tomi Governance: Allocating DAO funds for a DAO specification

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tomipioneers

8 min readAug 16, 2023

If the internet we use today was governed by the people using it, what would that look like?

For the first time ever, you can participate in finding the answer to that question. tomi is launching a 5-month process to carefully consider how to govern the tomiNet, the alternative WWW which we are building, set to launch on May 15, 2024. You can already buy .com and .tomi domain names that fuels this new internet, with many having done so already.

Funding DAO: Not enough for tomi

The big question now is how to govern this common resource. It’s a classic problem to solve using a DAO, but a simple funding mechanism isn’t adequate for the management of the new WWW. In fact, even writing the specifications is too complex to manage with a simple funding DAO.

We recently funded the writing of specifications for a Self Sovereign Identity wallet through the tomiDAO, and we’re off to a great start on that! This approach works well because we could hire a single supplier for the initial task. Given walt.id’s extensive library of open-source SSI code, and their role as one of the writers of the EU SSI standards, we feel confident allocating the funds to one company. So, why not adopt a similar approach for the specifications of the future version of the tomiDAO?

The current tomiDAO has basic voting mechanisms, like a standard compound DAO. We want to fund developing an improved version of the tomiDAO, through the existing simple DAO. This new tomiDAO will be quite different in nature, even though it holds the same name as it’s precursor. In other words, we aim to use the current basic tomiDAO to provide funding to create an advanced tomiDAO with more features and capabilities in the future.

DAO Dynamics: Shaping the Future of tomi

First of all, creating the funding mechanism is no easy feat, but it will be carried out by multiple entities. The tomiDAO, in its current state, can only allocate lump sums. We want to upgrade this (through the specifications) so that we can allocate funds in a way that they can be paid out over time, to multiple contractors or employees. The first experiment will be the proposal for the Specifications Doc. We are creating a multi-sig wallet with three members of the tomi Team (Owl, Camel, and Zoro) who will serve as the first stewards of this DAO. We are hoping to add additional stewards over the course of the year, so that by the time the tDNS goes live, we will have stewards that are external to the tomi team running the multi-sig (or a separate multi-sig). The multi-sig could then be attached to a voting system such as snapshot, or not. The fund is fully transparent, so the community can see who is getting paid and how much.

Secondly, we are determined to onboard DAO experts and more Web3 enthusiasts to the tomi community. Our community has been growing, but it is still unknown in the wider Web3 community. The tomi team has been sponsoring events and focusing on some of the specific markets in Southeast Asia. At the same time, we need a group of qualified and knowledgeable DAO experts to run the DAOs. If you take a look at my previous article about the different DAO functions we will need, it becomes obvious that we are going to need dozens of people involved just for the basic administration of the DAOs. Some of the areas are beyond Owl’s expertise–for example, protecting the tDNS from malicious attacks. The tomi team will be working onthat in 2023 and 2024, but going forward we envision turning over control to the community. Perhaps most technical decisions don’t need a vote, but where there are tradeoffs, we want the team to consult the community. Furthermore, we are going towards a system where the community can remove team members and elect new ones.

But what exactly will that look like? How will these different DAO functions work? As of today, DAO tooling falls short, but there is no shortage of experts who can come together to work through these ideas. That’s why Owl and Camel have put together a plan to bring in top experts to help us discuss these issues in depth.

The basics: Creating a specification in public

Proposal 16 to the tomiDAO allocates 30,000 TOMI tokens to the task of creating a specification document — or rather three specification documents for the tomiDAO. Starting with the sponsorship of Metafest, one of the top DAO events of the year, tomi will have representatives participating on behalf of the community. For this event we have asked Daniel from RnDAO and Grace from DAO Leadership to hold sessions and participate in the DAO Design Workshop to get the work started. The two of them joined us for our first Nakamoto Forum and understand the challenges tomi is facing. Because the tomi team is not doxxed, we will continue to ask representatives to be our public faces. Ultimately, Owl will be able to step down when the community is able to take over the DAOs.

The first phase will just be scoping out the work. Owl gave a basic stab at the problem in the article “How many DAOs does tomi have?” but that’s just Owl’s perspective. Owl is just one bird. What will happen when we bring together brilliant minds at Metafest? We can’t wait to find out. Metafest will allow us to start the DAO deliberations in a place where the best DAO experts are already coming together. Not only will this give us great feedback, but it will also raise awareness of the project. We expect to host several open calls for feedback, AMAs and expert consultations following this kick-off, culminating in the writing and submission of a scope of work document, which will define the next sessions. Of course, this document will be open for feedback, and it will be a living document that continues to reflect the latest thinking in the tomi community.

The nitty-gritty of specifications writing

After this initial kickoff, the proposal calls for two more similar rounds of work, with one in-person session of two days with experts, on location, and a series of public and expert discussions. For the first round in September and October, we will be discussing the tDNS and all the DAO functions for that. During the second round, we will be going through meta-governance.

The most exciting part of this work is that it’s coming at a time when the Web3 industry has had several years to watch DAO successes and failures. The experts who will be joining these panels have a lot to teach us, and we are expecting the specifications document to be one of the most comprehensive in the industry.

In fact, we think it is a first! While we are impressed with wonderful tools such as Snapshot and Tally, they are all grounded in token-based voting. The first to break away from the trend is joke.io, which recognizes different types of participation levels and provides a deeper set of qualifications for participating in DAOs.

With all of these improvements, you might ask yourself why we don’t just use what’s out there. That’s the number one mistake we see in DAOs. How do you know if you need the tool? First you need to know what you are trying to accomplish. That’s why we are starting with the the end goal in mind. Great specifications will lead to great tooling. Unlike the companies above, tomi is not creating generic DAO tooling, but tooling that is designed specifically for out own set of problems.

Naming and moderation: Generalized problems

Two of the problems that tomi needs to address are generalized to the entire industry. The first one is about naming and pricing. This came up recently when Elon Musk commandeered the @x and @music names on X/Twitter for the company’s purposes. Everyone senses that this is completely unfair, yet, it is completely within his rights as the owner of a private company. tomi’s system makes that type of behavior impossible, but there are still important questions that we need to resolve.

For example, perhaps new policies should be in place for .edu names, when (and if) the tomiDAO decides to release them. In the existing WWW, only certain types of educational institutions are allowed to register such names. But who decides what “education” means? This is a perfect example of something we believe needs to be democratized. The question of how to use unique user names is relevant to everyone from Twitter to Lens Protocol to ENS to Cardano Spot. The DAO tooling we create may end up becoming something used by other protocols and organizations facing this issue.

Another generalized problem is that of content moderation. Who should moderate content? Who decides what you should see on the internet? How can we promote free speech without exposing people to horribly violent content? These are generalized questions that all social media outlets are dealing with today. Google, through its Safe Browsing List, is the mediator of everything you see on the internet today. We can see all the ways that has gone wrong already. If we can create DAO tooling for content moderation, imagine all of the organizations that can use it! Today, we can use some level of AI, but then again, do we want the AI models just to come from one centralized entity? We do not. We will do a deep dive together into what this DAO will look like, and we are expecting great things from our experts! And from you! You are our community, and you are the leaders when it comes to setting up a free world wide web that serves your needs and protects your rights.

tomiDAO and your rights

We believe that different types of decisions require different types of decision-making processes, and we are putting identity at the center of democratic process. When we know who you are, we know what your rights are. It’s clear that if we need to make a security decision about the tech stack, we need a different type of participant than if we are making a decision about the pricing for the release of a new Top-Level Domain (TLD). In each case, we will be creating systems that recognize different statuses in the tomi ecosystem, and provide correlating rights.

If you are the owner of a tomi domain name, or you have minted domain names and are a partner, you should have a say in the community guidelines. If you have been effective in your participation on Discord and Twitter, and you’ve brought in new users to tomi, you should have a say in the MarketingDAO. These are all specific areas of expertise where people will be able to show their credentials and have a say in the governance of the tomiNet. We still have a place for the Pioneers, but over time, the tomiNet will become fully democratized: by the people, for the people.

Get involved

The tomiDAO needs you! There are so many ways that you can participate:

If you are a Pioneer, vote for Proposal 16.
Get involved on the Discord server. If our proposal passes, we will open up a dedicate channel for DAO discussions.
If you will be at Metafest, please come to our sessions.
Reach out directly to DAOwl to get involved.
Join our AMAs and open sessions. Announcements, along with topics, will be posted on Discord and Twitter. We invite you to join them!
Comment and give your feedback on the specifications when they are posted.

We are counting on the whole community to help us develop the best DAOs in the industry. Your freedom is in your hands, and the future is up to you to create.

Stay free, stay tomi.

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