Firo Community Fund Committee Elections

CFC Governance
1

After the conclusion of the nomination stage, we are now proceeding to the election stage of the Community Fund Committee that will make decisions on how the Community Fund should be utilized.

Candidate Interviews (still underway)

I’ll be reaching out to candidates to have a brief informal interview, the transcripts of which would be made available here.

  1. Savil
  2. Sproxet
  3. Nrsimha
  4. FiroHero
  5. Chen
  6. rehrar
  7. Eagle
  8. Super
  9. RyanApeFiro

The Firo Community Fund is expected to go live on approximately 16 June 2022.

Rules of Election

  1. This election we will be opening this to forum users with Trust Level 2 or people or who have donated to at least 10 FIRO or equivalent to any proposal in the Firo Crowdfunding System, OpenCollective or MAGIC Firo Fund for Spark code audit. This will be in the Donor category. We believe this allow active users to earn their Trust Level 2 or to simply donate to get that trust level immediately (which also proves ownership).
  2. Core team members cannot vote (contributors/contractors are not within this definition). This means @reuben @anwar @AJaydono @poramin @levonpetrosyan93 @ajivanyan @DinkBlitz for the core team members that have a forum account.
  3. Nominees are allowed to vote (including themselves).
  4. Each qualified forum user can choose a maximum of 7 people to fill the 7 slots.
  5. Poll will be open for a month.

If you have donated but your forum status has not been given a Donor status, please DM @AJaydono, @DinkBlitz or @anwar for a status upgrade.

Please take this responsibility seriously and vote for candidates that show effort and dedication towards the project and have the requisite capabilities and maturity to make good decisions.

Please select all candidates that you want to be on the Community Fund Committee (max 7 votes).

0 voters

Candidate Introductions

Candidate introductions are all linked in the vote above.

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I would like to thank Kartal for his efforts and service! He is a very good manager.

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Interview with @Savil

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 12:49 PM]
Thanks Savil for your nomination to the CFC and taking the time to answer this interview. I wanted to give all candidates an opportunity to have a quick frank conversation so that people can get to know you as a person and your opinions on things.

Savil, [20/5/2022 12:49 PM]
Thanks for having me.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 12:50 PM]
So you’ve been around for quite a while now…maybe 2017 or so? We’ve gone through plenty of ups and downs, what has kept you in the Firo community?

Savil, [20/5/2022 12:52 PM]
Really the tech taking a practical direction working with cryptographic assumptions and the fact the team is so open and transparent. It makes it easier to get your voice heard. It reminds me of the small bitcoin/crypto meetups in Sweden, Switzerland, and Bangkok. I used to go to these kind of regularly when I first learned about this space and still new just to listen and learn from the conversations that took place.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 12:54 PM]
Yeah, the crypto space has evolved so much into the mainstream which is great but has also lost a lot of its ‘close-knit’ feel. I still remember that donation you organized in Lombok during the earthquake. Do you remember what was raised?

Savil, [20/5/2022 12:58 PM]
I think it was a few hundred dollars at that time. Even a little bit went a long way. Being on the ground at the time a lot of hands were needed just transporting a lot of things to the port on Bali to get on the boat.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 12:58 PM]
Yeah that was really admirable. Really liked that effort.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 12:59 PM]
What are your thoughts on the creation of the Community Fund and the proposed governance and its eventual transition to a Community Matching Fund? I’ve spoken to many people on this and the opinions have been divided. Some believe that community funds often lead to inefficient resource allocation and at most has limited benefit due to the technical nature of the project.

Would be interested to hear your views on this.

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:03 PM]
I think the take Firo team is taking is good in that first going with people that have long term presence and receipts for supporting the project. I think that is a good start for governance. I’m of the opinion that it further decentralizes the decision making a bit so it isn’t just the community asking the core to do everything for final approval. More options isn’t a bad thing and at this stage we have the benefit of learning how governance works out in reality from other projects. Then we can do what is best moving forward. Being still relatively small gives this project an opportunity to really try things before the numbers of participants in governance gets big.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:04 PM]
Yes its been a particularly contentious topic. While not really a CFC responsibility, what are your views on masternode voting?

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:18 PM]
Also while you’re writing that, back to the role at hand, you mention code audits, liquidity in DEXes and CEXes which for sure are low hanging fruit. Assuming that there’s a surplus of funds, what other initiatives would you be amenable to funding?

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:18 PM]
Masternode voting can mirror voting we see on stock markets. Those that have a huge stake probably also have bags in other projects and wouldn’t be too devastated if one particular investment doesn’t work out. It’s ok to be optimistic about everyone behaving well, but we also have to make sure that we are practical in planning for individuals to take advantage of the system with contingency plans ready. I initially lean on the side of planning on people taking advantage such as short-term voting of masternodes to pay themselves more no matter what. I was pleasantly surprised to see that when options were organized to have more of a share of the community fund, the votes trended toward a long-term solution for the project as a whole. I saw in the forums there is possible an idea thrown around to burn a coin for a vote which could also solve getting the total supply down to the original 21m. It would be interesting to see how that plays out in reality. I’m not sure if another project has tried that.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:19 PM]
Well technically, an option also is for the CFC to choose to burn funds haha :slight_smile: (not that I’m advocating for or against it)

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:22 PM]
Other initiatives would be to do what already works such as a grant system initiative to attract community developers to work on Firo infrastructure to make it better. That was a good idea that was mentioned in one of the recent Firo interview videos with Voskcoin if I recall.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:22 PM]
Sure, but what sort of grants do you think you would likely fund?

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:24 PM]
I have some gaming related off the beaten track ideas such as sponsoring a pro player in one of the biggest games at the moment for exposure then watching the analytics to see if that is an affective outreach.

For grants I think killer apps people would need and use on the Elysium layer.

Extra Credits did a good video on Gamification applied to Education and a grant to get the community involved in spreading adoption could be good. Send emails requesting checkout via Firo to ten different businesses for an NFT or sort or prize. Daily and weekly objectives. Can try elements that keeps people engaged and coming back in games like MMOs. Can make community participation fun. Maybe even some sort of leveling up system

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:24 PM]
Yeah I’m really excited about Elysium :slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:25 PM]
Okay well I don’t have any other questions but is there any final thoughts or anything you wanted to add?

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:25 PM]
Private stable coins, anonymous voting and other mechanism that would be fair. It would be great to see range voting implemented.

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:26 PM]
Give me a moment to think if there is anything else I can add.

Savil, [20/5/2022 1:34 PM]
I always think there are outside variables and forces such as the market we cant impact so I look at what I can do as an individual. Been holding masternodes for years and recently got into mining last October. I go back and forth between pool mining and solo mining Firo on a lower ranked pool to spread the hashrate around with the occasional request by email to businesses I use to accept Firo in addition to using the businesses that take Firo directly like Travala. I hope these small actions may also spark others to spread Firo. We all don’t have to code albeit it helps but we can do what we can.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 1:37 PM]
:heart: Thanks Savil! Good luck on the elections!

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This is @sproxet’s interview.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:15 PM]
Hello Sproxet and thank you for nominating yourself to the CFC! We’re doing this interview as an informal ‘get to know you’ session to the rest of the Firo community and to get your views on several aspects of the project. :slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:16 PM]
You’ve been one of the earliest community members of Firo/Zcoin and it’s definitely been a wild ride. What has kept you involved in the project?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:25 PM]
I’ve always been interested in privacy technologies, and private payments are an integral part of that. Generally in this area, I don’t think privacy solutions that use payments with low anonymity sets are really contenders here for what I’d like to see, because I don’t think the protections they offer are sufficient to deter the adversaries most people are worried about (ie. Chainalysis and the governments and companies that buy their data).

So given that, I’ve seen only two technologies that really provide protection, namely the One-Of-Many proof ones (Zerocoin, Sigma, Lelantus, Spark), and the ZK-Snarks based ones (Zcash, Tornado). Zcoin was the first project that got into this space, and I was very excited about it at the time, as I remember seeing the Zerocoin whitepaper as something revolutionary. And then over the years I’ve just stayed attached to our project, community, and the tech we use.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:27 PM]
What are your thoughts on Lelantus Spark in particular? Especially vs things like Orchard/Halo2?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:29 PM]
Both technologies do pretty similar things with different approaches. I think Spark lets us get a lot of really cool functionality, and Orchard provides Zcash with pretty similar functionality. They’re two different ways to acheive the same thing, more or less.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:30 PM]
Now you’ve been working with Firo/Zcoin on and off on a part time basis as a contractor and have contributed significantly to the Electron Firo-Client. As you are aware the CFC is meant to be independent of the core team.

How has your interactions with the core team been like and how do you think it affects your independence?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:33 PM]
I definitely have some connection to the core team, but I think my analysis of technical issues would not be affected by any sort of emotional attachment I might have. I’ve been involved with technology for quite a long time, and have enough experience that I can deliver a sober analysis regardless of any external factors.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:34 PM]
Sure though the CFC is not just about technical issues but about how the fund should be utilized, some which may be technical, others not so.

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:37 PM]
I feel I can weigh the interests of the community appropriately, having been involved with it for so long. I fully want Firo to succeed, and for that we need a vibrant community.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:38 PM]
What is your opinion on the community fund in general? Like the governance of it and the eventual move to a community matching fund. Or should we even have a community fund at all? There’s been some criticisms that most community funds in other projects generally aren’t utilized well.

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:43 PM]
I think it’s definitely true that in many cryptocurrency projects, community funds just descend into nepotism, or are nepotistic from the get go. It’s a difficult issue, because in reality people in the space do know each other. I think it’s important to have community outreach and be open to projects from outside our own circle, while maintaining a high standard as to which projects are approved. Those aren’t always easy things to balance. Overall I’d say the success of the community fund depends on the success of the community in general: are motivated and competent people in the community going to be attracted to produce stuff for Firo? That’s not something we can accurately predict without trying.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:44 PM]
I agree :slight_smile: It’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario and I think it’s a worthy experiment.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:45 PM]
What sort of things would you like to see funded with the CFC? Anything specific?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:48 PM]
Integrations with our core products are somewhat difficult, due to the amount of coordination required with the core team. I think for the community fund, the best projects are those that have a greater degree of freedom than things that have to be part of our direct codebase. Some examples of this might be Firo-related utility bots (tipbots, price feeds, etc), integration into existing multi-coin software projects, commissioned artwork and NFT projects, etc.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:50 PM]
What about community building or adoption drives? Or ‘marketing’? A lot of people think that Firo’s biggest drawback is the lack of marketing.

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:54 PM]
Firo’s definitely not doing great in the marketing departement. So much of the crypto space seems driven by memes, and as someone who evaluates projects primarily by their whitepapers it’s difficult for me to understand how these will affect the development and future of Firo. I’d like to see more community building and adoption of course, so I’d be interested to see such proposals. Hopefully the community can come up with interesting ideas.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:55 PM]
That’s fair :slight_smile: While not a CFC responsibility, what is your opinion on the latest way to vote for CFC members requiring proof of participation or proof of contribution towards the project?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 2:58 PM]
Reputation systems are a really, really hard problem. :stuck_out_tongue: I’d say just authorise users who are known in the community. A more generalised solution is an unsolved problem.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 2:59 PM]
Yeah it’s tough esp since requiring KYC would be against the ethos of a privacy project. Any views on masternode voting?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 3:00 PM]
Coin voting is by definition plutocracy. The problems with that are well documented. Though so are the flaws of one person one vote.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:02 PM]
Well I don’t have any other questions! Any final thoughts before we wrap things up?

@praxit, [20/5/2022 3:02 PM]
KYC is also easy to bypass. You can easily get physical proxies to register.

@praxit, [20/5/2022 3:03 PM]
Not really. I hope everyone has a better idea of who I am and whether or not they feel I’d be a good addition to the community fund committee. Great to talk with you today!

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@nrsimha interview

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:28 PM]
Hi nrsimha! Thanks for nominating yourself to be a member of the CFC! You mentioned your first exposure to Firo/Zcoin was through mining it through a VPS! When was this? Prior to Lyra2z days?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:28 PM]
I am not sure year, but it was at time when Firo/Zcoin cost around 20 cents

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:28 PM]
before ATH

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:29 PM]
I guess difficulty was low as I was able to mine around 12 Firo on 2 very small VPS

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:29 PM]
I stopped mining at time of MTP

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:30 PM]
Wow that’s probably around 2016! That has been a long time! And when did you start getting involved with the community and what spurred you to do so?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:30 PM]
If I am correct my first involvement in community was when there was voting about increasing requirements for masternodes

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:31 PM]
I may tried to join community before, but was different then now and so I left group

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:31 PM]
Was it this one? Community Sentiment on Znode Collateral

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:31 PM]
yes

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:32 PM]
[In reply to Nrsimha]
Oh what drove you away and do you like what you see today?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:33 PM]
I felt community before was much more spammy or wasting time. Now I like it much more as there seems much more maturity except few exceptions.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:33 PM]
That’s great to hear and I would agree. The quality has increased for sure :slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:33 PM]
What has kept you in the Firo community for so long?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:34 PM]
I trust in development team. I believe Firo has excellent technology.

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:35 PM]
I liked transparency of the team.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:35 PM]
Anything you would like to see improved ?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:35 PM]
You mean in leadership or in features/adoption?

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:36 PM]
Anything :slight_smile:

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:36 PM]
Definitely I want to see higher adoption, which I think community fund can help when there will be some good ideas.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:36 PM]
Sure could you define what you mean by adoption and do you have specific examples of things you would like to see?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:37 PM]
Another improvement I want to see/do is to make simple script to create masternodes

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:37 PM]
For “normal” people seems to hard to create own masternodes, so they all goes for mostly one mn hosting

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:38 PM]
Adoption I mean how much is Firo used in common life (not just for holding)

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:39 PM]
I would like to for example to see good and simple exchange mechanism for Elysium tokens as I believe Elysium is very interesting feature which can bring many more people

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:39 PM]
So you’re a believer of Firo in focusing on the payment aspect of things! Any views on Elysium? Haha oops you beat me to it :slight_smile:

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:39 PM]
:slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:40 PM]
The CFC is set to go live sometime in mid June, what would be the first few things you would vote for the CFC to fund?

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:40 PM]
Remember CFC can also initiate funding requests and not necessarily need to wait for someone to initiate a proposal.

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:40 PM]
Yes, payment side of Firo is of course important. In my opinion it is crazy to pay with anything transparent as everybody can analyse what tokens you have and how much. Which is dangerous as somebody may want to kidnap you (if I go in extremes)

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:42 PM]
Unless there will be some good proposals I would suggest to build masternode deployment scripts, so it is easy to create masternodes for not so much tech persons.

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:42 PM]
I love Allnodes, but when I did last time statistics where masternodes are hosted, it cam that there is also quite a centrilazion

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:43 PM]
Yes great service but always good to get different hosts.

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:43 PM]
Yes

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:43 PM]
And in different locations

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:43 PM]
We have seen how even services like Vultr can have widespread outages

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:44 PM]
Another project what will be nice to propose is to make very good UI/UX for Elysium, if that is possible to make outside of Firo dev team

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:45 PM]
Oh yeah the Firo-Client actually will come with an easy UI for Elysium :slight_smile: Not sure if you have seen it yet!

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:45 PM]
I tested only Eleysium in Firo QT wallet, but it may improved from that time

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:46 PM]
Seens few screenshots recently from Firo Electron wallet and it looked nice

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:46 PM]
What is your opinion on how the elections for the CFC have been conducted and the eligibility to vote? Any suggestions on how it could have been done better?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:47 PM]
Some people suggest some algorithmic voting based on how many people send donation to specific idea, but I personally believe that if voting team is good it is more safe

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:48 PM]
There should be however some protection mechanism, when community sees somebody clearly votes “wrongly”, is corrupted, he should be replaced.

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:48 PM]
What about the current method whereby they either have a Trust Level or a proof of contribution?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:48 PM]
Oh, sorry I misread, you mean voting for elections?

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:48 PM]
Yes basically the elections to be a member of the CFC :slight_smile:

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:50 PM]
Yes, currently I am not aware of better system, to engage community in election. Trust level and proof of contribution is best what we have now

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:50 PM]
Any opinions on masternode voting although not relevant to the CFC position? It’s been a particularly contentious topic.

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:51 PM]
In some projects there is meritocracy so people who made most have stronger vote, but here we are limited as 99% stuff I believe was done by team

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:52 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
On one side it gives sense as it shows investment in project, on opposite it doesn’t as it gives huge power to few rich individuals. You can see how world is managed and there is no evidence that super rich will vote for good of the system, but they generally vote just for their own short-term or long-term benefits

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:55 PM]
Even if some kind of masternode voting will be there I think it should not be only way of voting

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:55 PM]
Cool I don’t have any other questions but any final thoughts on anything else you want to share?

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:56 PM]
Also how do people pronounce or say your name?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:57 PM]
in my language it is pronounce as Prahlad Nrsimha :slight_smile:

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:57 PM]
same as it is written

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:57 PM]
second ‘a’ is long

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:57 PM]
haha nice :slight_smile: I’ll give it a go later! Any closing thoughts?

Nrsimha, [20/5/2022 3:58 PM]
Nothing comes in my mind at this moment

Firo-chan Yap, [20/5/2022 3:58 PM]
No worries thank you for your time and all the best for the election!

2 Likes
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@Fiendish’s interview

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:01 AM]
Hello Firo Fiend! Thank you for nominating yourself to be a member of the CFC! You’re one of the candidates with almost no introduction in your nomination post, do you want to share a bit about yourself?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:03 AM]
Good morning Reuben. Yes I first dipped my toe into the Firo community in 2018. Then I began to get more involved in 2019 within the community. I recently started a Show with Reuben & Lucas called show me the Firo as a way of trying to spread Firo’s message to potential new users and update the current community.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:04 AM]
How did you find out about Firo and what attracted you to it ?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:05 AM]
I was/am a freedom enthusiast. I have a saying that privacy is freedoms best friend. I originally was involved with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero before I discovered Firo.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:06 AM]
Could you share a bit more about your involvement in those projects and also if it’s not too private, was there anything that made you a freedom enthusiast?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:09 AM]
Yes I was mainly just a quiet holder, but I was more active on Monero’s Reddit at the time. Regarding freedom. I began to notice a trend in the west, where freedoms were being eroded gradually over time, and it only went in one direction. It wasn’t like people actually gained new freedoms of which they had given up. Looking ahead, I didn’t like the direction we are headed as I know where it leads.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:10 AM]
You’ve been a pretty vocal voice in the Firo community, what was the catalyst that made you step up?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:12 AM]
I didn’t see many others step up to the plate in that area. So I figured someone has to do it, if the project is to grow and reach new people.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:12 AM]
Once the CFC is formed, what are the first few things you would approve for funding?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:15 AM]
Assuming price remains low, I would vote to temporarily fund the development team in order to keep development schedules on time. I also think adding certainty that development will be funded adds value and piece of mind to the community.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:16 AM]
When the market recovers, and the core team has sufficient funding, what would you like to see the Community Fund be used for?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:22 AM]
I would like to see it used for the following:
Build or acquire infrastructure and services that introduces new people to Firo and acts as a funnel leading them to Firo. We could at times utilize a loss leading strategy in order to gain new users assuming that the cost/benefit makes sense.
I’d like to see multi coin wallet development with swaps in wallet. This should open Firo up to more markets where Firo has traditionally been a PITA to acquire.
I’d like to see research in node home hosting. Something that may help increase Firo’s censorship resistance. It may also be attractive to GPU miners who can mine and use their PC to run a node. Maybe it’l be a popular option after the great hash migration.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:23 AM]
Governance has been a hot topic recently, while not a CFC responsibility, what are your thoughts on the existence of the Community Fund and how this election was run? Also, what are your thoughts on how governance should be formalized in Firo?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:26 AM]
I think the election is being run the best way it can be with the technical resources Firo currently has. Long term I’d like to see quadratic voting implemented. I think larger holders deserve a little more say, however they should not be in a positions where they can railroad the whole project and implement policies for their own gain at the expense of the project as a whole.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:30 AM]
Last question, what are you most excited about in Firo’s upcoming roadmap?

Firo Fiend, [22/5/2022 10:35 AM]
I’m looking forward to Spark a lot due to the upcoming implementation of Spark addresses which improve the user experience. However in terms raw possibilities, I’m really looking forward to Elysium and the prospect of PriFi. I think Firo has a chance of building out great products that can attract a large and diverse group of users that may not already hold or know of Firo.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 10:35 AM]
Thank you for your time and all the best for the elections!

2 Likes
7

@rasikhmorani interview

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 3:29 PM]
Hello Rasikh and thanks for your nomination to be a member of the CFC! You’ve been one of the biggest and longest supporters of our project and so I was really happy to see your nomination. Could you tell me a bit about how you got to know Firo and why you have continued supporting it over the years?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 3:38 PM]
Absolutely, I initially got introduced to firo in 2017 through a friend of a business partner, when Arcadia, my software company, was working in the marketing space. Firo was actually our first or near first legitimate client.

Being upfront, our first engagement with firo was bad, and we did a crappy job. Subsequent engagements in the development arena went much better with us working on various implementations of things such as RAP, and the electrum wallet.

Arguably because of firo, Arcadia got it’s initial rep, and kicked off as a development and security company.

I’m personally a fan of the privacy technology, and the consistent need to improve and willingness to drop something if it doesn’t work. I’ve continued to support firo out of an admiration of the aforementioned technology, as well as a feeling of loyalty towards the team that got Arcadia where it is today.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 3:40 PM]
That’s really admirable and greatly appreciated. As a member of the CFC, what would be your first thing you would want to see the community fund used for?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 3:45 PM]
The first thing I would do is take stock of existing software functionality, planned software functionality and its relation to timelines on said planned software functionality. Based upon that I would look for opportunities that specifically bring the benefit of retail utilization, I would initially target retail use cases, with a surface level need for privacy (due to the minimal current anonymity set) and use that as the basis for increasing the anonymity set to a level where it could be used for more intensive use cases.

So an example of this would be something like integrations into Elysium from wallets, bridges etc, perhaps through an MPC implementation, allowing for large amounts of volume to feed into the ecosystem. And depending on what kind of license the code is being developed under, and what level of fees are existing, some fees could go back to the CFC as well as to the core development.

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 3:47 PM]
That’s pretty interesting and quite detailed! Now a hard question. Firo hasn’t grown as much as we would have liked and what you think were some of the factors that contributed to it and what could have been done better?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 3:53 PM]
Honestly that question has a rough answer, I would say the problem is related to friction and positioning. In order for someone to have a use for firo currently, they have to go down a side road into a highly volatile low anonymity set privacy coin, which brings minimal benefits for any non microtransaction use.

I think Elysium was a very good step in terms of putting things on less of a side road, but it fell short in terms of easy integratability and use case for volume heavy areas. So to answer the question, I feel that after the initial product development, some resources should have been allocated towards making sdks and partnering with a different volume heavy protocols. Now it’s easy for me to say that in retrospect, and my statement ignores the fact that an integration for a volume heavy protocol would need to bring in either a substantive amount of value or a straight-up almost bribe to get earlier mentioned integrations, which dependent on what point in the past may have not been in the cards budget wise

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 3:55 PM]
That’s a pretty interesting take and one I haven’t heard before! What are your thoughts on the creation of the Community Fund and how the eligibility of voting was done for the election?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:01 PM]
I honestly think that the CFC will fall short to be honest. My reasoning is that the amount of value per dollar to be brought in is just insane in order for the CFC to be even slightly effective.

However if effort and value is put in not only within the CFC but also external to it, there is a small chance that it could be successful.

To put this in more crass terms, we’re negotiating from a point of lower standing, and this’ll require a biblical amount of deals (bringing in third party money) and ass kissing to accomplish the intended goals

On the voting side, being straight up I didn’t even look at the process, I just answered the prompts because you (Reuben) invited me to, and I’m willing to help. I’m not really too worried about being accepted into the CFC, I’m going to be contributing to the project either way :grin:. On a practical level there’s like 10 people that are active consistently, I’m not one of those 10 people, but the number of people that could have practically applied was very low lol

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:02 PM]
If you made the number of people who could apply 11, everyone would be in lol

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:03 PM]
haha ouch! But appreciate the frankness. Interestingly we’ve seen some applicants that I have not seen much of before. Though I meant in the requirement to vote on the poll to have a higher trust level or to have donated to a Firo cause before.

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:05 PM]
Ah, on that side I didn’t think much of it. I’m glad you added the donated part, otherwise I wouldn’t qualify lol. I would say activity on the forum was a poor metric in genrral but worked out in this situation because the aforementioned 10 or so people also are active there

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:06 PM]
Haha to vote on the poll though not to be a nominee

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:06 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Ah that part was great, shame on you for not using aura :smiling_face_with_tear: (kidding)

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:06 PM]
Rofl it’s not ready, want to build it? :slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:07 PM]
Actually we can do simple votes using Elysium already for that anyway :slight_smile:

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:07 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Maybe when the ability to do it simply is possible, otherwise it’s like a reading test at a poll booth

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:08 PM]
While not a CFC responsibility, any thoughts on masternode voting?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:10 PM]
I think that’s a poor governance method just because of the disproportionate interests that would be represented (i.e. emissions mods etc.). A better system would be to do some sort of earned rep style system, but even that’s easy to mess up

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:11 PM]
How about quadratic voting?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:11 PM]
I’m a fan of that, but I wouldn’t have the first idea on how to implement it myself lol

Firo-chan Yap, [22/5/2022 4:13 PM]
haha :slight_smile: Well that wraps up my questions, any final thoughts?

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:13 PM]
I’d like to have an apology to whatever compliance team is reading this in the future. I’m a good person I pinky swear

Rasikh Morani, [22/5/2022 4:14 PM]
Otherwise no other thoughts :grin:

2 Likes
8

Interview with @chen conducted over Wechat.

Reuben:
First of all thank you Chen for applying to the Community Fund Committee! I’m happy to see some representation from the Chinese speaking community.

一斤吴涟序:
谢谢 我很荣幸能有这次的机会 能够发展壮大社区

Reuben:
Could you introduce yourself a bit and how you got to know FIRO and why you have decided to run for the CFC post ?

一斤吴涟序:
我是一个firo爱好者 在硬件技术方面可能不行， 我在平常的生活中都是做图表走势的分析。我其实是在认识了zen后，通过社区的伙伴认识了firo，感觉firo是一个非常强大隐私币，从而放弃了zen这个币种，特别是在隐私上firo有着强大的先进的理念和功能! 虽然现在还没有爆发，但是我相信firo 有一天会走进大家的视野！ 我个人是隐私技术的粉丝，我觉得我想让自己发光发热，并且我想让每一笔都资金用在刀刃上，让社区的成员和firo的爱好者都能知道我们是自由的是能够让firo走向更多人的视野!

Reuben:
Oh that’s great to hear! Yes Zen has done really well pivoting out of the privacy space. What are your thoughts on the creation of the Community Fund and the way the election was conducted? Currently only those that have gained sufficient trust level in the forums or have donated to the project can vote. How would you have done it if it was you ?

一斤吴涟序:
社区基金的设立和选举也许是一次非常不错的尝试。我们可以有更多的人发出声音并且为了一件事情大家共同的去努力! 目前很多人都在说web.3 社区dao自治，我接触的社区当中很多人都喜欢web3.0和社区dao自治。我觉得我们可以这么做，毕竟很多人都是有很多很好的想法。有能力的 人才不应该被埋没。他们都是社区的一份子。

Reuben:
If you are elected to become a CFC member, what would you vote to spend the funds on?

一斤吴涟序:
用在属于我们自己的有特色的nft以及firo的社交宣传上。更多的我希望是基础设施Elysium Lelantus Spark 毕竟这才是我们的核心竞争力。

一斤吴涟序:
我们价格现在如此的低迷，现在需要的是更有创新的并且能够能有大家参与的nft或者投票的系统。

Reuben:
Do you have any ideas on who should be eligible to vote and how their votes should be weighted?

一斤吴涟序:
目前拥有节点的人是有资格投票的 可以肯定的是占比加分的，毕竟拥有这些节点的人是非常重视firo的发展和每一项社区决定的。 给社区有过贡献和捐赠的人也是有资格投票的。 而且， 我们目前正在开发nft嘛 那我们可以出售一些nft 拥有nft 的人也可以投票投票 发一下些nftpass卡给喜欢firo的并且想拥有它们的人一起加入firo。

Reuben:
What are you most excited about in Firo’s current roadmap and any development you would like to see?

一斤吴涟序:
Elysium Lelantus 是我最喜欢的，我认为是我们的核心部分。 nft产品吧 我觉得社交和宣传都有利于我们的firo。

Reuben:
Thank you! I don’t have any further questions but do you have anything else you wish to add? :slight_smile:

一斤吴涟序:
没有什么问题了 我希望更多的人融入社区 加入firo的大家庭!

一斤吴涟序:
谢谢

Reuben:
Thank you! And good luck for the elections!

一斤吴涟序:
好的 希望能加入

2 Likes
9

Interview with @rehrar on Telegram

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 10:52 AM]
Hello Diego! Thanks for nominating yourself to be part of the FIRO Community Fund Committee!

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 10:53 AM]
You’ve been involved in several privacy projects in the past and have really been a key supporter of Firo in the past few years. Could you share a bit about what you like about Firo and what has kept your support over the years ?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 10:55 AM]
Of course. Believe it or not, what drew me to Firo to begin with was its failures. I was running a Monero village at Defcon several years back, and Reuben was one of the people who came out to speak. The topic of his presentation was how Zcoin dealt with being exploited, and the humility of the project, coupled with its commitment to privacy technology really turned me onto it.
I started contributing in small ways not long after, and ended up striking up a friendship with the project leadership. The qualities that first attracted me to the project have kept me here over the years. Firo is really one of the few projects in the space doing real research into privacy technology, and ultimately that’s where my passions lie.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 10:56 AM]
There was a comment that mentioned that your independence might be affected due to you being a contractor and friends with me. The CFC rules does explicitly disallow for interested parties to vote on proposals that benefit you or your company. That being said, how would you respond to this and how do you think your independence might be affected ?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:01 AM]
Ecosystems are not built on any one thing. You need users, you need businesses, you need acceptance, you need developers, and you need other projects. I’m applying as a user, a business, and a person that accepts Firo for goods and services.
Of course any proposals that Cypher Stack puts up, I will recuse myself from the vote, but that doesn’t mean aligned intersts always mean conflicting ones. If anything, when a project and business have aligned interests, they spur each other onward in greater capacities.
And if there is another group or business that wants to build something, I won’t even think of being selfish and trying to hog all of that stuff. The more other businesses and groups we can get to work with us, the stronger the ecosystem as a whole will be. It’s just good long term strategy, even from a monetarily selfish perspective.
In regards to my relationship with Reuben, it’s true we’re good friends. But make no mistake, we’re actual friends. Meaning I’m not a yes man, and I’m not afraid to disagree with him when he’s wrong, which has happened often these past years. I’m not afraid to give him my contradicting opinion, or tell him when he’s being dense. My position on the CFC won’t be compromised by our friendship because I generally think I’m right most of the time anyways if we have a disagreement. :smiley:

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:03 AM]
While not a CFC responsibility, what are your thoughts on how the election for the CFC positions are being run especially in regards to eligibility (trust level requirement or donation requirement)? Also what are your thoughts and views on the creation of the Community Fund?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:08 AM]
I think we do what we can with the tools we have. Anyone critical of the means with which we try to solve the sybil attack problem should come forward with good ideas (that aren’t completely braindead) about how to overcome sybil attacks in online voting mechanisms.
I don’t think the way they’re run is perfect. If you’re a newcomer, and you don’t meet the trust requirement, you’ll feel unheard. If you don’t have the cash to spare and can’t donate, you’ll feel unheard. These are definite cons. But again, please come forward with an alternative that cannot be sybil’d (spoiler, you probably can’t). This is kind of a downer answer, I know. I’m not singing the praises of the methodology here, but that’s just because I’m aware there are definite cons. But at present, it’s what we have. And we have to move forward with the tools we have at our disposal. And hey, it just helps the noobies build up their reputation so they can have a say in the next one.
In regards to the community fund, it’s been needed for a long time. Not to say the core team isn’t doing a good job. I think they are. But the same set of minds can often overlook things, even despite best intentions. Who’s to say that the next revolution in tech or usability won’t come from a dark horse funded by the community fund? The core team doesn’t have all of the answers, and ultimately, Firo is a coin that needs to be built by all of us.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:09 AM]
Nice answer. I like that. Once the CFC is formed, what immediate things would you like to see funded?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:11 AM]
Oh man. Am I allowed to dream big? Maybe a rust implementation of Firo. Maybe a full scale audit? Maybe another community manager? How about prize pools for contests, like the animation contest that was run a few months back. Any of those. Mostly Rust. Let’s be rid of C++. Ugh.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:12 AM]
Haha these are immediate concerns ?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:13 AM]
Maybe not immediate, but that’s kind of the point. the core team should have other priorities, but if there is a capable team willing to do these ancillary things, then why not?

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:14 AM]
Any thoughts on the Community Fund eventually going down the quadratic voting with donations route ?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:15 AM]
Hmmmmmmmmmm…this is a toughie, and I don’t think I’m ready to comment on it. I know interesting developments are being made in this field, but it’s too early to see if it’s just a meme. But that’s just my opinion.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:17 AM]
Fair enough. There’s also been some talk on our forums on building a voting system for governance with some discussing masternode voting. Again this isn’t a CFC responsibility but interested to hear your thoughts.

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:19 AM]
I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s that simple. The thing with game theory is it often needs to be thought through, from the ground up, at the beginning. Just adding different voting mechanisms, community powers, etc as you go along is nowhere as easy at it sounds. Like sure, you CAN do it, but how many actually understand the game theoretical aspects of what they’re proposing. To do something like this, distribution needs to be taken into account, whereas if Firo was built with this in mind from the ground up then the distribution could have been done in such a way to take into account the eventual powers that masternodes would have. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m just saying people have no idea just how hard decentralized governance really is (like privacy!)

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:20 AM]
Sorry for bringing all the non-hype, “real” answers. It sucks to be one of the people that actually has a clue.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:21 AM]
Rofl. That’s cool. Last question, what are you most excited about in Firo’s roadmap?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:23 AM]
I’m a privacy guy. I like me some Spark. Let’s get it out. And let’s make it mandatory with no opt-out option. Spark all the way. Privacy for the world. Freedom. Woo!

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:23 AM]
Cool anything else you would like to share ?

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:24 AM]
A vote for me is a vote for Firo.

Diego Salazar, [24/5/2022 11:24 AM]
(This message brought to you by the Rehrar for CFC Foundation)

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 11:24 AM]
Lolll…thanks for your time !

2 Likes
10

@Super @JereTitor Could you let me know how I can contact you on any instant messaging platform? Want to conduct the interview :slight_smile: I have others contacts!

11

Interview with @Eagle

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:14 PM]
Hello Kartal and thank you for applying to be a CFC member! First of all could you tell us about how you found out about Firo and what attracted you to it?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:15 PM]
Hello sir

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:16 PM]
I first found firo while researching limited edition tokens. both limited and reliable

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:17 PM]
The most appealing part is that it is privacy-centered.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:17 PM]
It gives people confidence

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:19 PM]
The fact that firo has its own wallet and the reliability level of the wallet is at a high level is a relief.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:20 PM]
The main problem in the millennium age is people’s desire to protect their digital assets firo offers the opportunity to protect their digital assets.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:21 PM]
I see could you elaborate on protection? Privacy protection or something else?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:23 PM]
privacy is a great freedom

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:24 PM]
but you can protect your assets by anonymizing the tokens in your wallet

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:24 PM]
As a CFC member, what would be some proposals you would like to see funded with the Community Fund?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:24 PM]
It also provides security against attacks.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:25 PM]
Help with marketing for Firo, reach new people

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:26 PM]
I did some market research on this. We can start with flyers and billboard advertisements.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:26 PM]

image
image1280×646 146 KB

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:27 PM]
It becomes popular as people get to know it. As it becomes popular, trust in firo increases.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:29 PM]
The most important question is, how can we reach more people?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:29 PM]
We can reach you through social media channels. Or with regional events

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:30 PM]
With the Luna crisis, people’s trust in crypto has decreased, but firo can turn it into an opportunity

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:39 PM]
I see do you think that by seeing pamphlets or billboards it would lead to people buying Firo?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:40 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Our first aim is to get people to know firo.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:40 PM]
People who know buy. People who don’t know don’t buy

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:42 PM]
We’re going to make people rain firo. In the first place, we will give a gift firo, then we will teach the purpose of the firo.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:42 PM]
Got it, you’re based in Turkey, which is suffering from high inflation, what is your view on cryptocurrencies and how does Firo fit into this view?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:43 PM]
Although cryptocurrencies are decentralized, they act like centralized commodities and are affected by all kinds of news.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:44 PM]
which makes it feel like cryptotolarin is in control of big whales

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:45 PM]
therefore privacy and decentralization are important

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:45 PM]
As people struggle with inflation, they can lose all their assets, as in luna.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:46 PM]
people want to buy the investment vehicle they feel safe

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:47 PM]
Everyone wants to protect their existence.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:47 PM]
Besides banners, billboards and leaflets, is there anything else you would spend the CFC funds on?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:49 PM]
Twitter influencers and youtubers get paid a lot and returns are less than expected

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:49 PM]
Television ads, corporate ads, give people confidence

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:49 PM]
I see so your vision for the CFC is to fund marketing efforts!

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:50 PM]
Trying to get the most performance with the least money

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:50 PM]
I worked as a market manager in many tokens.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 1:51 PM]
Could you share some of the other tokens you’ve worked with before?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:51 PM]
For this, twitter phenomena, tiktok youtube phenomena do not get feedback as we want.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:52 PM]
Vite token, vite wallet, vitex, vinu token

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:57 PM]
floki is more reliable with its advertisements with corporate companies.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:57 PM]
people trust

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:58 PM]
For this, we must make our budget in the most effective and cheapest way.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 1:59 PM]
What we will do with the markets will be introduced to more people. free market listings ama

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:04 PM]
firo is a token with great potential, but people don’t know much, we need to do firo, get more people to know it

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:08 PM]
Definitely understand where you’re coming from! You’ve also done good work with building the Turkish community, what are their main concerns ?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:19 PM]
Turks are not like other societies. they look at the money they earn a little more

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:20 PM]
They want their investments to reach the maximum level as soon as possible, so they are a little impatient.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:22 PM]
Haha I think all societies are like this to a certain extent.

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:22 PM]
Turks are a bit more hasty

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:23 PM]
we need to find ourselves great partners. amozon, yaho, we need to cooperate with big companies like this

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:27 PM]
Haha of course though easier said than done !

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:27 PM]
Have you managed to use Firo’s privacy features in the wallet yet? Gave the Firo-Client or Firo-QT wallets a go or the mobile wallets?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:31 PM]
i use from computer i anonymize the tokens first

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:41 PM]
I don’t have any other questions but is there anything else you would like to add?

Kartal :eagle: Eagle, [24/5/2022 2:42 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Thanks

1 Like
12

@Super interview on Telegram

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:19 PM]
Thank you Super for your nomination to the CFC role! You were the first one to spring into action! You mentioned that you were an early 2017 member since the Zcoin days, could you share a bit about your experience and how you found out about us? Also what has kept you in the community and what made you step up?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 2:25 PM]
Yes sure. I discovered Firo when I began mining early 2017. At the time I was new to crypto but I liked the concept of privacy currency and the fact that I can send it without anyone finding out who am I. Afterwards I made few MN when Zcoin introduced them and have been holding ever since. What has kept in the community is the passion of the project and the strong believe in privacy and not trying to just please people just to succeed in the charts but truly to deliver and incredible product.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:26 PM]
Thank you! That means a lot! Any thoughts on the recent proposed tokenomics change? Also what are your views on the creation of the Community Fund?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 2:34 PM]
In regards to the CF I think is an amazing idea and look forward to see it put into action. As much as I believe in people helping out I also must be real and recognise that in this times we live in is hard to get people to do something for free as they are occupied with their day to day living and in most cases trying to earn to survive. So if people can get paid for helping the project move forward I believe is a step in the right direction. Many things require time so if one has the time but doesn’t had the expertise to do it him/herself then the CF can help achieve wherever is needed.

In regards to the tokenomics proposal I don’t see it as an issue due to the fact that we are not increasing supply. In fact I believe it may help the project as we need funds now to build and try to pop up in the space. Most don’t understand that we are fighting with projects that come up with billions of free coins and have an endless funds to do wherever. That is not the case with Firo so we must think, adapt and move forward.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:40 PM]
Something a bit controversial here! In your post you mentioned that rehrar’s position as a friend to me is a conflict of interest and I see where you’re coming from and therefore excluded him initially. After some other community members also wanted to see him, I placed him back in the nomination list.

I also introduced several other rules to limit the conflict of interest issues where obviously if it’s relating to Cypherstack (Diego’s company) he has to recuse himself from voting. I also introduced a higher requirement instead of simple majority should the CFC vote to make available some of its funds to the core team during this tough time.

What are your thoughts on this?

Honestly from my point of view, we were lacking qualified candidates and therefore wanted someone who was pretty familiar with the project as a candidate.

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 2:53 PM]
To be honest I have no issue who is in the CFC as it’s true we need all kind of people with different knowledge. My issue will be with all of a sudden for the CF to constantly be used for things that are just one direction oriented.

What I’ve seen in the past (not in FIRO) also is that if you have someone with a little well known name people tend to just follow what that person says. But in reality no one person knows everything and one can be good at coding but the other can be good at marketing. But some people think they are good at everything (which they are not) and also some people think that wherever they say should happen.

My views is that the CF should be open to different ideas that we should try and not expect to see results immediately or ever but that does not mean they were not good ideas.

In regards to the qualified candidates I agree we need people that a familiar with the project but I also think we need people that have been through think and thin. Over the years I see like few of the people are still here and the rest are new people that keep changing with every bull/bear cycle.

Btw, although it maybe controversial (and even if I am not one of the CFC) I do believe whoever it is should be compensated for their work. In life people think and act different when they are getting paid vs when they are not. Many say I will do this and that for free but in their mind they think from where can I benefit.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:55 PM]
Yes, although I have no say, I wouldn’t object to the CFC receiving some remuneration especially if the workload gets higher and Firo’s price goes up so there’s a surplus. There should be a remuneration eventually but that’s not for me to weigh in nor did I want to talk about it in the first iteration given the current conditions.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:56 PM]
If you became a CFC member, what would be the first few things you would use the fund for?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:02 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
It’s hard to say as we suppose to get proposals from the people and see which one is the best and likely priorities but ideally to start with maybe some of it go towards the Team in order to push with the current situation. We are way off breakeven point. Other than that if we haven’t raised the funds for Akram to go and present sparks would love for the CF to help with that. Help with audits that need funds. Complete wallets (if they require funds including for IOS) Ideally first we need to put the things that are already been worked being finalised and then take it from there.

So many things but so little funds :grinning: hopefully eventually we can structure the house with the solid foundation and start building the floors up.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:02 PM]
Not necessarily, CFC can initiate its own proposals!

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:06 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
I personally would like to see our website being translated to few more languages and that’s one think I was thinking to make a proposal and if funds are given I can do it. I think as cryptocurrency that has no borders is important for people to be able to learn about us and to do that we need the info on our site translated like Monero.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:07 PM]
Nice! While not a CFC responsibility, any thoughts on governance of Firo?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:12 PM]
I think it it’s important in order to protect anyone involved with Firo and especially the people that work for Firo but also anyone that has invested in Firo. Ideally I would like to see it as decentralized as possible with no one or group being able to somehow being in control.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:15 PM]
Any thoughts on how might that happen? Some have suggested coin holding.

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:20 PM]
Unfortunately it’s a hard one. I believe it requires try/error. Coin holding, MN voting (like dash) etc all sadly can be controlled by whales as they have the funds to do so. Smaller guys can’t.

We can definitely see if the MN voting along side share mn voting works or can be made to work. If not we can then try the coin holding. Otherwise it will require in my opinion long and hard thinking if we really want to make it fair. It’s not as easy as some may think.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:20 PM]
What do you mean by side share voting?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:22 PM]
In dash (crowdnode) the share mn provider anyone that has coins can vote which gives lots of voices. I think is a good idea especially when trying to include the small guys. The one with few coins that can’t own a full MN but do care for the future of the project.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:23 PM]
But how would you weight them? More coins = more votes?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:24 PM]
Possibly 1 shared MN with let’s say 50 people in it. You see if let’s say 30 vote yes and 20 vote no, then that MN is yes.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:25 PM]
How do you determine ‘one person’ though since I can be one person and split my funds into many

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:26 PM]
It’s kind of like in a building live 100 families. When something needs to be done on the building all 100 families vote and wherever the outcome of YES/NO is that’s what’s done.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:27 PM]
Sure though I think at the end of the day it just means who holds the most coins get the most votes and would be reliant on third party providers to provide this ‘shared voting’ functionality. Establishing personhood or identity in a no-KYC manner is tough.

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:28 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
It’s definitely a hard one. To truly think that can be made a 100% fare is currently little over ambitious in my opinion. It’s not an easy task.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:30 PM]
Cool! Well I don’t have any further questions thank you for your replies! Anything you want to add?

Super Dragoon, [24/5/2022 3:31 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Thank you. I really appreciate the time and hard work you do.

To add: let’s put Firo on the map where we truly belong.

2 Likes
13

Interview with @RyanApeFiro

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:17 PM]
hi! Thank you Ryan for your nomination for the CFC! You’ve been a long term supporter of Firo especially in the Indonesian community. Could you please tell us how you found out about Firo and what has kept you part of the community all these years?

Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:26 PM]
[In reply to Firo-chan Yap]
Hi Reuben good afternoon from Indonesia! A pleasure to have this interview. I first discovered Firo in my search for an interesting topic to study in the blockchain. I found privacy coin project has a lot of value and then started to search for the earliest projects in the sector. I didn’t know much about Firo (zcoin) back then and was my earliest days learning about privacy blockchain technology. After my understanding got better I conclude that Firo is the project that I love the most in this sector especially due to its development approach, I think Firo core team knows well what should be their priority. I love also the transparency, the fact that the project is not controlled by a single large token holder or institutional investors, etc.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:28 PM]
Thanks! Firo’s recent price performance hasn’t been the best, what do you think could have been done better or is this just a matter of market interest in privacy products?

Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:40 PM]
Market interest in privacy products definitely contributes a significant impact I believe, however it does not make privacy products don’t have their product-market fit. Firo’s position as a crypto project associates us with other coins or tokens that are actually very different. The market thinks that other coins that are not privacy coins are a product substitute for Firo when they actually aren’t. I think Firo token price could have been done better but that most likely would have some side effect that I’m not sure will make a better situation or not in the future. It’s always a trade-off, but I believe Firo is on the right track even though the price is too low, it gives us a real picture of how the market organically values privacy blockchain. What I think could have been done better was in terms of branding. Token price we can say is strongly related to the project brand equity, but branding is not about marketing only or creating a nice logo or website it’s about strategy and understanding the market psychology.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:41 PM]
Makes sense, you’ve been doing a good job with the Firo Indonesian community promotion. What would you change?

Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:44 PM]
I would like to give the right perception to people that Firo is something that human needs. However, people will not understand if they don’t get their basic rights. Hence I would like to focus on giving the right education but also need to make it not boring, by giving some fun facts or not so serious information but still related to blockchain and decentralizations.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:46 PM]
So yes I’d like to change the delivery format to be more fun.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 2:50 PM]
That’s fair! If you become a member of the CFC, what would be the first few things you would use the fund for?

Ryan, [24/5/2022 2:59 PM]
I would be more careful to use the fund with the current market condition. I would even consider to use the fund to backs a community funding initiatives so for example if the project by the community that is supported by community failed for some reasons investors will get a portion of the Firo from CFC that is allocated to back that initiatives, if the project successful investors will get return on their investment, so win win.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:01 PM]
That gives community members confidence to support initiatives coming from the community and incentivize community creations

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:01 PM]
I think

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:07 PM]
Could you clarify by what you mean by investors? The CFC’s funds isn’t owned by investors though.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:14 PM]
How to say it, so for example there is a group of community members that would like to create a project and submit it to the proposal for community fund. They will not get the community fund but if we think the project is good, we could allocate some Firo to backs that project. The Firo community could then invest in that project and get shares or digital assets or anything that is valuable for their investment. If the project successful, the Firo that is used to backs the project will be able to be used to back another project, so no spending from us. But if the project failed, then we give the Firo to the project investors so they don’t lose 100% of their money, perhaps only 50% or 70%.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
Haha sounds complicated :slight_smile:

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
Remember the CFC can initiate its own proposals as well!

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:16 PM]
no it’s very simple, and would encourage community to be involved in creating something in Firo ecosystem

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:17 PM]
and very capital efficient

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:17 PM]
Firo community as in not the CFC yeah? Once you start issuing shares etc, it resembles a security.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:18 PM]
yes not, so it’s not CFC

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:19 PM]
CFC committee consists of some experts so the Firo amount used to back the project could give potential investors a kind of initial valuation of the project

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:21 PM]
Anything you would like to see the CFC fund directly? Like a specific example.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:26 PM]
I don’t want to limit it for specific usage because to the potential of community initiatives is huge to add value to Firo. I would also be open with the idea of something that is completely new as long as it makes sense. but to give a specific example on what a good use of the fund, I think several things such as giving incentives to liquidity providers on Firo dex, contribution to the project code audit, etc.

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:28 PM]
are the example of good use of the fund, sorry by audit I mean something like finding bug or glitch as well

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:29 PM]
Any thoughts on how Firo’s governance should be run?

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:32 PM]
I believe governance is a tricky topic to discuss and I’m afraid I’m not the expert on that. However I would prefer governance where there is a balance of power (not concentrated to a single group) and since we are a decentralized network we should not be governed like how the corporation is governed where shareholders or investors can decide everything.

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:33 PM]
Well I don’t have any further questions, anything you would like to add? :slight_smile:

Ryan, [24/5/2022 3:34 PM]
I think that’s it apologize for the confusion on the fund usage part

Firo-chan Yap, [24/5/2022 3:37 PM]
Thank you! Ryan and good luck!

3 Likes
14

@JereTitor has pmed me saying that he is recusing himself from the interview since he doesn’t think he has a chance to win but has cast his vote on candidates that share his view.

1 Like
15

A quick reminder that this will be open for one more week.

16

Dear Firo Community,

Looking at the current situation, where we are at, the challenges that we have, the vision and uniqueness our tech could offer, etc. I would like to share some thought on where I think the community fund should be heading.

1. Unlike any other token such as ETH, or BTC, or BCH, etc. FIRO is a privacy coin.
That means, we are actually not 100% able to live on the exact same environment as other coins. There is a possibility (well, not saying it’s going to happen) that one day, governments all around the world will ban trading and using $FIRO. I imagine if that shit happened, instead of dead, on the contrary, our community become stronger because something that we built by using the community fund today.

2. Firo is power of community.
This is exactly how an ideal blockchain project should be developed. We see that nowadays, there are a lot of popular and high cap projects that are actually just a product line or business unit of Alameda, Andersen, etc. while I have nothing against them, it is completely different with Firo. However, at our current size of course anyone with money can own majority of our token. I would love to see that community fund usage could help to ensure that community will still has strong voice even if institutional investors or some orcas coming and acquire a large stake of Firo master nodes or mining power.

3. Firo is fun, and it belongs to all of us.
The technology and product are easy to use, accessible, easy to understand, and privacy is just another basic human needs. Any proposals that would makes Firo achieve more of this impression I think deserve a lot of loves.

4 Likes
17

Great effort, thanks for sharing

2 Likes