GIP-39: Should GnosisDAO fund the DAOstar One initiative?

thelastjosh · April 12, 2022, 10:34pm

GIP-39: Should GnosisDAO fund the DAOstar One initiative?

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GIP: 39
title:Should GnosisDAO fund the DAOstar One initiative? 
author:Joshua Tan (@thelastjosh)
status:Phase 2
type:Funding
created:2022-04-12

Simple Summary

$20,000 to fund an ecosystem collaboration around interoperable standards for DAOs and DAO tooling, as part of a co-funding round led by key organizations in the DAO ecosystem.

Abstract

DAOstar One is a roundtable of key organizations in the DAO ecosystem working to build interoperable standards for DAOs and DAO tooling.

Its sixty current member organizations include every major DAO framework, a large number of DAO tooling developers, and many major DAOs. Individuals participating include over 20 CEOs/founders and many well-known leaders and researchers in the field.

Motivation

A group of DAO folks from Aragon, Moloch, Gnosis, Abridged, Tally, and Metagov were chatting at MCON 2021 and someone asked, “wait, hasn’t someone already built a standard for DAOs?” When we realized that the answer was “no”, we decided to start building it. The roundtable emerged out of the effort to build the standard.

There are lots of reasons for a DAO standard. The current EIP working paper outlines a DAO URI and JSON schema, similar to tokenURI, with several immediate use-cases, including DAO discoverability, legibility, and proposal simulation. Additional working groups within DAOstar One focus on multi-chain standards and on identity within DAOs.

DAOstar One, as an organization, is committed to producing, governing, and supporting interoperable standards for the DAO ecosystem. As a neutral industry body, it also supports education and research around DAO use-cases, the development of DAO reference implementations, and other public goods within the DAO ecosystem as called for by its member organizations. We built it to house the first DAO standard, but we believe it has an important role in coordinating the fast-growing DAO ecosystem.

“Let’s challenge each other not to build empires.” - Spencer Graham @ Roundtable #1

Specification

We released the draft DAO standard for EVM on Feb. 12, 2022, and officially launched the EIP and the website at ETHDenver / Schelling Point (video of launch ). We will host a series of community calls and public workshops to obtain feedback on the EIP through Q2 2022, after which we hope to finalize the EIP as an ERC standard. To support the standard, we also plan on releasing tools to make compliance easier, including reference implementations, prebuilt endpoints, templates, and documentation for all the URIs recommended in the standard.

In terms of future standards, we plan on drafting a multi-chain DAO standard immediately after ETHDenver (the EVM standard is written with multi-chain in mind), and have brought in representatives from the Interchain Foundation (Cosmos), DAODAO (Cosmos), AstroDAO (NEAR), ADAO (Cardano), and others to begin this conversation. We also plan to convene a working group including Spruce, Sismo, Lit Protocol, Superdao, kycDAO, and the DID Foundation to explore identity and verifiable credentials in DAOs, which we decided was too controversial to go into the first DAO standard.

The roundtable itself is administered and fiscally-sponsored by Metagov, a nonprofit research collective. We plan to convert it to some form of DAO-based governance by the end of Q2 2022, and then progressively decentralize over the course of 2022 and 2023.

Rationale

Standards are an important public good for the DAO ecosystem because they:

make development easier for DAO creators and contributors,
lower the cost and risk of building and investing in the DAO ecosystem for companies and investors, and
support industry collaboration and coordination in other contexts such as education, regulatory compliance, and research.

However, standards require wrangling to bring key organizations to the table, technical leadership that can shepherd working groups on a timely basis, marketing and advocacy to promote adoption, and organizational support to produce docs and other educational materials.

Further, we believe that a neutral industry body such as DAOstar One brings important benefits for the emerging ecosystem even apart from the standards that we produce and govern. DAOs are still relatively immature, and there are many potential failure modes for the entire industry: getting out-competed on usability by Web2, getting co-opted by big tech or government, losing the narrative and mainstream appeal after too many scams, bad actors, and shoddy projects. We believe that the DAO ecosystem as a whole can navigate these risks better if its members and builders can coordinate and work together. DAOstar One is an expression of that belief and a mechanism to realize it in action.

Implementation

More details, including budget and timeline, can be found in the original post on GnosisDAO’s forum or at daostar.org.

Gnosis Snapshot

Phase 2 Proposals: Please ignore this section, and leave as is. It is used for Phase 3 proposals.
Phase 3 Proposals: Add a link to the corresponding Gnosis Snapshot poll you’ve created.

Mareen · January 20, 2023, 12:09pm

Dear DAOstar One team,

As stated in this forum post we are introducing new measures to ensure transparency and accountability around GIPs funded by the GnosisDAO.

Accordingly, we are asking the teams who authored GIPs and received funding to provide updates about their work. Please use this template as a guideline. Additionally we have some GIP specific questions for you.

Can you outline your progress in building a DAO standard
Can you comment on obstacles you encountered while defining a DAO standard.
How far are you with the multi-chain DAO standard
As a success metric you mentioned the following:

We will measure the success of the project by the number of DAOs that adopt the standard, the number of companies and protocols supporting the standard, and the amount of total investment into all DAOs and DAO companies (whether or not they are part of the roundtable).

In case your standards are set and already in use could you evaluate your success according to those metrics.

The community is invited to ask questions about the status of your project that should be included in the update. Please be sure to monitor your post and respond to questions from the community.

We are looking forward to learning about the progress of your project. Moving forward we would appreciate it if you could give updates on a regular basis.

thelastjosh · January 27, 2023, 2:31pm

Hi @Mareen , thanks for following up.

Since this was part of a co-funding round, we will prepare a fuller grant report in February that we will share with every community that we received money from (Ethereum Foundation, Gnosis, Aragon, Radicle, Metacartel, NEAR, The Graph, etc.).

In the meantime, I’ll note that we’ve built a complete Safe reference implementation and onboarded several Safes manually. To make that process go faster we also just deployed a new registration app where people can register their own DAOs (it was just released yesterday, so we’re still working out the kinks / adding explainer text). EIP-4824 adoption is now built-in to a bunch of DAO frameworks, including KALI, Superdao, DAODAO, and more, with Aragon v4, Governor, and others in the pipeline. We’ve also been working with dOrg to spec out a Safe app to make it easier for existing Safes to adopt the standard.

Mareen · January 30, 2023, 8:40am

Hi @thelastjosh,

Thank you for the update. We are looking forward to your grant report in February.
Please include some of the points mentioned above and look out for any questions from the Gnosis Community.

Mareen · March 16, 2023, 12:54pm

Hey, I just wanted to check in if you made any progress on the grant report.

amanwithwings · June 12, 2023, 9:29pm

Hi @Mareen , Aman here from DAOstar. Sharing below the DAOstar impact report for 202 and looking forward to your comments!

DAOstar Impact Report 2023

DAOstar is the standards body of the DAO ecosystem. We build interoperable standards for DAOs and DAO tooling. Our members include 80+ key organizations across the DAO ecosystem, including every major DAO framework, a large number of DAO tooling developers, and many major DAOs. Over 150+ people actively participate in DAOstar. You can find the full list of members here

Standards are necessary, but they’re hard to get right. As a nonprofit, no-token, public goods project, DAOstar acts as a Schelling point for builders across the ecosystem. We are builders ourselves, and we know how to build, iterate, and evolve at Web3 speeds.

By the Numbers

Number of members: 86
Number of new members in the past quarter: 10
Number of standards published: 3
Average time to first release: 4 months
Average number of companies involved per standard: 5
Average number of contributors per standard: 6
Number of active working groups: 7
Total funding between Q2 2022 - Q2 2023: 155,000 USD

In addition to our member organizations and community participants, DAOstar’s core team, composed of leading DAO operators and researchers, initiate connections between DAOstar members, support members as they draft and publish new standards with editing and logistical support, and occasionally lead the writing of important new standards based on community response and on our internal research on the needs of DAOs.

A list of the presently active working groups and their missions:

Working Group	Description	Members
DAO* Delegations	Defining contracts and schemas for an on-chain delegate registry	Karma, Tally, Optimism, Uniswap, Agora
DAO* Grants Management	Defining a grants system standard for DAOs and other Web3 entities	Gitcoin, OpenQ, DaoLens, Station, kycDAO, Solana
DAO* Attestations	Building an interoperable attestations system for DAOs and DAO tooling	Avenue, Govrn, Disco
DAO* Regulatory Interoperability	Defining a regulatory API. The plan is to eventually transition into a working group on tax standards.	Joni Pirovich, Joshua Tan, Primavera De Filippi, Ori Shimony, Jake Hartnell
DAO* Governor Ecosystem Standards	Supporting technical developments in the Governor Ecosystem	Tally, Scopelift, OpenZeppelin, Nouns, JokeDAO
DAO* Strike Team	Development and maintenance of EIP-4824 / DAOIP-2	Issac Patka, Joshua Tan, Michael Zargham, Eyal Eithcowich, Ido Gershtein Sam Furter, Drew MacArthur
DAO* Proposal Types	Standard templates for DAO proposals	Aragon, Commonwealth, CharmVerse, Metagov, Cultur3

Standards

In its first year of operation, DAOstar has published three standards, with three additional standards planned for release in Q2 2023.

EIP-4824 / DAOIP-2: Common Interfaces for DAOs
DAOIP-3: Attestations for DAOs
DAOIP-4: Proposal Types
(upcoming) Grants Management
(upcoming) Regulatory Interoperability
(upcoming) Delegations
(upcoming) SAFEs for DAOs
(upcoming) Tax Standards

We summarize some of the key standards and initiatives in the sections below.

EIP-4824:

With the existence of multiple DAO frameworks that change rapidly, it is incredibly difficult for any party to get a holistic picture of the DAO ecosystem. Even the leading DAO discovery engines & aggregators like DeepDAO, Messari and Etherscan are sometimes unable to keep up with the developments. DAOs self-reporting information about themselves in a universally agreed upon schema is the most sustainable solution to this, which is how EIP-4824 was born.

Since the first draft of EIP-4824 was released in February 2022, the DAO ecosystem has moved in the direction of a unified interface for consuming and publishing DAO data. Acknowledging this momentum, several of the large DAO factories including Aragon v3, Moloch v3, DAODAO, Superdao, and Kali now produce EIP-4824 compliant DAOs (see adoption timeline below).

Upcoming DAO factories like Power Protocol, Q and XDAO have also included EIP-4824 compliance in their roadmap.

EIP-4824 has proved to be a good foundation for all the other standards. For example, the Grants Management standard piloted by Gitcoin, Attestations standard built by Avenue & Govrn and much of the regulatory interface work DAOstar’s Regulatory Interop WG did were composed on top of it. This proves the importance of having a global DAO standard.

What’s next for EIP-4824:

Snapshot integration, which will let any Snapshot-enabled DAO publish a daoURI in minutes
Last call on the EIP before moving to “final” status
Multichain indexing
Adoption by explorers and data aggregator such as DeepDAO, Messari, and Etherscan
Better daoURI management tools, including improvements to the hosting and explorer infrastructure

“ Aragon OSX is ready to comply with the [EIP-4824] standard. It will make our DAOs more visible and measurable in blockchain explorers and other tooling. It was also quite easy to become 4824 compliant—the daoURI can be populated without much effort and with the data present in our subgraph database.”

Ivan, Head of Ecosystem at Aragon

DAOIP-3: Attestations for DAOs

DAOIP-3 introduces a framework for making attestations about DAO membership, member contributions, and other data. This makes it easier for DAOs to consider participation measures, such as git commits or Discourse posts, when determining membership, adding depth to the existing asset-based membership definition prevalent in the ecosystem.

The standard is already in action, with Govrn and Avenue spearheading the issuance of interoperable attestations!

It is slated for adoption by Disco and White Hat DAO, as well as Karma, Tally, Uniswap, and Optimism via the new delegations registry. Additionally, EAS is dedicated to streamlining the issuance of attestations using the schema.

The project is supported in part by the EU ONTOCHAIN project, part of the EU’s Next Generation Internet initiative.

Regulatory Interoperability: providing the right picture to Policy Makers

The DAOstar Regulatory Interoperability Working Group, a.k.a Millenium Falcon, leverages EIP-4824 to establish an interface that enables regulators to consume DAO data.

This initiative marks a significant stride in bridging the gap between DAOs and regulatory oversight. As the DAO ecosystem continues to grow, it becomes crucial for regulators to gain a comprehensive understanding of DAO operations and activities. By facilitating transparency, accountability, and regulatory compliance, this interface fosters a mutually beneficial relationship between regulators and DAOs.

The working group, led by Joni Pirovich, founder of LawFi DAO and research fellow at Metagov, and includes Primavera De Filippi of Harvard/CNRS, Jake Hartnell of DAODAO/Juno, Ori Shimony of dOrg, Silke Elfirai formerly of Gnosis, and many other prominent figures in the DAO legal space. They recently showcased a prototype of the interface at DAO Harvard, a three-day conference that brought together practitioners, policy-makers, and academics to engage in insightful discussions on DAO research, legal frameworks, and policy responses.

Delegate Registry: for all DAOs, on all chains

The Delegate Registry Working Group is building a global on-chain DAO delegate registry.

A number of DAOs have started utilizing delegation to improve governance and solve the problem of voter apathy. However, the lack of a decentralized and universally accessible repository for delegate information hampers the innovation based on delegate information and restricts the accessibility of data for tools and on-chain voting systems. By establishing this comprehensive and standardized registry, the group aims to empower DAOs and enable them to unlock the full potential of delegation.

The initiative is led by Karma and Tally and supported by Uniswap, Optimism & Agora.

““DAOstar has been a place for thoughtful discussions about the ecosystem for years. In the Delegate Metadata working group, we’ve workshopped standards to help share data across the DAO ecosystem.”

Raf, co-founder & CTO of Tally

DAOs in Asia: supporting the Asia-Pacific DAO ecosystem

This relatively new initiative by DAOstar is dedicated to providing the necessary support and resources to the DAO builders and researchers from the Asian ecosystem.

We recognize that the Asian region holds immense untapped potential with a multitude of innovative products and research that goes unnoticed. In recognition of this untapped potential, DAOstar has intensified its outreach efforts to projects in the region. Through Metagov Seminar, we facilitated two engaging discussions, inviting notable organizations like SeeDAOn and g0v da0, to share insights on operating DAOs and decentralized projects in the region. Furthermore, we successfully hosted the inaugural “DAOs in Asia Roundtable,” an event that brought together over 10 organizations from across the region.

In addition to fostering meaningful discussions, we aim to bridge the gap between DAO learnings and research, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and ideas across regions. Looking ahead, DAOstar is determined to amplify its presence in web3 events throughout Asia, actively engaging with the vibrant community and investing resources to support these burgeoning communities.

Education & Events

Besides standards, DAOstar ran and presented at a significant number of events in the last year.

Presented SAFE for DAOs as well as DAO Creative Universe at ETH Denver
Presented the Grants Management Standard at Schelling Point
Co-organized DAO Harvard (April 2023)
DAO Tokyo
DAO Montenegro, Zulalu & EDCON

We’ve developed relationships with many existing venues in the DAO ecosystem and often curated talks, panels, and other events related to new standards, public goods, and other industry collaborations.

A litmus test of the popularity of DAOstar is examining the speaker lineup of DAO-related events. For instance, during DAO Tokyo (April 2023), 8 out of 10 of the panels featured a representative from a DAOstar One member or an organization closely associated with DAOstar One!

Moving Forward

DAOstar maintains a highly positive outlook for 2023-2024 (we’ve named it season 1!). The organization’s priorities for this period are outlined here: The plans for DAOstar (Season 1) · metagov/daostar · Discussion #53 · GitHub

Having successfully developed standards and facilitated the formation of exceptional working groups, we are more convinced than ever of the collaborative nature inherent in the DAO ecosystem. The significant growth of our round table, now comprising 90 members, instills confidence that more DAOs and organizations will join our shared cause. We have also come to realize that the biggest value DAOstar offers is a space where competition takes a backseat, allowing participants to embrace their builder mindset and hack together on critical public infrastructure. We’ll keep doing that, building the future of internet organizations and shepherding DAOs to a resilient future.

amanwithwings · June 12, 2023, 9:30pm

Also adding a link to the same report, but with more links and images here

Gnosisticsquid · December 28, 2023, 3:54pm

Mareen, Does your idea of transparency also included an idea i floated a post ago of a Gnosis DAO Secretary? Since the DAO currently meets on Zoom and zoom has a record function in its suite that is another tool to aid in the Secretarys job. I speak from experience having been San Diegos RSC Secretary (12 step fellowships Regional Service Committee that had at the time 10 Areas and 7 Sub Committees). And an Annual Budget combined $500,000.00 . We maintained an RSO a Literature Sales Office, and a Yrly Convention that cost approx $100,000.00 to host and put on. And we are fully self supporting through our own contributions.