (6) month terms with six (6) senators being elected per term
There is no limit to the number of consecutive terms a senator can serve as long as they continue to be elected into office by $CITIZENs.
Individuals may nominate themselves or other $CITIZENs for a Senate seat. Anyone nominated by another will need to confirm that they want to run.
During the nomination period, a temporary Discord channel will be created for the purpose of discussion and “campaigning.” The channel will be remain open until the end of the election vote.
At the end of the nomination period, a Snapshot vote will be created with a system-default voting period of three (3) days
The vote will include all Senators currently in office + any other nominated $CITIZENs, and use a weighted voting system. Example of a weighted Snapshot vote.
Once the election vote ends, results will be shared on the forum, and new Senators will be immediately transitioned in.
Senators will be compensated 500M $LAND each for their six (6) month service term (proposed 500M $LAND compensation is only applicable to the inaugural Senate term)
SENATE VOTE SCHEDULE
5/9 - requests Senator nominations via this forum thread and leave open until 4/15 EOD
5/16 - create a Snapshot vote for the Senate compensation (currently proposed at 500M $LAND) for Term 1 that will run for the default 3-day duration
5/16 - create a Snapshot vote for Senator elections that will run for the default 3-day duration
And with that, let’s begin the nomination process for the KONG Land Senate Term 1
I am grateful to have met each of you in person… Not only do I admire and appreciate each of your contributions to KONG, but am equally impressed with what you guys do on your own.
Nominating @cadillion@K.9150@Digit@cameron@chrisberg@brent-007 - from a back of house perspective they’ve all been underweighted in visibility vs contribution. All of them have been core proposals like orchestrating $land and $ctzn deployments which are the bedrock of Kong.
@chrisberg is the main reason we got the $LAND proposal out and has been a primary voice in the design thereof
@brent-007 has really driven the governance discussion and sponsored all the related forum posts, in addition to managing the discord community
@K.9150 has been a constant source of good advice regarding the operations of other decentralized networks and workshopped multiple proposals
@cameron, @pmg, and @Digit have been carrying the team on their backs while handcuffed to a briefcase since before the last crypto winter
Special shout-out to @Howeird, @031, @Mattaglass, Dr. Datamosh and @ramicaza who are also wonderful contributors who make this community such a kick ass place to be.
Of those nominated, I’d like to know who’s un/willing to say “no” when everyone else is saying “do it!”. Social proof (e.g. “A million Elvis fans can’t be wrong!”) is a strong force that works on us all. The upside of having such a polite and considerate community is that it feeds into the positive energy that helps attract aligned contributors and builds trust with those already here. The downside of this is that going against the grain can be perceived as negativity and thus dampen the willingness to risk social capital. Who’s willing to say no, get out-voted and still keep contributing with optimistic vigor?
Nominating @brent-007@chrisberg and @cadillion who each possess skills in key aspects which are crucial to the future of KONG. I trust their judgements and truly believe that their insights will continually prove useful to the project.
To this point, I would like to propose an uneven number of Senators to avoid 50/50 gridlock.
Agree with 031 that the Senate structure relies on a community that cares more about KONG Land being a success (a.k.a. manufacturing and distributing secure chips) then politicking for position or being likeable
Received a good suggestion that we extend the feedback timeframe for both the Senator nominations and the Senate Formation proposal by one week. There’s a community call this week that will allow us to openly discuss the proposal, the nomination process, and create more awareness around the vote. Updated schedule:
5/23 - create a Snapshot vote for the Senate formation and Senator compensation (proposed at 500K $LAND per Senator) for Term 1 that will run for the default 3-day duration
5/23 - create a Snapshot vote for Senator elections that will run for the default 3-day duration
5/26 - Senate formed and initial group of Senators elected
I’d like to see the Senate (and KONG Land in general) embrace a healthy debate and data-driven culture. Structuring decisions around open discourse and supporting data should reduce concerns around Senators making decisions to appease the masses or driving others into agreement by being the loudest opinion in the room.
The Vachhrajani article is spot on. The points he raises are the ones I’ve encountered time and time again in my career. In particular the second “how you as the manager respond to having your assumptions challenged”. Humans can be brittle and go into defense mode quickly–sensing criticisms of their ideas as ad hominem. To that, imho, the only answer is: semper Gumbi.
FYI - the Senate Term 1 appointment vote met the quorum requirement and was approved by KONG Land citizens. Congratulations to the inaugural group of Senators!
As communicated in the KONG Land Senate Formation proposal, this thread will be used to nominate Senators for the inaugural Senate term.
