DAOs: Nouns is forking, Maker explores a fork of the Solana codebase, Aave to add freeze stewards, Optimism details RetroPGF 3, Gitcoin discusses guardrails for partnerships, SuperRare’s Rare Protocol launches, GovMonth begins at Arbitrum, dYdX’s V4 launch incentives proposal, and more!

Paradigm

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Paradigm

19 min readSep 15, 2023

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Biweekly report on decentralized autonomous organizations vol.42, 25th August — 15th September

TL;DR

Aave to add freeze stewards: The proposal suggests adding a FreezingSteward as the riskAdmin to synchronize functionality across Aave V3 deployments on multiple networks. Grants Continuation proposal is under discussion. TokenLogic Proposal approved
MakerDAO Rune Christensen writes that the final phase of the “Endgame” project involves the complete reimplementation of the Protocol on a new blockchain (“NewChain”). Solana codebase is deemed the most promising
Nouns is forking. While Gnars proposes a transition from the Ethereum mainnet to Zora Network
Gitcoin discusses guardrails for partnerships. Furthermore, Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin, expressed his intention to re-engage with Gitcoin
Optimism details RetroPGF 3. Furthermore, Optimism details partnership with Base
Lido DAO considers adding 7 shortlisted Ethereum operators to the Lido on Ethereum operator set. The Emergency Brakes signer rotation proposal passed
Gnosis proposal to overhaul the Token Rewards Plan is active. GIP-89 & GIP-74 are under discussion
Compound’s proposals 177, 178 passed, 179 failed
Hats Protocol is live with v2
GovMonth begins at Arbitrum. Furthermore, Activate ARB Staking post suggests introducing a locking mechanism for the Arbitrum (ARB) token. Proposal to integrate Arbitrum One with the Rarible protocol approved
SuperRare’s Rare Protocol launches
Government of India partners with Questbook
The Frax Core Team has proposed the introduction of Staked FRAX (sFRAX) to the Frax ecosystem. Frax’s Flywheel website subsidy proposal
Cosmos discusses a proposal to improve governance and oversight structures on the Cosmos Hub. Increase Active Validator Set from 180 to 200 proposal
Chaos Labs has proposed a six-month launch incentives program for dYdX V4, aiming to facilitate the transition of users and liquidity from V3 to V4
CityDAO: The Center for Virtual Organizations and Communities and the DAO Journal
JPEG’d DAO voters are deciding how to account for a $1 million bounty
Decentraland: Implementation of a Fee for DAO Proposal Submissions proposal seeks community feedback on introducing a fee
ApeCoin: AIP-304: Create the Digital Art Movement Collection to Acquire Yuga Assets and Other Notable NFTs for Exhibition and Donation to Art Institutions
ShapeShift: Remove Incubation as a required step in the DAO’s governance process proposal
Uniswap: Deploy Friendly Fork of Uniswap V3; ZERO Protocol on Polygon zkEVM
Rocket Pool’s Rocket Pool Powers and Authorities discussion
Upcoming events on DAOs and Web3
Podcasts on DAOs
And more!

Overview

Blockchain technology is already radically transforming the financial system. However, properties such as trustlessness and immutability aren’t only useful in monetary applications. Another potential application is governance. Blockchains could enable entirely new types of organizations that can run autonomously without the need for coordination by a central entity.

“Instead of a hierarchical structure managed by a set of humans interacting in person and controlling property via the legal system, a decentralized organization involves a set of humans interacting with each other according to a protocol specified in code, and enforced on the blockchain.” — Vitalik Buterin

DAO stands for “decentralized autonomous organization” and can be described as an open-source blockchain protocol governed by a set of rules, created by its elected members, that automatically execute certain actions without the need for intermediaries.

In simple terms, a DAO is an organization that is governed by computer code and programs. As such, it has the ability to function autonomously, without the need for a central authority.

Like how DeFi is programmable money and how NFTs are programmable media, DAOs are programmable organizations of people.

DAOs Ecosystem Statistics

Top DAOs

The rating is headed by BitDAO and Optimism Collective. Two weeks earlier the rating was headed by Arbitrum One.

Read on DAOs

Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium, by Buterin, Illum, Nadler, Schär, and Soleimani
DAO Governance and AI, from StableLab
Nouns Will Survive, by William M. Peaster
Capitalism Onchained, by Packy McCormick
Leadership Transition Proposal V3, from Friends with Benefits
Conflict and how it plays out in DAOs, from Justine (via the Optimism Foundation)
Decision-making in a decentralized community, from BanklessWriters
The Essential Web3 Glossary, from William Janiec
The Endgame or the Beginning of Infinity? from BanklessDAO
Governance all the way down, from David Phelps
An analysis of the Ethereum roadmap, from Stacy Muur
Understanding Aave Governance V2: The Decision System Behind DeFi’s Largest Lending Platform, by Callen (Wintermute)
Turning the Wrench on Gearbox Protocol: an Analysis of the DAO’s Governance Dynamics, from Manwë Research
Secret Societies, Network States, Burning Man, Zuzalu, and More: Thoughts on New Political Communities, by Matt Prewitt
Guild: The Rise of Niche, Contextual Communities, from Lore
On bricked protocols and governance, from Lajarre

Listen

Serendipity Machines & Hypercultures — LGHT + Gami, on UFO
It’s Not a DAO, It’s a Crime, on DAO Talk
How Blockchain is Unleashing a Governance Revolution w/ Cedric Warny, on Green Pill
Day in the Life of a Professional Delegate — Nethermind — Bobby Bola, from The DAOist
Nouns Builder No Code DAO Creator Tool, on OP Radio
Optimism Collective: Scaling DAO and Social Contracts, from Bankless DAO
Maximize Ownership, Minimize Governance w/ Jess Walden, on On the Other Side
Decentralizing the Founder/CEO with Kain Warwick, on Green Pill
Journey of a Transaction w/ Jill Gunter, on On The Other Side
The Superchain Explained with Jesse Pollock & Ben Jones, on Bankless
Onchain Release Clubs w/ Yancey Strickler, on Rehash
Keep Your Friends Close & Your DAOs Closer, on DAO Talk

Governance

Aave

Freeze Stewards: This proposal suggests adding a FreezingSteward as the riskAdmin to synchronize functionality across Aave V3 deployments on multiple networks, including Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Metis, and Base. This ensures that emergencyAdmin listed in the ACLManager can freeze reserves for security purposes, and it also serves as approval for executing the payload on the Avalanche network. Voting for the onchain proposal ends on September 15th.

Aave Grants Continuation Proposal: The proposal discusses continuing the Aave Grants DAO (AGD) for six months to preserve the current AGD treasury holdings and provide $700,000 of new funding between ARB and AAVE. It also seeks to increase AGD’s stablecoin allowance by $870,000, enabling the support of developer grants, events, and operations within the Aave ecosystem. The proposal highlights the history and impact of AGD’s initiatives, metrics, and operational focuses for the upcoming period.

TokenLogic Proposal: In this temp-check, TokenLogic proposes to serve as a service provider for the Aave Community, focusing on Aave DAO finances and promoting GHO adoption. With a history of contributions to the Aave Protocol since mid-2020, their expanded team aims to enhance treasury management, support GHO liquidity/incentives management, improve financial reporting, aid GHO adoption, and implement safety module improvements, all while soliciting a budget of 350,000 USD for an initial six-month period. The proposal passed on September 7th with 86.57% voting “yae.”

Closed proposals

Discussions

Latest governance topics on governance forum.

Compound

Closed proposals

Discussions

Latest governance topics on governance forum.

ENS

There were no active votes these weeks.

Discussions

Latest governance topics on governance forum.

Gitcoin

Gitcoin Digest #17 2023

🏠 Housekeeping: 🚨Async updates are due next week 🚨 Please update the weekly slides 🙏 @rena & @quaylawn are watching…

gov.gitcoin.co

Setting Guardrails and Best Practices for Partnerships: This post discusses a proposal to change the partnership decision-making process at Gitcoin, particularly for the Gitcoin Grants Program. The proposal suggests implementing guardrails to exclude certain industries or sectors (e.g., weapons manufacturers, hate groups, tobacco, and fossil fuel companies) from consideration for partnerships within the grants program based on community consensus. This change aims to align partnerships with community values and engagement levels, with further discussions, formal proposals, and potential adoption outlined in the post.

I Intend to Return To Gitcoin: Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin, recently announced his departure from Supermodular (now renamed Buildbox), and expressed his intention to re-engage with Gitcoin, albeit in a different capacity. He plans to converse with various stakeholders of the Gitcoin DAO, including contributors, users, and developers, to determine how he can best contribute and address diverse opinions about the platform’s direction.

There were no active proposals these weeks.

Discussions

To read more about the different proposals and take part in the decision, check out the governance forum.

Gnosis

Recent blog posts

Gnosis Core Devs Call Notes September 6, 2023

Active proposals

Proposed Overhaul of the Token Rewards Plan (trp)

Discussions

Find out the latest GnosisDAO proposals here.

Lido

Recent blog posts

Lido Monthly Report: August 2023

Active proposals

Should the Lido DAO add the 7 shortlisted Ethereum operators to the Lido on Ethereum operator set?

Closed proposals

Discussions

To read more about the different proposals and take part in the decision, check out the governance forum.

MakerDAO

MakerDAO's MKR Token Jumps 10%, Defying Crypto Market Slump

The rally occurred amid improving fundamentals of Maker, as the protocol has returned to make profits, Messari analyst…

www.coindesk.com

Maker to move to Solana? In a post on the Maker DAO forums on September 1st, founder Rune Christensen writes that the final phase of the “Endgame” project involves the complete reimplementation of the Maker Protocol on a new blockchain, referred to as “NewChain.” This development aims to provide a means to recover from severe governance or technical issues and address accumulated technical debt. NewChain will host the backend of the Maker Protocol, leaving user interfaces on existing platforms, and connecting through advanced bridges. After evaluating various foundations for NewChain, Christensen deems the Solana codebase most promising due to its technical quality, proven resilience, and adaptability for appchains. While Cosmos was considered as another option, Solana’s focus on efficiency and the presence of a central foundation organization made it more appealing for this initiative.

Ended Polls

4 Polls — ended Sep 07

3 Polls — ended Aug 28

Executive

Discussions

Read more about the different proposals and take part in the decision.

Uniswap

Recent blog posts and news

Closed proposals

Discussions

To read more about the different proposals and take part in the decision, check out the governance forum.

Upcoming Events

September 19–20: DCENTRAL Tokyo

September 26–27: Blockchain Expo Europe, Amsterdam

October 4–6: Swiss Blockchain Capital Day

October 6–8: ETHRome

MISC

Nouns is Forking: Nouns DAO is undergoing its first fork. The Nouns Fork mechanism, recently introduced with V3, is designed to serve as a minority protection mechanism within the DAO. Some members are leaving the DAO due to longstanding disagreements about fund allocation, while others, known as arbitrageurs, are seeking to profit from the fork. William M. Peaster provides a clear, balanced write-up of the situation. Despite the split, some see this as an opportunity for the remaining members to refocus on supporting creative experiments, and Nouns DAO is expected to continue evolving with ongoing governance experiments and innovations. Meanwhile, the Verbs team — which created Nouns V3 — published an article discussing the development of a new version of Nouns DAO called “Nouns Governor,” which represents a departure from the previously used Compound Governor Bravo. The key feature of Nouns Governor is NFT-based voting, allowing Noun token holders to vote with their NFTs rather than traditional wallets. This change aims to address various issues, including delegate override problems, user experience improvements, and voting granularity while enabling sub-delegation and enhancing onchain data legibility. The article highlights the importance of community feedback in shaping the development of Nouns Governor and mentions potential future updates related to NFT voting designs, gas efficiency, and Fork V2 details.

Nouns: Bring a Million Shredders Onchain: In the first “candidate” to be promoted to full proposal since the recent Nouns upgrade, Gnars proposes a transition from the Ethereum mainnet to Zora Network with the aim of integrating one million action sports participants, or “shredders,” into the blockchain. To achieve this, they are requesting 200 ETH to fund park enhancements, administrative tasks, and facilitate the migration to the Zora Network, all while addressing challenges faced by subcultures like skateboarding, such as commercial exploitation and loss of authenticity.

Government of India partners with Questbook: Questbook, known in part for supporting DAO grant programs (such as in Compound), recently signed a memo of understanding with the government of India to help design web3 curricula, facilitate grant opportunities, and provide verified credentials for the National Institute of Electrical and Information Technology, using Questbook’s new Reclaim Protocol. This is believed to be one of the few partnerships (and perhaps the only one) the government has with a crypto company.

Hats Protocol is Live with v2: Hats Protocol announced on August 30th that it went live with v2 of its app. Hats, the “on-chain roles protocol,” is designed to facilitate coordination in decentralized organizations by providing clear and revocable roles and authorities. The protocol offers tools to connect specific roles to both on-chain and off-chain permissions and authorities, allowing organizations to create structured yet decentralized systems without entrenched power dynamics, emphasizing its utility for DAOs and other decentralized groups.

SuperRare’s Rare Protocol Launches: On August 29th, SuperRare’s Rare Protocol was launched on Ethereum mainnet. The new protocol aims to address challenges in the NFT ecosystem related to curation, discovery, and authenticity. The protocol introduces “Curation Staking,” a system where individuals can stake the protocol’s native token, RARE, to vouch for the authenticity and appeal of creators or collectors, thereby creating an onchain data layer for curation and reputation that benefits artists, collectors, and curators.

Optimism: RetroPGF 3: Round Design: The Optimism Foundation here provides an overview of RetroPGF 3, an ongoing experiment in Retroactive Public Goods Funding. It discusses what was learned from RetroPGF round 2. It outlines improvements for round 3, including a more detailed project sign-up process to gather high-quality data, the introduction of Lists for collaborative evaluation by badgeholders, efforts to provide better mental models and definitions for impact evaluation, and enhancements to the voting experience for badgeholders.

Optimism Details Partnership with Base: The Optimism Foundation published a blog post that detailed its partnership with Base. As they note, Ethereum this month experienced a significant development as a publicly listed U.S. company — Coinbase — launched Base, which was built on the OP Stack. Base embodies a commitment to Optimism and the Superchain, a new economic model for the collective, and demonstrates that open-source values can coexist with sustainable economic models. The collaboration between Optimism and Base focuses on shared protocol management principles, with financial arrangements involving a fee-split directed towards the Collective and a long-term token grant provided to give Base “a meaningful voice in the system of Optimism Governance.” The partnership provides a concrete instance of how the recently introduced Law of Chains can function: the Law of Chains is “a proposed framework for how Optimism Governance can evolve to supervising multiple OP Chains, produced from the OP Stack (including Base).”

Frax: Flywheel Website Subsidy: Flywheel DeFi, a key content platform for the Frax ecosystem, is seeking a grant of $12.5k from the Frax DAO to subsidize the costs of their recent website upgrade, which totaled $25k. The revamped website emphasizes Frax education and updates, with data highlighting the popularity of the Frax 101 section. Voting ends on September 10th.

ShapeShift: Remove Incubation as a required step in the DAO’s governance process: This proposal aims to simplify the governance process of the DAO by removing the mandatory “Incubation” step, which will be made optional. It also suggests using “[RFC] (request for comment)” for forum posts of this nature and extending the minimum final vote time from 3 days to 5 days. The change aims to streamline decision-making while improving clarity in naming conventions.

Decentraland: Implementation of a Fee for DAO Proposal Submissions: This proposal seeks community feedback on introducing a fee for submitting proposals within the DAO. The proposed fees range from 5 MANA to 200 MANA, depending on the type of proposal. The benefits include generating revenue for the DAO, improving proposal quality, and establishing trust within the community. Counterarguments mention concerns about financial barriers but suggest it could encourage collaboration and partnerships within the community. The voting period closed on September 13th with 81.4% opting not to implement any submission fees.

Arbitrum: Activate ARB Staking: This post suggests introducing a locking mechanism for the Arbitrum (ARB) token, allowing users to lock their ARB for up to 365 days in exchange for native yield generated from an annual inflation of 1.75% of the total ARB supply. The proposal aims to incentivize long-term ARB holders, promote ARB utility, and differentiate ARB from other Layer 2 tokens. The timeline for implementation includes community feedback, audits, and an onchain vote, with costs primarily related to contract creation and auditing.

Arbitrum: GovMonth Week 1: Your Voice Matters!: The Arbitrum DAO has initiated GovMonth, an event allowing $ARB token holders to engage in governance while having the opportunity to earn a share of 100,000 $ARB. The primary objectives of GovMonth include aligning the DAO’s strategic framework, gathering significant responses for the DAO’s design process, and tracking active users in governance. Activities for the week include various challenges to shape the DAO’s strategic priorities, and rewards are distributed via JokeRace. The initiative also features a partnership with ThriveCoin to incentivize participation and collect data for future grants.

Cosmos: Increase Active Validator Set from 180 to 200: Fostering Inclusivity, Enhancing ICS Participation, and Lowering Entry Barriers: This proposal aims to expand the active validator set of the Cosmos Hub from 180 to 200. The current minimum delegation requirement of 78,430 ATOM is seen as a barrier for potential validators, and increasing the validator set would enable greater community participation, enhance integration with validator communities, and lower the entry threshold. However, it also comes with potential risks related to security, networking, and central coordination.

ApeCoin: AIP-304: Create the Digital Art Movement Collection to Acquire Yuga Assets (BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, and Punks) and Other Notable NFTs for Exhibition and Donation to Art Institutions: The proposal suggests creating the “Digital Art Movement Collection,” an NFT collection consisting of Yuga assets (BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, and Punks) and other notable NFTs to promote digital art globally. The team, led by MachiBigBrother, aims to increase awareness of ApeCoin’s cultural influence in digital art and will fund the collection’s creation and curation through ApeCoin staking and token distribution. The proposal outlines the allocation of DAM tokens, governance, and milestones for implementing the collection. The cost is estimated at 11,000,000 ApeCoin, provided in tranches over an indefinite timeline. Voting opens on September 14th.

CityDAO: The Center for Virtual Organizations and Communities and the DAO Journal: The Institute for Research and Theory Methodologies (RTM) has proposed a three-year sponsorship amounting to $9,990 to establish a Research Hub for Virtual Organizations and Communities, along with the world’s first peer-reviewed, open access DAO-related journal. Sponsoring this endeavor could benefit CityDAO by gaining exposure to top scholars, research institutions, and governmental think tanks globally, positioning CityDAO as a major supporter of DAO-focused scholarship. The funds would cover journal fees, operating costs, and honorariums, with the project taking approximately one year from approval to the release of the first official academic journal edition.

Cosmos: Oversight Committee Spec for Optimistic Governance: This forum post discusses a proposal to improve governance and oversight structures on the Cosmos Hub, emphasizing the community’s ultimate authority in decision-making. The suggested oversight committee would assist in making sense of a performer’s work for the community, ensuring continued funding unless action is taken to halt it. This committee would oversee and advise on the specified work, facilitate feedback loops, and could dissolve the workstream if necessary, always upholding the principle that the network retains the ultimate veto power.

dYdX: V4 Launch Incentives Proposal: Chaos Labs has proposed a six-month Launch Incentives Program for dYdX V4, aiming to facilitate the transition of users and liquidity from V3 to V4. The proposal outlines phases including preliminary research, the creation of an analytics and risk portal, a rewards leaderboard, and oversight of rewards distribution. They suggest allocating $20 million USD worth of $DYDX Tokens for early adopters over approximately six months, with ongoing evaluation and modifications as needed. The goal is to incentivize migration to V4 and achieve early aggressive growth.

Frax: sFRAX Governance Proposal: The Frax Core Team has proposed the introduction of Staked FRAX (sFRAX) to the Frax ecosystem, which would allow users to deposit FRAX stablecoins in a smart contract and earn interest in FRAX. This system, reminiscent of the Dai Savings Rate, aims to address FRAX’s near-zero duration yield curve, offering users a passive income avenue and aiding in the growth of the FRAX supply. Users depositing FRAX will receive sFRAX tokens that can be traded, with yields deposited into the sFRAX Vault weekly. The initiative also seeks to align with the Federal Reserve Interest on Reserve Deposit Rate while ensuring FRAX remains fully collateralized.

Rocket Pool: Rocket Pool Powers and Authorities: This forum post provides an overview of the powers and authorities within the Rocket Pool ecosystem, breaking down the roles and responsibilities of various principals and agents impacting the Rocket Pool protocol. It defines key terms such as principal, agent, power, and authority. The document outlines the powers and authorities of different entities within Rocket Pool, including the OracleDAO (oDAO), Guardian, ProtocolDAO (pDAO), Registered Nodes, Rocket Pool Pty Ltd, RPIP Editors, Grants Management Committee (GMC), GMC Administrator, Incentives Management Committee (IMC), and pDAO Treasurer. It concludes with potential next steps for utilizing this information within the Rocket Pool community.

A proposal to integrate Arbitrum One with the Rarible protocol has been approved: The goal of attracting developers to build NFT-based applications on Arbitrum using Rarible’s SDK, indexer, and order book.

Curve Crisis Averted, NFT Loans Protocol Now Votes on Next Steps: JPEG’d DAO voters are deciding how to account for a $1 million bounty.