You have probably heard about the terms decentralization, blockchain, Cardano and DAOs. You are probably asking yourself, “What exactly is ADAO and what does it have to do with all of those things?!” We would like to take the time to introduce you to our organization and explain the reason why we have brought this DAO into existence.
What is a ‘DAO’ and why should I care?
On January 3, 2009, a little-known pseudonymous programmer calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block of the Bitcoin network and shared it with the Cryptography Mailing List, a distributed community of cypherpunks dedicated to the advancement of privacy technologies. Within the hash of the block he encoded this message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” It was that day’s headline for the Times of London newspaper.
The message that Satoshi encoded in this block served two purposes. First, it was a timestamp to prove that he could not have produced the block prior to the 3rd of January, 2009. Second, it was part of a manifesto in code telling the world why Bitcoin was invented. While the system of central banks would allow for one man to decide the winners and losers in an economic system, the system of blockchain would be completely neutral and run strictly according to the law of the code. Various people and systems around the world perform tasks to keep the Bitcoin system running to this day. Some scholars have argued that Bitcoin is the first example of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO for short.
The Cardano network follows in this tradition, seeking to provide a decentralized transaction settlement layer with no need for middlemen to approve peer-to-peer coordination. Cardano utilizes the Ouroboros Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism with architecture designed to enable smart contracts and run side chains and additional layers. The members of ADAO have chosen to build on Cardano because we believe these features will be useful for establishing systems of governance.
While DAOs come in many different shapes and sizes, the common feature is that they are organizations owned by the members of the community, governed by rules that are guaranteed by code, and run according to protocols that are open and transparent to all.
What is a DAO?
TLDR: An online community with a shared crypto wallet and tools directing how to use it.
The Conception of ADAO
With the arrival of the Goguen era in September, 2021, users gained the ability to implement decentralized applications and execute functional smart contracts on the Cardano network. Around this time, various members of the Cardano community started discussing the ways that DAOs could be built with tools that could now be deployed on the network to support them.
ADAO was one of these groups. While the initial vision at the time was somewhat vague the general consensus among members was that the organization should help set standards for Cardano DAOs to emulate and provide support for further DAO ecosystem expansion. Through further discussion and recruitment of additional members, it was decided that ADAO should become a “service DAO” dedicated to providing public goods that would be useful for all stakeholders of the Cardano network who are interested in using decentralized toolsets.
The members of ADAO hope to serve the Cardano community in three main areas:
- Education: Share knowledge about what DAOs are and how to use them effectively
- Tooling: Develop tools for decentralized coordination and DAO governance on the blockchain
- Support: Offer technical, organizational, and financial support in designing and developing DAOs
On November 13, 2021, ADAO was born, 16 governance tokens (GovTokens) were minted, which were distributed to 8 individuals in order to begin testing the governance script. In addition to the initial mint, ADAO locked an identity NFT into a smart contract, officially bringing the DAO into existence. With that implemented, there were now governance tokens that control a treasury.
The first governance script is capable of three things:
- Minting new Governance Tokens
- Spending from treasury to a specific address with specific amount
- Updating Identity NFT of the governance script
Since then, ADAO has grown into a community consisting of hundreds of individuals on our Discord server and over a dozen core contributors who are excited about the potential that on-chain governance brings to them and their community. Because we believe that all users of the Cardano blockchain are stakeholders of ADAO, we recognize three levels of community membership:
- GovToken Holders are the first category, because they are essential for deciding the priorities of the DAO. No assets may be moved out of the DAO treasury without a vote of GovToken Holders and all program coordination is formalized through votes on proposals.
- Active Contributors are the second category, because this is the way that GovTokens can be earned. When a member of the community volunteers their time to DAO projects they can claim bounties from the DAO treasury and use these GovTokens to vote on what projects the DAO should work on next.
- Community Associates are the third category, because we need all voices of the Cardano community to help guide our efforts. Even if an individual does not yet hold any GovTokens, they can engage in legitimate peripheral participation by engaging in community discussions on our Discord server.
As we prepare to fully launch the DAO, current Active Contributors of ADAO have been seeking input from Community Associates and preparing a proposal for the GovToken holders. This proposal includes a GovToken creation directive and plans for token distribution to ensure decentralization. The largest percentage of tokens are being retained in the treasury, to ensure organizational longevity, with the next largest percentage being set aside for bounties that can be immediately earned by contributors who want to get involved.
How can I get involved?
ADAO exists because of the work done by Active Contributors, which is why they are rewarded with GovTokens. Our goal is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the success of the organization by sharing their unique talents and skills. You can find more information about ADAO by visiting our online domains.
- Website: https://theADAO.io
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ADAOcommunity
- Medium: https://medium.com/@ADAOcommunity
- Discord: https://discord.gg/9D44mCWtZH
While we use our website and social media accounts to share content, our Discord server is where members gather to collaborate, share knowledge and work together on DAO projects. We have already started collaborations with other groups in the Cardano network and onboarded other community members and project developers. We invite anyone interested to join a Working Group, find a bounty that they would be able to fulfill, or come to one of our meetings to ask what work needs to be done.
Currently running projects include our DAO governance smart contract with web interface, a script for peer-to-peer token escrow, and an NFT fractionalization dapp. We also have Working Groups related to education, law, tokenomics, and governance. See our events calendar for details on upcoming meetings and check out our Project Catalyst grant proposal on the Catalyst Voting app, entitled: Creating Cardano DAO infrastructure.
By taking these actions, ADAO aspires to become a DAO for DAOs on Cardano. All users of the Cardano blockchain are stakeholders of the organization and can contribute to ADAO through active development or legitimate peripheral participation. We seek to unite the community by building the framework for self-organization and staying true to our mantra of “Decentralization Together.”
