Board member Yat Siu answers community concerns on ApeCoin DAO salary payouts

Leaders of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governing the ApeCoin (APE) ecosystem have been criticized by community members for what they described as “insane” salaries after the sums were published in an organizational chart. 

On June 10, the ApeCoin DAO secretary, who goes by “Vulkan,” published an organizational chart on Twitter detailing the salaries of the DAO’s leadership. This showed salaries ranging from $7,000 to $75,000 per month, shocking some community members and prompting a slew of inquiries from others.

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One Twitter user described the salaries as “insane” and said the DAO may be “burning cash on nothing.” According to the community member, they had no idea what the “special council” was doing to deserve $20,000 per month. 

In the organizational chart, the so-called “special council” is in charge of administering DAO proposals. Because of this, the Twitter user also asked the community if anyone could remember whether any proposals were passed in 2023.

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Meanwhile, another community member who goes by Michael tweeted that the council jobs, if done properly, could justify the amounts for the right people. However, the community member added, “100k to mod a forum and another to supervise though is lols.”

One community member described the salaries as being “insanely out of touch,” while another Twitter user accused those who made this decision of being “disconnected from reality.”

Responding to the concerns raised by the community, ApeCoin DAO board member Yat Siu claimed in a Twitter thread that the compensation being paid corresponds to the “responsibility and liability of the role.” According to Siu, different industries pay more due to risk and liability, and he pointed out that the crypto and Web3 industries have plenty of both. 

The board member said that while it’s not the same, the roles of the special council have some similarities to executives in mid-cap companies who receive similar rates. “The importance and the duty of care that comes with serving a multi billion dollar DAO and related risks and liability for each member is real & serious,” Siu tweeted.

Within the thread, a community member asked whether the people paid $20,000 per month have equivalent resumes to a public company director. Siu replied that not all of them are typical public board director candidates but said that this is what makes DAOs exciting. According to Siu, this proves that people who don’t have typical backgrounds can perform well if given the opportunity.

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