Idea execution considerations

Some considerations about the execution of ideas across a Web3 ecosystem

There is a wide variety of different ideas that could be executed in Web3 ecosystems that each could benefit an ecosystem in different ways. Thinking about the different types of ideas that could be executed can help with thinking about the differences they might have in scope, how ideas might have many intersecting solutions and how contribution efforts could be started and paused on ideas at different times during execution.

Idea examples

There are a wide variety of different ideas that could be executed to benefit a Web3 ecosystem:

Idea examples

Idea execution considerations

Different idea scopes

The scope of contribution effort required to execute an idea could range from being small to very large. One software solution could be a very simple utility solution that solves a common use case for different projects, this idea might only take a few weeks to develop with one or two contributors. Another software solution could take multiple months to execute, such as a transaction building library that helps to optimise and reduce the fees required when making more complex multi application transactions.

A funding process can benefit from considering how these different scopes ideas are supported and incentivised. If an ecosystem attaches the incentives to the idea process it will need to think about how that process handles the funding of different scoped ideas. For smaller ideas it could be more challenging to scale the voter participation to a large population if there is a large amount of these smaller ideas that could be executed. All of those ideas would need to be reviewed and voted on. Using contributor time based incentives is one way that this problem can be avoided as contributors are able to allocate their time to any number of small ideas whilst executing any existing idea and would not need to get funding for each idea that they suggest.

Intersecting solutions between ideas

Many ideas are not fully executed in isolation without the use of external solutions. Ideas often rely on and integrate with many different solutions and processes to increase the speed of execution and the reliability and effectiveness of their own solution. For instance many DApps could rely on the same utility libraries, wallet integrations or data oracles. A funding process can benefit from considering how it can help to enable a more collaborative effort to identify the shared problems and opportunities that exist between the protocols and applications being developed. If each group of contributors working on different ideas make their own solution to the same problem there is a higher likelihood that their contribution efforts are being wasted due to a large amount of duplicated outcomes from building similar solutions.

Idea contribution allocation changes

Ideas can become more or less important over time based on the surrounding environment and needs of an ecosystem. Some ideas might also not need further execution efforts if the current executed idea delivers on any expected outcomes. For instance a utility library for building transactions that is used by numerous applications may not need to be updated for a long period of time. That same library could also suddenly benefit from a new set of features to address new use cases that are now required by different applications. A funding process can benefit from making it easier for contributors to migrate their contribution efforts to the ideas that have the highest opportunity to make impact for the ecosystem. This means the execution of some ideas may get paused so that those efforts can be directed towards other more impactful ideas. An executed idea, such as a utility software library, that doesn’t have any additional requirements from the other projects would be a good example of an idea that could be paused in terms of its execution. Contributors involved in the diversity of these ideas can benefit from being able to easily allocate their efforts to other ideas when the requirements change and further contribution effort is needed.

Key takeaways

Idea sharing & openness

A Web3 ecosystem can have many ideas that have intersecting problems and opportunities that each could be executed as separate ideas collaboratively. A funding process can benefit from making it as easy as possible for community members to share and discuss different ideas so that these points of intersection can be more easily identified. More collaboration and higher quality shared solutions could then be more easily created due to this openness and frequent communication.

Importance of flexibility

Impactful ideas could be identified at any point in time whether that’s during exploratory planning phases of an existing idea or during the execution of another idea. Contributors will struggle to predict every idea that could be impactful ahead of time. A funding process can benefit from making a flexible environment for contributors so they are more easily able to respond to these changing environments. This is one reasons why attaching the incentives to contributors can be an effective way for ecosystems to handle fast changing environments where impactful ideas can suddenly emerge that could be beneficial to immediately execute for the benefit of the ecosystem.

Incentive alignment

Ideas can emerge at any time and the contribution efforts required for an idea can start and stop based on the changing needs of each idea. Ecosystems that want to enable a faster changing allocation of contribution effort between many ideas will need to consider how the incentives are attached to the execution of those ideas. If incentives are attached to ideas then the funding process will need to find a way to become faster at handling submissions, selection and funding so that contributors can act quickly enough on executing impactful ideas. The benefit of attaching incentives to contributors is that they would be able to respond to these changing requirements immediately as they emerge. How incentives get handled in funding can make it easier or more complex for contributors to allocate their efforts to different ideas.

Persistence of idea information & outcomes

The large amount of intersecting solutions between ideas that can help to support and speed up the execution of ideas can help with highlighting the need for information about ideas to be shared widely across an ecosystem. Information about these ideas and the shared problems and opportunities can persist and be shared to future contributors for consideration when suggesting and executing their own ideas. Future ideas could benefit from adopting the outcomes from the ideas that have already been executed to help with improving their own execution speed and outcomes. Persistent information about the outcomes of previously executed ideas can improve the quality of future ideas due to those shared learnings.