MultiDAO Multicast Vol. 1

Welcome back to another edition of our MultiDAO development update! We know many of you are eagerly awaiting our alpha release and are asking, “Why is this taking so long?” As a dedicated group of volunteers balancing this passion project alongside our everyday lives and full-time jobs, we’re investing every spare moment into creating something truly exceptional. We understand your anticipation, and we share it too. Our aim is not to deliver just another web3 platform, but to introduce a transformative tool that will redefine the landscape of decentralized autonomous organizations. We believe in crafting a high-caliber product that justifies the time and patience required to build it. This edition will shed some light on the challenges we’re navigating and the care we’re taking in this journey. So, let’s delve into the details together.

1. Quality and uniqueness are paramount in a market oversaturated with similar ideas.

We’ve been asked, “Why can’t it just be a snapshot vote?” The answer lies in our mission to disrupt the status quo of DAO governance. Rather than conforming to the existing, dominant model, which often ends up being an echo of traditional plutocratic systems where those with the most money wield the most influence, we aim to introduce a highly-composable model of governance that enables democratic participation for passionate community members who may have a smaller token holding. This new model is designed to empower users with alternative modes of governance, providing a democratic counterpoint to the prevalent, one-dimensional model.

This vision resonates with the concerns raised by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in his Time’s interview in 2022. He criticized the dominance of coin voting — a voting process for DAOs that he feels has transformed into a form of digital plutocracy. Wealthy venture capitalists can sway decisions to favor their interests with little resistance, thereby diluting the decentralized ethos of DAOs. “It’s become a de facto standard, which is a dystopia I’ve been seeing unfolding over the last few years,” Buterin lamented.

At MultiDAO, we share Buterin’s concerns and aim to create a platform that truly democratizes decision-making within DAOs. Our goal is to offer a platform where the power to govern is not centralized among a few wealthy individuals, but is instead distributed equitably among all participants (although this configuration will still be available to those that seek it. This is a challenging and complex task, and it involves navigating uncharted territories in the realm of decentralized governance. But we believe it’s a worthwhile endeavor that will bring us one step closer to realizing the true potential of DAOs.

In developing MultiDAO, we’re striving to create a platform that recognizes the importance of all members of the HOGE community, not just those with the largest token holdings. Historically, many of our most dedicated and active community members have not been among the top wallet holders. These individuals, though they may not hold significant quantities of tokens, contribute immensely through their passion, creativity, and commitment to the community. We know these people exist in all vibrant and active web3 communities. With MultiDAO, we’re working to ensure that these contributors have a real stake in governance decisions. We aim to build a system where influence within the DAO isn’t measured solely by token ownership, but also by the value that each member brings to the community.

To help with this, we’re excited to introduce the concept of Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) to the MultiDAO platform, a novel approach to recognizing and rewarding active participation in governance. The idea of SBTs, first proposed by Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, stems from the world of online gaming where certain items, once acquired, become intrinsically linked to a player and can’t be transferred or sold. In a similar vein, SBTs are non-transferable digital tokens that represent the social identity, commitments, credentials, and affiliations of a member in a decentralized society.

In the context of MultiDAO, SBTs can serve as a form of reputation-based NFTs, awarded to members for their engagement in governance. These tokens essentially become a form of digital resume, issued by other wallets, that attest to a member’s contributions and involvement. They could represent a variety of engagements, from active participation in discussions to proposing successful initiatives.

The introduction of SBTs to the MultiDAO platform has the potential to revolutionize how participation is recognized and rewarded. It offers a model of participation where reputation or voting power is not determined solely by token holdings but by effort and involvement. This merit-based model ensures that the most active and dedicated community members, regardless of their wallet size, have their contributions recognized and valued. It further reinforces our goal of creating a platform where everyone’s voice matters. With SBTs, we’re not just democratizing governance; we’re redefining it, ensuring that the future of DAO governance is not just decentralized but also egalitarian.

2. Our journey thus far has seen the architecture and vision of the project evolve significantly.

The evolution of our project is not only natural but also necessary to ensure we are building a product that can meet the changing needs of the Web3 community. However, this evolution has necessitated several phases of refactoring our codebase across the entire technology stack. An illustrative example of this came up when we were designing the user dashboard for our dApp. We initially wanted to populate the dashboard with metrics such as the number of active campaigns or organizations — key pieces of information that would provide users with a snapshot of community activity.

However, extracting these general statistics from our smart contract architecture proved to be challenging. The real issue was that gathering these metrics required overly complex front-end web3 API calls to the blockchain. Maintaining and scaling these API calls over time would be a daunting task, posing potential challenges for the long-term viability and performance of our platform.

As a result, we had to make informed compromises and update the UI in a way that still delivered essential information to users without necessitating drastic reconfigurations of the smart contract architecture. We redesigned the dashboard to present information that was both valuable to the user and feasible to extract from the blockchain efficiently. Additionally, we have plans to refactor the smart contracts and API server to align with standards to make reading data like these metrics much easier.

From the smart contracts that form the backbone of our dApp, to the backend web API server, to the database schema, even the smallest tweaks in our design decisions have resulted in substantial changes. This process, while time-consuming, is integral to maintaining the effectiveness of our project. Every challenge we face and every adjustment we make brings us one step closer to our goal: a user-friendly, efficient, and scalable dApp that meets the needs of a diverse number of Web3 communities.

We are committed to establishing a solid base framework that will minimize technical debt as we move towards beta testing. We understand the importance of getting it right from the start — having to backtrack and fix issues later not only costs time but also resources. By laying down a strong, secure, and scalable foundation, we can add features more efficiently in the future. This approach ensures that as we scale, we do so in a way that does not compromise the security or performance of our dApp. This is a slow and careful process, but it’s a vital step in ensuring the long-term success of our project.

3. Security is our paramount concern.

The unique landscape of Web3 introduces a host of security challenges that we must navigate to protect our users and their assets. This emphasis on security has led us to make design decisions that, while technically complex to implement, are crucial for the safety of our dApp.

A tangible example of this approach is our handling of user data. One challenge we faced was reducing the amount of data that users can write directly to our backend Flask web server. Each API endpoint allowing write calls expands the potential attack surface and introduces security challenges to the database. To mitigate this, we’ve designed our backend server to read on-chain data that populates the UI with essential information that can’t feasibly be written on-chain, such as campaign or organization descriptions or user profile pictures.

This strategy not only enhances the security of our platform but also leverages the transparency and immutability of blockchain technology. By limiting direct write access to the backend server and utilizing on-chain data, we’re able to maintain a robust security posture while providing a rich, user-friendly experience. This process, while time-consuming and technically challenging, is integral to our commitment to building a secure and reliable dApp.

While these security measures might seem extensive or even unnecessary to those who are not technically inclined, they are crucial in safeguarding our platform and its users. As a cybersecurity professional, I am acutely aware of the various attack vectors that could potentially compromise the integrity of our dApp, particularly in the end user’s browser. Web3 platforms are often targeted with cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, among other threats, which can cause significant damage if not properly mitigated with approaches such as ours.

Conclusion

As we continue this challenging yet rewarding journey, we want to take a moment to express our deepest appreciation for your patience and understanding. We know that waiting can be difficult, especially when you’re as excited about the possibilities of MultiDAO as we are. We’re not just building a dApp — we’re crafting a tool to reshape the world of decentralized governance. This endeavor requires not just our time and expertise, but also your trust and belief in what we’re creating.

We understand that some of you might be anxious about the release timeline and its potential impact on the token price. While we appreciate your concerns, it’s important to remember that the crypto market operates on macroeconomic cycles. The Bitcoin Halving Cycle, which typically marks the beginning of the bull market, is projected for Q1 2024. These macroeconomic factors are beyond our control and have broad implications for all crypto assets, not just ours.

Moreover, we want to emphasize that the MultiDAO team is price agnostic. Our focus is on creating a transformative dApp that contributes to the evolution of decentralized governance, rather than on the immediate fluctuations of token price. We are steadfast in our mission and are not swayed by market speculation. Our commitment is to the long-term vision of MultiDAO and its potential to redefine the landscape of DAOs. It’s this mission that guides our work, and it’s the value we believe our dApp will bring to the community that drives us forward.

We also want to remind our community that we’re still in need of a Technical Project Manager and a DevOps Professional to assist us in our alpha and beta releases. If you or someone you know has these skills and is passionate about the world of Web3, please get in touch. We’re not just building a product; we’re growing a community that is bound by a shared vision and aspiration for a more democratic, inclusive, and efficient model of decentralized governance. The easiest way to reach me is Telegram.

Every line of code, every design decision, and every security measure we take brings us closer to realizing this vision. We are confident that the time and effort we’re investing now will culminate in a dApp that is not just unique and functional but also secure, scalable, and truly representative of our community’s values. Thank you for being part of this journey with us. Your unwavering support fuels our work, and we’re excited to shape this future together.