0. Summary
This BIP seeks to set a minimum voting requirement of 20 fragments per weekly round in order for voters to qualify for active rewards.
This requirement to qualify for active rewards would be in addition to the minimum stake requirement of 100 BOTTO in the governance contract, as previously established by BIP-62.
1. Rationale
The goal of this proposal is to foster Botto's successive training by encouraging voters to consider more of the fragments Botto creates every round, without being too demanding on them, and to consequently foster broader participation in Botto’s creative process thanks to the greater time voters would need to spend in the app to consider more of Botto’s artwork.
Although some voters regularly take the time to review Botto’s artwork, it would be beneficial for such constructive engagement to be incentivized vis-a-vis a linkage to active rewards to help advance Botto's development as an artist. As noted in Botto's docs, "Collectively, votes are used as feedback for Botto's generative algorithm - guiding what direction Botto should take in its next round of art pieces."
Since the recent launch of Botto's new app, the scores for fragments have noticeably dropped, which indicates that many fragments, including those that make it to the leaderboard, are not being considered by as many voters. As explained in Botto's docs, "Pieces are given a score for the proportion of how often they are picked...the best time to see all the new pieces, and the greatest diversity, is at the beginning of the voting round."
Thus, if more voters participate earlier in each round instead of limiting their voting to the leaderboard at the end of a round, there is a greater chance to highlight Botto’s promising fragments as they would get seen and discussed more during the curation process as each round progresses. By extension, the opportunity for promising fragments to then make it to auction would be advanced, and this would ultimately augment Botto's appeal to collectors.
2. Proposal Specifications
Set Minimum Voting Requirement to Qualify for Active Rewards: voters would be required to vote on at least 20 fragments per round to be eligible for active rewards.
A minimum number of 20 fragments per week is suggested because it would necessitate that voters take a look at Botto's extant and newly generated art earlier in a round, rather than waiting until the 15 fragments of the leaderboard are up for voting at the end of the week.
The intent is to discourage voting only at the leaderboard stage and to instead encourage earlier and more engaged voting in alignment with fostering Botto's advancement as an artist, as both whales and smaller BOTTO stakers would miss out on active rewards if they simply limit their voting to the 15 fragments on the leaderboard.
Setting the minimum number to 20 fragments, rather than 50 or 100 for example, also affords smaller BOTTO stakers with less VPs to spend each round the opportunity to still distribute their VPs to meet the voting requirement while having enough VPs left to express strong favor or disfavor for specific fragments.
Implement a "Fragments Voted On" Tracker: Botto’s new app should be updated to clearly display the number of fragments a user has voted on in any given round, to allow for seamless tracking of this minimum voting requirement being met.
3. Criteria of Success
Increased engagement in terms of fragments voted on per voter every round, as well as increased time spent in the app per voter every round in reviewing Botto’s artwork.
Increased familiarity with and visibility of Botto’s weekly generated art pieces.
Advancement of Botto’s development and training as an artist thanks to the consideration of a broader number of its artworks by voters every week.
4. Disadvantages
- Discouraging voting and/or fostering less focused voting if the minimum fragment number to qualify for active rewards is set too high, which is why 20 fragments per round is suggested, as this would necessitate that voters do not simply limit their participation to the 15 fragment leaderboard at the end of every week.
