I had this same feeling. I am constantly going back and forth between wanting to keep my involvement with MetaGame light and as a hobbyist, but it seems like it could be more than that. There are frameworks that allow for it but those require a different structure and ones that are not very well understood, especially by “anarchist cats”. Sourcecred was a good example of how good things can go bad under that type of structure.
For example (and I am sure there are many more) Protocol Labs (PL) is a legal business whole decided that Sourcered would be a darling and really wanted to help in developing a new type of reward system and wanted to support it. @Decentralion Mane really articulated it well here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVTqRLekRl4
So the logical thing (and probably at the request of PL) was to have Sourcecred start a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and then to take PLs funds and operate a business. The way it worked was the “players” got rewarded in SourceCred Grain, and the LLC members paid themselves from the LLC funds. Well, ultimately the LLC started spending all the money on themselves as “salaries”, and when the latest round was all spent and there was no more in the fund. When LLC members pay themselves $5-10k per month with no other source income to support an entity, an empty pot comes pretty quick.
Recenlty, some LLCers then “fell in love” with CredEquate (which is substantially different then CredRank) and then members decided it was time to wrap up the LLC. As one put it, they did not want to feel like they were “embezzling” PLs funds to start/work on something that was in essence different from SourceCred’s original mission (not sure that PL would have felt the same, but I saw it as a way for them to justify the wind-down).
So in reality, even those in SC got the money dropping in from PL, there was never a workable (from what I could tell) plan to actually make money as a business. It was only spending the money on themselves supposedly to further the sustainability and adoption of SC CredRank.
So we are potentially in that same position, but ahead of PL-like patrons coming in and trying the same thing. Even if we were to start a business somewhere in the world and follow all the protocols of employment laws, taxation, international business rules etc etc. There is no guarantee that we would not follow down the same road of emptying the pot as quick as possible.
It’s the money that actually can corrupt a system, and if not careful, even break it, making those involved maybe even worse off than if they were never involved.
I spent several hours going through about one-year of discussions, docs, github, Miro boards, initiatives, budgeting talks, following hyperlinks from SC Discord and could clearly see when the honeymoon was over, the moneypot was emptying quickly, and a winding down the LLC was inevitable. And the #1 thing being discussed in SC was not the product anymore, but only more payouts and tax liability. Game Over.
But all hope is not lost. MetaGame has a chance to use that as a example of how not to do it, but it does not tell us how the get a bunch of talented people all over the world with varying skill levels to keep moving toward something.
Unfortunately, without the money part, there is no way to support the initiatives we believe in.
@alec although you said “tounge in cheek” but it’s kind of “right on the money”. SC failing was that they only cared about a narrow line (payment to themselves and SC code) and there was not equal weight on sustaining it outside PL and Juan Benet. If there was a leader in SC, that laid down the objectives, and the entire staff, hell or high water, followed that path either out of fear of being thrown overboard, then it’s cats running all around. Which is fun for the cats, but not for sustaining a entity.
Either the initiatives are laid out clear, like in a top-down hierarchy and the players follow them, or they can just keep doing what they want because it’s fun. Business in not very fun, but it’s structured. MetaGame at this point is caught somewhere in between.
Just like Protocol Labs to SourceCred. SourceCred had/has a LLC for some people, and their system for the contributors was a secondary system (Grain). That doesn’t seem completely fair or just, but it was a good test. Hopefully we can do something better.