Social infrastructures complement technical infrastructures provided by blockchain networks. This program is designed to provide capital to fund a wide range of benefits to 0L members in alignment with the mission, vision and values of the community.
Social infrastructure is also called "soft infrastructure"
Soft infrastructure refers to all the institutions that maintain the economic, health, social, environmental, and cultural standards of a country.
~Wikipedia Entry on Infrastructure
Unlike a country, peer-to-peer networks are fundamentally opt-in. They form a new kind of constituency distinct from nation-states. Peer-to-peer networks bear a closer resemblance to other opt in systems providing membership benefits such as credit unions and professional associations. Like benefits offered by professional associations and credit unions; members may help define and opt into benefits programs.
It is increasingly common for community and industry organizations to offer benefits programs to address welfare gaps emerging in society. An example one such program is Freelancers Union which specifically addresses the benefits gaps for freelancers relative to their peers. The growing web3 ecosystem suffers from many of the same benefits gaps that freelances suffer from, and in some case more severe gaps may emerge depending on the members geography and/or specific industry.
While the decentralized nature of peer-to-peer networks decouple them from any particular industry or geographic region, they do not eliminate their members' physical needs. Any membership benefits programs that aims to address social and economic welfare will need capital.
By by donating to the social infrastructure program community members make it possible for OL to actualize our vision of providing social infrastructure for its members. Availability of capital significantly reduces the financial burden of catylizing such programs; ultimately, bootstrapping them into self-sustaining operations.
The resources collected by the Social Infrastructure Program will supply capital to membership benefits programs focus on social and economic welfare. The term welfare is often used for specific government programs because benefits programs or provided or mandated by. However, here we reimagine benefits programs targeting social and economic welfare as social infrastructures provided for and by communities to serve the needs of those communities' members, as whole persons, not merely as economic actors. Welfare ecompasses support intend to ensure that members of the community meet basic human needs. A nonexclusive list of examples:
- Access to Healthcare
- Access to Education
- Access to Housing
- Physical Safety
- Economic Security (e.g. Insurance)
- Arbitration & Dispute Resolution
Building on the example of the Freelancers Union, an example of the type of initiative this program might fund is a health plan managed by the association which members may opt into.
However, the long term vision for such programs extend beyond typical employee benefits programs to encompass support for any social infrastructure the community collectively deems necessary to redress welfare deficiencies identified amongst the membership.
Since this program's primary purpose is to provide capital to social infrastructure initiatives in the future, it is not expecting to deploy any capital in the short term. In practice, deployment of membership benefits initiatives which serve as social infrastructure require significant integrations with existing institutions.
the program focuses on bootstrapping membership benefits programs and ushering them into self-sustaining operations, independently of efforts to imrove the underlying technical infrastructures.
Outcomes will be judged at the level of members welfare as outlined in this document. Pragmatism with respect to achieving these outcomes will supercede technical architecture preferences for purpose of funding decisions.
Donations to the Social Infrastructure Program are accepted at the address: 19E966BFA4B32CE9B7E23721B37B96D2.
Donations will be used to cover the capital costs of specific social infrastructure initiatives.
We aim to disburse program funds in accordance with community wishes. The program address is deployed with automation: it is a class of “CommunityWallet” onchain. Specifically, funds will be transferred to another address unless 2/3 of validators reject, for any reason.
To cover costs of managing this program, Dynamical Systems Group may receive an administrative fee up to 4% of the funds awarded to teams; this disbursement is also subject to community approval. As a CommunityWallet if the validators see fit to Sunset this account, Dynamical Systems Group will accommodate. We may transfer operation of this program to another entity (or entities) and in such an event the community will be consulted and notified.