Some suggestions below. Want to chime in bc I’ve been watching things unfold and agree with @Masongos post. Full disclosure: I’m not in either camp (not a Creator nor Early Investor/ Team member, I simply invested in $RLY tokens last year and have been liquidity mining in the incentivized pools). I have also been running infrastructure and middleware on Ethereum + Polygon, and also participate heavily in Terra and Cosmos blockchain ecosystem governance.
Problems:
- Fully agree that Rally in its current stage of development feels more Web 2.5, not Web 3.0 compared to other projects in the space.
- Fully agree that >76% is WAYYY too much control for the Team/ Early Investors, and this ecosystem needs to rectify this or its ngmi, is just reproducing bad Web 2.0 outcomes for Creators.
- The infrastructure and middleware layer for Rally is not built out at this point – other Web 3 blockchains are permissionless (meaning: any developer can use the open source software and data the blockchain runs on to build middleware, tools and applications). Rally is not open/ permissionless or decentralized and it is a blocker for growth.
Solutions:
- Spend $RLY tokens on the developer grants it will take to build out the infrastructure/ middleware layer to make Rally open & permissionless. It will take significant funds to do this – which will help lower the % of the network that the Team/Early Investors own.
- Open the governance process up so that its not just the Rally Team choosing their own partner apps. This is how blockchain ecosystems grow exponentially. One idea would be to implement quadratic voting where Creators votes are weighed more heavily than Team/Investor votes in choosing projects to fund.
Development Suggestions:
- Open up the developer API. Right now the Rally team is gatekeeping this and as a developer, I can’t just come along and build something useful without asking Rally Team for permission. At this stage in Rally’s lifecycle, this is not aligned with a Web 3 ethos and is stunting growth.
- The FAQ says the Rally sidechain is “open-source” and “decentralized”, but it doesn’t really seem that way. Open-source the blockchain software, and open up the “mining” aka “validation” (processing transactions) to the community if it’s not already – the fact that I can’t even tell much about the sidechain mechanics by reading the FAQ or any dev docs is super problematic and atypical in the Web 3 space. Use $RLY tokens to incentivize.
- Invest in public RPCs to make chain data more available (Polygon has multiple RPCs that are independent of Team’s control)
- Invest in a proper public blockchain explorer – or two (like https://etherscan.io). I have mentioned this in the past but the need seems quite urgent at this point, as it is the cornerstone of open/permissionless innovation – true decentralization.
- Partner with Web 3 data projects like The Graph to make it easier for developers to build applications on top of the Rally sidechain.
- Incentivize/ fund useful applications thru grants that are open to community vote.