ADA Holder Engagement Survey - AIM

Create incentivized surveys to obtain info from a statistically significant number of voters and distribute this data to guide improvements.

AIM created & maintains the voter-tool, CA-tool, vCA-Tool and the Community Landing Page. Developers, designers, leaders, and data experts.

Our Proposal: ADA Holder Engagement Survey

Following on from the success of the Fund6 Incentivized Voting Survey, the purpose of this proposal is to set up and conduct incentivized surveys targeting a statistically significant proportion of the ADA-holding population. With success we see this becoming an ongoing and evolving undertaking.

We aim to gain insights and a better understanding about how the Cardano Community sees, understands, and interacts with Catalyst and its voting process. This information will help all the Catalyst community to improve aspects of the project over time and increase the overall impact and Return on Intention.

I. The Current State

In Fund 6 there were 292,395 total votes cast by ~44,500 wallets. These impressive numbers represent a 17% increase in votes and a 35% increase in wallets compared to Fund 5.

(Sources: https://forum.cardano.org/t/project-catalyst-fund5-voting-results-official/68424

and

https://forum.cardano.org/t/project-catalyst-fund6-voting-results-official/82084)

However, studies of voting impact suggest that we need to explore improvements to the process to avoid a few members of the community exercising an excessive amount of control over the process.

For example, see the study linked below which demonstrated that currently the opinions of a large number of wallets with a small amount of ADA are being overwhelmed by the opinions of a small number of wallets holding a very large amount of ADA.

(Source: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16GDV39RSL8soPk13g3P8kJRkQIybE_GvCH9gbIr-Ce0/edit)

While other proposals and activities aim to study and combat this inequality in different ways, the primary goal of these surveys are to help increase the number of wallets voting and understand details of the voting process. These surveys will generate feedback that will help Project Catalyst to evolve in ways that draw in more voters, and to provide critical data that will inform the efforts of the teams working to change the voting process. Gathering data and understanding the views and practices of the ADA-holding population is a critical prerequisite to making changes to the voting process.

II. The Vision

The Cardano roadmap asserts that the "Voltaire" era "will provide the final pieces required for the Cardano network to become a self-sustaining system. With the introduction of a voting and treasury system, network participants will be able to use their stake and voting rights to influence the future development of the network... Cardano's future will be in the hands of the community."

(Source: https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/voltaire/ )

We ask ourselves the question:

How do we move into the future Voltaire era where the community truly determines Cardano's future?

We need rigorous, transparent, and broad-based data to inform the Catalyst improvements geared towards increasing global voter engagement.

III. The History

AIM received funding to survey a sample of upto 300 Fund6 voters. We promoted the survey heavily in November, and learned that reaching voters and encouraging responses requires a heavy investment of time and energy. As a result, we have requested additional funding in this proposal to support efforts to reach a statistically significant number of voters over a longer period of time.

We are currently analyzing the results and plan to incorporate our findings in the construction of the next survey. Results from the Fund6 survey will be publicly presented in December 2021 or January 2022.

See https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/369554-48088 for complete details of the Fund6 survey proposal.

IV. The Target

A. Number of Respondents

To achieve meaningful results, the Fund7 survey process will begin by calculating a statistically significant number of potential voters to target.

While the prior survey targeted ADA-holders who had voted in prior funds, this survey will seek to reach both existing Catalyst voters and those potential voters who may never have interacted with the Catalyst, or perhaps even know it exists. As a critical task of the survey involves learning from a broad group of respondents to increase global engagement, the efforts must involve connecting with Cardano community members who have not yet participated in the voting process.

The calculation of the target number of respondents will leverage the work performed by Kenric Nelson and his team in their research to incorporate quadratic voting into Catalyst, as well as Victor Corcino's strong data analysis skills.

B. Language of Respondents

An important element of the survey involves targeting a diverse population of potential voters. As many members of the Cardano community do not speak English, AIM has submitted complementary proposals to translate the survey into other languages.

See links below for the proposals regarding running the survey in other languages:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Spanish-Portuguese-Voter-Survey-AIM/382189-48088?submitted=1

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Japanese-Voter-Survey-AIM/382185-48088

C. Geography of Respondents

Given the strong networks enjoyed by the AIM members, the team will request survey distribution assistance from other regional Catalyst communities such as the Eastern Town Hall, which serves as a gathering place for many in the Cardano network in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, WADA, which represents Africa and the African Diaspora; and the Catalyst School which looks to onboard new community members to Catalyst.

The Team will continue developing their network and publicizing the work of the survey to reach as many different geographies as possible.

D. Demographics of Respondents

The Catalyst Circle provides a good microcosm of the demographics of Catalyst participants, with each seat representing:

Stake Pools

Funded Proposers

Toolmakers & Maintainers

Community Advisors

Allison is currently part of the Catalyst Circle v2 (CCv2) and Victor is alumnus, having served in CCv1. They will use their connections to request the other CC representatives to distribute the survey to their respective communities.

While Stake Pool operators are fairly engaged in the Cardano community (though perhaps not always with Catalyst), their delegators represent a promising source of potential voters to target for the survey.

As IOG and the Cardano Foundation also have seats on the CC, Allison and Victor's connections to those representatives will facilitate both the gathering of the necessary data and the support to publicize the survey to a wide audience.

E. Leveraging Cardano Influencers

Reaching a statistically significant number of ADA-holders will be a significant challenge. In addition to the networks and distribution channels mentioned above, the Team will also explore ways to incentivize prominent Cardano influencers to announce the survey in their channels.

For example, on Twitter alone the following influencers command a significant following:

@cardano_whale - 55k Followers

@RichardMcCrackn - 34k Followers

@Kaizen Crypto - 35k Followers

@bigpeyYT - 17k Followers

The team will investigate multiple social media platforms and identify key influencers to target.

F. Incentivizing Respondents

Everyone is busy and competing for Respondents time will be a key focus of the Team's efforts. For the Fund6 survey, participants received a small amount of ADA. The Team will explore changing the incentivization model to perhaps offer a few large prizes for randomly selected winners to see if that prompts greater response.

V. The Survey/Surveys

Designing a powerful and impactful survey takes more skill than simply the knowledge of how to create a Google form. The Team will leverage their data analytic expertise, as well as their in-depth knowledge of the Catalyst process and ecosystem to craft meaningful survey questions. The Team has also learned many lessons from the successful launch of the Fund6 incentivized voter survey, which will be incorporated into creation of the new survey.

Additionally, the team will seek out expert advice and recommendations from those with professional experience crafting high-quality surveys.

Furthermore, discussions into the merging of the IOG post voting survey are in their early stage and are ongoing.

As a part of this funding we will also conduct an updated Fund 7 Voter Survey - with a test to see if people will participate without rewards.

VI. The Analysis

As above, the team will leverage their own data analytic skills as well as the input of experts to perform a thorough and deep statistical analysis of the resulting data.

VII. The Impact

It is important to note that simply by taking the effort to distribute a survey about Catalyst to as broad a segment of the ADA-holding population as possible, the Team will be educating and informing many community members about the Catalyst process. The exercise alone we believe will serve the additional goal of broadening the voter base.

The results will be made publicly available in a number of forums. The Team will present during Town Hall. The Team will share both the raw data and the analysis in public repositories.

The Team will work with their own networks as well as with Catalyst Circle and with IOG directly to generate recommendations for changes to the voting process that are informed by the results of the data and the analysis.

Roadmap and Milestones:

Determine the target number of statistically significant wallets – January 2022

Design the survey – January / February 2022

Plan the distribution – February / March 2022

Launch the Survey – March 2022

Analyze the Results – April 2022

Present the Results – April 2022

Determine and Measure the Impact – May 2022

Team

Cardano AIM (Assembly of Inspired Masses) is a growing team of inspired thought leaders, creators, developers, doers, builders and networkers. Each project stands on its own merits with a unique team composition and has access to the network of AIM members and broader member network.

The large majority of AIM members are active Catalyst Community members and currently design and build tools that support the community.

These include the popular voter-tool (https://cardanocataly.st/voter-tool/#/), the Community Advisor Tools (CA and vCA-tools) (https://cardanocataly.st/ca-tool/#/)

Core Team

Allison Fromm - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonfromm/

Phil Khoo- has a Bachelor of Commerce, is an active community member

Victor - https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorcorcino/

Success Indicators

1. The surveys are undertaken

2. The results are made public

3. Statistical analysis is undertaken

4. Statistical analysis is made public

5. Recommendations on the voting process are provided based on the analysis

Budget

For the core team to perform the work over a four-month period – 30,000

For the survey participants – 10,000

For distribution / influencers - 5,000

For survey crafting and survey analysis support – 5,000