Just a post sharing some random thoughts and opinions, something like a wishlist for changes that I would personally love to see in 2022. It’s relatively quiet on the Forum so I thought it might do no real harm.
- The Forum, work-in-progress vs new potential ideas: it would be good to have a clearer sense between (1) the activity on the Forum that is brainstorming on possible new features and (2) giving feedback on something that is on the roadmap and being worked on and so will actually come. This is not always clear. This may be as simple as introducing clearer labels and conventions for this. Related to this, if the core dev team doesn’t like some idea, they could communicate this a little clearer. There should be no worries about swaying the opinion too much; let it be swayed.
- Roadmap: Sovryn has no roadmap. I see the difficulty with hard timelines and targets, but I’m not convinced about a total lack of a roadmap. Surely the team is working on things. They know what they are working on, and so they probably also know what will be coming. So let the rest know in some form or other; it’s as simple as that. Perhaps there could be page with a short term roadmap in combination with an explanation why Sovryn prefers to do without a long-term roadmap or ETAs, and just list what is being work on and should be coming (perhaps without ETA’s) in the short term. I think there would be no issue in listing things that are less determined as well; for example, it seems clear that Zero will come in some form or other. Should be safe enough to put this on a roadmap. If things are very much up in the air with regards to some feature, then just say so on the roadmap: “this feature is seriously explored but is currently still up in the air.” Crypto investors are used to roadmaps, it is one of the first things they search for when looking for new projects, so it would be good to give them something, just need to find a way of presenting a roadmap with the flexibility desired.
- Adoption and narratives: The driving narrative for Sovryn has revolved around ‘DeFi on Bitcoin’, or ‘DeFi for bitcoiners’. Sovryn could consider differentiating more between a “back end” core narrative, and “front end” narratives. Front end narratives are ways of identifying and categorizing yourself to the outside world, whereas a core back end narrative defines the objectives and direction of development and the values that guide governance. The concepts of “DeFi on bitcoin” and “DeFi for bitcoiners” can sound exclusive in multiple directions (“must be for bitcoin maxis, I’m no maxi, so not for me”; “it’s DeFi, so must have involve shitcoins, so not for me”), it doesn’t work well as a front-end narrative. As front-end narratives Sovryn can use the entrenched labels; it’s DeFi, it’s a DAO, it’s an interoperability project, it will be a ZK project. When asked what makes it unique, it’s that it’s secured by Bitcoin miners, has a wide suite of features, etc.
- Adoption aims and target audience: it can sometime feel as if the main objective is to onboard bitcoiners. When it comes to adoption, shouldn’t the first objective be to onboard “altcoiners”, isn’t this what really helps bitcoin and hyperbitcoinization? Not only are the bitcoiners hard to convince, more importantly, from a big picture normative perspective, the bitcoiners are doing fine, and support the right thing, no need to draw them in or change their minds. Let them be. When Sovryn really offers them nice ways to use their bitcoin, they will find their way to the platform – things like Celsius and Blockfi are used by bitcoiners, without these platforms marketing specifically to bitcoiners. It’s with the altcoiners that adoption of Sovryn is both feasible and, I think, a good objective. It’s the right audience precisely when one likes to support hyperbitcoinization. Draw altcoiners in and educate them about a certian vision for bitcoinization. Second target audience would be no-coiners, but that’s more for later stages. (Not saying that Yago should do this; he is doing such an awesome job doing what he does, it’s a suggestion for Sovryn, not Yago personally).
- Yield farming: ‘loot drop’ sounds temporary. Yield farming is a long term thing, you want to be able to rely on the rewards. Could they be organized and presented differently; maybe not mention them as “drops” at all?
- Yield farming: there is no point to the lock-ups imo, it hurts the attractiveness of the rewards without adding any real benefits. “But without it, there would be so much supply, and that would be bad for the price”. No, it just delays the increase in supply, it just comes with a 10-month delay. In 10 months from now , the release schedule is still steep and it will have as much adverse effect then as it would have right now. Just make all rewards liquid, let it truly be a passive income. If the APR is high, many will compound (ideally this compounding would be facilitated, with auto-compound and auto-stake functions that people can opt in).
- Staking: the APY is only attractive when locking up for 3 years. This is too much to ask of new investors finding their way to Sovryn, meaning Staking is not an effective means of binding new members to the community. There is a hardcore group, staked for three years, getting the rewards; newcomers try it out, lock for a month, see the rewards, and turn away. This also compounds over time, making it harder and harder for newcomers to find staking attractive. You want to grow the core group in a community, so rewards should be attractive to those who don’t come with a crazy commitment yet.
- Community calls: the community calls consist of announcements and discussion. There is always people who are not muted, often starting issues with sound and streams, etc. Why not pre-record a quick update, with a series of announcements; make it sort and to the point, with all the necessary info and perhaps with a short written list of bullet points that can be shared around on TG, Twitter, Reddit, etc. And then have a discussion session separately, perhaps not recorded, perhaps on certain pre-fixed themes. Makes it easier for the members that are not hardcore involved to say informed.
Stay Sovryn!