The Panvala development team has released the Rinkeby Alpha MVP, which can already be downloaded. This is the “first publicly usable build of Panvala” that has been launched to “demonstrate” the core functionalities of the system, encourage developers to contribute open-source code to the project, and obtain feedback from end-users.
Rinkeby has been built by ConsenSys, a Brooklyn, New York-based Ethereum-related development studio, and Panvala’s role in the project is to “facilitate the funding” of the work being done to ensure the growth and adoption of the Ethereum network.
Funding Ethereum Development Through “Slate Governance”
According to a blog post published by ConsenSys, Panvala aims to use a process referred to as “slate governance,” in order to help in acquiring funding for projects that interest the Ethereum community.
As mentioned in ConsenSys’ blog, slate governance works in a manner that is “similar to Token Curated Registries and other methods of decentralized governance.” Notably, Panvala has created a system which uses a token-based model that “wraps the existing ecosystem of grant funders, corporate open-source projects, and volunteers” by “giving them all” a common incentive to acquire “sustainable funding.”
Grants Issued To Gnosis, Level K, Status
Panvala has reportedly issued grants to fund the ongoing development of Gnosis, a decentralized prediction market platform, Status, an Ethereum-based mobile operating system, and Level K, a platform focused on smart contract development using Solidity.
Explaining how Panvala works and elaborating on its main objective, Jacob Cantele, the VP of Product at Panvala, remarked:
Panvala is a donation driven platform that helps fund the work that the whole Ethereum community depends on, typically work that furthers the security or scalability of Ethereum. Our donors contribute funds to a smart contract called the token capacitor. Each quarter, our token holders use their tokens to vote on which grant applications should be funded from the token capacitor.
Cantele also revealed Panvala was “originally built as a more traditional token-curated registry, before adopting slate governance as [its] model.” He added that “slate governance is an alternative to token-curated registries,” which “allows an individual or organization” on the platform to “curate a slate of proposals.”
Slate Governance Similar To “Representation In A Voting System”
These proposals, Cantele noted, are essentially a “registry” and they “have [their] slate compete with other slates on the platform for the support of token holders.” According to Cantele, slate governance is “more similar to representation in a voting system” as it helps in “solving the problem of low-voter knowledge of each individual proposal existing in a registry.”
When asked who should be testing out Panvala’s Alpha version, Cantele said:
Our main focus for the alpha is attracting members of the Ethereum community who would like to share their feedback. Panvala is also fully open-source, and we’d love to collaborate with other teams and hope our slate governance innovations can be a model for teams generally. Lastly, we’re very interested in talking to anyone who is interested in donating to the system, applying for a grant, or becoming a token holder.
