This post outlines the proposal that the Eco Association plans to submit during Generation 1029, the governance cycle beginning on November 25, 2023 see update below. This proposal would elect the 2024 Eco Trustee group and fund Trustee compensation as set out below.
Update (2023-11-28): Due to a newly-discovered technical constraint that is specific to this year, we plan to stage voting on this proposal in two separate generations:
1. Generation 1029: A ‘preliminary vote’ will be run that will ratify the community’s decision on whether or not to enact it, but that won’t formally commit the funding & new slate onchain. The Association will submit its support for this proposal, but will not vote on it.
2. Generation 1031: Assuming the preliminary vote passes, a final vote will be run to formally commit this proposal onchain. The Association will both support & vote in this one, since it is simply to enable the enactment of what was already decided on by the community.
Finally, in between these two cycles, in Generation 1030, the Eco Inc Currency Team plans to submit a proposal for a fix to the TrustedNodes contract for a minor issue that was recently discovered.
Summary
Eco Trustees are responsible for governing monetary policy for the ECO currency. The Trustee construct is a foundational component of the currency & protocol as a whole, a key pillar on which the entire system is built. Every two weeks, Trustees enact monetary policy onchain for the currency via a dedicated dApp and voting process. See the Eco Whitepaper or Manual for more information.
2023 was the first year that the Eco Trustees were active. In late 2022, the inaugural group of 22 Trustees was voted in with EGP #003 First Eco Trustee Election. The group commenced its one-year term on January 7, 2023 with instantiation of Generation 1007.
The group has now completed 22 bi-weekly voting cycles, successfully kickstarting monetary policy for the protocol.
The below proposal outlines the details of the program that the Eco Association is proposing for the upcoming year, which would be enacted with the new term commencing on January 6, 2024, with the instantiation of Generation 1032.
For 2024, which will mark year two of the Trustee program, the Association is proposing a few changes to the program:
- A smaller slate, with just nine Trustees for 2024
- The addition of the “Trustee Observer” construct, a lower-touch role for Alumni Trustees to maintain involvement with Eco
- A revised compensation structure, shifting the balance of incentives to extend beyond onchain voting
Details of the 2024 proposal are below.
Program Structure
The 2023 inaugural year of the Trustee program was an incredible learning experience, and from those learnings we are proposing a number of changes to the program for next year. We have taken a discerning eye and considered what worked well and what could be improved upon, and have iterated from there.
Before we dive into the changes, it’s worth noting what we anticipate will remain the same for the program for 2024:
- Trustees continue to vote biweekly onchain on monetary policy, in the same way they did this year via rank-choice voting in the Monetary Governance dApp
- Trustees meet periodically to discuss monetary policy, the growth of the protocol, and other relevant topics
- Trustees are compensated based on their onchain voting record — albeit this will be to a lesser extent, given the other incentives we propose adding
Below, we outline the three primary changes we propose:
1. A smaller slate, with just nine Trustees for 2024
With the currency still being nascent, building the muscle of conducting monetary policy in these early days is important. This year, the Trustees have been successful in building an onchain record — this Eco Atlas page cleanly shows all policies enacted this year.
With that said, at this early stage of the currency we’ve realized that we don’t necessarily need a very large group of Trustees to effectively conduct monetary policy. We believe that with a smaller, more tight-knit group of very actively engaged Trustees, we can manage the group more effectively and perform monetary policy in a more coordinated manner — as well as commit less of the protocol’s treasury to the program in these early days. When we become successful in growing the currency and there is more complexity from a monetary policy standpoint, we may explore proposing to increase the size of the group once again.
This year’s nominees are all from the initial group of 22 Trustees from 2023; these represent many of the most active & engaged members of the group, and represent a balanced cross-section between TradFi & crypto backgrounds. They are all very excited to be part of the slate, and will be sharing their thinking for next year with the community in due time.
2. The addition of the “Trustee Observer” construct
Although we propose decreasing the number of Trustees actively engaging in monetary policy for 2024, the entire 2023 group is a high-caliber set of contributors that we hope to keep engaged and active in the years to come — we very much value the input of the whole group, and keeping former Trustees plugged into Eco in the event they are able to engage/contribute to the project in other ways is a priority.
That’s why we’re creating the “Trustee Observer” role. All outgoing Year 1 Trustees — by default — will transition to being Trustee Observers in Year 2, unless they explicitly opt out.
The Trustee Observer role has no set payout, leaving room for as little or as much involvement as each individual member chooses to take on with Eco. This maintains a connection to the project while eliminating any specific obligations. Trustee Observers’ compensation will come in the form of retroactive ECOx payments, under the same structure as the Non-Voting Contributions portion for the Active Trustees. All of this is described in the Compensation section below.
We envision that Trustee Observers will:
- Keep an ear-to-the-ground on the Active Trustees and serve as a sounding board to them, via periodic Trustee report-outs
- Strategically advise the Association in their areas of expertise
- Proactively identify opportunities to bring Eco into other work they are doing, where relevant, and promote Eco to their networks
We, the Association, envision giving these Observers — and the Active Trustees, too — even more explicit direction this year on areas where we are looking for contributions/advice, and more frequent context on focus so they can be empowered to contribute with greater specificity.
3. A revised compensation structure
In 2023, Trustees were compensated purely based on their onchain voting record. One thing we’ve realized acutely this year is that, in our ideal state, Trustee contributions actually extend far beyond voting record — this year, for example, we’ve had Trustees talk publicly about Eco to their audiences, propose innovations that extend beyond monetary policy, and provide introductions to other projects, all of which provide growth & benefit to Eco but aren’t purely monetary policy.
We want to create a construct that enables Trustees — and Observers — to be compensated for work they do, beyond monetary policy enactment. We have spoken with each incoming Active Trustee about areas we’d like them to contribute beyond just monetary policy, and will work with each individual on ironing out the specifics as we head into the new year.
So, for the Active Trustees, we propose the up-to-250K ECOx allocation (same amount as last year) be split into two components for 2024:
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Active Trustees will eligible for up to 250K ECOx via:
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Up to 125K through Onchain Voting Record. As with last year, the system only compensates Trustees when they register a vote in a given policy cycle; they have then ‘vested’ into a set number of ECOx tokens which unlock and become claimable one year after the policy cycle in which they are earned. If they successfully complete all 26 votes throughout the year, they earn 125K ECOx.
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Up to 125K through Non-Voting Contributions (retroactive grants). This will be managed by the Association via retroactive payments twice throughout the year, based on how much that individual Trustee has contributed beyond pure monetary policy enactment. The Association will provide a report ahead of the next term summarizing the process used for these grants, as well as amount granted.
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As outlined in the Observer section above, the Observers will be eligible for the latter up-to-125K, based on the outcomes they generate via their effort if they choose to contribute.
Trustee Candidates for 2024
Given that we are reducing the size of the proposed slate relative to last year, the Trustees we have selected to include in our 2024 slate are all from the existing group — we have not recruited any net new Trustees for this coming term, though we certainly anticipate doing that in the future as we grow the program once again.
Here is the list. We are thrilled that each one of these Trustees is excited about continuing on for 2024.
You can see their bios in last year’s forum post and their profiles on Eco Atlas.
- Chris Berg
- Evan Kereiakes
- Irene Tse
- Jeff Snider
- Michelle Lai
- MikeWeb
- Pete Dattels
- Pure Macro
- Subspace
While the slate of Year 2 Trustees come from a variety of professional backgrounds and experiences, their excitement about participating in the development and growth of the Eco Protocol is a common thread. We asked each proposed Trustee to share their reflections about the first year of Eco Monetary Policy.
Chris Berg
Eco is an incredibly ambitious and interesting project, and we’ve learned a lot about how to launch a new money and money ecosystem over the last year. As I wrote in my first ‘Why Eco?’ statement, “The mandate of an Eco trustee is to maximise the wealth held in Eco. Eco has to be used, and useful. I’m an academic so its tempting to intellectualise the challenge but ultimately Eco has to find product market fit in the real world as a superior and accepted medium of exchange.” The ultimate goal of the Eco community - and the trustees among them - is to ensure that Eco is the most useful money.
For me, that means trustee decisions need to be made with the vision first and foremost in mind. Money is a medium of exchange - everything else you’ve read or heard about the theory of money (that is a store of value, or unit of account, or even David Graeber’s claim that money started with debt) has to begin with that very simple definition. The launch of the Beam wallet and its rapid adoption shows us how we can get from a token to a money. The role of the trustee is to support this.
To my mind, that means the following: predictable decisionmaking, not assuming that monetary policy can create demand for money, and a focus on credibility and transparency. For 2024, I’m excited to be both a trustee, and to work with the Eco Association to help forge a path to widespread adoption - not just in the developed world, but in the developing and middle-income world as well. As an academic, researcher and cryptoeconomic advisor, it is clear to me that the world needs an Eco and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to participate in this incredible project.
Peter Dattels
I am excited to join Eco on its journey to providing an efficient payments mechanism and currency for purposes of peer-to-peer and merchant transactions that will support financial deepening in underserved markets.
So why Eco? In two words: Integrity and Vision. I have been impressed with the management of Eco and the foundations of Eco which aim to build trust through user-based governance, oversight and openness. I believe Eco addresses one of the missing elements in crypto currency models: a governance structure that has a central objective: the stability of purchasing power and store of wealth, with accountability to the growing Eco community.
As a Trustee, I am excited to apply my expertise to that objective.
As a Trustee I will help use my experience to more fully develop a system of monetary management to help steward stability and growth in Eco. Indeed, over the past year, I have been impressed by the diversity of views and experiences in the Trustee group, and fruitful and enriching discussions among members and the community.
Mike Wenceslaus
The past year was highly productive for ECO, we saw significant product launches and innovations that have positioned ECO for future growth.
Our Trustee group implemented several experimental policies this year, we carefully adjusted various policy levers and analyzed the resulting economic data. This has given us crucial insights into optimal policy frameworks and alignments for maintaining the health of the ECO economy. Additionally, we made great strides in establishing robust internal decision-making processes. We have created frameworks to facilitate productive discussions and data-driven decisions among the trustees. We also made efforts to share the key lessons from our governance experience with the broader ECO community.
Looking ahead to 2024, I expect the Trustee group to build on this momentum to be even more focused and productive. We will direct our efforts towards fulfilling ECO’s core monetary policy mission for the benefit of all ecosystem participants. Key priorities next year will include improving ECO monetary policy decision making while keeping in mind ECO expansion to Layer 2 rollups. We plan to grow our economic dataset by conducting rigorous data analysis. More extensive and higher-quality data will help inform policy decisions.
Community engagement will be one of my personal focuses next year. I aim to serve as an effective liaison between ecosystem participants and trustees, clearly communicating policy changes and rationale to maintain public transparency and trust. My focus will include the establishment of a robust electoral structure for the 2025 election, emphasizing openness and transparency. I aim to facilitate seamless onboarding of new members, ensuring they can demonstrate qualifications and skills beneficial to ECO.
Michelle Lai
Why Eco?
My interest in Eco stems from being keen to engage in innovation around money. I’ve spent my entire career in or around financial services, from banking to investing and then to fintech and crypto. Through this I saw up close financial systems that often became a victim of legacy events.
Eco is a dream to cut through that historical debt and rebuild money for a world in which money should move as unfettered as digital bits. I want to be an explorer and engineer in this dream.
Any big takeaways from being a Trustee this year?
Being a Trustee this year involved being in a grand monetary policy experiment. We benefited from a diversity of viewpoints and expertise. Going forward, I think a primary goal of Eco and the Trustee group is to scale up adoption of the Eco currency sufficiently so that our monetary experiments have more meaning and depth.
Where are you excited to lean in & contribute personally as a Trustee heading into next year?
I’d like to contribute in two specific ways, although I’ll adapt to conditions as they emerge.
On a functional level, I want to help us make more data-driven decisions. We had a lack of focused resources on this front this past year and I believe that this year we will have the focus to do so.
On a product level, I am very excited to see how I can contribute towards our payments products. I have worked with Bitpay and other payments-focused protocols, as well as analyzed networks like Visa and Mastercard, whose iron grip on payments we seek to loosen.
Irene Tse
Insights from an Eco-Trustee: Navigating the Future of Cryptocurrencies and the Broader Financial Landscape
As an eco-trustee, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the transformative potential of cryptocurrencies and their impact on the broader financial landscape. Here are some key takeaways that have emerged from this past year with Eco:
- Digital Wallets: The Gateway to the Future of Finance
Digital wallets are revolutionizing the way we interact with money, offering a seamless and secure platform for storing, managing, and spending funds. For future generations, digital wallets will become the primary interface for financial transactions, encompassing everything from receiving paychecks to investing and making purchases.
- Innovation Beyond Borders: The Rise of Global Crypto Hubs
The United States, once the undisputed leader in cryptocurrency innovation, is now facing increasing competition from emerging global crypto hubs. The unfavorable regulatory environment in the US has driven many innovators to seek more creative solution that could move innovation forward under current regulatory uncertainties, fostering a surge of creativity and development outside traditional strongholds. Beam is an example of that.
- Neo-banking and Financial Inclusion: A Global Transformation
The future of neo-banking and financial inclusion lies outside of US and across the globe. With its more favorable regulatory landscape and tech-savvy population, the international stage is poised to witness a surge of innovative financial solutions that empower the unbanked and underbanked.
- Beyond Stablecoins: The Need for Multifaceted Crypto Solutions
While stablecoins have played a crucial role in bridging the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, the future demands a more diverse range of crypto solutions. There is a growing need for dollar products outside the US financial rails, as well as for non-stablecoins tailored to specific use cases.
- Web 3 Integration: The Key to Mass Adoption
For cryptocurrencies to achieve widespread adoption, they must seamlessly integrate with the existing Web 2 infrastructure. This requires a bridge between the decentralized nature of Web 3 and the centralized platforms of Web 2, enabling users to interact with cryptocurrencies in mass scale.
- Mass Adoption Strategies: Tailored Approaches for Diverse Currencies
The mass adoption strategy for a new cryptocurrency must be carefully tailored to its specific characteristics and target market. While partnering with existing apps or building a strong community can be effective, focusing on specific use cases, such as remittances or payments, can also yield significant results.
Conclusion: As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of cryptocurrencies, it is crucial to adopt a global perspective, embrace innovation, and recognize the need for multifaceted crypto solutions. By bridging the gap between Web 3 and Web 2, and developing tailored mass adoption strategies, we can pave the way for a future where cryptocurrencies empower individuals and reshape the financial landscape on a global scale.
My focus for Eco next year is its mass adoption strategy. They will revolve around identifying and addressing key areas that can accelerate its widespread acceptance and usage. These areas include:
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Target Market: Determining the most effective way to reach and engage specific demographic groups, such as the teenager market, will be crucial for driving Eco’s adoption among younger users.
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Payment Rail:
Integrating Eco seamlessly into existing payment rails, such as online and point-of-sale systems, will provide a familiar and convenient experience for users, making it easier to adopt and use Eco for everyday transactions.
- International vs. Domestic US Focus:
While the US market presents significant opportunities, expanding Eco’s reach beyond domestic borders is essential for achieving true global adoption. Tailoring strategies to address the unique needs and preferences of international users will be crucial.
- Multiple Stable-coins on-Ramp or Off-Ramp Solution:
Exploring the feasibility of integrating multiple stable-coins into Eco’s on-ramp or off-ramp infrastructure will provide users with greater flexibility and choice, catering to a broader range of preferences and use cases.
By carefully considering these factors and developing targeted strategies, we can effectively position Eco for
mass adoption, making it the cryptocurrency of choice for a diverse range of users worldwide.
Evan Kereiakes
Why Eco?
Eco is the first non-USD cryptocurrency with embedded monetary policy controls aided by humans and AI. This is a powerful evolution in the application of blockchain technology, and the reason I’m excited to contribute to Eco as a Trustee. The Eco team has done a great job building the protocol and Beam wallet, and growing the community. Through these foundational efforts, I see a bright path ahead for Eco. The Trustees I’ve worked with over the past year brought together a diverse set of opinions and ideas, and it was a pleasure collaborating with everyone. I’m excited to embark on the next phase of this journey together.
My experience managing the Federal Reserve’s foreign currency reserves, and my time at the Treasury and the White House gives me a very unique perspective on macroeconomic policy. This, combined with my microeconomic experience in blockchain, from DEXes to stablecoins, provides me with a comprehensive view on the types of decisions facing Eco Trustees. I am excited to continue shaping the governance of Eco, as I believe there is tremendous potential for Eco to realize the promise of blockchain and to achieve massive real-world adoption.
Any big takeaways from being a Trustee this year?
The first year of Trustee-governed monetary policy was a pivotal period for Eco. It was a pleasure to be able to implement, learn, and iterate on this novel construct together with a passionate group of expert Trustees. I was proud to submit the world’s first AI-generated monetary policy decision, and to receive the confidence and backing from other Trustees to implement the policy proposal.
Where are you excited to lean in & contribute personally as a Trustee heading into next year?
I believe AI as well as on-chain Reserve management are two areas where Eco can continue to innovate and grow its reputation among DeFi audiences, and ultimately mainstream adopters. I’d like to help propel these innovations in my role as a Trustee.
Pure Macro
Why Eco?
We have three reasons.
First, the project will allow us to conduct novel research on the nexus between digital currency dynamics and monetary policy. With almost one year of data and growing, we hope to contribute to the emerging tokenomics literature. At the moment, tokenomics has coherently specified models to improve our understanding of digital currencies and their interactions within different aspects of a protocol but rigorous empirical work is scarce. We hope to contribute to the latter with our experience at ECO.
Second, we share Eco’s vision, and participation in the project provides us with the opportunity to contribute to the development of a digital ecosystem whose mandate is designed specifically with its community’s best interest in mind.
Third, we believe that we can make meaningful contributions to the formulation and discussion of monetary policy in the ECO economy as we bring together expertise and experience from four worlds:
(i) digital currency/asset research and analysis;
(ii) real-world monetary policy formulation;
(iii) academic research in monetary and macro economics; and
(iv) traditional asset trading and macroeconomic analysis.
Any big takeaways from being a Trustee this year?
It’s harder than it looks: ECO is still in its infancy such that application of traditional monetary policy theory was not especially fruitful. Non-traditional approaches and out-side the box thinking was required.
The emerging tokenomics literature has provided some useful markers and lessons for thinking about monetary policy in ECO.
Where are you excited to lean in & contribute personally as a Trustee heading into next year?
Given our background in central banking and central bank monitoring, we view communication as a vital part of responsible monetary policy making. As such we are excited to lean into promoting better communication between Trustees and the community. We want the community to be aware of our thinking and how our proposals could better the ECO economy.
Jeff Snider
Why Eco?
The world has a grave monetary problem, one that is getting worse with time, and though many can feel there’s something wrong they may not know just what it is. In fact, it is the opposite of what most people have been led to believe. Even so, the door is wide open for those who can see it, the opportunity to create a useful hopefully elegant solution which definitively answers for what clearly isn’t working.
This was, for me, the ultimate appeal of the ECO project. A medium of exchange whose ultimate promise is the best parts from both sides of the spectrum. Monetary management sufficiently poised and confident to maintain discipline while at the same time forever on the lookout for the pitfalls history has emphatically taught us to avoid.
Money is not nor ever was wealth. It is a tool, an incredibly important one fraught with enormous potential yet so many dangers. On paper, in theory, the primary task seems reasonable enough even easy: efficiently match the supply of money with demand for it.
Because that is the governing principle behind ECO, ECO isn’t a crypto project it is far more appropriately a currency project. For that reason, first and foremost, I’m not just excited to have been invited to participate, I may be, for the first time since August 2007, genuinely optimistic. We have here the potential for getting money right for the first time in a very, very long time. The fruits of success aren’t just incalculable, they are demanded.
Any big takeaways from being a Trustee this year?
The first year from ECO’s launch has been a keen learning experience, as expected. Building a new and legit currency starting from almost scratch was always going to be a marathon, not a sprint. Coin price didn’t matter. Supply metrics wouldn’t mean anything. ECO’s first stage - from a monetary policy standpoint - was about laying the foundation for the future pickup. That has meant patience and, above all, unwavering resolve, clear focus about not getting ahead of ourselves. Letting the process play out as organically as possible, not attempting to do too much. There are not now, nor will there be, easy shortcuts.
Where are you excited to lean in & contribute personally as a Trustee heading into next year?
Looking ahead to the second year, I’m both hopeful and excited to see what ECO can do in taking the next step. Awareness comes first, then from there to find out what the thing can do once a critical mass of users really starts to explore and play around. When that happens, our challenge as trustees will be to take in all the data which will come flooding out of the mix, recognize what is signal from noise so that we as a group can make intelligent, rational, and, above all, advantageous decisions for the entire community. It’s not only the most exciting part of Year2, I believe that’s where I can be of greatest use; decoding that data, making real sense of it so that the Trustee group can turn it into sound policy actions. That’s the real challenge, to transform what right now remains monetary theory and crypto promise into an actually stable digital currency reality.
Subspace
Hello, Eco!
Wow, what a year. So much has changed in the blockchain space and the Trustees and Eco have pivoted to accommodate and adapt.
We have accomplished significant milestones as Trustees, ‘kicking the tires’ for all the technical financial levers available to us, prototyping and testing communication and consensus strategies internally, learning how to harmonize a diverse group in different countries and time zones, some, literally on the other side of the planet, and leveraging the wide range of skills each brings, from pure cryptocurrency financial expertise, to general scientific technologists, to leadership acumen.
Oh, and Beam!
We are a stronger group today than we were a year ago, and Eco is better prepared to adapt to new market conditions and international laws impacting blockchain currencies and services. The new Trustees will have the framework we developed to make financial policy decisions more efficiently, and with greater collaboration. What technical issues we exposed in our tests are being resolved, hardened, and improved upon, and now we can begin to consider newer levers that grow our ability to adapt to market realities as we move into the future.
For me personally, it has been a great honor to work with such intelligent, creative, forward-thinking caretakers of the Eco currency and community. I still believe that we are engaged in an essential experiment in the evolution of money itself, and as we enter year two of the monetary policy cycle, I begin to sense the explosion of cryptocurrency acceptance that we have all been waiting for. When it impacts, I am confident the new Trustees will be prepared to position Eco to make the most of it. I personally believe it will be a wild year!
Summary of Proposal
To summarize, successful enactment of this proposal would:
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Elect the candidates listed above as the second group of Eco Trustees, registering only their respective dedicated wallet addresses to a whitelist for accessing the monetary governance process
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Ratify the new program structure
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Fund the maximum possible compensation for the program for the year, which is 3,875,000 ECOx — with 1,125,000 (= 125K * 9) going to the onchain contract for voting compensation, and the remaining 2,750,000 (= 125K * 22) to the Association for Non-Voting Contributions compensation.
The two receiving wallet addresses will be added to this proposal when it is submitted onchain.Update 2023-12-22: Voting compensation will be sent to the TrustedNodes contact at 0x9fA130E9d1dA166164381F6d1de8660da0afc1f1, Non-Voting Contirbutions will be sent to 0x99f98ea4A883DB4692Fa317070F4ad2dC94b05CE.
As with this year, we anticipate having some funds leftover at end-of-term.
For the 2023 program, 5,500,000 ECOx was initially requested from the Protocol Treasury and, as of November 20th, 2,634,510 ECOx was remaining in the contract. Some of that will, of course, be paid out with the four remaining votes — and whatever of this year’s balance is left in the contract at the end of the term will be returned to the Protocol Treasury by February 2024.
Similarly, for the upcoming 2024 program, any unused funds will be returned to the protocol treasury by February 2025, and the Association will share in the next Elections proposal how much was spent.
Community Discussion
The Association will hold a Twitter space on Thursday, November 23rd at 7pm UTC (link) to summarize the proposal and solicit feedback from the community.
but you are also among the candidates for trustees in 2024, you’re just not on the list)) I cannot provide unambiguous confirmation of the success/failure of the work of the trustees, since I can only guess what difficulties there were in supporting price as stable as possible (for the Eco token), given the Ethereum network. I think that based on the suggestions and comments, the trustees in 2023 will be able to analyze and make adjustments to their proposals based on community feedback.
To clarify a little, Annika is actually not on the proposed Trustee slate for 2024. She will be continuing her role as Executive Director of the Eco Association and stepping down as a Trustee at the end of this current cycle.