The Seventh HOPR DAO Experiment Has Launched

The seventh HOPR governance proposal has begun! This time we’re building on the growth of the HOPR network and the success of RPCh to present something very exciting that’s only possible in the amazing world of web3.

The proposal before the HOPR community is:

Should the HOPR Community invest into a HOPR product company?

A newly established entity, Swiss-based HOPR rise holding AG, is tasked with funding the development of products on top of HOPR, such as RPCh. If the proposal passes, equity in HOPR rise holding AG would be placed in a new HOPR Community Trust, to be governed by the HOPR token holders. This kind of investment is normally only open to VCs and other similar players, but in the new exciting world of web3, we think it makes sense for these opportunities to be open to an entire community and not just the privileged few.

Full details of the proposal, including the valuation and discount numbers, can be found on the HOPR forum. You’ll also find more context around the proposal from the perspective of the HOPR Association, and some high-level information about planned improvements to the HOPR governance system.

Process Details

This will be a slightly reduced governance process, with a single proposal and only two options: Yes or No.

Since the proposal is already valid and earmarked for a vote, there will be just two phases: discussion and vote.

Discussion will take place on the forum and voting will occur in the HOPR Snapshot Space. Only HOPR tokens staked in Staking Season 7 or held loose in wallets as HOPR, xHOPR or wxHOPR will be eligible to vote. The vote will use quadratic voting.

The full schedule for this governance experiment is as follows:

• Phase 1: Discussion: May 8th 2pm CEST — May 13th 8pm CEST
• Phase 2: Vote: May 11th 8pm CEST — May 13th 8pm CEST

Discussion will remain open during the voting phase. Participants will receive HOPR Boost NFTs. You need to participate in both phases to earn a rank higher than bronze.

What Next?

This is the most exciting governance proposal to date. It might also be the final one in our experiment series.

For the past few months, we’ve been working on a new approach to HOPR governance which combines what we’ve learned from our experiments with the practical reality that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot meet the needs of the different parts of HOPR ecosystem.

It seems we’re not alone in this approach. Web3 lawyer Gabriel Shapiro recently wrote a great article introducing the concept of BORGs, legal entities with a smart contract basis that sit somewhere between DAOs and traditional off-chain entities.

What does this mean for HOPR?

We’ll wrap up our governance experiments with this proposal and move to the next stage of HOPR governance. From a process perspective, this will be very similar to what you’re used to. There will still be proposals and discussions on the forum, and votes on Snapshot. We plan to transition to better tools, throughout the year, but even then the core process will remain. Propose, Discuss, Sign, Vote.

From an organization perspective, however, things will be radically different. Instead of a DAO which tries to handle every aspect of governance within the HOPR ecosystem, there will instead be a governance platform and various entities making use of that platform in different ways.

These different entities will plug into the platform with different parameters and levels of obligation. For example, once the Community Trust is established to manage the assets raised at launch, that entity will plug into the platform and be obliged to act on the decisions made by all HOPR token holders.

The HOPR Association will continue to use the governance platform in an advisory capacity: it will still consult all token holders, but will not be obliged to act on the results.

Finally, the HOPR protocol itself will also use the governance platform (eventually) and be bound by its outputs. However, only HOPR tokens staked in active HOPR nodes will count towards votes and proposals will be limited to those related to protocol parameters.

Similar to Gabriel Shapiro, we believe that this kind of multi-entity approach is a significant improvement over all-purpose DAOs. It’s more coherent, dynamic, efficient and from a legal standpoint appears to be more compliant and less risky for all parties involved.

Sebastian Bürgel,
HOPR Founder

Website: https://www.hoprnet.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoprnet
Telegram: https://t.me/hoprnet
Discord: https://discord.gg/dEAWC4G

Forum: https://forum.hoprnet.org
Staking: https://stake.hoprnet.org