Workgroup ideas

[Tuuxx]

Gm fellow Cloudmen

Beyond sharing ideas and challenging each other on the Research forum, I’m curious to know the Sanctum team’s perspective on how to bring the best initiatives to life.

I haven’t found a clear Sanctum roadmap so far, and I believe one of the first steps, before considering launching a ‘Work Group’ to bring an idea to fruition, would be to determine whether the idea is already part of Sanctum’s official roadmap or not.

In other words, I think it would be useful for the team to provide feedback on every ‘reasonably relevant’ idea, addressing the following questions:

• Does the team find the idea valuable?
• If so, what is Sanctum’s view on the complexity (cost/time-to-market) vs. reward (added value for Sanctum and/or the adoption of LST on Solana)?
• Is the feature or deliverable already included in Sanctum’s roadmap?
• Would it be worth launching a Work Group to have the community deliver the idea or feature (considering team capacity planning, prioritization, etc.)?

Below is a summary of what I believe are the best ideas (my opinion is inherently subjective, so please don’t take it personally if your idea isn’t listed) from the Research forum and my personal thoughts.

1. New Usages for LST

1-) a) Crowdfunding platform

The idea would be to create a crowdfunding platform (similar to Kickstarter, GoFundMe, etc.) to help teams fund their innovative projects.

Essentially, a team pitches their project, and supporters back them by holding the corresponding LST. Your capital isn’t at risk, as the team receives the yield generated from the staked SOL.

You can withdraw your capital at any time if the team fails to meet its commitments, and the team can incentivize supporters by offering different reward tiers (e.g., 1 LST for 1 month = tier 1 reward, 1 LST for 10 months or 10 LST for 1 month = tier 2 reward, etc.).

1-) b) Gated content & influencers (cf. pineSOL)

This is an age-old concept. Imagine:

• Subscribing to the New York Times by holding 10 ‘nytSOL’?
• Supporting your favorite streamer on Twitch by holding ‘twitchSOL’, ‘kickSOL’, or ‘ninjaSOL’?
• Subscribing to your favorite influencer on Twitter by holding ‘xSOL’ or ‘AnsemSOL’?
• Joining a trader community on Discord by holding ‘alphaSOL’?
• Paying for access to an RPC by holding ‘eonSOL’)?
• Subscribing to a wallet-tracking bot by holding ‘cieloSOL’?
• Lowering your fees on Photon by holding ‘photonSOL’?
• Copying an experienced trader investments through a Symmetry fund (similar to eToro) in exchange for holding xxSOL?

In my opinion, delegating your SOL yield creates much less friction than spending money outright to access a service. Leveraging LSTs could become a significant client conversion tool for many online or web3-friendly services.

There are countless use cases to explore!

1-) c) Buy Now Unstake Later

As introduced by @cory, this concept could be quite interesting.

It would allow anyone, even without having the necessary capital, to purchase or access something for a set period by taking on debt. User’s SOL would remain staked until the loan is repaid (with the repayment covered by the yield).

There are many topics to address (like risk costs, etc.), but the idea is definitely worth exploring!

1-) d) Educational content

This topic comes up most frequently in the forum research posts (hi @Bengshark, @Begrime800, @ry_guy). We could consider creating content aimed at making it easier for new users to onboard Solana or adopt LSTs, targeting all audiences and experience levels:

• Want to keep your SOL on a CEX? → Hold your CEXSOL (e.g., BnSOL or BySOL).
• Want to go further? → Self-custody with any LST.
• Want to dive even deeper? → Leverage your LST in the DeFi ecosystem.

This content could be developed and/or published in collaboration with other key players in the ecosystem who stand to benefit just as much as Sanctum from the adoption of SOL and LSTs: CEXs, DEXs, DeFi applications, wallets, etc.

1-) e) Roadmap team Sanctum et WG sanctum

It would be useful to have a webpage that illustrates a comprehensive roadmap, integrating both Sanctum team’s milestones and those to be delivered by Sanctum work groups and various LST projects.

The idea is to provide clarity on our direction, showing what’s already covered and deduct what still needs to be addressed. It would also give visibility to different initiatives and make it easier to connect project owners with talented individuals* looking to contribute to the success of Sanctum and the LST ecosystem.

We could even imagine profiles playing a role in the future (e.g., increased reputation, experience, etc.). - I’ve read this idea regarding profiles somewhere but can’t find the author anymore.

2. Specific “LST” ideas

2-) a) DCA LST

This concept has already been discussed several times on the Research forum. The idea is to create a single LST (dcaSOL) that allows users, through a web interface, to choose which tokens they want to gradually purchase (DCA in) using the yield generated from their staked SOL, and adjust these choices over time.

2-) b) LST debit card

This concept was previously mentioned by @fplee. Imagine that all the yield from your ‘cardSOL’ LST is automatically converted into $USD/€EUR/x at the end of each epoch, allowing you to spend that money daily with a debit card.

Of course, there are challenges to address, particularly around tax implications and KYC, but I believe the idea is worth exploring further.

3. Sanctum app evolutions

3-) a) LST dashboard

I support @luciotamino’s idea: creating a dashboard that allows users to track their real-time APY, similar to what Lulo has done. For LSTs that offer additional utilities, these could be listed on the dashboard (e.g., ‘x lives saved’ for HealthSOL, ‘y $BONK received’ for bonkSOL, etc.).

3-) b) Yield simulation

As suggested by @JaunePomme, it would make sense (similar to the dashboard mentioned above) to offer users a simulation before they swap for an LST. For example, ‘10 bonkSOL for 6 months would provide you with approximately 5,000 $Bonk over that period.’ The user could adjust the amount and duration to update the simulation.

3-) c) LST benchmark & categories

Create a page on the Sanctum website to enable users to easily benchmark various LSTs, which will become increasingly useful as more become available. Key indicators/elements that come to mind include: Fees, block rewards and MEV % sharing, value proposition.

Additionally, create categories to facilitate user navigation, e.g.:

• High yield (cf. rkSOL)
• DeFi integration (cf. BanxSOL)
• Innovative projects (cf. pathSOL)
• Charity projects (cf. healthSOL)
• Etc.

We could also consider, as suggested by @ry_guy, setting up a detailed page (similar to a Wiki) that LST owners can use to pitch their projects and as many have already done on this research forum.

Conclusion

Sorry for the length of the post, but I thought it would be beneficial to compile all the interesting ideas in one place, and, as mentioned in the introduction, to gain some insight into the ‘team view’ on where we, as a community, could be most helpful.

[n8tr0n]

A formal voting/tracking system may be due.

I want to voice one opinion that may be controversial. I have been a part of a few workgroups, and at times the competitive “pvp” attitude has crept in. I personally don’t like some workgroup environments and have chosen to leave simply because I feel everyone’s time and efforts should have equal value, but some members are left out of the line of praise and reward.

I only hope that if/when we introduce workgroups, they will be slightly adjusted from the norm to be equally as rewarding for everyone who sacrificed their time to support the community and project. Then, the “winners” can be considered with further reward etc.

Not sure if this is off subject, so I’m sorry if I stepped outside the ideas in this post.

[luciotamino]

Hey @Tuuxx, great work compiling all these topics! And for considering my proposal as an important one

It’s interesting that @fplee recently made a very relevant comment that ties into your first points:

@fplee

Some of the best stuff has come out of community just going ahead and doing stuff without getting the go-ahead from the team. (…) I think this is an excellent opportunity to practice community capacity-building:, which I define as the ability for the community to ship stuff separately from the core team (but with one unified goal: grow Sanctum together).

I’ve often wondered if some of the ideas we’ve discussed here might already be in development, like the Dashboard idea. This was somewhat confirmed in fp’s latest Roadmap Update (which is one of many ways to get informed about the team’s plans and ideas). Still, that doesn’t make these proposals any less valuable! Brainstorming could reveal new angles that benefit everyone in the long run. Plus, as fp said, it’s great to see the community work independently from the team on these things! I think the team has their reasons for keeping some information to themselves, and they are always around - whether it’s here, on Discord, or on Twitter - checking our contributions and providing feedback when necessary.

One of the key points you summarized that I find particularly important is the Educational content aspect. This is actually one of the reasons I proposed the Yield Visualization - it’s a practical implementation that helps us better understand the inner workings of the LST system, making it more accessible and transparent for everyone.

Cheers!

[MikeAF]

Great job! Nice summary of a lot of topics.

I kinda had this same thought around this concept from watching in Jupiter.

Based on what I’ve seen i think it falls closer to Fp’s initial comfort level and can start easing into a form of governance.

There is the idea of a podcast. I love that.

I think in light of couple recent ones I’ve listed to there’s an interest in sanctum but not an understanding.

I do think there some things we can decide to fund as experiments for various working groups.

I think the team can work w a core group to curate initiatives that they are comfortable to give to the dao to decide.

I don’t think the dao should be involved in the core business. In my opinion it should be community focused proposals curated to meet the vision & mission of Sanctum.

I know they are working on S2 but i think a WG could help better define the scope.

WGs could help fund & launch ideas that involve LSTs.

[n8tr0n]

I agree. Sounds like some ideas or proposals may be more of suggestions for the core team.

Things like business and product form and functionality should fall under the core team to decide on, with consideration of community and DAO suggestions and feedback.

DAO should operate more like a Layer 2 in a way.