Collin Smith - Board
What is your experiences within Intersect and Cardano?
I have SPOs, founder of MAV100, and a member of intersect for almost a year. We are partnered officially with and working with many organizations in this ecosystem to build community level adoption programs and integrating education and MBO business activities using the Cardano Blockchain.
Do you have any other Cardano affiliations or possible conflicts of interests, including you as an individual or an enterprise you are associated with?
I am a founder of MAV100. We have been working under Intersect grants to build dRep programs and integrate SPOs and Cardano Decentralized business solutions into communities.
Are you currently in receipt of or previously received any Intersect or Cardano funding or grant?
Yes. We are building dRep training courses and running pilot programs to train students to become dReps and build Learning Management System course modules.
What do you think the MBO’s primary strategic goals and objectives are or should be for the next 3-5 years?
The primary strategic goal of the MBO should be to integrate the Cardano Blockchain into Societal Organization and Education structures that people use to organize their communities. We can organize businesses and facilitate transfer of skills in trustless and transparent ways using the blockchain.
The MBO needs to provide the space and the direction for the technical development of the blockchain to integrate directly into people's lives and community organization. For example we can build a DApp that allows a company to operate a C Corp that includes recording of accounting and board actions. We can build these dApps in partnership with governing state entities that make operation of these corporate entities transparent and trustless in operation. Businesses gain certainty in their regulatory compliance. State governments gain trust from the public. The community gains transparency into dealings between corporate entities and the state.
I have many examples like this where we as an MBO can build tools into this blockchain and make this blockchain the infrastructure that brings decentralization to our communities on a fundamental level. The Cardano Blockchain is made for this type of integration. It is the only blockchain that has the combination of decentralized consensus and the absence of functioning genesis keys that make this type of government level collaboration possible.
The ICC Board in particular needs to be the point for keeping the Cardano/Intersect DAO on the best path toward integrating into community and State level governance. We need to use blockchain technology to organize our communities and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to our people. With this type of integration business leaders in our communities will be able to massively decentralize business operations and reduce capital and social barriers to entry in a large number of
Can you describe the current composition of the Board and the skills and experience gaps that the organization is looking to fill?
Currently IOHK/Emurgo and the Wyoming Blockchain University School maintain 3 seats on the board. These would represent the research and technical and philosophical pillars of the Cardano blockchain vision.
I believe the organization needs to incorporate practical grass roots integration into their path forward. The board needs people who understand how blockchain and small businesses work. The board needs people who have a vision for integrating blockchain into communities and actually carrying forward our decentralized vision for the future.
We need people who understand the corrupting influence of fiat abuse and how centralized entities maintain control. We need to be the organization who builds tools that help communities decentralized and keep the energy they create in the community.
What are the key challenges and opportunities the MBO is currently facing?
The biggest challenge for the Cardano Blockchain Community is finding the practical and ground level applications that will integrate blockchain into communities. The Cardano blockchain must understand it's unique value proposition in the crypto space. No other blockchain has the combination of transparency, decentralization, immutability, and trustlessness. But we need people in leadership that can apply the blockchain to community organization and education at all levels.
How does the MBO measure success and performance, both at the Board level and operationally?
The best way we can measure success is to build on chain tools. We should use Learning Management Systems that track course participation and completion. Additionally we can build on chain tools that track activity and expansion of the user base generated through the on chain tools we build.
Our value proposition is the ability of the blockchain to gather and disseminate information to more people so that they can make better decisions. We need to build tools that expand this strength.
What do you think is the relationship between the Board and the Executive team?
The Board generally should have the responsibility to impose accountability on the executive board on behalf of the community. The community will have a collective vision for the MBO and the board has the responsibility to hire Executive Officers that will faithfully carry out this vision to the best of their ability.
What are the key expectations for the Non-Executive Director (NED) role in terms of time commitment, specific responsibilities, and contributions to Board meetings and committees?
The Non-Executive Director has the standard role of gadfly and conscience that reminds the Board and the Officers of their goals and the vision of the MBO members and keeps them on the right path. The NED needs to carry out the standard responsibilities of preparing for meetings and being able to follow meeting agendas and keeping track of Executive team actions.
The NED position in this case is going to have a specific challenge of keeping a view of a very quickly changing path and a path forward that is not going to be easy to find. We are solving historically difficult problems that have not been solved because they are difficult problems.
What/who do you think are the MBO’s key relationships with external stakeholders, and how does the Board engage with these stakeholders?
I am going to address 2 groups of External Stakeholders in this respect.
The first group will be non Intersect member Ada holders. Because of the pseudo-anonymous nature of Cardano staking and ownership and SPOs these stakeholders are going to be represented by a combination of SPOs and dReps. The community has on chain Info actions and proposals which create a new way for the community and the board/executives/committees to communicate. The MBO needs to be responsive to this input as well as providing leadership.
The second group of external stakeholders are the communities, businesses, governments, and individuals that are at different stages of adopting and using the blockchain. The board is going to be the point of the spear making connections to government level entities and building a framework where the technical committees can design and build integration tools that allow local government to communicate with their communities and allow communities to participate in local governance. There will also need to be a framework built for integrating businesses and building solutions for businesses to attract them to the blockchain that the board will directly be involved with.
What do you think is the MBO’s approach to risk management, and what are the top risks that the Board should be aware of?
The primary method for dealing with risk is by leveraging the decentralized aspects of the blockchain. We can as a blockchain reduce the size of individual expenditures and projects. Usually the limiting factor in reducing the size and scope of individual projects while increasing their number is limited by the ability of the controlling entity to monitor, gathering information each project and make decisions going forward.
But with the blockchain we can automate recording of project operations and make tracked metrics more transparently and efficiently displayed. The tools and efforts we put towards decentralizing blockchain governance and project application will be the most effective way to manage risk.
The primary risk the blockchain faces while we are 1 Ada 1 vote model is the formation of cartel/oligarch alliances that manipulate and control MBO activity. This risk is also mitigated by limiting the size and scope of individual projects and decentralizing operations in that it structurally reduces the reward for this type of activity.
Another risk the MBO must be aware of is the impact of local government activity on members in various countries and states. The Board must to the best of its ability remain aware of what governments around the world are doing and make its best efforts to work on behalf of members in various areas. There is going to have to be consideration of creating MBO Officer level positions as well as support of the Membership and Community Committee efforts to work on behalf of members in these situations.
How should the MBO support Board members in their roles, including providing information, training, and resources?
The primary support board members will need is in the gathering of information. The board needs to be kept apprised of events happening that affect members. They need to know what the committees are doing and they need to be receiving consistent reporting from the Executive Officers. Information is key to making quality decisions.
The next area of support is going to be the ability to get professional opinions particularly of the legal, accounting, and political persuasions in a large number of State Government controlled territories in a timely manner. A key roll of the board is going to be managing the building government level relationships and keeping space open for our members and our builders to build the Cardano ecosystem around the world.
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