It is very disheartening that I have to open this thread for community discussion. But this information must be brought to light.
Your Admin Team will always practice the highest possible levels of transparency. So, we have to open this discussion today.
The following is a statement we want everyone reading this to be able to state proudly:
āIn the spirit of protecting the SandFamās integrity and the future of the DAO, we will not tolerate voter manipulation in any formā
It was brought to the attention of Admin yesterday that a significant bribe was offered to Alex (from The Council Tech) in the final hours of voting when Alexās proposal was down by only a small % margin.
@KamiSawZe (Alex) was offered 2.5 million VP to vote in his favor (putting Council Tech in a lead that would have secured them the UGC contract associated with SIP-19). He was asked to pay 2.5k USDT for this vote. He was not contacted directly by the person who supposedly controlled the wallet with the VP.
There is very little we can do in the way of investigating this matter further from the Admin side.
So, at this point, we can only express deep gratitude to Alex for his honesty and applaud his integrity as we make this plea to our entire community:
Put your honor above your wallet.
Relationships are worth more than anything.
Remain vigilant as watchdogs of our DAO.
Donāt let others manipulate the process in any way.
We are all in this together, SandFam
We must all hold each other accountable to the highest ethical standards as we embark on this grand experiment of DAOing together.
Your comments are welcome below.
This feels like more of a discussion topic than an announcement since it is a matter that deeply impacts the participation of all DAO members.
Wow. That hurts extra knowing they would have won the SIP over @Gonzacolo . And at 2.5K USDT, that wouldāve been a bargain for the revenue projections listed in their proposal. Iām really, really impressed @KamiSawZe@TheVisionEx .
When I said I trust The Council QA to do the job right, this is exactly what I meant.
Now onto the other matter. I think I must be reading the sentence wrong @theKuntaMC , it says
offered to Alex from The Council Tech in the final hours ā¦
But Alex and Joseph are the Council Tech, so I think maybe itās supposed to read
offered to Alex, from the Council Tech, in the final hours ā¦
For reference from those wondering: SandFam Cafe #6 (blast from the past @PickaxeMaster !!!) is where Joseph introduces himself as COO of the Council Tech.
Other than thatā¦ 2.5M is a pretty specific number. Was the bribe from a trusted source or someone covered by a CoC that would warrant us to delve further? Iām not interested in a witch hunt here, just need to know if there are extra steps we should take to protect the DAO.
Thanks for the transparency.
Indeed it is a problem.
How can we protect ourselves from this and how can we detect this type of attempt, if only by relying on the good faith of the creators of SIP?
If we were to anonymize SIPs, Iām not sure that would really change anything.
I can agree that anonymizing SIPs wonāt work for the process of SIPs. In some cases, and I believe in our case, folks vote for the team they can trust to do the job. Not just in how the pitch is given, but also in who is giving the pitch.
The problem is, unless thereās a transaction right before the vote from the voting wallet to the SIP owner, thereās not an easy way to track if thereās corruption.
In this case, I did have the following to say when Alex and I were discussing how this type of corruption is unacceptable.
āYeah man. I mean I donāt give a shit. If Iām in the streets with integrity, itās better than paying to steal a DAO vote and failing the community.ā (Obviously I donāt speak like that with our communities, and this was particularly frustrating.)
One idea we floated was to have a maximum possible voting power on a single SIP, though that doesnāt stop a person from splitting up their VP into multiple wallets. Not a great solution to stopping these issues, especially when someone could get paid to vote.
It is worth noting as well, they were interested in the idea of selling their voting power āas an ROI for his assetsā. This will likely not be the last time they try to sell their VP.
Unfortunately, this sort of occurrences tend to happen with DAOs. It was only a matter of time. Iāve seen similar issues happen within other DAOs where whales collude to vote in support of proposals where they get kickbacks. The reality is also that there isnāt a way to punish such bad behaviour other than public naming and shaming. It also brings about a āmafiaā like behaviour wherein the consortium can either be paid to vote for your proposal, or threaten to vote against you if you donāt pay.
Thereās also a vicious cycle wherein the proposals get voted through, they get paid in the DAOās local currency, which then brings up their VP, and the cycle continues.
Iād love for us to discuss possible solutions, I have none that works for now.
Perhaps the solution would be to be completely transparent and offer a āvoteā marketplace page. Anyone who wants to sell their votes puts them on the marketplace.
I donāt know if that makes sense but at least it would be visible.
Not sure if this is a serious idea, but I put it here.
Really out of the box idea. But not sure people putting for sales their VP will be well perceived by the community. And of course for delegates forbidden.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Sebga, I was not expecting you to say that. A+ for surprise
I actually donāt hate this ideaā¦does feel like it could get way outta control. How would we balance out just everybody listing their vote for sale?
Idk if sebgaās actually serious about it too . Bro thought way outside of the box on this
In all seriousness, itās 1 thing to acknowledge that such issues have and will continue to happen but to cordon it will likely kill the DAO. Itāll be like openly accepting corruption.
Gotta chime in here with an official statement that at no point in time will this Admin Team even consider the possibility of condoning the sale of votes.
That said, I found Sebgaās presentation of the idea quite humorous, tooā¦ In a āfunny cuz itās true,ā kinda way.
Makes me think back to the poll we did in Q4 with 371 participants in which over a dozen people made comments about āeverybody just wanting moneyā
I just started digging into Cardanoās DAO, but what caught my attention is their voting system. The whole idea of voting registration is really interesting. I think itās something we could look into or consider for our own DAO. It could solve this threadās problem and many more!
I just started reading about it, so I donāt have much info yet. Hoping someone here might
However, at least the idea of voter registration seems possible!
I solemnly swear, in the spirit of safeguarding the SandFamās integrity and the future of the DAO, that I shall not tolerate voter manipulation in any form whatsoever.
For sure, Iāll look into it.
They even have some sort of on-chain certifications for universities; looks like three universities are using it! Iāll keep it in mind and if I find something feasible for us, Iāll share
It was brought to the attention of Admin yesterday that a significant bribe was offered to Alex (from The Council Tech) in the final hours of voting when Alexās proposal was down by only a small % margin.
@KamiSawZe (Alex) was offered 2.5 million VP to vote in his favor (putting Council Tech in a lead that would have secured them the UGC contract associated with SIP-19). He was asked to pay 2.5k USDT for this vote. He was not contacted directly by the person who supposedly controlled the wallet with the VP.
There is very little we can do in the way of investigating this matter further from the Admin side.
is where Joseph introduces himself as COO of the Council Tech.
. Bro thought way outside of the box on this 
That said, I found Sebgaās presentation of the idea quite humorous, tooā¦ In a āfunny cuz itās true,ā kinda way.
