Rangers and Vanguards - a proposed new ambassador program

[0xJMG]

Can Vanguards unite and expand Reserve’s asset-backed currency revolution globally?

Lately, I’ve been diving deep into the study of community culture and cult genesis. One of the most iconic examples in crypto is Chainlink and its devoted Link Marines.

Pacing movement

A few years ago, Chainlink sat in an epicenter of FUD as few people understood the vast potential impact of their vision. Enter Chainlink God—an anon at the time who, since 2019, absorbed knowledge, shared insights, and rallied a following of Link Marines. He recently doxxed himself, revealing more of what was happening behind the scenes. Today, Chainlink’s ecosystem boasts the strongest network effects and moat of any oracle or messaging protocol in the space. You’ll feel it when you have to pay them for their differentiated offerings—ouch, it’s expensive!

In contrast, the Rangers in the Reserve community are somewhat a scattered medley. Decentralized yes, consistent alignment not so sure. They advocate for various aspects of the asset-backed currency frontier, each in their own way—sometimes impressively, sometimes cringe-worthy (looking at myself here). But regardless of style, they share a common interest: to ensure the that a good portion of the forthcoming trillions of dollars of stablecoins live on the Reserve protocol.

Quick tangent:

In elite marathon running, pacers are often called “rabbits.” Their job is to set a specific, consistent pace through the first half of the race, ensuring that other runners stay on track to hit their target times. Rabbits also help prevent a slow, tactical race where competitors might coast through to win large prize purses with minimal effort. Interestingly, there have been instances where a rabbit, noticing a complacent pack, kept pushing and ended up winning the race themselves.

Brace for Impact

We’re also entering a bullish cycle. Crypto’s current 30-60 million monthly active users (MAUs) could explode to 500 million or more in the next 18 months.

Truth will be tested.
Fast, quality responses drive growth, slow shallow responses invite zombieland.
FUD will rise.
We’ll be drowning in noise.
Sleep? Forget about it.
You have no idea what’s coming.

And unlike Chainlink, which is narrowly-focused as an oracle and messaging protocol, Reserve offers a broader proposition. It’s both a platform factory and the potential for thousands of end-user RToken products, each carrying value propositions distinct to people in Africa, Latin America or the West.

So, where do we focus education—on the platform factory or the RTokens? The answer is both. Navigating education in the Reserve ecosystem is a far more complex challenge. We need to unite and expand.

Rangers need their Vanguards (rabbits).

Let’s explore a three-person Rangers incentive program to fortify our ranks and drive the asset-backed currency revolution across at least three continents. A Vanguard is the first to act, leading movements, innovation, and progress while taking risks and setting the path for others to follow.

What is the Vanguard’s role?

• Create two or more how-to or semi-technical explainers on Reserve Protocol RTokens each month - share on one or more platforms: 𝕏, Reddit, Substack, or Medium (AI generated copypasta will be disqualified)
• Actively contribute being helpful in the Reserve Discord at least five hours per week, and advocate on 𝕏 where possible
• Submit a monthly report posted to the public Reserve Forums and invite questions and comments: Include observations, results, and receipts (evidence of impact such as data charts, content engagement data, etc.)
• Follow all laws in your jurisdiction
• Avoid discussing RSR price

Proposed Vanguard election & rewards logistics

• Three election epochs per year, once every 4 months. RSR wallets stack-rank vote (using Snapshot or similar) on candidates and their attached community proposals & receipts. Only the top 3 candidates are eligible for rewards in the coming epoch
• $12,000 in RSR rewards per epoch, granted by Confusion Capital. Distributed in three portions…
  • 50% $6,000 to #1
  • 30% $3,600 to #2
  • 20% $2,400 to #3
• Confusion Capital reserves the right to reward more than the top 3 epoch contributors at their discretion, recognizing those whose efforts reflect genuine contributions and market alignment.
• (added Oct 18) Must already be admitted to a gated #Rangers-Vanguard channel (replaces #The-Roundtable) on Discord. #Rangers-Vanguard admission requirements: user must hold a wallet address with at least $20 of RTokens or a stRSR position for at least 30 days. This proof of ecosystem alignment is meant as a eustress filter to ensure high quality collaboration.

Streamlined alignment, deeper impact

As I shared in a recent essay Humans All the Way Down: A Soul Search Into DeFi Community Growth, “A good builder experience is vital, and fast high-quality responses in the community serve as a growth force-multiplier.”

For emphasis: Fast, quality responses drive growth, slow shallow responses invite zombieland.

This RFC draws inspiration from successful movement-building in other ecosystems while addressing the need to simplify the previous Community Education Rewards (CER) program, which burdened the core team with administrative overhead. The Vanguard program reduces complexity by having just 3 epochs per year, recognizing the top 3 contributors, as opposed to CER’s more frequent monthly focus on 10 to 20 contributors. This shift prioritizes long-term quality over short-term quantity. TLDR: easier, higher impact.

Some may argue that $12k per epoch is too little for this program, but I (think I) disagree. We’re not seeking mercenaries; we’re looking to reward and grow those deeply connected to Reserve’s mission and pain points. Contributors like socopower, 0xtomsawyer, and others are already making valuable, positive-sum contributions–but may be lacking sustained consistency or community accountability and feedback loops. This program introduces a reward mechanism to galvanize participation and accountability, and invite healthy competition from others. Ultimately, it’s a way to give back to attract more Rangers to help us grow.

What are the hard questions we must answer?

1. Will Confusion Capital run the grant program?
2. Will community Rangers apply for epochs every 4 months attaching proposed ideas and receipts of prior contributions?
3. Will RSR holders vote on epoch winners every 4 months?
4. Will Vanguards bring a force-multiplier sense of urgency and focus to the community?
5. How can we ensure this program inspires accessible and relentless competition?
6. What are the different ways the proposed Vanguard program could go wrong and how do we mitigate this?

[RyanTreeFiddy]

I think it’s a solid idea. I would love to contribute more but I’m always busy with my “real life.” I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m sure others are in this boat as well. My lack of contributions doesn’t mean I have any less support for the project, it just means I am busy with IRL. So, what am I saying? I guess it just comes down to the person and how much time they have. The $$$$ incentive is fair but it just depends on the time each person has. I would contribute for free if I could.

Overall, I think it’s well thought out. I don’t have specific answers and can’t predict what others will do. I can only give my POV.

[socopower]

Thanks for coming up with this great idea @0xJMG, it is certainly very solid, this (hypothetical) new program would certainly optimize and improve several aspects of the current program, such as:

• Reducing the workload of the person in charge of managing everything related to the CERs, @starl3xx.
• Increasing the quality of the content produced.
• Increasing the flow of content produced, since the people who are going to take responsibility for the new role will have to complete certain basic monthly tasks.

Now, regarding the money requested for the program, the amount is fine.

About some of the hard questions… from my POV:

1. I think Confusion Capital should execute the idea, at least give it a 1 year trial period to see how it evolves.
2. I’m definitely in ser.
3. This is something that worries me, if we take the votes from the CER in July, only 3 people/holders voted for the content produced… IMO, I will continue to give my vote in this type of activity
   (5.) Speaking for myself, when I created content for the CERs I always gave my best to ensure the quality was excellent. I guess the best thing people can do is find what area of ​​content creation you are best at and exploit it. For example, @0xTomSawyer is very good at videos and he exploits it very well.

[R72]

Thanks for the well thought-through proposal, I really like it! It aspires to bring structure and direction and impact to the Rangers community, which is very much needed.

I agree that Reserve’s Rangers are a somewhat scattered group in many ways, not making the full impact they could potentially bring to the protocol as a result. A diverse group of (somewhat) involved and/or dedicated enthusiasts can actually be a good thing, as long as you have someone/something to:

1. Get/Keep them involved, and
2. Guide and value their efforts

Vanguards as 0xJMG proposes them can (and should) play this role in my opinion. I am therefore fully in favor of the suggested implementation, with one recommendation/consideration. I would suggest to put a bigger focus on ‘rallying the troops’. While it is undeniably valuable for them to create and publish content that further explains parts of the Reserve vision, the protocol and/or specific RTokens themselves, there is an even bigger value and potential in the broader Rangers community that they should aspire to unlock. I believe there are many people that can and want to contribute, but just don’t know how and/or don’t feel educated/skilled enough to do so ( I am one of them).

One way for Vanguards to play a vital role in this is to each epoch also create an actionable list of different ways of explaining (parts of) the Reserve protocol through different channels where other people (like me) can subscribe/commit to. Perhaps Vanguards even pro-actively ask other people to pick up a (small) task on that list. Vanguards would offer to review the content made by other people before they (the other people) publish it. I fully agree on rewarding the Vanguards for their own (broader) role as stated in the proposal. Perhaps we could add that Vanguards each nominate 1-3 people that picked up tasks from their lists and created great published content for it to give them a small reward ($50-$250 range?).

I do not (yet) feel ready to apply for a Vanguard role, but I think I could do well in helping a Vanguard by picking up a smaller, more manageable task in their epoch objectives and create/publish great content for this. You could also consider this as some sort of an ‘apprenticeship’: people could grow towards true Vanguards this way and the Rangers community becomes increasingly powerful this way.

[Mallo]

Thanks for the insights and suggestions James.

I think the call to coordination is a good one. I’m generally in favour of a rewards program for content, but I think the main objective should be training / encouraging many rangers to provide content in a way which appears from the outside coordinated i.e. people should be identified for their preferred method of communication and given a framework for the upcoming month(s) - a bit like a story rundown for a weekly / monthly periodical, where people get tasked to highlight something and are then free to create something from there.

I feel there should probably be some sort of editorial / advisory role here as well for people starting out.

The longevity of good communication I think is having a clear path to bringing through content providers - If chainlinkgod decided he’d had enough, who replaces him and how? A good flow of contributors and a noticeable path to Vanguard, with recognition along the way are powerful imo, which might mean the top 3 isn’t maybe the best way of rewarding people - if someone writes their very first article on Reserve and it’s good, I think that is very valuable (zero to one) as well.

Just my 2c - I haven’t come up with any concrete suggestions on how to implement this but if pushed I could have a go.

[0xJMG]

I’ve been getting some great questions, so I thought it’d be helpful to dive deeper in a FAQ format:

—FAQ—

1. What are the benefits of Vanguards to the Reserve community?
The more you see something, the more you like it. Familiarity hacks your brain. That’s why advertising works. Repetition creates value, even if there’s nothing inherently better. In advertising this is called the MERE-EXPOSURE-EFFECT. More people talking about Reserve protocol and RTokens is a step in the right direction. The Reply-Guy strategy is key to boosting the signal-to-noise ratio for Reserve Protocol. Just yesterday, I posted something, and within hours, three replies popped up—coincidentally all promoting a competing stablecoin. Funny how that works.

2. Why is the proposed Vanguard contribution Discord-first and 𝕏 second?
Actually, I got that wrong in the original post. A balanced investment in Discord and 𝕏 is ideal, but ultimately, it’s up to the Vanguard to decide. The ‘Reply-guy’ is hands down the most effective way to cut through the noise and raise the signal in the Reserve ecosystem, both in Discord and 𝕏. As mentioned in the original post above, “Fast, quality responses drive growth.” Community votes during Vanguard epochs should also bring in valuable feedback. If you want more on why Reply-Guy is so critical, check this out:

Alex Finn (@AlexFinnX) on X

3. The Vanguard proposal references the previous Community Education Rewards (CER) program - what is that?
CER pushes and rewards content that actually educates and strengthens the Reserve ecosystem. From June 2023 to July 2024, it drove nearly 900,000 impressions, educating stablecoin and DeFi users at just $0.04 per impression. On top of that, it got major DeFi educators like @0xMughal and @Dynamo_Patrick consistently talking about Reserve to their communities. Mind you, Reserve protocol TVL 10x’d from $23M to $230M during the same period. That’s real impact. Fun fact: In early 2023 the Reserve BD team would go to conferences and people would ask, ‘Reserve is still around?’ Fast forward to today, and almost everyone in DeFi knows Reserve. Now, protocols are stalking Reserve to participate—just look at Stader and Frax jumping in with ETH+.

4. What were the challenges with CER, and how does Vanguard solve them?
CER had monthly epochs—12 a year—that required a lot of cat-herding for submissions and judging by the core team. It became a burden. Plus, shorter participation periods limited real engagement and didn’t allow contributors to build long-term momentum. Vanguard shifts to just 3 epochs a year, cutting the workload by 75%. With longer participation windows, contributors can go deeper and really build muscle and higher quality contributions.

5. But is the proposed Vanguard program a 1:1 substitute for CER?
No. Vanguards will produce how-to guides and semi-technical explainers, but they might not have the same reach as someone like @0xMughal and @Dynamo_Patrick. The difference is Vanguard brings in the Reply-Guy strategy, combining it with solid educational content. Plus, with @ReserveProtocol now at 120k followers, can amplify Vanguards and help Rangers who are aiming to step up as Vanguards.

6. Will Vanguards be a game-changer for the Reserve community like Link Marines were for Chainlink?
We won’t know until we try. To be fair, Vanguards are just one piece of a larger, multi-faceted ecosystem education strategy. Success comes from a lot of things aligning in sync. But Vanguards play a crucial role—they’re here to help the Reserve ecosystem unite and expand.

7. The original post mentions Chainlink God and the Chainlink ecosystem, but he wasn’t compensated—right?
Wrong. This is a common (and intentionally obscured) misunderstanding in Web3 marketing. Educators always get compensated; it’s just not obvious how. Either they already hold a bag of tokens, get paid directly, or they’re doing it for social clout and deeper learning, which leads to alpha—and eventually back to a bag of tokens (many investors take this latter route).

8. What is the point of the Vanguard’s monthly status report on the public Reserve Forums?
Simple—transparency. Sharing observations, data, and receipts keeps everything out in the open. It invites questions and comments, which sharpens the process. Public feedback matters—it’s how we improve and stay accountable

9. The post suggests starting with just three Vanguards—why is that the right number?
Well, it’s a starting point, but it could be four, five or six. When I wrote the proposal, the goal was to keep overhead low for the core team and the community. It’s better to focus on cultivating three solid Vanguards than spreading resources across six mediocre contributors. If it works, we can always scale up.

10. The post proposes $12,000 per epoch split between three Vanguards, is this enough?
It’s just a starting point. The community or Confusion Capital can absolutely push for higher amounts if needed.

11. What’s the deal with the proposed #Rangers-Vanguard Discord channel, and why require a minimum balance of RTokens or stRSR to join?
Simple. It’s meant to be a high-signal, low-noise space for real collaboration—no distractions, no fluff. We want Vanguards to be actual users of the protocol, not just mercenary farmers chasing quick profits. The minimum balance ensures alignment and keeps the quality of the conversation high

12. I want to be a Vanguard, but I’m not sure how to present my proposal to the community or what questions to answer.
During Vanguard election season before each epoch, post your proposal on Reserve Forum and cover these key points, ending with a clear call to action:

• Your Discord handle
• Your 𝕏 handle
• ERC20 address to receive grant if selected by the community
• Share your crypto journey—how it started, how it’s going. Go deep here!
• Showcase proud examples of content you’ve contributed to any ecosystem (links, screenshots, data, charts)
• Why does the Reserve ecosystem matter to you?
• What’s your engagement strategy as a Vanguard? Outline the personas, platforms, metrics, and messaging styles you’ll focus on.
• Call to action: Ask for questions and feedback from the community so you can refine your proposal before final judgment.

Make it clear, make it compelling, and invite the community to engage

13. How should Vanguards work with Confusion Capital and ABC Labs to identify what matters most?
A lot of the ecosystem’s priorities will be obvious—just check the Reserve Discord, 𝕏, and governance forums. It’s mostly about gathering, researching, and connecting the dots. But I’d also recommend a quarterly call (open to everyone) where Confusion Capital, ABC Labs and Vanguards recap the last quarter and share what’s critical for the months ahead. From there, it’s on the Vanguards and their Rangers to curate, synthesize and distribute the info however they see fit

14. @0xJMG, what’s your role in the proposed Vanguard program? What’s in it for you?
I’m here to support Vanguards with strategy, messaging, and resource connections. I won’t be competing in epochs as a Vanguard, but I’ll always be a Vanguard at heart. I’ve got 6 years invested in the Reserve ecosystem—first as a seed investor, then as Head of Ecosystem, and now as a community contributor. The mission’s not finished yet.

What questions did I miss in this FAQ?

[starl3xx]

Thanks for this, @0xJMG. As usual, you bring a meticulousness and depth of knowledge that’s appreciated by many — myself at the forefront.

I have a few questions that I don’t think are addressed

1. What party will actually be responsible for applying for a Confusion Capital grant? Is that you? The Vanguards themselves?
2. What party will be responsible for generating the infrastructure that ensures the success of this? This RFC is a great springboard, but I imagine there needs to be coordination (when, how to meet?), documentation (meeting minutes, content briefs), and the like beyond the proposed Discord channel. Again, is that you or something the Vanguards will generate?
3. Money is a great incentive, obviously, but a) what if the content sucks and doesn’t accomplish the states goals, and b) not enough people come forward to participate? Will there be an open call? Active recruiting?

Thanks again for this thoughtful proposal — I’ll post more here if/when I think of it!

[0xJMG]

good questions @starl3xx . will tackle in a few days after more comments roll in. might even try a fancy diagram.

[0xJMG]

Adding answers to additional questions here, will start numbering where prev FAQ left off:

15. What party will actually be responsible for applying for a Confusion Capital grant? Is that you? The Vanguards themselves?
During the 21-day pre-election, Vanguard candidates must post their public application (information form question #12 above) in the specified Reserve Forums category. Their original post, plus Q&A in the comments, forms the full application.

16. How will Vanguard candidate applicants be chosen by the community?
RSR holders or stakers will use a Snapshot vote to stack-rank candidates based on a brief description and a link to each candidates application. This vote takes place over a 7-day election period. For example a single Snapshot vote could reference 5 or 10 or more candidates.

17. How do we ensure max participation without endless wrangling? How will Vanguard candidates and RSR voters stay informed about the 21-day pre-election and 7-day election periods?
Advance, high-frequency promotion is essential—not just explaining what to do but why it matters. We need to enroll participants in the broader mission and impact. We need to show even inactive RSR holders the long-term value of the Vanguard program. Many community members simply wait to be invited, unsure where to begin. This has to be the unmissable invitation that lights the path forward.

18. What party will be responsible for generating the infrastructure that ensures the success of this? This RFC is a great springboard, but I imagine there needs to be coordination (when, how to meet?), documentation (meeting minutes, content briefs), and the like beyond the proposed Discord channel. Again, is that you or something the Vanguards will generate?

• Infrastructure needed by ABC Labs per epoch:

  • 21 day pre-election period

    • Setup Discord channel #Rangers-Vanguard with workflow requiring minimum RSR or RToken balance for entry (Jon_HQ and I can research safe bot/wallet options). Deprecate #The-Roundtable.
    • Exciting education and promotion on Vanguards what-why-how+logistics and community agitation
    • Create Reserve Forums category dedicated to Vanguard applications (these are the “minutes” and the responsibility falls on the community and the candidates)

  • 7 day election period

    • Snapshot construction, publishing
    • Exciting education and promotion on Vanguards what-why-how+logistics and community agitation

  • 7 day post election admin period - epoch kickoff

    • Collect tax forms for USA based grant winners
    • Publish epoch kickoff forum/blog post from highlighting recent quarter progress/updates and “areas of interest” in the coming quarter (for example what DTFs are, why they are exciting, how it could work on the Reserve protocol)
    • 𝕏 Spaces to discuss epoch kickoff forum/blog post and answer questions with Vanguards, Rangers and the broader community

  • 120 day epoch

    • Amplify the Vanguards and Rangers publishing content, enroll the community to amplify!

19. Money is a great incentive, obviously, but a) what if the content sucks and doesn’t accomplish the states goals, and b) not enough people come forward to participate? Will there be an open call? Active recruiting?
To ensure high-quality content and engagement, at least 50% of the Vanguard role should focus on “Reply-Guy” strategies on 𝕏 and Discord, providing quick, valuable responses and ABC/DTF inspiration. I’m available to help co-facilitate workshops on effective strategies, offering data, examples, and templates. I also recommend Vanguards read Hook Point: How To Stand Out in a 3 Second World to sharpen their impact. With only three Vanguard candidates initially, we can focus on the highest-value contributors and build muscle shaping the program collaboratively. Additionally, a quarterly 𝕏 content workshop with Vanguards and Rangers will enable us to assess successes, exchange insights, and offer free training—fostering a culture of growth. Given that Vanguards and Rangers may not yet have high reach on 𝕏, this is also a chance to help them expand their audience, so we can scale our impact together.

Last note:
Vanguard candidates should take ownership of their applications and compete (if they snooze, they lose). Confusion Capital supplies the grant funding, while ABC Labs handles program infrastructure and administration–significant promotion is critical. While I would favor ABC Labs leading on the latter point, it’s also possible to outsource admin and infra of the program to someone like @StableScarab (already active in Reserve / ETH+ and other stablecoin communities) who is launching https://proofofcontent.io/.

Call To Action:
If you’re in the community and reading this, please share your critiques, questions, or support. Unless there’s a need to move faster, let’s allow this to marinate within the community until around November 15, after which we’ll aim to secure YAE or NAE support from key stakeholders.

[0xJMG]

Terrific story of reply guy strategy on Reddit. Helping people makes a difference!

“This was great for settling misconceptions about a product or about a recent update, and also worked as a funnel of feedback for our internal teams.“

Full story here: Sonos, Customer Backlash, Reddit, and a Guy Named Keith

[0xTomSawyer]

I do not support the Rangers and Vanguards Program proposal.

I would support a proposal to restart the Community Education Rewards(CER). ABC Labs has already seen the success of this program and we know it works. So why try to reinvent the wheel?

The one downside mentioned of the CER program is that the overhead became a burden. In your proposed Vanguard program you suggest 3 month epochs as opposed to the CER monthly epochs. Wouldn’t a reasonable solution to this problem be to restart the CER program with appropriate epoch lengths to be chosen by ABC Labs so that it will not become a burden to the core team?

In your proposed Vanguard program, you state that there will be monthly status given in the forums. Even though the epochs are now 3 months, wouldn’t the “review” and “cat herding” burden still be the same with new(forum) content coming in each month that the team will have to review? Especially in the case if the proposal moves forward with 6+ Vanguards. That seems like very similar overhead to the monthly CER program epochs.

In the proposed Vanguard Program you mention that the difference would be content related to “How to guides” and “technical explainers”. Wouldn’t it be possible for a CER program epoch to specify that content needs to be a “How to” or “technical explainer” relating to a specific topic?

Lastly, who are we trying to compensate? Are we trying to compensate existing content creators in the Reserve Community? Or are we trying to incentivize new creators to come forward with content in the Reserve Community. The CER program did both. The CER program allowed for existing content creators to be compensated as well as incentivize new content creators to come forward. The proposed Vanguard program will not achieve this. An example would be @Mallo and I, we both continuously create value-add content in the Reserve Community without the expectation of monetary compensation. The CER program allowed us to submit the content we were already planning on making. You also mentioned how valuable it was to get heavy hitters like DeFi Dynamo and 0xMughal from the CER program. The proposed Vanguard Program will not be able to attract these guys to make content.

To Recap, I am not in support of the Proposed Vanguard Program, as it has too many flaws. I will be in support of a restart to the CER Program in a way that does not burden the core team.

[0xJMG]

This is helpful feedback @Tom_hyUSD, thank you.

Below is a lengthy post but the TLDR is Vanguards refines CER by deepening loyalty, dialogue, and distribution. Read on for the details.

Background on CER→Vanguards

To start, I should outline the inner workings of the CER back office. Executing CER was split into two key efforts: (1) recruiting “coordinated” talent—individuals with proven analysis and writing skills who also had large, targeted audiences, and (2) inspiring “organic” participation from the broader community–they might lack the polish in writing and analysis, but often have deep, long-term commitment to Reserve’s mission.

Plenty of the community want to go above and beyond for the Reserve ecosystem but don’t know where to start. They’re raw “organic” talent—just need a little guidance. The experienced ones “coordinated” help show the way.

Recruiting and managing the first group “coordinated” was intensive—I know because I handled it entirely. But the second group was no less demanding. With 12 epochs each year, it required constant coordination to gather timely submissions, ensure promotion, and facilitate community voting. By the end of Summer 2024, both efforts paused. A leaner core team and the sheer volume of work made it unsustainable to fully manage and maintain awareness.

Vanguards are simply an evolution of CER, inspired by three principles:

1. Minimize administrative burden.
2. Avoid one-off mercenaries and fortify contributor loyalty and deepen competency through longer term engagement
3. Emphasize two-way dialogue over one-way broadcasting. (inspired by Chainlink’s strategy last five years, and more examples below)

Remember, CER was an experiment, and so is Vanguards. With each iteration we hope to improve.

Inspiring Two-Way Dialogue aka “Reply-Guy”

Here’s a few insights on why two-way dialogue matters—basically, being a proactive “reply-guy.”

I spent Aug & Sept 2024 diving deep into seven DeFi protocols, from $21 billion TVL Aave and fast growing Aerodrome to veterans like Yearn and Synthetix. Research was interview-driven, plus data on governance moves and community feedback (read the synthesis here and here). One of the most common findings? Fast, quality responsiveness drives engagement. Easy to say, obvious to hear—hard to execute. This was missing from CER’s original design but sits at the core of the Vanguards approach. Example: When Socopower drops a quick, substantive answer in Discord (or any platform), it keeps that user engaged with the Reserve protocol instead of moving on to another shiny project with a more responsive community.

Aside from the above mentioned research, we see more clues with Alex Finn reviewing 400k lines of code to tell us what the 𝕏 algo is prioritizing, replying:

Fire can warm your house—or burn it down. Stablecoins can protect livelihoods but can also be exploited by bad actors. The same goes for reply-guys: they can be helpful and engaging or downright cringeworthy. We definitely want to avoid the latter.

Let’s take a moment to explore what “productive reply-guy” work looks like. It’s informative, inspiring, or funny, building relevant conversation bridges or amplifying the MERE-EXPOSURE-EFFECT - the more you see something, the more you like it. Familiarity hacks your brain. That’s why advertising works. Love their repetition or hate it, Bitcoiners, Link Marines, and the X█P Army have been pillars of resilience in their communities, riding out the highs and lows.

Here are a few examples of productive reply-guy:

Now imagine seeing Reserve and RToken mentions across 𝕏, Discord, Google, Reddit and hence ChatGPT and beyond when ever someone is asking about stablecoins, index funds, DTFs, inflation, etc.

We also have the opportunity to learn from billion-dollar retail brand Sonos in how they engage their community, correct misconceptions, and collect valuable product feedback. Two-way dialogue alert!

Another Parallel: Lobbying

Aside from the above research mentions, Vanguards, in many ways, draw from the playbook of successful lobbying movements. Anti-tobacco, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and pro-crypto advocacy have shown that relentless voices can reshape reality—curbing addiction, saving lives, and building a safer, fairer financial system. Achieving this requires uniting and expanding our community, empowering those first to act, lead and innovate, and set the path for others to follow.

What about Impact Analysis Outsiders?

@Tom_hyUSD , you’re right—Vanguards on its own won’t attract outsiders like Dynamo, Mughal, and DefiDojo. Although Reserve’s rising TVL likely will attract outsiders which specifically was the case with Dynamo. These folks excel at analytical communication and have significant distribution reach, but they may not be daily participants in the Reserve ecosystem. Vanguards, on the other hand, is designed to engage committed insiders, prioritizing long-term mission alignment with an emphasis on the reply-guy style for all the above reasons mentioned. It’s a tradeoff: reach versus mission persistence.

As Reserve ecosystem TVL grows, more talent is likely to organically jump in. Until then, while we’re building the flywheel, let’s consider external professional ambassadors—but without the heavy management overhead. For instance, a partnership with @StableScarab’s Proofofcontent.io or a structured, year-long ambassador model, similar to Gearbox’s collaboration with DefiDojo, could be effective. But this is seperate from Vanguards as detailed herein.

I thought it might be helpful to examine CER vs. Vanguards on an item-by-item basis. I’m happy to expand this further if anyone in the community identifies additional needs.

CER vs. Vanguards Compare & Contrast

Component	Details or purpose	CER	Vanguard	Notes
Participant identity & leadership	The community thrives on project updates, diverse perspectives, and quick, responsive support, carving an inspiring path for others to follow. People want to belong but need guiderails to find their place. It needs to be easy to know who to follow i.e. who is the lighthouse?	CER leaned heavily on a small ABC Labs team—making it nearly impossible to cover all areas where community presence was needed.	Vanguards, introduced with distinct titles and badges, act as new ‘lighthouses’ in the community, offering broader, round-the-clock reach. By decentralizing leadership and expertise, Vanguards equip the extended community with clear guiderails for meaningful participation.	Vanguards decentralize community identity and leadership, making the community more agile and resilient
Reply-guy lobby	Fast quality responses drive mere-exposure-effect and inclusiveness, inspiring discovery, settling misconceptions, market feedbacking to teams	none	50% or more of contribution	Vanguards place emphasis on reply-guy strategy, creating a distributed and easily amplified lobby for the protocol
Original content insider	Insider longer term missionaries creating how-to guides, technical explainers, analysis, project progress updates	yes, but more one-off tasking	yes, but more enduring expertise built in 4 month epochs	Vanguards incentivizes perpetual mastery; impact beyond one-off tasks.
Impact analysis outsiders (Llama Risk, Revelo, Mughal, Dynamo, DeFiDojo etc.)	Outsiders with proven analyst-comms and distribution expertise providing opportunity and risk analysis, how-to guides and technical explainers	occasionally	none	This is a higher overhead role that requires dedicated competency. Large ticket firms negotiated as-needed. For indie talent, consider retain agency like Proofofcontent.io or other.
Epochs per year	Provides a time-boxed process and framework	12 per year (one month)	3 per year (four month)	Vanguard should be about 75% less work
Administrator work (ABC Labs)	Awareness comms, recruiting impact analysis outsiders, igniting participation, snapshot votes, payments compliance	Higher-frequency epochs and expanded scope proved challenging—project paused.	Fewer epochs and eliminate impact analysis outsider recruiting, less workload	Vanguard should be about 75% less work for Administrator.
Community voters work	Review contributor receipts, ask questions, make suggestions, and Snapshot vote	CER isolates each submission as an individual piece, increasing burdensome frequency but lacking a feedback loop for contributors. vote 12x per year.	Vanguards compile contributions into a comprehensive RFC opus, enriched with community feedback for a broader perspective and easier lower-frequency voting. Vote 3x per year.	In Vanguard, the community has about 75% less work thanks to fewer epochs, public community feedback and can build a closer relationship with the contributors.
Contributor work / loyalty	Submitting a private Google form (CER) per content piece, or maintaining an updated public RFC forum (Vanguards) that aggregates submissions and includes contributor self-assessment. Vanguard’s longer epochs incentivize deeper mission alignment.	Each content submission via the private Google form (CER) requires intensive, one-off support from administrators, with separate votes for each entry and no space for community feedback or cohesion.	The public RFC forum (Vanguards) fosters competitive accountability, driving collaboration through transparency. Community Snapshot votes encompass the full RFC discussion. Also increased domain mastery and loyalty due to longer Vanguard epochs.	In Vanguard, contributor gets direct feedback and builds a closer relationship with the community, as well as deepening Reserve protocol loyalty and competency.

If Vanguard were approved and launched, anyone already creating content—and not currently funded through grants or other channels—should absolutely be eligible to compete for Vanguard funding alongside other contributors. I believe most would agree: contributions deserve recognition and rewards, but without duplication. It’s up to the community to select the most impactful work and for contributors to consider community input to achieve lasting, win-win outcomes. Said another way, ignore the community feedback, and Vanguard renewal may be less likely.

Call To Action (as previously mentioned):
If you’re in the community and reading this, please share your critiques, questions, or support. Unless there’s a need to move faster, let’s allow this to marinate within the community until around November 15, after which we’ll aim to secure YAE or NAE support from key stakeholders.

[StableScarab]

Thanks @0xJMG for mentioning Proof of Content as a potential solution for Reserve’s community education program moving forward.

I built Proof of Content for this exact purpose. I noticed that several DeFi projects were running community content/education programs, and putting them on a platform can offer significant advantages. Here are some important ones:

• Reach: X is the go-to platform for crypto marketing but its algorithm has two major issues: echo chambers and short-lived content. By running multiple DeFi community content programs under one roof, we achieve benefits of cross-pollination in contributors and readers that break down the silos. Proof of Content will also run its own contests on trending topics to bring more eyes to our platform and therefore your project. To make content last, we convert winning X content into articles, distributed to our users and hosted on our site.

• Overhead: Proof of Content is streamlined and full-service, cutting down on protocol overhead that is the biggest downside to managing community content programs. The platform handles accounts, contest creation, submission management, and rewards. It also handles analytics so the “receipts” of these programs are easily reviewable.

• Development: Proof of Content isn’t just a marketplace where protocols pay for content. It’s a community of top DeFi content creators who care deeply about this space and want to hone their craft. We will build out the educational resources to do exactly that and foster a culture of always improving.

Community education programs are one of the best ways to spend marketing dollars in DeFi, and I built Proof of Content to make sure that these programs are as easy-to-run and successful as possible.

The platform will be live next month. Happy to give a demo to any interested parties.

[0xJMG]

proof is in the pudding.

[0xJMG]

Poll: Help Shape the Future of Reserve

Launching this RFC poll to gauge community interest. If support aligns, it opens the door for high-impact implementation discussions with tens of thousands of RSR holders, Confusion Capital, ABC Labs, and other key stakeholders.

Before we get started on the poll: Remember the depths of crypto winter ‘22/23—hope was scarce. Seasons shift. Today feels brighter, but tomorrow’s light isn’t guaranteed. Building a decentralized future demands more than optimism—it requires committed, engaged contributors. It takes a village to raise a decentralized monetary system. Let’s put our money and sweat where our mouth is.

So lets start with a TLDR on what’s being proposed:
Introducing Vanguards: the evolution of our ambassador program after a year of community experiments. This isn’t just a tweak; it’s a leap forward.

What’s new? (1) 75% lower overhead—lean and scalable, (2) real-time, sticky conversations over shouting into the void, (3) only for RToken/RSR users—skin in the game, (4) decentralized submissions and judging—power to the community. Loyalty deepened. Dialogue sharpened. Distribution decentralized.

Details here: Rangers and Vanguards - a proposed new ambassador program

Find the 19-question FAQ in the comments above, starting here.

Why is this critical right now? Reserve’s ecosystem has evolved massively since inception:

• -RSV
• +Reserve Register
• +RSR staking/governance
• +RTokens
• +Safer yield, Defi expansion
• +DTF
• -RPay
• +UglyCash
• +Sentz

How do we keep the world updated? Divide and conquer, with Vanguards leading the Rangers.

What are the first 6 missions for Vanguards? Let’s hit the ground running:

1. Sub-4 hour response time—utility-first replies across Discord, 𝕏, and Reddit. Low shill, high value.

2. Lead the charge—when new features (like DTFs) drop, Vanguards & Rangers drive amplification, this tweet captures it:
   

   

3. Seed RToken yield opportunities—target emerging directories, blogs, newsletters, and communities with useful submissions.

4. Fix the past: identify, outreach and update blogs and sites across Google’s 5 billion-user ecosystem. Engage owners with ready-to-publish 2024/25 Reserve updates—replacing outdated 2019/20 artifacts.

5. Identify & inspire CEXs to ‘fix the past’ as well–opportunity: several of the 76 ‘surfaces’ on CoinMarketCap/Markets for Reserve protocol.

6. Write 1 or 2 blog posts or 𝕏 Articles per month on learnings, observations or bigger questions for the community

What are the main roles amongst stakeholders to make Vanguards a real thing?

• Community members get elected Vanguards
• Confusion Capital fund program
• ABC Labs administer program
• I volunteer monthly and quarterly input on strategy, comms, and driving engagement.

A more specific timeline of roles responsibilities can be found here.

Time to Vote
The Reserve ecosystem is evolving rapidly. Vanguards are a chance to turbocharge community-driven efforts with efficiency, impact, and inclusivity. If you believe in amplifying our collective voice, driving progress, and creating a decentralized powerhouse, your vote matters.

Do you support implementing the Vanguards ambassador program?

• Yes! Let’s move forward with Vanguards and build together.
• No, I don’t support the Vanguards proposal.

By voting, you’re shaping the next chapter of Reserve. Choose what you believe aligns with your values and the mission. Poll closes Dec 10, 2024.

[RyanTreeFiddy]

I think it’s great.

I think you guys are headed in the right direction and starting to use social media effectively. You can’t just “post and pray” anymore. There are strategies you have to use to grow your following and increase brand exposure and it looks like these are starting to be digested by the team. I really like what the Lodge does by locking the channel to get tweets liked, retweeted, etc. This all used to be in my wheelhouse. ha

The issue for me will always be time. I personally have very little time. I’m sure there are others with more time who would gladly take on this role. I’d love to and likely have in a parallel universe already.

[R72]

Your proposal is well thought-through and I believe it is the right way forward. So far each communication item/submission is broad-/narrowcasted as an individual item and the messaging in ‘scattered’ and without clear objectives/drive/campaign-thinking. Indeed, the Reserve ecosystem is evolving rapidly and has a lot of diverse angles that each take time to bring across concise and compellingly. I am a reply-guy at best and whilst following Reserve for quite a long time already, struggling myself to think what message do I want to bring: emphasis on inflation-free money being a human right, on the evolution (small pivot?) to indexing the world message, DTF, the actually usage through Senz, Ugly Cash, farming opportunities, staking opportunities and their dynamics, the highly secure smart contracts, just trying to respond to queries in Discord/Telegram/X - and so on and on. I think, even with my still-quite-limited-profound-understanding of all this, could generate a lot more impact if efforts were very orchestrated and more clearly contributed to a couple of clear messages we want to get across in any given epoch. Just as Ryan (and a lot of others I suspect) I am often short on time, but I am working towards being able to commit at least an hour each day. I am not Vanguard material myself yet, but I would love to be part of a team led by a Vanguard to help the world embrace Reserve! I am convinced that just that 1 hour a day will go a long way, especially if a lot of people are also willing/able to commit that. I am in!

[griffpeer]

This is a well thought out proposal and its great to see a high level of community engagement in the discussion around the shaping of the Vanguard Program.

Having a group of focused Vanguards would certainly help expand the reach and online presence of Reserve’s community.

If a crucial mission for the Vanguards is to use the Reply-guy strategy (which I think is valuable), I think it is important to think about the scalability of the strategy. 3 high quality vanguards as reply guys are are great, but an army is better!

I think a good mission for the Vanguards should also be to educate and recruit energetic, but maybe less informed, members of the Reserve community to participate in this strategy and improve the quality of their involvement with Reserve Ecosystem on various surfaces in Social media and DeFi. That way the Vanguards lead the front line of high quality engagement, but they also help to raise the bar of the entire community and really focus the efforts of our movement.

[DollarQuestion]

I think this is great. Pretty comprehensive and potentially really good way to amplify an already enthusiastic troop. I personally rely a fair amount on X replies, telegram etc from community members to verify and get the scoop on the latest Reserve news, or on outdated info that might have refreshed. Especially when I’m out of the loop for periods. Although this type of work is not necessarily my strong suit, I think it would be of value to reward the people who persistently put the man hours into quality messaging. A lot of people happily do it without pay, so I’m curious to see how the incentive structure and process helps this. I don’t foresee an issue, but hopefully it doesn’t create a dynamic of expectations from the community where participation becomes contingent on “getting paid.”

[0xJMG]

Agree on building an army. 3 Vanguards is the minimum. Lets enroll and train as manay and as fast as we can. I think a 1st cohort of 3 to 9 is very scalable to perfect first, then they become the lighthouse beacon to help train the next 30 to 90.

I think about this simple visual sometimes.