Forge Labs: A Research Lab for Public Good(s) (closed)

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Forge Labs: A Research Lab for Public Good(s)
Forge Labs: 为公共产品更好而研究

Please note that:
1. This is an initial idea under development, not a formal proposal at the moment. Future roadmaps and details may change depending on various factors.
2. Forge Labs is NOT merely a visual group; its ultimate goal is to establish a self-sustaining and profitable research institute through cooperation and efforts from different organisations. Budgets and support from LX DAO, OptimismCN, and LeapOnchain remain an optional consideration that requires further discussion.

Name: Forge Labs

Initiator: @183Aaros

Supported by: @Marcus @QQQ @elsa7907 @stella5606 @DongChoeyGit @xinalan

Date: 2024/11/26

Keywords

governance; economics; public goods; sustainability; research; analysis; consulting;

Introduction

Devcon was a great opportunity to connect. During Devcon 7, I met many brilliant and inspiring people from LX DAO. After in-depth conversations with Marcus and Q, and following the connections established with Bruce and many contributors from LX DAO at Devcon 7, I was inspired to contribute more to this wonderful collective.

What is Forge Labs?

Forge Labs is a pioneering research institution dedicated to advancing public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Why Forge Labs?

  • Research excellence, produce original, excellent analysis and research reports and consulting services
  • Help and empower cross-language coordination within the Ethereum Ecosystem through in-depth connections through research projects and translations
  • Establishing a sustainable research talent-fostering pipeline with an inclusive but strict skills development process

What value is being added to LX DAO?

  • Discover a potential research & consulting business model, provide valuable and reasonable profits flow into LX DAO
  • Strengthen the R&D culture and environment in LX DAO
  • Promote cross-cultural communication awareness in LX DAO to establish an English-friendly environment.
  • LX DAO brand exposure across the Forge Labs products and services.
    …

Potential Research Subject

Track 1: Analysis of public goods granting models and their sustainability

This subject could be seen as a follow-up research effort based on the following ideas and proposals:

methodology:
Indicators now being used in the Optimism Retro Funding would be assessed.

Ultimately, we aim to develop a robust financial indicator/model to help with the public goods funding assessments.

For practical purposes, we are particularly interested in studying the sustainability of on-chain/Web3 organisations. Though this research topic may be more of a financial aspect research, even consulting (as a possible deliverable outcome).

Track 2: Governance across the Ethereum ecosystem

Including Optimism’s advanced experiments in governance, providing extra intellectual support for OptimismCN and LX DAO’s frontier ideas and concepts in governance.

Track 3: Emerging onchain economy (co-research with Onchainomics)

  • Microeconomics
    • Game theory and its mechanisms
    • Coordination
  • Macroeconomics
    • Onchain economic activities
    • Onchain activities’ off-chain impact i.e. mass adoption

Additional high-demand research areas and ongoing discussions within the Ethereum ecosystem will also be taken into consideration.

What is already on the road?

  1. Brand awareness, research discussion, build in the open.
    We have established a Forge Labs Farcaster channel to enhance governance discussions, advance public good research, and increase brand awareness.
    Warpcast

Our discussion on AI Agents x Governance has already attracted some attention on Farcaster, in just a day.

image
image773×734 86.6 KB

  1. Random projects initiated by Forge Labs in just a week

What resources do Forge Labs need?

  • Marketing& publishing coordination
  • Business development
  • Talents pool
  • Common toolings (?)

Budget (?)

PM: 20 hours/week, 80 hours/month
Expected expenditure for the quarter:
1500*3 = 4500 LXPU, 1 LXPU = 0.8 U + 0.2 LXP

Bounty:

  • research assistance?
  • Translation and research tasks inherited from Wild LX?
    4 articles * 10hrs/article = 40 hrs/month

Still not sure about this part.

Forge Labs is NOT merely a visual group; its ultimate goal is to establish a self-sustaining and profitable research institute through cooperation between LX DAO, OptimismCN, and LeapOnchain. Budgets and support from LX DAO, OptimismCN, and LeapOnchain remain an optional consideration that requires further discussion.

Road Map

Phase 1: Foundation Phase

(December 2024 - February 2025)

  • Explore and launch initiatives aligned with Forge Labs’ core vision, Develop and refine selected initiatives
  • Ship, deliver multiple, diversified products and services that align with the Forge Labs’ vision
  • Identify key opportunities and potential research projects and services

Phase 2: Establishment Phase

(March - May 2025)

  • Evaluate initial phase outcomes
  • Optimise operational processes and workflows
  • Ship at least 1 major product or service offering
  • Maintaining all successful workflows from Phase 1
  • Establish key partnerships and collaborations
  • Seeking partnership approvals including snapshots and other necessary processes

Phase 3: Growth Phase

(June - August 2025)

  • Strengthen market presence and brand identity
  • Establish performance metrics and benchmarks
  • Build a sustainable revenue model

Ultimate End Game

The ultimate goal of Forge Labs is self-sustaining and profitable research lab that provides both profitable research and consulting projects, and non-profit research projects.

Disclosure of Background and Conflict of Interest Information

Research and Consulting experiences

  • BA in International Economics and Trade (Honours), MSc in Investment Banking. Since 2019, I have worked in the investment banking and consulting industry (including equity research institutions and IPO consulting firms) as a project manager and senior analyst. I specialise in research and consulting management, with expertise in IPOs, equity markets, economics, and market research.

  • Blockchain and Web3: I completed a long-term contract internship at a crypto hedge fund from 2018 to 2019 in the U.K. Since 2022, I have been an active contributor to BanklessDAO, where I have been deeply involved in its governance. I was elected as the coordinator of BanklessDAO’s Chinese node in early 2023 until now.

  • Organise a co-learning group for ETH Economics: I’ve initiated a co-learning group for ETH Economics, EELG which lasts for a season.

Conflict of Interests Disclosure

  • @183aaros is the founder of LeapOnchain, including Leap Capital - an onchain native hedge fund, and the LeapOnchain Association which is dedicated to supporting onchain native experts and bridging the talents between onchain and off-chain economy.
  • @183Aaros is the coordinator of BanklessCN, daily workflows would involved some tasks in Bankless Academy and BlackFlagDAO Treasury Guild.
  • @DongChoeyGit and @xinalan and @183Aaros are members of the LeapOnchain Association, also members of BlackFlagDAO (formerly BanklessDAO) and BanklessCN.
  • Onchainomics is an award-winning research brand that is owned and supported by LeapOnchain, led by @183Aaros .

For further disclosure, please visit 183Aaros’ Personal Web

Previous Related Proposals in LX DAO

  1. Research for Public Goods sustainability proposed by brucexu.eth, on [Apr 2023].

  2. 长了一颗野生良心，大家看看要切除还是收留 proposed by Tiao.Wei_xiao, on [May 27 2024].

  3. Wild lx Research Proposal （Wild lx 研究报告提案） proposed by elsa7907, on [Sep 23 2024].

  4. 专家组转研究型项目组 - IResearch{} 提案, proposed by Shanni, on [Jun 5 2024]

5 Likes
2

I think it’s a great idea, LXDAO needs more research atmosphere and product reports, and also some systematic mechanism to train researchers
We’ve had a few exchanges before, and I’m thinking that the purpose of Forge Lab is to advance public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem, and Forge had the idea of including some Grants analysis plans in the last quarter, so could that be incorporated into Forgelab?

2 Likes
3

Definitely! The research on grants analysis could definitely be included in either Track 1: Analysis of public goods granting models and their sustainability, or Track 2: Governance across the Ethereum ecosystem.

2 Likes
4

Definitely! The research on grants analysis could definitely be included in either Track 1: Analysis of public goods granting models and their sustainability, or Track 2: Governance across the Ethereum ecosystem.

5

Do you think this idea has value? Should we continue to develop it within LX DAO? A temperature check:

  • Yes
  • No
  • Other (Please leave comments below)
0 voters
6

virtual group?

From this name, I cannot get the point from it quickly. Normally, a good name will show the idea and mission behind the project, and after checking the following content, I can feel we don’t have a clear plan for this WG.

Why do we need other two co-initiators? and how can they help? Provide funds or researchers?

We have experienced some conflicts and loss in the past for some projects, and some conflicts cost some resources, which is a waste for the project itself and the community. So I recommend to not co-initiate project if unnecessary.

LXDAO is the correct, no space.

The scope is very big and ambiguous, and it might be hard to output some good research in depth. We had similar experience and working group in the past like this and didn’t perform well.

We do need a research working group, but should be focus so that we can research some topics in depth and build influences.

Also, another issue is the research scope might overlap with LXDAO, LXDAO Gov WG and LXDAO Forge WG. Might cause some conflicts or resource wastes.

It will cost 0.5 - 1 year for researching only one of the topic and get something useful, but seems we will cover all with more random topics. So from my experience, we can only output some simple random articles based on the current design. Please don’t be too optimistic on researching.

“self-sustaining”, “profitable”, “consulting”, “non-profit research”, etc should never be the “Ultimate goal” of some research Lab or Working Group but the topics, questions, content, etc. The most important thing is the research result, for example, we can set the ultimate goal to create bitcoin white paper, rather than create a research lab who are self-sustaining and potentially create bitcoin white paper.

https://metagov.org/ provides a good example, please take a look on their topcis, mission, researches, etc. We have contact, and Joshua willing to project help if we have some good research topics.

For example, for AI x Governance, Metagov also has a research, you can take a look Announcing the Public AI Seminar - by Joshua Tan, seems they are more professional.

My suggestions on continuing this idea:

  1. Figure out the topics that we DO want to research, and focus on it. Think about why should we research and what are our advantages for researching it.
  2. Try to find similar research labs in Web3, and check how they work and the results, try to get more experience.
  3. Initiate a small team working on the topic, small and focus, try to get some results ASAP and get feedbacks.
7

A virtual group is different from a project team in that it should be positioned more as a way to encourage members of the community to build, but with clear objectives
Forge Lab has had a lot of discussions with Aaros before, and I think the Polaris indicator is to promote the sustainability of public goods and research.
In talking with Aaros and Bruce, there are a number of issues that might be worth discussing

1. the core goal is to study mechanisms that will change the way public goods are financed, developed, distributed, and built.

This should be a common understanding, but it may be a staged and randomized issue, as represented by the secondary endowment and Retro PGF, which I think are typical examples of the way public goods are currently financed and distributed, and it would be more difficult to achieve this goal in a single quarter of support, or with the resources of a virtual group, but would need to be staged.

2. Staged research, randomization to mainline

In the early days when ForgeLab was established, I think it should be a diffuse type of research solicitation, Idea solicitation, which is a randomized phase, and then after reaching a point, there will be a clear main line, in which there will be some lines of content that will be continuously promoted, such as the redistribution of funds from RetroPGF, the recording and distribution of contributions, and so on.

3. Comparison with other Labs

This content should probably be more in line with our own advantages, my communication with Aaros in the early stage, and the positioning of LXDAO itself, we are more specialized in DAO governance and contribution distribution experience, we need to combine our own advantages to find some competitors.
Some governance data analytics like Seed Gov, Curib lab
Funding distribution methods such as EasyretroPGF, Gitcoin
Some public chain collaboration and data analysis platforms like L2beat
Some on-chain contribution definition tools like Metric garden, CharmVerse
I think we need to be more systematic in our analysis if we are to find Forge Lab’s niche and point of difference, but I think this work still deserves to be rewarded.

Some of the cases I found interesting

8

Also, designing to the issue of product incubators, I think LXDAO, as one of the incubators, needs to have a brand exposure

9

This is an initial idea under development for discussion and brainstorm, this is NOT Wild LX.

Visual group is not a necessary option.

The name stems from previous conflicts and setbacks involving projects that belonged to or were initiated by the Forge Working Group, exactly because it represents Forge WG’s interests.

This is just an initial concept, and the name was chosen simply to establish Forge WG’s presence.

I’m fully open to all other names, the name can be easily changed and determined through a more collaborative process.

This co-initiate idea is exactly because of considering the interest of conflict and shows info transparency. Exactly to prevent previous conflicts, straight to the point.

Again, this is an initial idea under development, not a formal proposal. IMO Further research scopes and research topics should be implemented in formal research proposals, not an idea initiation post that tries to initiate a cross-organisation research group/squad/team.

The idea here is not to ask LXDAO LXDAO Forge WG etc. for resources, if you try to find any resources required specifically, there’s nothing settled. On the contrary, even a budget is not a necessary requirement. And that’s why the Budget section leaves with a question mark and I’ve waited for discussions from the community.

This proposal offers a cooperative effort and asks the community: Does LX DAO need help in these areas? Perhaps we can work and collaborate together. All forms of coordination and coop research ideas are open for discussion. Please don’t see it as a pitch like a formal investment from LXDAO.

IMO Further research scopes and research topics should be implemented in formal research proposals, not an idea initiation post.

IMO self-sustaining and any profitable efforts that align with shared goals that push the public goods for the greater good would be helpful for sustainability.

That is what we are doing in the ‘What is already on the road?’ section! To attract more researchers WORLD-WIDE to join in the research and push the mutual goals. Firstly you have to gather ppl around and get interested in a specific research topic, then get feedback, then the research team, not the other way around IMO.

10

LXDAO has always been conducting research on the sustainability of public goods. There have been reports on the sustainability of public goods in the past, and the governance group has also produced many related research outputs. It is possible to consider refining some directions based on these studies, rather than starting the research from the beginning each time.

1 Like
11

Agree

12

Again, in short

  1. This is a preliminary concept under development, NOT a formal proposal;
  2. This is NOT a Research Proposal;
  3. This is NOT an Investment Pitch;
  4. The intention is NOT to request resources from LXDAO or LXDAO Forge WG. Rather, this is an offer for collaboration, asking the community:

Is LXDAO in need in these areas? We could potentially work together.

I’m approaching this with the understanding that it’s a DAO, not a company. I’m seeking opportunities and possibilities, rather than focusing on KPIs like a company at the beginning, where nothing has been settled.

13

The idea has been abandoned, may join in the co-cooperative research with @Marcus in my personal capacity, without using LXDAO’s resources or work hours.

14

yeah, of course, LXDAO needs research, according to today’s session. But like Ray and I said, we don’t want to waste anything, not just LXDAO’s resources but also your time. If we already learned something from the past (with many hours and money), we can make a better one now. It is not related to it’s a DAO or company, with or without KPIs.

I actually have some ideas regarding research, mainly focus on Coordination topics. Maybe we can make a Coordination Labs or I’m planning to initiate one. We need to focus on our main line if we have one. If we don’t have one, we can do some random researches, but we have already done for 2yrs in LXDAO.

1 Like