Hello again ACC and @web3magnetic! As part of my role as a member of the Collective Feedback Commission, I’ve been asked to provide feedback on this charter amendment proposal.
A note on my context: I have reviewed the original charter, the season 6 amendment, and the season 6 retrospective, but I have not followed ACC activities closely.
Feedback on charter/goals/substance
Broadly, I think the goals make sense. I think there is room for improvement, however, in how they are communicated:
- My understanding is that the primary objective of the ACC is to prevent capture across the Optimism Collective, but that is not explicitly declared as a goal. I would make that very explicit as the primary goal.
- Where relevant and appropriate, I would like to see specific KPIs outlined for each goal, including explicit quantitative expectations. Goals 3 and 4 (as presently outlined) are good candidates here. This will help facilitate evaluation by the Collective, including in end-of-season retrospectives.
- Generally, and especially for goals that don’t lend themselves well to quantitative KPIs, I’d recommend using more declarative language in the goals to make it clearer what is expected of the ACC. Goal 6, for example, could be improved as follows:
Alternate language for goal 6:
Evaluate decentralization progress across the Collective and hold the Collective accountable to its various decentralization objectives, including the milestones in the Foundation-proposed Decentralization Module and Phases II and II in the Accelerating Decentralization Proposal.
- If there are any goals that are optional, stretches, or extensions of the ACC’s core responsibilities, I’d suggest marking them as such so that accountability is clear.
Something else I’d like to see the charter address is how it aligns with the Season 7 Intent. I personally think that it does — resistance to capture is an orthogonal-yet-critical component of any progress-oriented objective! — but it’s possible that that may not be clear to everybody and I would hate for the ACC to be questioned simply because those dots were not connected.
Finally, I don’t see any reference to the dry-run scenario discussed in the season 6 retrospective thread. I think that is a valuable activity for the ACC to conduct.
Feedback on budget
I think the ACC should have an operating budget. There are three reasons behind my thinking here:
First, the lead and ops roles have concrete responsibilities and should be compensated in order to attract and retain the right people for the job.
Second, their responsibilities are of a type that can be predicted fairly well up front. Therefore, a market rate can be determined a priori rather than relying on retro rewards.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the activities related to fulfilling the ACC’s primary responsibility to prevent capture are hard for external observers to measure. On the other hand, it would be easy to observe the ACC actively preventing an acute capture scenario. Retro rewards, therefore, are likely to under-reward the ACC in times of “peace”.
Worse, the situation would create a perverse incentive for member(s) of the ACC to manufacture a capture event for the ACC in order to be compensated handsomely for thwarting it. While this is not likely, it’s important to ensure that compensation systems are incentive-aligned so that they are robust to shifting conditions and culture over the long run.
Having an operating budget would not be incompatible with being eligible for retro funding.
Feedback on amendment structure and process
These are nitpicky, however…
- Per the charter amendment process, please add a link to the amendment PR on github
- Similarly, please list the changes from the season 6 charter
- I’d also like to see links to the other proposals and sources you’re referencing, eg the Accelerating Decentralization Proposal