GIP-82: Should GnosisDAO co-fund a community owned forest / land art project (terra0)?

GIP-82: Should GnosisDAO co-fund a community owned forest / land art project (terra0)?

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GIP: 82
title: Should GnosisDAO Co-Fund A Community Owned Forest / Land Art Project (Terra0)?
author: Paul Kolling (plt_prx), Paul Seidler (brachland), Christopher Dake-Outhet (cxo), Julia Kaganskiy
status: Draft
type: Funding
created: 2023-03-23
duration: 1 year
funding: 195,000 €

Summary

This proposal seeks Gnosis DAO to become a sponsor and partner that would partially fund terra0 to support the development of a novel large-scale art project in Germany that focuses on community-land stewardship managed by a DAO. The project will expand the use cases of the Gnosis ecosystem by using Gnosis infrastructure (Safe, Gnosis Chain, Zodiac) to manage and restore a forest over an indefinite time period. The artistic development is being supported by Light Art Space (LAS), a German art foundation focused on art, science, and technology and will culminate in a large-scale exhibition in Berlin (3-6 months), allowing for a broad, diverse, and non-native audience to be exposed to Gnosis and Web3.

In parallel, terra0 will produce a legal framework allowing for the integration of a Gnosis Safe with the formation of a German Verein. As part of this proposal, terra0 will develop and provide tools to integrate Gnosis Safes with this framework and use the project to establish an inaugural precedent.

terra0 seeks 195,000 € from Gnosis DAO to help realize this ambitious project (~ 18.2% of 1,071,000 € total project budget). The grant from Gnosis would help fund the purchase of a plot of land containing a forest in Germany and lay the groundwork for the legal framework and application of a DAO as a Verein for a Gnosis Safe. With this funding Gnosis DAO will:

  • Sponsor the terra0 land art project and be featured on exhibition material, resulting in increased publicity, visibility, and user base for Gnosis, Gnosis Chain, and Gnosis Safe within a new cultural sphere.
  • Support the development of a new legal framework for DAOs resulting in a composable template engine for Gnosis Safes which allows DAOs to be registered as a Verein in Germany, thereby creating new real-life applications for DAOs built on Gnosis tools.
  • Receive an allocation of the tokens associated with the upcoming terra0 land art project and DAO. We also see Gnosis DAO as a key community member and participant in the project.

Background

terra0 is a group of developers, artists, and researchers who have been creating artworks and prototyping decentralized applications since 2016. Through technical experimentation, artistic exploration, and stress-testing legal frameworks related to natural resources, terra0 creates technological-augmented ecosystems and questions the contemporary representation of the living environment. In this final version of the project, realized for the first time on the scale of an entire forest in Germany, terra0 will develop a framework for the collaborative management of shared resources and explore alternative, non-exploitative valuations of nature. terra0 plans to instantiate a DAO to cooperatively organize the restoration of the ecosystem using bio-markers oriented towards greater biodiversity and resistance to environmental pressures.

Previous terra0 works and prototypes can be seen on our website. They have been exhibited and discussed at the 58th Carnegie International, the 17th Architecture Biennial Venice, Canadian Centre for Architecture Montreal, The Shed New York City, Kunsthalle Zürich, Francisco Carolinum Linz, Chronus Art Center Shanghai, Furtherfield Gallery London, Schinkel Pavillon Berlin, and Vienna Biennale, among others.

Motivation

It’s no secret that we are in the midst of an ecological crisis spurred on, in large part, by excessive resource use and extraction. In the West, our relationship with the environment has been defined for centuries by land’s productive value, which has led to gross ecological mismanagement and destabilization. terra0 seeks to re-orient this relationship towards intrinsic ecological value by applying Web3 principles of decentralized collective governance, communal ownership of public goods, and automated digital mediation in service of environmental resilience and autonomy. The development of decentralized programmable systems for exchanging value is giving rise to code and community-based digital organizational structures that enable democratic control of property. Novel ecological collectives such as those proposed by terra0 could distribute decision rights based on immanent bio-regional agency, relationships, and proximal metrics.

Rationale

As a collective, terra0 has been experimenting for years with Gnosis Safe as infrastructure for treasury management and as a trust anchor. Historically, we see Gnosis Chain and community as a place where DAO experiments happen; one we believe provides essential DAO infrastructure for the projects, affordable txs, and a community that cares deeply about its development. Gnosis’ commitment to open standards whose design philosophy is one of expandability, inclusivity, and composability aligns with the terra0 ethos of experimenting with novel forms of governance and communities centered around ecological commons.

The proposed art project is of value to the Gnosis community as it engages a diverse audience and is participatory in nature — pairing ecological narratives with a concrete implementation of DAO governance. This includes visitors of the exhibition, online DAO members, local stakeholders, an international art audience, and experts from various fields. When combined with the timescale, exhibition, and participatory nature of the terra0 land art project, presents a unique opportunity to engage an audience that would not normally be accessible while increasing the capability and usage of the Gnosis ecosystem and Gnosis Chain. The land and forest will function as a permanent land art installation and be accompanied by an internationally recognized and large-scale public exhibition organized by LAS in Berlin over the period of 3-6 months — which may travel to other locations in the future. This connection has the potential to enhance the public perception of Gnosis: applied ecology and community governance have rarely been publicly discussed and tested on such a scale.

Additionally, the application and implementation of mapping a Verein onto a DAO will enhance how it can be perceived in a legal context — one we hope will set a precedent that will allow for its legality to be recognized in other locals, contexts, and jurisdictions while featuring Gnosis Chain and tools as key components. Although the legal definition and context of a Verein is unique to Germany, once incorporated, it allows for international members to join the organization — therefore not only being bound to the members residing in Germany (except seven core members). The possibility to integrate DAOs into a concrete legal structure using the Verein is an important building block for our project and enables real-world use cases in areas such as environmental protection and restoration.

Implementation

The land art project will be developed over the next year, in this process terra0 will purchase a plot of land containing a forest (10-20 hectares) in nearby proximity to Berlin, instantiate a DAO to augment the ecological agency of the ecosystem, and transfer the ownership of the land to it. The DAO governs the token systems, enforces the sovereignty of the underlying ecosystem, and mediates human oriented relations. The secondary function of the DAO is that of providing a social space, thus contributing to the stimulation of work groups and educational initiatives relating to ecology and technology. Many visitors and potential DAO participants will have little experience with blockchain and Web3 — and will interact and be exposed to Gnosis Chain and ecosystem for the first time. Through a special statute and voting mechanism of the association which locks the ownership in the DAO, it also serves as a permanent protector of the piece of land against disposal and reintegration into economic dependence and exploitation.

During the production period and exhibition terra0 and LAS will host a series of workshops and events to on-board and orient the community into the DAO. Gnosis DAO will receive a proportional amount of tokens relative to the proposed funding to participate in the terra0 land art project — one that we see as a key member when engaging in a long-term project about the evolution of legal structures pertaining to DAOs and ecological management.

The exhibition component of the terra0 land art project will be exhibited with LAS. Previous exhibitions produced by LAS can be viewed here. In recent exhibitions, LAS received approximately 25 000 – 30 000 visitors for the duration, an average of 600-800 visitors a day. Additional coverage of 60 – 100 media outlets enabled the exhibition’s themes to be brought to the forefront of international discourse.

For the land art project to be successful, the DAO requires a legal structure to hold and administer property (land) according to German law. We are currently working with legal teams to define a Gnosis Safe as the managing tool for a Verein under German jurisdiction. This framework will allow for the fluid recognition of token holders (as addresses) to be viewed as legal members of an organization at the time of voting without any additional registration.

Two aspects are to be particularly emphasized:

  1. The legal membership in the Verein will be defined only by a membership token, the associated address, and will not require the registration of identity through KYC (with the exception of seven registered members, which is a condition for each Verein in Germany).
  2. Votes which take place with the help of the associated voting methods (such as Governor mod) to be legally defined by the association rules as “continuous association meetings.”

If these two aspects are laid out in an association regulation, the Gnosis Safe can be legally integrated into a Verein without any additional infrastructure. The development period will be followed by an initial implementation and prototype of this legal structure that will be deployed as the framework for the DAO in conjunction with the land art project and exhibition.

Following this, terra0 will create a web and Gnosis Safe app (this could take the form as something similar to KALI with increased functionality) with a DAO template engine that will allow and enable a DAO to be incorporated under German law as a Verein. The app will facilitate the deployment of a Gnosis Safe, create the legal documents required for the registration of the Verein under German law, and will use the Gnosis Safe and associated voting method.

Milestones & timeline

2023

May–June: Completion of the legal framework and formation of the legal entity (= proof of concept
[Payment #1 for the acquisition of the forest (175,000€) to the Verein]
June–July: Acquisition of the forest
June–March 2024: Technical development of the DAO structure, ecological survey, assemble advisory board, …
July–August: Development of the template engine for Gnosis safe
[Payment #2 (20,000€) for the legal research and implementation of the template engine]

2024

January–May: Community building
February–April: Exhibition building
April: Allocation of tokens to funding partners
May: Exhibition/DAO opening + NFT sale
May–June: Public program

Relevant links:

Background information / press:

We (brachland, plt_prx, cxo) are happy to hear your feedback and answer potential questions!

Link to Snapshot:

https://snapshot.org/#/gnosis.eth/proposal/0x753224fa15a96ccd14044906e67270e49076e7b2282eb57fe816648426f26e93

8 Likes

Is this the same project as https://terra0.org/ ???

1 Like

Yes same project! I’m Paul Seidler - one of the cofounders:)

2 Likes

This proposal is great, there’s some really nice resonance in a collectively managed land preserve and GnosisDAO’s orientation towards decentralization — “GnosisDAO funds community run forest restoration” has a nice ring to it.

The exposure given to Gnosis during the exhibition is a huge plus, allowing for the public to encounter the Gnosis tool ecosystem with a living breathing demonstration, makes things like governance and treasuries a lot less abstract.

Can you say more about how this project will directly work with Gnosis Chain? e.g. using a Safe on Gnosis Chain for the forest treasury, or doing on chain governance on Gnosis Chain for cheap and accessible voting, etc

2 Likes

Thank you! I also see a resonance with a general ethos in Gnosis. In answer to the question: At the moment, the planed architecture consists of a Safe on the Gnosis chain which would manage the treasury of the project. The Safe would use the Zodiac Governor module to allow on-chain proposals. This makes on-chain voting accessible because transaction costs on the Gnosis chain are quite low. I also think that the low transaction costs might allow us to attract users which are sidelined by the high costs of interacting on the Mainnet and are coming from a more non-crypto background.

1 Like

I support this proposal. It feels aligned with the goals of GnosisDAO, bringing a rare combination of ecological stewardship, DAO governance, legal innovation, and artistic exposure to communities that GnosisDAO wouldn’t normally have access to.

I think it’s important, during this time of public disillusionment with web3, to cultivate real-world use cases for DAOs on Gnosis Chain. This proposal would establish new precedents for what DAOs are capable of, testing out forms of communal land restoration and autonomy. Would love to see more DAOs continue to explore this direction within the Gnosis ecosystem. As a member of Gnosis Guild, we’d be happy to support with the Zodiac implementation.

6 Likes

Is there any estimation of how many tokens this would represent, what share of the total supply or expected FDV?

We can only speak in percentages as the final initial amount of tokens will depend on the actual forest / amount of trees. We’d like to have ~50% of tokens available for public sale and 10–15% reserved for local communities (this largely depends on the final location and how much the people/institutions want to get involved). The rest will go to terra0 + funding partners, whereby the funding partners will receive tokens in proportion to their share of the funding provided. For the project to be successful, it’s crucial to have a wide enough spectrum of people participating, but also to include non-web3 people locally — however, all funding partners will have a say in discussing the final allocation.

@plt_prx fix link in the first post, should be terra0.org

Great for the Gnosis brand + awareness + this can generate loads of press and media attention.

I support this proposal + I support other proposals that would enough Gnosis to acquire physical locations that can help survive the climate crisis.

A (pretty wild) idea inspired by https://www.lawyersfornature.com/ and legal personhood of nature.

The land itself should own 50% of the tokens.

Wait what?

You’ve heard that right… 50% of the tokens will belong to the land itself and I can volunteer to act as a steward to feed prompts into AI so that land and treet have a voice.

(that stuff can get some press too)

2 Likes

Thank you for your response and feedback, we really appreciate it!

In our proposal, the forest is held by a legal body that is defined by a DAO and also has a statute and structure that makes it very difficult to impossible to extract or otherwise exploit the forest. This is the closest we can get to „non-ownership“ (as of right now in Germany). The tokens do not define ownership but only advocacy rights. In the first phase they are held by participants who perform the necessary renaturation/reforestation processes. In a later phase, the effective (governance) tokens are gradually rebased, reducing human influence to zero. After that, the human participants exist only purely as representatives to maintain the body of law — in the best case, however, there is a jurisdiction that acknowledges non-human personhood by then.

We will publish our litepaper detailing this as soon as we have finalized the legal framework with our lawyers.

Unfortunately, I can’t edit the original post anymore — but I can confirm here that I meant to say terra0.org

3 Likes

So potentially 18% ownership of the remaining 35%-40% could be allocated to Gnosis DAO (still being reviewed): 6% - 7% of to tal supply. Is that roughly right?

1 Like

这是个不错的建议[quote=“plt_prx, post:1, topic:6570, full:true”]

Should GnosisDAO co-fund a community owned forest / land art project (terra0)?

Summary

This proposal seeks Gnosis DAO to become a sponsor and partner that would partially fund terra0 to support the development of a novel large-scale art project in Germany that focuses on community-land stewardship managed by a DAO. The project will expand the use cases of the Gnosis ecosystem by using Gnosis infrastructure (Safe, Gnosis Chain, Zodiac) to manage and restore a forest over an indefinite time period. The artistic development is being supported by Light Art Space (LAS), a German art foundation focused on art, science, and technology and will culminate in a large-scale exhibition in Berlin (3-6 months), allowing for a broad, diverse, and non-native audience to be exposed to Gnosis and Web3.

In parallel, terra0 will produce a legal framework allowing for the integration of a Gnosis Safe with the formation of a German Verein. As part of this proposal, terra0 will develop and provide tools to integrate Gnosis Safes with this framework and use the project to establish an inaugural precedent.

terra0 seeks 195,000 € from Gnosis DAO to help realize this ambitious project (~ 18.2% of 1,071,000 € total project budget). The grant from Gnosis would help fund the purchase of a plot of land containing a forest in Germany and lay the groundwork for the legal framework and application of a DAO as a Verein for a Gnosis Safe. With this funding Gnosis DAO will:

  • Sponsor the terra0 land art project and be featured on exhibition material, resulting in increased publicity, visibility, and user base for Gnosis, Gnosis Chain, and Gnosis Safe within a new cultural sphere.
  • Support the development of a new legal framework for DAOs resulting in a composable template engine for Gnosis Safes which allows DAOs to be registered as a Verein in Germany, thereby creating new real-life applications for DAOs built on Gnosis tools.
  • Receive an allocation of the tokens associated with the upcoming terra0 land art project and DAO. We also see Gnosis DAO as a key community member and participant in the project.

Background

terra0 is a group of developers, artists, and researchers who have been creating artworks and prototyping decentralized applications since 2016. Through technical experimentation, artistic exploration, and stress-testing legal frameworks related to natural resources, terra0 creates technological-augmented ecosystems and questions the contemporary representation of the living environment. In this final version of the project, realized for the first time on the scale of an entire forest in Germany, terra0 will develop a framework for the collaborative management of shared resources and explore alternative, non-exploitative valuations of nature. terra0 plans to instantiate a DAO to cooperatively organize the restoration of the ecosystem using bio-markers oriented towards greater biodiversity and resistance to environmental pressures.

Previous terra0 works and prototypes can be seen on our website. They have been exhibited and discussed at the 58th Carnegie International, the 17th Architecture Biennial Venice, Canadian Centre for Architecture Montreal, The Shed New York City, Kunsthalle Zürich, Francisco Carolinum Linz, Chronus Art Center Shanghai, Furtherfield Gallery London, Schinkel Pavillon Berlin, and Vienna Biennale, among others.

Motivation

It’s no secret that we are in the midst of an ecological crisis spurred on, in large part, by excessive resource use and extraction. In the West, our relationship with the environment has been defined for centuries by land’s productive value, which has led to gross ecological mismanagement and destabilization. terra0 seeks to re-orient this relationship towards intrinsic ecological value by applying Web3 principles of decentralized collective governance, communal ownership of public goods, and automated digital mediation in service of environmental resilience and autonomy. The development of decentralized programmable systems for exchanging value is giving rise to code and community-based digital organizational structures that enable democratic control of property. Novel ecological collectives such as those proposed by terra0 could distribute decision rights based on immanent bio-regional agency, relationships, and proximal metrics.

Rationale

As a collective, terra0 has been experimenting for years with Gnosis Safe as infrastructure for treasury management and as a trust anchor. Historically, we see Gnosis Chain and community as a place where DAO experiments happen; one we believe provides essential DAO infrastructure for the projects, affordable txs, and a community that cares deeply about its development. Gnosis’ commitment to open standards whose design philosophy is one of expandability, inclusivity, and composability aligns with the terra0 ethos of experimenting with novel forms of governance and communities centered around ecological commons.

The proposed art project is of value to the Gnosis community as it engages a diverse audience and is participatory in nature — pairing ecological narratives with a concrete implementation of DAO governance. This includes visitors of the exhibition, online DAO members, local stakeholders, an international art audience, and experts from various fields. When combined with the timescale, exhibition, and participatory nature of the terra0 land art project, presents a unique opportunity to engage an audience that would not normally be accessible while increasing the capability and usage of the Gnosis ecosystem and Gnosis Chain. The land and forest will function as a permanent land art installation and be accompanied by an internationally recognized and large-scale public exhibition organized by LAS in Berlin over the period of 3-6 months — which may travel to other locations in the future. This connection has the potential to enhance the public perception of Gnosis: applied ecology and community governance have rarely been publicly discussed and tested on such a scale.

Additionally, the application and implementation of mapping a Verein onto a DAO will enhance how it can be perceived in a legal context — one we hope will set a precedent that will allow for its legality to be recognized in other locals, contexts, and jurisdictions while featuring Gnosis Chain and tools as key components. Although the legal definition and context of a Verein is unique to Germany, once incorporated, it allows for international members to join the organization — therefore not only being bound to the members residing in Germany (except seven core members). The possibility to integrate DAOs into a concrete legal structure using the Verein is an important building block for our project and enables real-world use cases in areas such as environmental protection and restoration.

Implementation

The land art project will be developed over the next year, in this process terra0 will purchase a plot of land containing a forest (10-20 hectares) in nearby proximity to Berlin, instantiate a DAO to augment the ecological agency of the ecosystem, and transfer the ownership of the land to it. The DAO governs the token systems, enforces the sovereignty of the underlying ecosystem, and mediates human oriented relations. The secondary function of the DAO is that of providing a social space, thus contributing to the stimulation of work groups and educational initiatives relating to ecology and technology. Many visitors and potential DAO participants will have little experience with blockchain and Web3 — and will interact and be exposed to Gnosis Chain and ecosystem for the first time. Through a special statute and voting mechanism of the association which locks the ownership in the DAO, it also serves as a permanent protector of the piece of land against disposal and reintegration into economic dependence and exploitation.

During the production period and exhibition terra0 and LAS will host a series of workshops and events to on-board and orient the community into the DAO. Gnosis DAO will receive a proportional amount of tokens relative to the proposed funding to participate in the terra0 land art project — one that we see as a key member when engaging in a long-term project about the evolution of legal structures pertaining to DAOs and ecological management.

The exhibition component of the terra0 land art project will be exhibited with LAS. Previous exhibitions produced by LAS can be viewed here. In recent exhibitions, LAS received approximately 25 000 – 30 000 visitors for the duration, an average of 600-800 visitors a day. Additional coverage of 60 – 100 media outlets enabled the exhibition’s themes to be brought to the forefront of international discourse.

For the land art project to be successful, the DAO requires a legal structure to hold and administer property (land) according to German law. We are currently working with legal teams to define a Gnosis Safe as the managing tool for a Verein under German jurisdiction. This framework will allow for the fluid recognition of token holders (as addresses) to be viewed as legal members of an organization at the time of voting without any additional registration.

Two aspects are to be particularly emphasized:

  1. The legal membership in the Verein will be defined only by a membership token, the associated address, and will not require the registration of identity through KYC (with the exception of seven registered members, which is a condition for each Verein in Germany).
  2. Votes which take place with the help of the associated voting methods (such as Governor mod) to be legally defined by the association rules as “continuous association meetings.”

If these two aspects are laid out in an association regulation, the Gnosis Safe can be legally integrated into a Verein without any additional infrastructure. The development period will be followed by an initial implementation and prototype of this legal structure that will be deployed as the framework for the DAO in conjunction with the land art project and exhibition.

Following this, terra0 will create a web and Gnosis Safe app (this could take the form as something similar to KALI with increased functionality) with a DAO template engine that will allow and enable a DAO to be incorporated under German law as a Verein. The app will facilitate the deployment of a Gnosis Safe, create the legal documents required for the registration of the Verein under German law, and will use the Gnosis Safe and associated voting method.

Relevant Links:

Sry there is a limit on hyperlinks.

We (brachland, plt_prx, cxo) are happy to hear your feedback and answer potential questions!
[/quote]

不错

5 Likes

Yes, that seems realistic. However, it should be emphasized that, due to the nature of the project, the funding partners are not primarily remunerated through tokens, but rather through the public communication as commissioners of the project, the appearance in the public reception, and in the exhibition, publication, etc.

3 Likes

Is the GnosisDAO funding subject to the German Verein being manageable via a DAO, i.e., do we require a smart contract utilizing the Reality.eth module to transfer back the funds in case it doesn’t work out?

It’s interesting that the German jurisdiction has been chosen to kick-off this project. Historically, the German people have been slow to adopt new technologies. As a result, I’m curious why you chose this jurisdiction over South America or Asia where I would expect an ever greater and diverse potential community / user base.

The question you will probably hear a lot. Why do you require Web3 / a DAO for running that project as opposed to doing it in Web2? Appreciate you response to that.

The funding from GnosisDAO will be used primarily for the acquisition of the forest land. This can be done only after the legal body (including coupling with the DAO) has been formed. As mentioned above, we are actively working out the legal concept with our law firm, including obtaining legally binding confirmations on details from the government. It is conceivable that the funding will only be distributed after this process has been completed and the entity has been successfully established, when there is no longer any risk that it is not legally feasible.

On this point, we have followed a clear conceptual line rather than going to the place of the most favorable jurisdiction. terra0 originates in the context of German historical/cultural readings of forest, wilderness, environment, and personhood. The project is about re-discussing concepts like ownership, land claims, and personhood. As a group of people mostly from Germany, we can only do this from our perspective, which is why we decided that we could only implement the original concept here. At the same time, terra0 has always been a work whose greatest strength has been to inspire others and spawn numerous forks and adaptations. We’re sure that a successful genesis of terra0 will lead to many instances around the world, run and built by communities that are far more knowledgeable about their respective legal, biological and social environments than we could ever be.

For us, the governance and ownership structures of most organizations that manage and conserve land and biodiversity are rather opaque. Especially in Germany this is mostly done by foundations with really mixed results. A DAO can serve as an easy entry point for participation and, in the best case, democratic governance. In addition, the basic structures of a DAO (through open proposal systems) make the decision-making process transparent. Given the current situation of declining biodiversity and mass extinction, we believe that new radical forms of ownership and participation are needed — and DLT seems to be a technological substrate that makes this possible.

In addition, web3 tech allows us to create a tech stack that can be bootstrapped / forked by others. We’re interested in creating something like a blueprint that is not a 1 of 1, but rather the first of many. Another reason for our special jurisdiction is that the DAO tooling allows us to “refurbish” a long-standing legal entity (the Verein), rather than having to wait for entirely new legal entities to exist. The main issue here is to apply substantial processes such as accounting, logging, and identity determination to a dynamic, pseudonymous group. This would not be universally possible without the key properties of DLT.

3 Likes

For all who want to read a little about terra0’s background, views and other projects:

3 Likes

We moved the proposal to a phase II and added Milestones & timeline as well as the needed GIP Information.

We would be happy if you vote. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

6 Likes

These are the projects that should be funded by all the treasuries. Empowering and supporting paradigm shifting concepts into techniques and lived experience. So inspiring.

3 Likes

We moved the proposal to Phase-3 and created a Snaptshot (link). Voting will start today at 11:30am CET.

1 Like

Two days left until voting ends on Friday at 11:30 CET! I will be happy to answer any questions until then— and we appreciate every vote!

1 Like