Introduction
This post is an update on the Ren Project as a result of my Ren ambassador role for the Coop. It follows updates in August and September.
The Ren Project token ($REN) is part of the DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI) and Filecoin ($FIL) is represented in the DATA Index as $renFIL - a $FIL token wrapped using Ren Project blockchain bridging technology and brought to Ethereum. As such, the Ren Project is both represented and used in Index Coop products.
Ren Project Treasury Governance
Following on from last month, the Ren community continues to work on its Community Ecosystem Fund. Following the community agreeing to the Community Ecosystem Fund’s creation and to use Gnosis SafeSnap as a treasury management system, a community proposal for the Creation of a Ren Treasury Committee is now on the forum.
The thorough proposal, with learnings from AAVE, Llama, Ryan Sean Adams, Yearn, and others, is for a limited-scope five-person committee to oversee the completion of three primary functions in three months and then return to vote for a new committee. The functions are related to developing a vision for the treasury, assessing treasury related RFCs and preparing related Ren Improvement Proposals (RIPs) as required, and bringing the Treasury Vision to vote.
Should the proposal go forward, the committee would be voted on by dark node operators, those who have a staked interest in the project and hold REN-DN tokens, and would include one member of the Core Team.
The proposal looks like it will define a lot of how the Ren Project will operate in the future and the transfer of control from the Core Team to the community resonates with aspects of Index Coop’s operational development.
Increasing Community Participation
Like many crypto projects, there is the question of low governance participation. An RFC is on the Ren forum that proposes incentivising quality proposals with the aim of reducing low quality proposals and encouraging only proposals that are likely to pass. It is a two stage system and there are also other incentives discussed as well, including making proposals more graphically engaging.
Decentralizing Token Whitelisting
As the project decentralizes it is necessary to have a process for selecting which tokens are whitelisted and prioritized for inclusion in the bridging network/protocol. The proposal was for the community to manage this and, with a unanimous Snapshot vote of Ren Darknode operators (REN-DN holders), the community whitelisting proposal passed. This is another step towards decentralization.
RenLabs
Two developers from the Core Team with support from Alameda Research will lead an initiative to grow a third-party ecosystem based on top of the RenVM. This is an ambitious project that includes the RenVM becoming its own L1 - essentially a chain that links chains. For a deeper dive, read the RenLabs launch post.
I see that there is scope for the IC to support efforts in this area, or at least take part in discussions, as the availability and liquidity of tokens on different networks/chains is something of interest to our product building.
Other news
Token terminal stats for Ren now include data from all chains.
The Ren network recently passed $8 billion in volume 1 year and 5 months after mainnet launch - mainnet.renproject.io
During October, the community has also implemented a large overhaul of the Ren Discord. Visitors will find it is far more developed than before, with anti-spam measures and materials to learn about the project among many other additions.
Closing
The ambassador program is still only just finding its feet and feedback from the community is appreciated. I hope my interactions with Ren Project bring value to the Coop. I am glad to communicate with @MaxRoszko , who is also on our forum, and to have been invited to their community calls. I will continue to update on Ren Project news and help inform the Coop when needed.