Announcing Monolith #1: Authoritative API3 DAO
We have introduced a terminology to define and manage a DAO-governed roadmap. In this context, a monolith is a fundamental piece that forms the grand vision of API3. You can also think of monoliths as milestones of the project roadmap that don’t follow a specific sequence.
Today, we are excited to announce our first monolith, the authoritative API3 DAO. This monolith includes the development of a DAO, which will allow API3 token holders to stake at the API3 DAO pool to receive staking rewards and voting power, officially making them API3 members. An API3 member will have a direct say in all aspects of the DAO, and they will also be able to delegate their voting power to another API3 member if they won’t be able to vote themselves.
This monolith is prioritized over the others, because we believe that the first step of achieving true decentralization is decentralizing governance. Although it may feel efficient to bootstrap a project with centralized governance, the resulting growth ends up looking less like a network and more like a blob. And you can be sure that the core of this blob won’t be able to give up their power later on, even if they know that it will be better for the project. We find this to be especially important for API3, as it will need to sprawl to fulfill its potential.
The DAO roadmap
As some of you may have noticed, the reputation-based initial version of the API3 DAO is already live with the founding members and some of the investors. The DAO bank currently holds the funds raised from our investors. This DAO is essentially a springboard that we will use to launch the authoritative version.
We are announcing the development of the authoritative version of the DAO as a monolith now because we will start to fund undertakings toward it. An undertaking is essentially a step taken towards building a monolith. It usually includes expenses (in this case, in the form of personnel costs), and requires the DAO to pass a proposal to fund it.
Monolith details
You can see the proposal here. Note that our approach to how proposals are made and processed may (will) change over time. It is foreseen that the DAO monolith will be completed in 4 sequential undertakings. The first undertaking will start as soon as the DAO passes the proposal, and the monolith will be completed on February 15th in the earliest (plus delays in passing undertaking proposals, audits, holidays, etc.)
The undertakers are a team allocated by dOrg, a DAO of full-stack Web3 developers. It’s a surreal experience to receive services from a DAO as a DAO to have a DAO built, but turns out this is the future we’re living in. This affirms our thesis that we are at the bleeding edge of the decentralized way of doing business, where partnerships will not be made through shady backroom deals, but honestly transparent transactions that are collectively beneficial.
Saying that dOrg is a desirable partner only because they are organized as a DAO would be a disservice, as they are specifically experienced in this kind of work, and have a roster of talented developers ready to deploy to fit a variety of needs. Work with them so far has been very smooth and professional, which makes me hopeful for this new future of service providers that are organized as DAOs, API3 included.
I’m the current patron of the monolith, because I worked on the initial version of the DAO, built tooling around it and implemented a proof of concept for the staking pool of the authoritative version of the DAO the undertakers will work off of. We are working on the overseer structure, specifically on tools that the API3 members will be able to use to follow progress of the monoliths at a high level, and we will announce them as they are deployed.
Conclusion
Preparing for a public distribution, building Airnode, designing new protocols, doing business development, releasing informative content, looking for contributors and all the other things that we are doing simultaneously do not stop us from also developing our DAO in the meantime. We want to hit the road running in this because decentralizing governance is vital, and it will act as a multiplier on all of our future endeavors.
