DAOs Marching Forward part II
Seeds Catch Wind
The past few weeks have been the largest ever in terms of growth in the DAO ecosystem. Five exciting projects announced respective DAO pilots, covering a variety of use cases, all powered by Alchemy, the flexible DAO interface for collaborative resource management.
Our goal is to for DAOstack to be the infrastructure service provider of choice for organizations worldwide who want to DAOify themselves. We believe that the holographic consensus (pt 2) approach works for governance at scale, that Reputation-based voting is generally more useful than tokens, and that learning by doing is the best and only means of iterating a better product market fit. Luckily, prospective users share these beliefs: in addition to the projects I’ll be discussing, we’ve been speaking internally with many more projects genuinely interested in the scalable collaborative networks DAOstack unlocks.
Let’s see how the DAO ecosystem is growing.
KyberDAO
The Kyber Network is one of the preeminent decentralized on-chain liquidity protocols servicing tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Earlier this year, the Kyber team conducted an internal Alchemy pilot. As part of a series of governance experiments, they have allocated approximately $4500 in KNC tokens for initiatives that “…spread awareness and educate more people about Kyber Network or Kyberswap.” The experiment will last until the funds are depleted, with the aim to:
“[G]auge community interest, learn from one another, and identify the key challenges when it comes to decentralized governance and making collective decisions as a community.”
Additionally, GEN has been listed on Kyberswap, providing easy access to prospective members of the GEN Predictor’s Network* (GPN) to acquire GEN tokens. As a reminder, GEN prediction is available to anyone with the token, for any DAO on the Alchemy platform. We’re pleased to announce that approximately ~30k GEN was staked in May, creating ample opportunities for GPN reward seekers, with this statistic steadily increasing as more DAOs join the ecosystem’s circular GEN economy as described in the DAOstack whitepaper.
Join the KyberDAO chat to continue the conversation. Anyone can submit a proposal to the KyberDAO for this experiment, so submit yours here today!
* People unfamiliar with the utility of the GEN token should read this article first.
dOrg BBLLC
dOrg, the blockchain development cooperative specializing in DAOs, took the ecosystem by surprise when they announced their incorporation as the first legal DAO under Vermont’s Blockchain-based Limited Liability Company (BBLLC) structure. By linking the DAO to this BBLLC, the DAO has official legal status, allowing it to enter contractual agreements and offer participants liability protections. Multiple media outlets covered this historic launch, drawing attention to DAOstack as a leading DAO service provider for this important use case. According to a related press release, dOrg is working towards making:
“[T]he process of configuring and deploying a legally registered DAO… as easy as creating a social media account.”
dOrg is currently developing a number of key projects in the DAO ecosystem, including:
- The DAOcreator — a simple application for founders to create a DAO.
- DAOcomponents — a React component library wrapping DAOstack’s client, with the goal of being able to turn any app into a DAO governed dApp with as little as two components
- Continuous Funding for DAOs — a fundraising mechanism that will enable any DAO to launch and interact with a token bonding curve. Bonding curves are a complex topic, but we highly recommend learning about them.
PragueDAO
The PragueDAO is the first example of a DAO experiment aiming to govern a physical space. Its unique bootstrapping was co-funded by the Genesis DAO through a proposal on Alchemy, perhaps making it the first example of a DAO seed funded by another DAO within the ecosystem. Inspired by this, the PragueDAO aims to seed additional DAOs, becoming the incubator of choice for decentralized tech startups in Prague. According to my recent interview with PragueDAO co-founder Clare Kennedy,
“The primary objective of the PragueDAO is to pilot the idea of a physical DAO in an initial test space (approx 2,000 sq.ft). This space is also involved in creating a self-sufficient incubation space for tech and blockchain startups who may have the possibility to become DAO use cases themselves. The members of the incubator will have the option to join the community and have an input into developments of the space.”
She goes on to highlight the advantages of using DAOstack to help incubate a Prague DAO ecosystem:
“DAOstack offers a number of features that I think make it the best choice for any future DAOs particularly in it’s modular approach to DAO building. As potential DAOs (separate to the physical DAO) within the incubator could take a number of different forms it is very useful to have a flexible solution that we can get familiar with and use to create a wider ecosystem. ”
The PragueDAO is seeking additional legal expertise to steer their experiment, specifically in regards to the question of legal personality. Please consider joining the DAO legal chat or forum if you think you can help!
dHack
We’ve been working hard to design a new use case for Alchemy drawing on the lessons learned from previous hackathons. This new hackathon model — a decentralized hackathon (dHack) — is focused on funding continuity, allowing participating teams to continue work on their hackathon projects, helping them transform their ideas into value generating products.
The first decentralized hackathon iteration was tested by Bitfwd following their partnership announcement with DAOstack. This dHack — styled as a Blockathon — generated 44 proposals in a handful of days. Many of these proposals were administrative in nature–people joining the dHack and seeking Reputation as judges, for instance — but this demonstrates the flexibility and scalability of Alchemy’s proposal system.
Although dHack is being featured this August at EthBerlinZwei, it would be a mistake to think of the dHack as a one time event. The ultimate goal is to create a decentralized hackathon use case that gets all stakeholders involved in a continuous funding process curating the best ideas and giving teams the resources they need to succeed. We believe the Ethereum open-source ecosystem will benefit from the competitive, decentralized curation of the next great projects, and our ultimate aim is for the dHack or its future incarnation to be a novel incubator in this regard.
As an experimental use case, dHack’s proposal structure and governance parameters are subject to change per discussion and community feedback. To get involved with this process, join the community chat.
CuraDAO
I am pleased to include the CuraDAO in this list of DAO pilots, as it was initially cooked up as early as Q3 2018 during an interview between myself and the founders of the Caribbean Blockchain Network (CBN). Since then, it’s been a progressive journey by the CBN towards launching a DAO pilot. Following educational DAO workshops in Curaçao and Trinidad, the CuraDAO now exists, with anyone able to submit a proposal in support of its mission to create value in Curaçao. According to the announcement, it aims to:
“[C]reate sustainable development in Curaçao through collaborative innovation that benefits the commons.”
CBN co-founder Luuk Weber, in a previous article, believes that CuraDAO could eventually morph into a means for the island’s inhabitants to unite and take real action to transform itself into a stakeholder-driven economy. That is, the people of the island will be able to make actionable proposals and collaborate more effectively in line with their shared ideals by leveraging a DAO. We’d love to witness the development of collaborative DAO microeconomies in the future, using DeFi tools such as the continuous funding modules to bootstrap themselves, and CuraDAO has strong potential to grow this direction.
The results of the pilot will be presented at the year-end Innovation Ç conference 2019. Join the CuraDAO conversation on Facebook, or submit your proposal today on Alchemy!
Join the DAO Ecosystem
While we’ve been able to discuss five great DAOs above, there are many more underway. The map above offers some insights on what DAOs are to come. Soon, we’ll release an updated development roadmap of all of Alchemy’s upcoming features, and how they will enable an even more robust collaborative ecosystem.
For DAO founders, joining the DAO ecosystem has never been easier, with abundant tools and communities to help you easily and effectively launch your experiment:
- If you want to get right to it, fill out this form. Filling out this form will give you a chance to interface directly with the DAOstack team to create your DAO.
- Many community channels exist to help prospective DAO creators, on Telegram, Discord, and DAOtalk. There are many specialists and resources in these channels to help you on your DAO creation quest.
- Still need some convincing? See this DAO pitch deck. We hope it persuades you to take the decentralized leap.
- If you want to speak in-person, we invite you to join the DAOstack team for DAOfest on August 20th during Berlin Blockchain Week. You can keep track of where and when the team presents globally by following our Twitter or community chat.
Finally, it goes without saying that we invite everyone to apply to join the Genesis Alpha DAO, the first DAO powered by DAOstack. It is a fast growing community of experts developing the tools, building the ecosystem, and creating the use cases needed to make the DAO seeds of the future thrive today.
