Running for Inaugural Council - David - Bio and Platform

Archive Inaugural Council - Jan 2022
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Hi fellow citizens. My name is David. You can find my proof of citizenship at davivi.eth. I’d like to ask for your vote for the inaugural CityDAO Council. I’ll tell you a little about myself, and then my platform.

I am a lawyer, licensed in NY State since 2005, specializing in contract law. For the past 15 years, I have been a Senior Lecturer in Law and Sociology, first at the Sino-British College and then at Donghua University in Shanghai, China. I teach law to international students from around the world. I am very comfortable explaining legal matters to people from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds in an understandable way, while also speaking and writing in legalese.

Prior to teaching, I was the Director of Public Relations for Legal Aid in Hawaii. I have always been passionate about helping. I got involved in crypto in mid-2018. I was initially interested in projects like Ravencoin, Kleros, Ontology, Theta, Po.et and Golem for their disruptive capabilities and their innovative ways to support the disenfranchised. Since then, I have come to embrace defi, web3, NFTs, and am now particularly interested in identity projects and the metaverse.

In addition to teaching part-time online, I am currently in my final semester pursuing a Master’s in Sociology of the Metaverse at the University of Pittsburgh. I just applied for a Ph.D. in Metaverse Sociology. I speak English, Mandarin Chinese and some basic French.

Our Charter and Operating Agreement will be the foundation upon which CityDAO is built. I am running on three core beliefs. First, I believe that it is crucial that CityDAO have a Council that is comfortable explaining complex and erudite legal ideas in understandable, clear language. It is vital for our citizens to be able to vote meaningfully on proposals, and it is also important because CityDAO will set a valuable precedent for other DAO governance projects. Concepts such as incorporation, LLCs or taxation only serve to mystify and obfuscate our Charter if our citizens cannot fully understand them, not to mention issues such as landowner’s responsibility for negligence, legal proximity, foreseeability, social benefit, privity and performance in quantum meruit. Many wonderful and pioneering concepts can be lost if we are not able to communicate them to different audiences.

Second, I believe that our Charter is a living document in that what we seek to create has sociological, moral and ethical components. What I love about the metaverse is that it represents a new form of location, inhabited with a new form of citizen where patriotism is not based only on the location of one’s birth but by one’s beliefs and choices. As a sociologist, I believe that what CityDAO does, both legally and ethically, may set the stage for real-life governance of land-based assets by non-governmental DAOs. While these are subtleties that may not be absolutely required in a legal Charter, a knowledge of sociology may be valuable as we are not simply investors, but curators of the future.

Third, I believe that our inaugural council members must form an effective team and that synergistic communication skills are essential. Over the past ten years, I was the creative director of the largest English and Chinese improvisation groups in China, was the creative director of television shows, taught courses at the Shanghai Theater Academy and gave corporate trainings to companies like Volkswagen and Assa Abloy. I have a strong background in helping groups collaborate in order to create synergic outcomes and to improve communication.

I currently teach online twice a week and, other than that, I just study the metaverse. I am passionate about CityDAO, and I see this council as an amazing opportunity to grow, learn and develop while creating something of great and meaningful social importance with a team of likeminded individuals. I have the time; I have the passion and I believe I could contribute value. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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Hi David!

Very impressive bio! I’m just extremley excited!

But for now, I have a few questions.

I want to know your position regarding reimbersment for the victims of recent hack. And why so?

And thing that is disturb me a little bit… You have wrote, that you are:

Why did you decide to write on CityDAO’s forum only now? This is your first post here. Aren’t you have any sugestions on all the CIP’s that was discussed here?

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Hi shrtU. Thanks for your questions. I’ll answer the second question first. For the past few months I have been working full time as a teacher and studying full time as a student, while applying for a Ph.D. While I paid attention to the CityDAO CIPs, I did not get actively involved, as I knew that my time was limited. Now, all my coursework is completed, I am working part-time and my application is finished. Therefore, I have more time to get involved.

Regarding the hack, I recently posted on the CityDAO discord that I am generally not in favor of repayment for one’s own errors of judgment. If a protocol is hacked and people lose funds, that is a separate case. Then the protocol might do well to reimburse those who lost funds. But reimbursing individuals who made a lapse of judgment and were scammed is a very slippery slope. Especially if there is no cap on the restitution.

It might be reasonable to reimburse a relatively small amount, such as 1-2 ETH as a show of good faith, but to reimburse 29 ETH would take a significant portion out of the treasury. It is not really different from taxing people who were cautious with their money to fund those who made a mistake with theirs.

I do not blame people for getting scammed. It happens. It happened to me, too. I lost 10 ETH a few years ago. It’s depressing and frustrating and a valuable, overpriced lesson in caution. But I paid for my lesson. Should I also pay for someone else’s lesson?

However, I would add that if someone is working on behalf of CityDAO and the only reason they were in the place to be hacked is because they were involved in making CityDAO a better project, this adds a layer of complexity. It might call for a vote of partial reimbursement in quantum meruit, which means they should be paid for the value of the work they did. I agree with DenverCitizen9, who posted that the community did not steal from anyone, so the anger towards a scammer should not be directed towards the community.

We want our representatives to be supportive of this project without constant fear that they are not protected by the project. At the same time, we do not want to replicate the failures of traditional government or finance, where they can make a mistake, lose money and suffer no personal consequences. Therefore, all in all, I do not support complete reimbursement for those who are scammed without extenuating circumstances.

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Thank you for your fast and full answer!

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“I have always been passionate about helping.”

Great passion to have. :slight_smile:

The focus on explaining complex or novel topics to the community is incredibly important. I appreciate you running on this. Outside of strengthening governance, increased knowledge across the community reduces friction to participation. This allows the DAO to better leverage the astonishing collective skillset of the community, so I absolutely love this!

Out of curiosity, any ideas on how you’d like to execute on this in the wild?

On another note @Da3vid, would you be up for doing a live talk for the community sometime related to topics like metaverse sociology, identity projects, and living in Shanghai (a city with a unique history!)? Perhaps even a conversation between you and @moonsoon (who is also involved in academia and rigorously exploring the metaverse)?

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That’s very eloquently stated, @chance. Leveraging the astonishing skillsets of the community and reducing friction to participation are such critical issues. I think there are two key issues in clear communication. The first is the two-way process of communication and the second is motivation.

Regarding the two-way process, I believe that the only meanings that matter are shared meanings. Communicating clearly is not just about explaining definitions or terms. That is one-way communication. Communication involves both the transfer and the understanding of meaning. This involves an interactive, two-way process. I can never know if people understood what I mean unless I ask them, and they tell me. Often their feedback serves to improve my explanations and help me clarify concepts.

The two-way process also involves an awareness of “noise” that can act as a barrier to clear explanations. This might include language barriers, culture barriers or even just someone having a bad day. A tremendous barrier to effective communication might be, for example, if someone just lost money and is very upset.

A second issue in clear communication is motivation. It’s hard to explain things clearly to someone who isn’t really motivated to hear it. Most people are not motivated to learn how to open a Reg A+ Title VI Type 2 company under the JOBS act, or what “good faith” means regarding the implementation of an Operating Agreement. I mean, who cares? What do you get for learning it? These things sound boring, or useless or just plain hard. Crypto is no piece of cake.

One possible solution is to use theories like Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, which helps people develop a belief that they are capable of learning new ideas. Reinforcement theory may involve “leveling up” as people are able to answer survey-based questions to reinforce knowledge. Expectancy theory states that people won’t learn new things if there’s no benefit, that the benefit must lead to a reward, and that it must be a reward people want.

I realize these are kind of abstract answers. Practically speaking, if it involved something like a legal explanation, such as whether a citizen can sue an agent of CityDAO LLC and what constitutes an agent, partner or employee for purposes of vicarious liability, I’d probably write a post, ask for feedback, re-write the post then have a live discussion and then re-write it again.

After that, I would try to motivate a group to look into the topic and seek to provide incentives for them to create a document that other DAOs could use in addressing this issue. I would help guide, but the group would create their own shared meanings. They would receive incentives, either social or financial, intrinsic or extrinsic, for their work.

I’d love to do a live talk for the community regarding metaverse sociology and living in Shanghai, or a conversation with @moonsoon. It all sounds great. To that end, I am posting an article that I’m currently working on. It’s not finished, but it sums up some ideas I’m working on regarding metaverse sociology. The link is here:

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what is your discord username @Da3vid I can’t find it

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My discord user name is: Da3vid#1983

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