Splinterlands: Post-Mortem Analysis of Riftwatchers Presale Proposals

Recently, voting ended for the 4 SPS Proposals related to the Riftwatchers Presale. This is a brief analysis about the outcome and what options are available moving forward:

SPS Governance Proposal - Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 1

This vote confirmed that all of the presale purchases in the final block (Block 67936464 at the 1 minute, 39 mark) count for the presale. This was brought up for a vote because it does cause the presale amount to exceed 500K, increasing it by 1166 packs.

Since this passed, nothing needs to be done by players who made transactions in the final block.

If this proposal had not passed, then some mechanism would have been needed to decide which transactions in the final block count for the presale and which transactions would not, but this is a moot point.

And for players who had purchases in the last block and benefited from the passing of Proposal #1: I hope you remember this and gain some empathy and compassion towards other Splinterlands players who encounter problems.

SPS Governance Proposal - Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 2

There were 147 accounts who bought presale packs in the first 1 minute 39 seconds who did not claim all of the bonus packs that they were eligible for. This amounts to 13,389 bonus packs (and will increase the 500K presale amount by that number, though it's possible that not all users will file support tickets).

The ESTIMATED Riftwatchers Set Release is September 27th, 2022 (in 2 days) and while it is still possible for the release date to be postponed, if the set is released on that date, that means a very narrow turnaround time for players who want the bonus boosters in time for the set release. This may also affect your eligible boosters for the Riftwatchers promo card if you do not quickly resolve your support request.

A. Thus far the Support Team has received support tickets from 111 of these users, which means 36 users who are eligible have not filed support tickets yet.

@icecreamtony, @brucutu, @kioshiru, @newbrine, @jnix33, @romulus594, @a-a-r0n, @beccss, @moonseer, @dharanir, @henrycase, @andrea97, @depppt, @doemdirty, @grem29, @joy-2the-world, @nuaykubb, @tidepodoreos, @shadowch4ser, @enton81, @drolo, @jron, @revisesociology, @thetah, @yabalka, @colskr, @runningwater63, @cheesehead144, @chiboulette, @atanvardo, @tannix, @wkcrisis, @brooder, @rikkon, @libertyguy, @faustgottes

If you want to claim your bonus boosters in time for the September 27th release date, please file a support ticket ASAP at:

https://support.splinterlands.com/

B. For the 111 users who have already filed a support ticket, the Support Team will work towards responding with an update. But ultimately we will be asking the users to send the missing vouchers to: sl-cs

(You can preemptively send your vouchers to sl-cs, which stands for splinterlands-customer support, even if you haven't gotten an updated response yet).

C. Proposal #2 as written, technically only helps users who were in the presale period:

"Anyone that purchased packs during the presale, but used less than the full amount of Vouchers be allowed to purchase the full amount of presale eligible packs by submitting the missing vouchers."

If you bought packs after the 1 minute 39 second mark (Proposal #4 failed so that is still the cutoff), it can be argued that you technically missed the presale (and don't count as someone who "purchased packs during the presale"). Furthermore, the clause "purchase the full amount of presale eligible packs" doesn't address people in the general sale who want to purchase the full amount of general sale eligible packs by submitting the missing vouchers.

As a result, we could very well need a follow-up SPS Proposal that states:

"Anyone that purchased packs during the general sale, but used less than the full amount of Vouchers be allowed to purchase the full amount of general sale eligible packs by submitting the missing vouchers."

D. And for players who benefited from the passing of Proposal #2: I hope you remember this and gain some empathy and compassion towards other Splinterlands players who encounter problems.

SPS Governance Proposal - Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 3

This proposal passed narrowly. Both Proposal #3 and #4.A were controversial because there was ambiguity in some of the wording and there were some aspects that not everyone was happy with.

I voted in favor of both proposals because I thought it was important for there to be a refund mechanism in place, even though some of the wording was non-ideal.

"DAO to refund anyone the exact amount of SPS and vouchers they spent for Riftwatchers packs. Packs can be refunded up to two weeks after the proposal passes as long as packs remain unopened and no air drops have been occurred or been claimed. Packs refunded this way would be burnt and the purchaser ineligible for airdrops. Splinterlands to loan 30k Vouchers to be returned by the DAO at a later date. Players would have a 2 week window to redeem the refund."

A. @aggroed mentioned that he was surprised by the number of players who expressed on Discord a preference that the refunded packs be put back up for sale instead of being burned.

If there is sufficient interest, players could hypothetically rally for an amendment to this proposal, offering the alternative of having Splinterlands (on behalf of the DAO) reselling the packs instead of burning them.

B. Technically, the wording means that someone could theoretically buy 2 million Riftwatchers packs right now, immediately request a refund, and cause the majority of the cards to be burned (while receiving a refund of the exact amount of SPS and vouchers they spent). If someone were to try that, I would imagine that there would be a subsequent amendment to address such a loophole and prevent such a refund from happening.

C. "Packs can be refunded" and "redeem the refund" are a little bit vague. I think the better wording would be that "players would have a two week window to file a support ticket requesting a refund at: https://support.splinterlands.com/"

D. It is unclear how the DAO would eventually return the 30K vouchers being loaned. Will Riftwatchers purchases in the short-term result in vouchers being collected (but not burned) until the loan would be repaid? Or will the DAO eventually need to purchase vouchers to repay the loan?

UPDATE: @warrentrx has pointed out that sps.dao already has 19K vouchers which it has accumulated over time for the 2 million SPS that it has staked.

E. "no air drops have been occurred". Besides the grammar issues, the promo card is technically an airdrop too, which means that if Riftwatchers is released on September 27th, it is really only a 3 day window and not a 2 week window.

F. "packs remain unopened" and "no airdrops have been occurred or been claimed." I think the intent was that as long as the player has not opened their packs and claimed their airdrops, they can request a refund. But as written, it could be interpreted that as soon as anyone has opened packs or claimed an airdrop, that it prevents anyone else from requesting a refund.

G. I think the intent of "the purchaser ineligible for airdrops" is that the packs that are refunded do not count for airdrops. But based on the wording, it could be argued that if someone buys 100K packs and then refunds 1 pack, then they are completely ineligible for airdrops (even with the 99,999 packs that were not refunded).

SPS Governance Proposal - Riftwatchers Presale Proposal 4

This was the first failed SPS Proposal (other than the very first "test proposal").

A. Because Proposal #3 passed and #4 failed, right now the only refund mechanism involves the DAO providing the refund.

If people prefer that Splinterlands provide the refund (instead of the DAO), they could advocate for a reworded version. However, Aggy has stated that the reason why 4a was combined with 4b was because if the presale window was not extended to 3 minutes, then the amount of money required for Splinterlands to fully cover the refunds would require board approval. Thus any such SPS Proposal of 4a (but not 4b) would be advisory and not binding because ultimately it would be up to the Splinterlands board.

B. There are definitely going to be some sad players disappointed that the presale window was not extended to 3 minutes.

However, even though this proposal failed that doesn't mean that a revised/reworded version could not be proposed and passed in the future. You could:

• Find additional evidence of technical issues that happened in the first few minutes of the presale
• Convince enough SPS stakeholders to change their vote (or to vote in the first place if they didn't vote in the last round)
• Buy and stake sufficient SPS to change the outcome

C. For those who purchased Riftwatchers packs in the first 3 minutes but didn't make the presale cutoff: Please review the refund provisions of Proposal #3 and decide whether you want to request a refund or if you are okay with your purchases being counted for the general sale instead.