Summary
Problem
Today, we use the term “Radicle” to refer to:
- Our organization/ecosystem, henceforth referred to as “the Radicle ecosystem”;
- Our original product / protocol, henceforth referred to as “the Radicle product”.
Over the past several years, these two things – the Radicle ecosystem and the Radicle product – have diverged. Today they mean very different things to different people. The result of this is confusion and lack of clarity for virtually all stakeholders, including DAO contributors, community members, and prospective users.
Recommendation
We propose a brand split. More specifically, that we use different names, properties & design languages for the Radicle product & the Radicle ecosystem.
You may find more details on this proposal below. We appreciate any thoughtful feedback & reactions after reading this proposal in full.
The problem we’re solving
Today, we use “Radicle” to refer to two different things:
-
Our organization/ecosystem, henceforth referred to as “the Radicle ecosystem”
This “Radicle” is governed and funded by the $RAD token. Most people think of this ecosystem as including formal entities like the Radicle Foundation, teams like Drips, governance, paid contributors, and community members, and products like the Radicle product & Drips. -
Our original product / protocol, henceforth referred to as “the Radicle product”
This “Radicle” enables developers to securely collaborate on software over a peer-to-peer network.
Over time, the Radicle ecosystem and the Radicle product have become two increasingly separate things. Today, they have a different mission, different objectives, different stakeholders, and perhaps most importantly, different communities with different viewpoints on large topics such as cryptocurrencies, software development, open source software management, and countless other areas.
In fact, we’re quickly arriving in a place where there are not just two increasingly distinct efforts in place, but three:
- the Radicle ecosystem
- the Radicle product
- Drips, the Radicle ecosystem’s funding product
In the current state, there is widespread confusion and lack of clarity for virtually all of our stakeholders, including DAO contributors, community members, and prospective users. This confusion is being exacerbated as a result of the organizational shift (referred to as org shift going forward) underway to spin out teams from the Radicle Foundation to the DAO.
While this org shift has been in the works for a long time, it was not clear until recently the extent to which the above divergence has occurred. Therefore, it was not clear how the Radicle ecosystem should be organized and named to facilitate the most accurate understanding of everything that is happening within the Radicle ecosystem and most importantly, with its two products, the Radicle product and Drips.
It is clear now. As a result, we believe now is the ideal time to execute a brand split, which will be described in further detail below.
Our recommendation
We recommend undergoing a brand split wherein we use different names, marks, properties & design languages for:
- the Radicle product
& - the Radicle ecosystem.
More specifically, the recommendation is to henceforth:
- use “Radicle” to refer to the code collaboration product only
& - for the Radicle ecosystem to adopt a new name derived from the governance token, $RAD.
The working name for the Radicle ecosystem is RAD Society. We are also discussing alternatives such as RAD Collective. We plan to align on a name in the coming weeks and would love your feedback.
In addition, we recommend that the sprout emoji and sprout mark be adopted by the Radicle ecosystem and for the Radicle product to stop using this mark. As a result of the above changes, the following channel reorganization is recommended:
Future state & announcement
Our recommendation is that this brand split is done with the highest urgency. More specifically, we recommend that it is publicly announced at or right before ETH Denver, in early March 2023, with several aspects of the realignment completed and/or well underway.
Post-brand split, there are effectively three different things that need to be branded & marketed - the DAO/ecosystem, the Radicle product, and Drips. There will be major implications for several teams & contributors, and in fact several of these stakeholders participated in the creation of this proposal!
Next steps
If this recommendation is well-received and adopted, the brand split will be led by Marketing, with direction & details outlined on this forum. It will be executed by Radicle ecosystem contributors in our product, community, operations & marketing teams.
More specifically, we will decide which channels will be overseen by which teams & orgs, what the timelines are, what is in scope, and what the relative priority is to develop each property. In future posts, we also plan to provide more details on how this work will be planned, organized, budgeted & measured. The brand split project will be funded by the Foundation.
It’s also worth mentioning that this proposed brand split has implications for the impending Transition to the DAO work. The Core Dev Org WG will be presenting an action plan next week to discuss the changes that will be made to the Core Development Org proposal and associated transition work.
Whew, that’s it! We suspect this may be a lot to process. It’s a big shift, and one we do not undergo lightly.
Our request is that you share any feedback & comments on this proposal at your earliest convenience so that we may adjust accordingly & proceed with necessary planning & execution on a timely basis.
-Sean, Ele, Alexis & Abbey
