How to run a DAO with the right toolset — Snapshot, Discord, and Dework
We have decided to integrate Snapshot as one of the tools for the DAO alongside Dework and Discord. But before diving into what Snapshot is, how it works, and integrates with the other tools of choice, let’s outline what a DAO is and some of its benefits.
A “Decentralized Autonomous Organization,” or DAO, is an autonomous organization run by the community. Smart contracts establish the underlying rules and execute the agreed-upon decisions. At any time, proposals, votes, and even the code itself may be publicly audited. The clear benefits of this model are its decentralized nature, community involvement, and transparency. As mentioned above, a DAO is an organization where decisions get made from the bottom up; a collective of members owns the organization. This is where Snapshot, Discord, and Dework come in, where these ideas and decisions can be discussed, voted on, and implemented in a decentralized manner.
What is Snapshot?
Projects can post proposals on Snapshot for users to vote on with their respective membership tokens. This procedure is known as “vote signaling” in the industry. Traditionally, there would be costs associated with moving crypto from one wallet to another while voting with crypto. On Snapshot, however, that is prevented through the ingenious application of the decentralized storage network known as IPFS. Any votes are effectively free because Snapshot doesn’t use “on-chain” verification.
How do we use Snapshot?
How we see this working and to participate in a poll for TheStandard.io, users need to hold TST in their wallet to vote. Users then connect their Metamask wallet to Snapshot’s website to vote on any open proposals there.
Why Snapshot?
Some projects build their own infrastructure to carry out this polling or use other centralized methods. These methods require a significant amount of time to build, and they can be used to rig the results by parties who may not have the project’s best interests at heart if centralized. Therefore we have seen Snapshot as the ultimate tool to keep the project as decentralized as possible. Numerous decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have benefited from Snapshot’s distinctive polling system. These include Aragon, Bancor, The Graph, Yearn, Balancer, Uniswap, and more.
The DAO ‘Toolkit’
The DAO Toolkit includes the platforms we will use to discuss, vote, and implement the ideas we have for the project. Let’s discuss how Snapshot will integrate with the other tools (Discord and Dework) and how it fits together.
1. Firstly, any ideas will be created and suggested in the DAO chat on Discord.
https://discord.com/channels/836907456743079956/905845022644113408
2. The ‘proposals’ chat on Discord is for the community to discuss any proposals which have been suggested. We will discuss ideas that could have significant protocol changes, such as impacting the treasury, investment, or funding for strategic partnerships. Proposals will be discussed before we create the vote on Snapshot and can be rejected at this stage.
https://discord.com/channels/836907456743079956/923347858369949706
3. We will also be able to discuss the proposals on Snapshot itself, which will be linked to the Discord chat ‘snapshot-proposals’, which you can see below. This will be linked with the Snapshot bot in Discord to have an automated workflow for proposal updates.
https://snapshot.org/#/thestandardio.eth
4. Once ideas have been proposed, they will be voted on via Snapshot by connecting your Metamask wallet with TST.
5. Finally, we will execute or withdraw the proposal after the voting on Snapshot.
To summarize, Discord will be used to discuss ideas and proposals from the community. Snapshot will ultimately be used as a tool for the community to vote on those submitted proposals. As for Dework, you will be able to submit ideas to the core team and be used as a platform where the implementation of smaller protocol changes or tasks occurs. For more on how we use Dework, feel free to read more here.
Final Thoughts
Snapshot is entirely open-source, letting others participate in the project or develop alternative iterations, which means it could go in a number of directions. It’s a tool we consider to offer the quickest and simplest way for the community to discuss ideas and vote on proposals in the most decentralized way for the DAO.
Let us know your thoughts on the tools we are looking to use for the DAO and if you have any suggestions on how it could work, join our Discord and let’s collaborate!
https://discord.com/channels/836907456743079956/90618611160333107
