I think the VC model i.e. investing in companies, is really off track given what the skills of the team are and the time horizon of the average investor in TIME.
As much as I like the idea, I don’t think this could be done. The basic assumption is that 99% of companies, especially in ‘juicy’ sectors like the ones established by team, FAIL. A quick Google search will show the reality of VC funding. It’s insanely competitive and requires some serious skills in the sectors that you want to invest in. To be fair, I don’t think the team has the experience and skills to be good at this. VC investments is insanely competitive.
Daniele and Sifu are GREAT building crypto-financial product and use financial strategy to make money. They are not great at either selecting the right companies or helping build those companies which is something that VCs do (unless they show to us a track record of VC investments in consumer product companies). Let’s stick to ETF/hedge fund version of Wonderland.
In short:
Stop investing in the companies. Stop going for a VC model. Psychologically, this also creates new confusions around new tokens and new airdrops (it has been already too confusing to think about SPELL, sSPELL, ICE, TIME, MEMO…guys, come on).
You don’t have the expertise to pick and choose a good trading card company and a betting crypto company which is the key aspect to being an ‘above the average VC’ (see deeper explanation below)
INSTEAD
Start distributing the ‘juice’ of Wonderland: the returns you generate through your excellent financial strategies. You are GREAT at this.
Longer versions of the previous points:
As much as I appreciate your team and what you have created so far I think you have made so serious wrong assumptions about the TIME/wMEMO.
Stopping dilution while it is rational, it is not understood by the ‘average’ investor in the project. And to be fair, you need to stick to your current investors’ mindset a bit longer, no matter how good the strategy is. I think people are in Wonderland because they see their TIME token increase across time. It feels ‘good’ to see your assets growing. It has been highlighted many times in comments and even during last Daniele’s AMA by some enthusiastic supporters. Personally, I don’t care and I trust you 100% on this but I am trying to play the devil’s advocate here.
You have been switching too fast to a BTC/classic model in crypto which is: you hold the asset and you check the price going up and down. That’s not the deal that put investors’ money into Wonderland. All the DAO are doing this and perform really poorly (Metaverse Pro, Olympus, Jade…and you). You are all doing the same mistake because you are honestly acting too rationally. Degens are not rational and you should know this better than anyone else.
What you have been ‘selling’ is something else and to be fair you should stick to this and SLOWLY change the ‘rhythm’. I understand what you might say: ‘well, it’s time to move on with a less speculative mindset on this investment’ but I think you’re pulling the strings too fast.
Given this investor mindset, stopping dilution I think (and I might be wrong) will cause a drop in the APY which is going to further badly impact the price.
‘Frog Nation’ is cool but let’s be clear: people are into this to make money. So let’s make us some money RIGHT NOW. It has been said that on the UST-MIM leverage on Abracadabra you make $100,000 a day. Get that money and give it back to wMEMO holders on a monthly basis. Simple concept to get through investors’ minds and it increases the confidence in the project.
I agree with Andre Cronje: stop fucking doing XXX things. DAO should have one purpose only. Do not invest in potential companies, manage the DAO like a pure market-based hedge fund/ETF. Use financial strategies, leverages, trade returns, Iron Bank, Anchor, investments in good crypto projects (eg. FTM). You are good at this, you are not experts on card business or betting companies. You are not Elon Musk or Bernard Arnault. You are Wall Street guys in the crypto spaces. There is nothing wrong with being very good at ONE thing. You are not product guys at large. You are excellent financial strategists and financial-product people. Do not try to be someone who you are not.
Final thoughts:
Do not stop dilution. Stop the VC ideas. Start distributing returns from your financial tactics (like the UST-MIM leverage on Abracadabra) or at very least, start to talk about it so the ‘average’ degen can get how you make MONEY. We are for the MONEY, not some trading cards or metaverse gaming with a failure rate of 99%.
Let’s go.