We’re strongly supportive of this initiative, and excited to see how Gardens might help to accelerate DAO-led funding and community initiatives, all helping to strengthen our DAO.
Since the formal activation of the delegate program in April, the DAO has seen a significant rise in activity and the wider dissemination of our voting power. As part of this, we’ve seen attempts to create large-scale directional funding initiatives as well as attempts to kickstart smaller-scale procurement exercises. In both cases, DAO members have expressed reluctance about spending for spending’s sake. At times, it feels as though we’re in a chicken-and-egg problem where participation needs funding, but funding wants participation. We hope that a Gardens trial can help to break this deadlock.
We see this initiative as a low-cost way of signalling to the world that GnosisDAO is open to fund external contributions that help to grow our ecosystem, and encouraging those with valuable skills to present themselves to the community. It is not a guaranteed commitment to spend, but rather more of an open and ongoing request for proposals that can adapt to suit all parties.
In discussions with other delegates, we queried if Gardens could really be a suitable substitute for larger-scale DAO funding initiatives like those linked above. We were persuaded by @paul2 and @mrtdlgc that there’s no reason why not. This kind of conviction voting teases out the DAO’s thinking and direction over time, and empowers small voices to be heard where their amount or duration of staking is relatively high. Gardens integrates dispute-resolution systems to handle difficult situations, removing the need for maintenance. And ultimately, it makes the process more transparent and verifiable.
At only $40k, we see no reason to delay kickstarting a trial promptly.