SmartCash is a merchant focused community driven cryptocurrency. In this article we will discuss how it is community drive, how to participate in both voting and proposals, what makes a better proposal, and a bit more about what to expect of the process.
To start off, remember that this is not a Kickstarter funding platform. Overall, the proposal should benefit the SmartCash community. You should be able to outline how it does this, why it matters, and who it will effect. You also need to understand clear and reasonable expenses and not just synthesis numbers at random. Proposals must comply with a simple set of terms and conditions too when signing up, so be sure to read that when you submit a proposal. The main thing to remember is that projects cannot give back to the community, so projects that the following in part or entirely will be deactivated during the review process. Proposal Funds cannot be transferred back to the community such as a kickback, rebate, donation, DAO, escrow, treasury, fund, exchange etc. SmartCash holders also do not have any additional explicit rights beyond voting on the direction of projects, so keep that in mind as well. The main idea is that a project should be focused on SmartCash and the better you are able to explain how it achieves that, why you are doing the method you are doing, and reasonable costs the better chance you have for the proposal to be passed.
About the SmartHive Project Treasury
One of the most important features of SmartCash is that 70% of all block rewards are set aside for the SmartHive Project Treasury. These funds can be spent on projects which are proposed by anyone for a cost of 100 SMART and which are voted on by all holders of SmartCash. This is unique in that anyone with SmartCash can vote, without cost, by using their wallet. This doesn't expend the SmartCash and there is no minimum amount of Smart required. While the community does not vote on the direction of the hive/SmartCash project itself, they do vote on the direction of projects funded by the SmartHive Project Treasury.
It is this explicit focus on projects which sets SmartCash apart. Rather than SmartCash going directly to miners it goes to those who move the projects forward. 70% is a huge amount to dedicate and is upwards of 50 times the equivalent value of Dash, which has about a $2 Million USD fund presently. It is important to note that the community treasury is designated in SmartCash and there isn't a large fiat fund set aside to fund projects. All projects are funded directly in SmartCash upon completion of milestones and proof of delivery, including receipts and other relevant documentation. This is different than Dash which pays up front and is more prone to be exploited.
How to Participate in Voting
All voting takes place on the SmartCash Governance Portal at vote.smartcash.cc. There you can see the listed proposals.
Voting on funding SmartHive Projects can be for, against, or abstain. You must have SmartCash to vote but there is no minimum. This is meant to be as inclusive as possible rather than requiring someone to hold a larger amount, such as with a Node, in order to vote.
Voting requires you proving you have SmartCash through signing a message using your private key. This allocates your votes towards a project.
You can vote easily using SmartCash that is held on the SmartCash Web Wallet.
Voting is very easy to do from the desktop wallet using these simple steps.
There is even a script you can use to automate SmartCash voting if you have multiple addresses here.
3rd party wallets currently do not support voting.
How to participate in proposal feedback
A great way to get started is to read through proposals listed at the SmartCash Governance Portal.
Then you can also read through pre-proposals on the forum.
You may also want to become familiar with the #proposals channel on the SmartCash Discord Server.
Providing feedback to proposals is a helpful way to participate. Brainstorming, comments, and new perspectives can help a lot. If you want to vote for or against sometimes it helps to explain your viewpoint too on why it matters. While not everyone has to comment, sometimes it is helpful for people to know your perspective or what swayed you one way or another in your voting.
How to submit a proposal
There are three main steps:
Form and share your idea, you may want to try also sharing it on #ideabox on Discord. The more people you have involved with crafting an idea the better, usually, because it brings new perspectives. If you are particularly experienced or talented in an area or have a strong interest in something it is usually a better idea to focus on that. You will have unique ways of creating a proposal than doing something you are excelling at. Remember: Proposal Funds cannot be transferred back to the community such as a kickback, rebate, donation, DAO, escrow, treasury, fund, exchange etc.
Submit your proposal on the forum in the pre-proposal section. You can get a guide here for example layouts. You can look through existing templates to see how to structure it. Introducing yourself, explaining your goals, how you want to achieve them, milestones, effects, and costs are a good minimal set of content to include. You can always look at guides on how to write grant proposals or RFPs, because these are very similar structures. All costs should be explained and be provable. Milestones that are completed must be provable and tangible as well. There are no upfront payments, so take time to make sure you can explain reasonably why things cost what they do!
Try and let the pre-proposal gather feedback. Ask a few members to comment on them. Share it with people you know. Getting feedback from the community can help make your official proposal better.
Get your 100 SMART (and the 0.001 transaction fee) and create an account on the SmartHive Governance Portal. You can submit your proposal there, then you have to send the SmartCash to the address listed to make it an official submission. Be sure to include milestones for your project.
There is at two week voting period! If your proposal passed, congratulations! Keep in touch on Discord with the support team that will follow up. Also please note that even though a vote passed, it is still possible that a project could be deactivated. Sometimes this is because the proposal was against the Terms of Service, the proposal is removed, or there is a long period of absence and it is considered abandoned. This is not exhaustive but just be aware you actually need to complete the milestones of the proposal to get the project funds that were allocated!
Great, now you can work on your project! There are simple templates for budget control and auditing that you will need to complete. You also need to provide your SmartCash address. This is important to know that throughout the proposal if you do not complete the project as described, you can also end up having your project deactivated. This is to deter fraud, scams, or laziness :) Make sure you do a good job and work hard at what you said you would do! Overall, this human-arbitrated system is very similar to how grants are administered, projects are managed, or any other reasonable method.
Hopefully that helps describe the process in a little more detail. Be sure to check out the community channels for more help on this. It will be a good experience to participate and expand the SmartCash community to the world!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://smartcash.blockchainlibrary.org/2018/05/how-to-submit-proposals-to-the-smartcash-community-treasury-and-governance-portal/