<aside> ✨ Welcome!
This quarterly report documents the major focuses, activities, and results of Rook Labs over the second quarter of 2022, that is, the period from April 01 to June 30, 2022. It is intended to serve as a vehicle for discussion and insight with all members of the Rook DAO and the wider blockchain industry.
Last quarter’s report: KeeperDAO Labs Quarterly Report Q1-2022
Contact us: Visit us on Discord: **https://discord.gg/rook** Follow us on Twitter: **https://twitter.com/rook**
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<aside> ⚖️ DISCLAIMER
*Any and all statements about the future of the project or any other forward-looking statements (identified by words including, but not limited to, ‘goal’, ‘projection’, ‘objective’ etc) are subject to assumptions and other factors which may or may not limit the extent of actual results; no forward-looking statements are intended to be relied upon, and are not offered as advice (financial or otherwise). Examples of assumptions and other factors outside our control having a material impact on actual results achieved include (but are not limited to):
Economic conditions including the effects of an economic downturn, inflation rates, digital asset or commodity prices, and monetary fluctuations;
Legal and regulatory delays and other obstacles associated with mergers, acquisitions, and investments;
Changes in regulatory or legislative requirements, such as changes in tax laws or rates, registration requirements, changes in financial or regulatory accounting principles or policies imposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Monetary Authority of Singapore, EU Commission or Parliament or any other regulatory body whose purview is financial and digital asset laws and regulations;
Employee or contractor workforce factors including changes in key executives or contributors;
Unanticipated smart contract risks such as hacks or other cybersecurity risks;
Risks associated with underlying technology outside our control, including risks associated with the Ethereum or any other blockchain network;
Industry restructuring or other material changes in market structure.
Rook undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made in the past, whether as a result of changes in actual results, changes in assumptions, other factors affecting such statements. Financial statements are prepared on the basis of modified accounting principles due to the experimental and nascent nature of DAO business enterprise and its formation. Deviations from established accounting standards or principles such as IFRS and GAAP are taken as deemed necessary according to professional judgment. These statements were prepared by internal DAO members, and such statements are not intended to be relied upon as advice (financial or otherwise).
Lastly, due to the quarter not being fully closed, this draft document may be inconsistencies or differences attributable to timing in prices or other factors*.
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<aside> 🧑🏭 Contributors hazard (CEO), JZ (CTO)
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This was a huge quarter for the Rook DAO, with the long-awaited launch of our two flagship products, the Rook Coordination Protocol and the Rook Trade application. After more than a year in the making, we are live in production, and anybody can use the protocol. That is a huge win worth celebrating.
It was also a huge quarter for the entire industry, and not always in a good way. We’ve seen things blow up, we’ve seen things melt down. But overall, we are in a better position than ever. The DAO’s Treasury is healthy and well-prepared, our team is excellent, highly motivated, and now after 6 months working together, familiar and trained on our systems and making new progress every day. And our mission is more relevant than ever.
In key ways, from partnerships to volume to our product pipeline, the evidence shows that our re-organization effort has so far been a spectacular success, leading to a number of breakthroughs that simply would not have been possible 6 months ago.
But in equally important ways, it has so far failed to address some challenges that have been around since the start of the project: communication, marketing, telling our story, building a community. These are just as important to the long-term success of any project, especially to a DAO, and we must acknowledge them in order to fix them.
We knew, when we launched KIP-12, and “The New Citadel,” that we sought a hybrid organization, a new category of DAO built around efficient production of top-class products and infrastructure, staffed by world-beating talent, running Teal processes internally while using a consensus governance for decisions among the DAO as a whole.
In the past few months we have seen other major projects adopt or seek to adopt a similar model, most notably Lido, and MakerDAO. What these venerable DAOs are debating, we are already 6 months into implementing, and given the results so far, this should be a source of pride for the entire Rook DAO.
But in order to continue sprinting forward, we must dedicate resources to ensure that we do not leave our DAO-ness behind, or swing too far towards centralization. This quarter, we have brought dedicated contributors to this task, and given them responsibility for implementing systems that keep us healthy, and let us continually regenerate and thrive. We hope that in the coming quarter, their work will begin to show out.
Our plan is as it has been: assemble a team, solidify the basic technology, and elaborate on that technology with new ways to integrate, interact, and build atop it, while seeking out any and all partners who would like to come along. There are more signs than ever that we are going to accomplish that.
Where we were once paralyzed to do anything but maintain our projects, today we can actively debate, activate, release, and iterate on multiple product lines at once. You can see below that the progress being made is far greater in scale and scope than any other time before, and is more fitting for an organization serious about achieving its goals.
There are no wasted seats in Rook Labs. We do not hire frivolously or to satisfy arbitrary metrics for “growth”. We have well-defined standards, screen carefully, and when there is a lack of fit, offboard promptly. Each contributor has a purpose, responsibilities, and tasks that they are uniquely equipped to do. We all work together to drive value to the DAO.
I am extremely proud of our team, and our shared commitment to standards of transparency, participation, and accessibility are unheard of in any other kind of business environment. There is nothing like it.
I will let them tell the rest of the story of this quarter in their own words. I encourage you to read below and see what we are building.