#dgov July Updates ✈️

Ola, Org Hackers, Max here.

July is the traditional vacation month, but we never stop and have produced more cool updates for you. Hope you’ve got some rest yourself =)

👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Dgov Network Updates

Community highlights

This month we’re welcoming

• Rob Allen from eosDAC, fully operational distributed governance focused project running on multiple eosio chains
• Julius Schmidt, active as a validator in various POS systems
• Rebecca Johnson, cofounder of the European Blockchain Association and a blockchain architect for Datarella
• Anna Muir, Governance professional and in-house lawyer with NZ and international experience
• Eric Arsenault, works on DAO stuff
• Donna Wate, a female medical doctor and founder of a health social enterprise,offering low cost health care services to women and girls in periurban City of Honiara, Solomon Islands
• Mauro Velazquez, mapping the ecosystem at DAO Browser (list of all DAOs)
• Nick Allen, MakerDAO
• Jantine Derksen, generalist with a background in history, fine arts, journalism and business administration
• Seth Goldfarb, Evernym, decentralized identity company
• Jed Grant, KYC3, compliance solution
• Philip Silva, ZeroProverty, OpenUBI promoter, and decentralization enthusiast
• Stani Kulechov and Jordan Lazaro Gustave from Aave
• Anna George from Gnosis
• Eugenio Battaglia, an advisor, researcher and facilitator focused on collaborative strategy making and ecosystem-platform thinking

Also check out the ecosystem map by type and by geography

Web3 dgov node

So it’s less than a month till Web3 Summit, where we do a #dgov node. There’s more than 30 great speakers, workshops (including one from DAOincubator involving synthesizer 😮). People say it’s cool, but check it out for yourself.

Also would like to thank Aragon for sponsoring the video shoot and few extra tickets. We still want to fund few more things, if you’d like to help us out — please get in touch.

Dgov Retreat Ljubljana

We’re retreating into nature (a rural mountain range in Slovenia) to xplore new forms of governance in theory and practice for 3 full days. We do this in the context of the current time of existential risks and aiming for a future of human flourishing and life-sustaining society. Sign up and find more info here.

Meetups

No meetups we’re aware of, but you can support the dialogue, action and change in your cities — Host local meetups

Upcoming events

• Web3 Summit (Aug 19–21, Berlin) — with a dedicated #dgov node
• Webinar: Sociocracy for non-profits and associations (Aug 20, online)
• Enspiral Org Academy (Sep 5–8, Belgium)
• DGOV Retreat 2019 (Sep 19–23, Slovenia)
• Massive Adoption Crypto Festival (2020)

✨ OrgTech Review Highlights

A Colony for Developers. Colony launched their own developer’s colony, which will reward CDEV and reputation to any developers who contribute to Colony’s open source repositories. The developer dashboard integrates with this colony so that all you need to do to start earning is login and link your Metamask and Github accounts.

1Hive’s “Dandelion Orgs” request for funding approved by the Nest program. Luke Duncan (Aragon researcher) and his 1Hive team will spend the next 5 months replicating Moloch DAO’s functionality by building 5 new modular Aragon apps. The popular “rage quit” mechanism will be executed via the Redemptions app, demoed here.

DAOstack’s Alchemy now allows DAOs to modify their own structure. The scheme registrar scheme enables adding, editing, and removing elements of a DAOstack DAO. Read more how to use schemes in this technical introduction.

Gnosis has Stepped Back from the dxDAO. Gnosis has cut all ties to the dxDAO, the DAO it launched to control the auctioneer powers of its DutchX decentralised exchange. While Gnosis never held any voting power in the dxDAO, the company has now also archived the DAO’s Github and Twitter accounts and has given up admin rights to the DAO’s Telegram and Discourse communities.

Panvala Beta Release: What Would You Fund?. A year after inception, Panvala releases a beta version of their funding allocation tool. Aiming to be a “decentralized Ethereum Foundation”, Panvala holds a public vote among holders of test tokens to choose which projects will receive PAN token grants. Mainnet launch is planned for August.

dOrg are working on a fundraising module for DAOstack, which will use bonding curves and facilitate more transparent DAICOs (like the Aragon Fundraising app). Check out the spec here and give them feedback here.

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⚖️ Cryptolaw updates

GitHub

Last week GitHub Iran-based users received emails that their access to repository is being curbed. They have been restricted due to “Trade Control Laws Restrictions”. This is well within GitHub’s Account Terms of Services as Section B 3.6. All GitHub users who are part of the US sanctioned countries list are thus banned from having an account. Since GitHub is a subsidiary of Microsoft, which acquired the company in 2018 for $7.5 billion and is thus a US based company, it must comply with US export laws.

Devs responded. And the twitter is still echoing their despair. While some are already looking into alternatives and are convinced ‘’this only accelerates the migration to Web3 where big tech can’t be evil’’, Microsoft is working on Decentralized Identity which is making it possible to have decentralized identifiers and decentralized datastores that can’t be interdicted. See a response here and more about the project here.

International Developments

• Long awaited Reg A+ epilog has been achieved with SEC’s approval of two digital token offerings under Reg A+. The very first approval was granted to Blockstack, the second approval was granted to Props, a spin-off of live-streaming company YouNow. Besides, you might want to look into SEC and FINRA’s joint statement addressing questions each has received from market participants regarding proper custody of digital assets. Another notable thing happening in the US is the inter-state agreement between 23 states of America which have agreed to standardize the licensing process for money transmitters and other money services businesses on a reciprocal basis. Once put into practice, this agreement will help streamline the MSB licensing process among the participants.
• UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a ban on crypto derivatives as these types of financial products are inappropriate for retail investors “who cannot reliably assess the value and risks of derivatives or ETNs that reference certain cryptoassets”. Concurrently FCA works on finalising guidance on Cryptoassets.
• Japan’s proposed an international network for cryptocurrency payments, similar to the SWIFT network used by banks around the globe. Some say this initiative gained support from G7’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF), who would monitor the development.
• The Cayman Islands presented two new laws. One broadens the powers and duties of the country’s regulatory authorities, including the Financial Reporting Authority and the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Group, over financial due diligence and governance. The second one introduces KYC compliance and related AML obligations. The definition of “virtual asset services” excludes security and utility token issuers. Under the bill, a “virtual asset” means “a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred, and can be used for payment or investment purposes.’’
• Changes in this regard were made also in Canada, where exchanges operating in the country must register as money services businesses with FINTRAC, implement a full AML compliance program and report cryptocurrency transaction of $10,000 CAD or more.
• While the Bank of Venezuela will soon allow its customers to access the country’s state-sponsored cryptocurrency, and Maduro ordered distribution of 1 mio crypto wallets preloaded with petro to students and youth, there are two more states interested in issuing their own crypto-currency or using an existing one to boost state affairs and economy. Cuba has been looking into it as to combat international sanctions against the country, John McAfee has already offered to help. Meanwhile, Turkish vice president Fuat Oktay submitted a plan to Turkish parliament to launch a central bank “blockchain based” digital currency within the next four years.

Libra

Due to U.S. Congress hostile reaction and questioning of Libra, today many are of an opinion that Libra Association as proposed is not happening.

A while ago members of the U.S. House of Representatives demanded a freeze on project’s development until government officials can hold hearings and collect information necessary to protect consumer privacy. Soon after Facebook officials met with the Federal Reserve. President Donald Trump stated that the project should be required to obtain a “new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations.” No one really knows why, although he did subsequently wrote he’s not a fan of crypto.

Calibra has registered as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Calibra CEO David Marcus published a short post on Facebook addressing popular questions and describing the flyby of first two weeks. Similar points were made in a letter to both the House and Senate.

Officials serious concerns were presented on a hearing, where David Marcus, testified before Congress and tried to answer questions about the social media giant’s plans for a cryptocurrency. You can see some highlights here.

One of possible outcomes is a bill that prohibits technology companies from functioning as financial institutions or issuing digital currencies. Looking at the fines which reach up to $1 million per day for violation, if the proposal passes, this might as well be the new capitalistic version of the GDPR.

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😂 Having Fun

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