JokeRace Use Cases in Radworks

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TL;DR: JokeRace is a simple & flexible governance tool that I thinks Orgs could use to better capture signaling, feedback & ideas from the community. I walk through a few examples of how I think JokeRace could be used in different Orgs, including providing examples and specifications for each.

JokeRace is an on-chain governance platform for communities to submit entries and vote on favorites developed by jk labs inc. What started as a weekly joke submission competition, jokeraces has quickly turned into a fun and flexible governance tool that DAOs across the industry are experimenting with in different ways.

The setup is simple, and the customization options around who is allowed to submit, who is allowed to vote, and how winners are rewarded allow for endless flexibility.

While the full variety of capabilities and use cases are still being discovered, a few notable examples include electing members for councils, curating content pieces, encouraging creation of community resources & demos, proposing integrations - and of course, telling jokes! From a governance perspective, another cool thing about JokeRace is it eliminates the annoying complexities of running “ranked-choice” votes on other governance platforms. I believe JokeRace could be a valuable tool for Orgs to use in a few different ways within Radworks - which I highlight below!

Radworks Grants

Determine Funding Categories

At Radworks, each Org is required to create an annual proposal that outlines its purpose, strategy, quarterly objectives, team and budget. These “Org Proposals” are submitted to the community for review and approval. In the Grants Org proposal, the Grants lead specifies what “funding categories” will be focused on for the upcoming year. Currently, the Grants lead curates and defines these categories himself (based on analysis of previous grants, input from product Orgs, etc.). One way JokeRace could be used would be to run a JokeRace to a) gather ideas for funding categories from the community and b) allow the community to vote on which ways they want to see for the following year.

Examples:

Example Specifications:

  • Could limit access to who can submit responses to only include former grantees, or extend to other Radworks contributors/stakeholders
  • Could limit access to who can vote to only former grantees, or extend to other Radworks contributors/stakeholders
  • Reward winners with RAD for participating

Electing Grants Committee Members

The Grants Committee is made up of 6 members, including the Grants lead. The initial selection of these members was based on relevant expertise and understanding of the project. As Committee members have needed to be replaced over time, the Grants lead conducts interviews to choose a suitable replacement based on these metrics. In the future, I can see JokeRace possibly being used for people to apply to be on the Committee and for the community to elect - or at least signal support for - eligible candidates.

Example: ArbitrumDAO will soon be running a JokeRace to elect a Grants Council for a Grants mini-series. They’ll have weekly grants rounds for judges to vote on and distribute funding. Since they enable rewards pools, they can handle full onchain grants all the way through.

Example Specifications:

  • Could limit access to who can submit responses to former grantees, or extend to other Radworks contributors/stakeholders
  • Could limit access to who can vote to only former grantees, or extend to other Radworks contributors/stakeholders
  • Reward may not be necessary

Product Orgs

Feature Development/Product Feedback

The product Orgs, Radicle & Drips, could potentially use JokeRace as a way to collect feature ideas and allow the community to vote on which ones would be the most useful for them, therefore prioritizing feature development. You can also directly reward input/feedback from users in the race.

Examples:

Example Specifications:

  • Could limit access to who can submit responses to users of Radicle or Drips. Have to prove you use Radicle or Drips somehow.
  • Could limit access to who can vote to users of Radicle or Drips. Have to prove you use Radicle or Drips somehow.
  • Incentivize/reward users (RAD?) for their feedback/input

Other Elections

I could also imagine JokeRace being used in the future for electing members for other committees/councils/groups across all the Orgs.

Some examples or ideas:

  • Electing the members to the Strategy Committee in the future
  • Electing members of the Foundation Council
  • Electing members to a (currently hypothetical) treasury management committee in charge of coordinating long-term treasury sustainability efforts
  • Electing members to a (currently hypothetical) security council in charge of acting in emergency situations (i.e. governance attacks)

Example Specifications:

  • Required to have RAD in wallet to submit application, maybe also proof of human requirement (Gitcoin Passport) to avoid spam/improve sybil resistance
  • Required to have RAD in wallet to vote, maybe also proof of human requirement (Gitcoin Passport) to avoid spam/improve sybil resistance
  • Outcome of a JokeRace could trigger onchain action (e.g. adding the winner’s address to a multisig). See how Hats Protocol ties eligibility to a JokeRace result.

Please note there is no specific ask or action here - I just wanted to get some ideas out there for folks to think about. I am curious to hear what contributors and users of the Grants, Radicle and Drips Orgs think of these potential use cases. The team at jokedao is incredible and that are also super keen to help explore further capabilities and use cases. I would be happy to facilitate any discussions with their team if there is interest, otherwise looking forward to any discussion that happens below!

Special thanks to David Phelps from jk labs, inc. on helping proofread this post and for providing additional context & examples. :slight_smile:

Your Governance Facilitator,
Shelby