HCIP 5: Develop a handbook for the work of the Historians DAO

[vrortvedt]

Summary

Write and approve a handbook that contains the procedures and formats that members of the Historians DAO should follow when writing and reviewing verdicts about $HASH descriptions

Motivation

We want a standardized process that historians follow when writing verdicts so that those verdicts are clear and helpful to readers, whether they are prospective purchasers or users seeking to learn about a transaction's historical significance.

Rationale

Widely differing research and verdict writing practices among historians will likely lead to reduced confidence in the reliability of the verdicts, which would threaten the goal of the Historians DAO project

Implementation

Historians could collaborate on developing a shared handbook document, which when approved by all, could be published to the repo and shared in the POB Discord

That handbook should include sections on:

• Overall goal of the verification process
• Types of verifiable claims
  1. "genesis" claims
  2. "first" claims
  3. "largest/highest value" superlative claims
  4. famous person's address claims
  5. hack/exploit claims
• Overview of the research process
• How to write a verdict
  1. Primary purpose: to provide sufficient information and context for a non-technical reader to be able to understand the historical significance of the HASH TX
  2. Style and grammar guide
  3. Basic requirements of all verdicts
  4. Supplementary sources and links
  5. Examples
• How to review and vote on a verdict
  1. Think adversarially
  2. Precautionary principle - better to decline verification than to publish a misleading or incorrect verification

Designated team

Existing historians and the POB team

[vrortvedt]

Draft of handbook here: https://hackmd.io/@victorrortvedt/B1Q1imXRO