***Bakers Summit Recap (2–7–20)
(Correction on 2–13–20: We wanted to correct the title, and information in the article as there was the Bakers Summit that was held and the proposal of a Bakers Union, which are two very seperate and distinct ideas. All corrections are done in bold.)
Inaugural Baker’s Summit Recap:
On February 7th, 2020, 43 bakers spanning across 13 different countries made their way to Vienna, Austria to convene and hold a Bakers Summit. Among talking about baking strategies, there was a proposal of the Bakers Union launching. We wanted to edit this article to distinguish between the two so that there are no misconceptions. We apologize for the misleading information that this may have caused and will do everything in our power to correct it. The Bakers Summit and the Bakers Union proposal are two very seperate things and we do not want take away from the successful Bakers Summit held in Vienna as a lot of bonds were rekindled from when Tquorum NYC ended.
[When you add in the amount of rolls that the bakers represent, that’s close to 11% of the total network! In the interest of keeping this post short, we will be posting a video and list of attendees after this inaugural recap post.]
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of covering what happened at the meeting, we want to give a congratulations to the group of bakers that all came together from 13 different countries!
Before we get to the reveal the details of the Baker’s Union(completely seperate), it is very important to note that this was the first Tezos event that was independently organized, without any sponsors, by Bakers for Bakers. We cannot stress how unique this event was because without any sponsors, we had a turn-out of 43 different bakers who used their own funds to travel to Vienna, Austria for one night to talk about the baking ecosystem, new baker tools, future amendments, and most importantly, creating a standard of conduct that will promote good baking behavior. That is a testament to how uniquely decentralized the Tezos eco-system really is, and how passionate the community/people who comprise the backbone of the Tezos network/blockchain really are.
How the event played out:
Introduction: of all attendees by Zed and introduction of the Moderator for the event; Alex Liu.
Speakers of the night (FOR THE SUMMIT):
- Tezos Isreal showed us about what they’re doing in Israel and some of the upcoming events that have planned. Tezos On the Road and community building;
- Baker Tools; Tezos Reward Distributor(“TRD”) by StakeNOW; Daniel showed us some cool things he was building on which will make batch reward distribution a lot simpler for bakers.
- TezosUK showed us about some of their upcoming events and some of their partnerships. Very neat stuff!
- Jonas from Tezos Capital and StakerDAO showed us his plans for Staker DAO and how they’re pushing forward with sophisticated smart contract building using the Tezos network.
(We are not doing any justice with these short explanations of the speakers, but wait for the videos and you will see for yourself!)
Dinner-
Baking eco-system; Baking-bad; showed us some pretty interesting things about Carthage (which you’re in for a treat, they will be posting soon.. like really soon. They also answered questions from bakers on how they audit at baking-bad.org, and lastly some of the things they’re working on, BCBD ring a bell? (We cannot express how grateful we are for all of Baking-Bad’s help and their decision to work with us in creating better auditing standards and model baker code of conduct!)
Round Table Session:
All the bakers sat around a round table and we chatted about future amendments: specifically, Carthage and the upcoming proposal 007. We also discussed about baker voter participation and how to encourage more participation within the ecosystem.
The last event of the night was the reveal of the Bakers Union: (which some people stated they might want it called an Association, and since we’re a democratic organization we will put it up for vote)
The Proposed idea of the Bakers Union: (a proposal made at the Summit, it’s just a proposal!)
Baker’s Union: “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair;” (George Washington)
There is a proposal that we are going to form the Bakers Union which will be comprised of Bakers. (I need to stress, this is just a proposal and do not want to diminish the highlights of the Summit. As a proposal suggests, nothing was finalized or subscribed to by any of the attendees)We distinguished ourselves from what we’re, a Union, as our main goals are to do the following;
1. Create a (model) good baker’s code of conduct: [We believe that if we can hold the bakers accountable or create a standard code of good conduct, this will also benefit the delegates as well, through at a minimum, trickle down effects. For example, one of the topics that was discussed was about how much notice is appropriate for a good model baker to give to their delegates if the baker is going to be raising their fees? Or what if a baker is going to be closing their service, what is the appropriate time and notice to be given? and how should that notice be given? → We are going to create model conduct that every baker should strive for.]
2. Have education materials and a tech-support arm to help on board new bakers. (We will always strive to create a more robust and more decentralized network!)
3. Create a team to help explain upcoming proposals and help guide testnet activities, including incentivizing participation of testnets.
4. Create a team that will be able to challenge the core-devs with the first independent proposal coded by an outside dev team and invoiced appropriately (we believe this will bring competition and the help show that decentralization lives and breathes in the heart of the Tezos network. This will also act as another check and balance within the Tezos network and keep the network healthy, robust, and honest.)
The governance structure is going to be up for discussion once we get our website up. Nothing has been decided besides extending a hand to the inaugural members, which will be every baker who attended the summit. Once again, it is just an invitiation, and nothing formal has been initiated or subscribed to.
Most importantly the idea behind the Bakers Union will work to make the baking community more accountable, transparent and most importantly; honest.
(We will stress once again, the proposal/idea of the Bakers Union was just a proposal, none of the attendees have subscribed to it, nor have the details been flushed out yet. We apologize for any misleading information it may have caused and will do everything to rectify the situation and clear the air)
Much more to come, and we mean much more! Stay tuned for videos, pictures, website, etc.!
