🗳 This Week in Governance - July 13

A weekly resource covering crypto governance, politics, and power.

Jul 13, 2023

Aave set to launch GHO stablecoin
Jokerace version 3 moves beyond token-voting
BarnBridge DAO Under SEC Investigation
Arbitrum Votes on a Grants Framework
Public Goods Network launches community-led L2 ecosystem

Voting Activity (L7)
🗳️ 357,888 ballots
👥 269,702 voters
📜 221 proposals
🌐 73 active DAOs

Let’s get into it 🔥

🔆 Featured: Highlights from Arbitrum DAO Governance

In this episode the Delegate team chats with three prominent figures in Arbitrum governance: Patrick McCorry, research lead at the Arbitrum Foundation, and two prominent delegates, Matt Fiebach from Blockworks and Frisson from Tally. They discuss the challenges with AIP-1, the reason for the DAO, current proposals, and the plan for Arbitrum governance.

Delegate Podcast → Apple | Spotify | Google | Amazon

📰 News

BarnBridge DAO Under SEC Investigation: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating BarnBridge, a DeFi protocol powered by Ethereum that focuses on tokenizing risk exposure. The news was confirmed by BarnBridge CEO Tyler Ward and legal counsel Douglas Park, who advised that all work on BarnBridge products should cease to reduce further legal liability. The DAO has also shut all existing liquidity pools and restricted the creation of new ones. The investigation follows a series of actions taken against crypto firms by regulatory bodies. Read more

Jokerace Announces Version 3, Abandons Token-Voting: Jokerace has launched its version 3 platform, which aims to make token-voting obsolete. The platform allows users to create an on-chain allowlist of participants for submitting and voting in on-chain contests. This means that communities can now handle full governance on any EVM-compatible L2 without the need to bridge, mint, or distribute tokens. Furthermore, the new system allows communities to operate without tokens entirely, as the community is defined by the allowlist, which can be based on any behavior that can be mapped to an on-chain address. This opens up new possibilities for customer acquisition and retention, as contests can incentivize users to engage with a product or community, provide valuable data on user preferences, and encourage public marketing of a brand. Read more

Public Goods Network Launches Community-Led L2 Ecosystem: The Public Goods Network (PGN) has announced the launch of a community-led L2 ecosystem aimed at generating abundant and legitimate funding for public goods. PGN is an EVM-compatible rollup, with the majority of net sequencer fees going towards supporting public goods in Ethereum and beyond. The network is backed by several organizations, including Protocol Guild, clr.fund, Public Nouns, Giveth, and Gitcoin. The Public Goods Network will be a public good itself, allowing developers to fill blockspace on PGN, thereby fueling the objective of growing and funding public goods. Future projects can receive revenue directly through sequencer fees via Contract Secured Revenue, aligning incentives between the network and the developers building on it. Read more

GFX Labs Launches Oku, Advanced DeFi Trading Platform: GFX Labs has launched Oku, a state-of-the-art DeFi trading platform built on Uniswap v3, aiming to combine the functionality and user experience of a traditional exchange with the security and transparency of Uniswap v3. Oku supports all existing and new pools on Uniswap v3, eliminating the need for token listing requests typically required by traditional exchanges. The platform also supports limit orders, allowing users to configure and execute trades with specific conditions within any pool. Oku extends its reach beyond Ethereum, offering support for additional blockchains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, with plans to expand further in the future. Unlike traditional exchanges that claim a percentage of each executed trade, Oku operates without any user fees. Read more

BGD Labs Introduces a.DI, a Cross-Chain Communication Layer for Aave DAO: BGD Labs has presented a.DI (Aave Delivery Infrastructure), a cross-chain communication abstraction layer designed for decentralized systems like the Aave DAO. The system aims to facilitate communication across networks while minimizing the risk associated with underlying bridge providers. a.DI is a set of smart contracts that gives full sovereignty to the Aave DAO, reducing trust in the underlying bridges to a minimum. The system is designed to be adaptable for almost any kind of cross-chain communication needs. It also includes a mechanism that distinguishes between operational and emergency modes, allowing for full control and flexibility in various scenarios. The launch of a.DI is a critical component of Aave Governance v3. Read more

Arkham Launches World's First On-Chain Intelligence Exchange: Arkham has announced the launch of the Arkham Intel Exchange, the world's first on-chain intelligence marketplace. The platform aims to power the intel-to-earn economy by connecting people who want to buy and sell intelligence on any crypto wallet address. The Intel Exchange uses a bounty mechanism to match buyers and sellers of on-chain intelligence. Anyone can post a bounty seeking some on-chain information, and these bounties can be fulfilled by 'bounty hunters' who exchange intelligence for payment. All transactions on the Arkham Marketplace will take place through smart contracts audited by partner Quantstamp. Read more

📜 Proposals

Recently Closed

Arbitrum: [Non-Constitutional] Fund the Arbitrum Grants Framework Proposal Milestone 1

This proposal is to allocate 3.971 million ARB (0.08% of the total treasury) towards the establishment of an Arbitrum DAO Pluralistic Grants Program, with the intention of positioning Arbitrum as the preferred scaling solution for Ethereum. This initial funding will be divided among Arbitrum ecosystem development (72%), Plurality Labs Services (12.5%), Grant Program Managers (7.2%), matching Gitcoin funding pools (8.3%), and a project buffer (10% of total funds). The project will be assessed based on metrics including active developer count, GitHub quality, delegate satisfaction, voter participation, and capture-resistance, with the Plurality Labs team undertaking multiple responsibilities. At the time of writing (a few hours before the end of the proposal), 55% had voted in support.

Nouns: Public Good Global Expansion

This proposal outlines a plan for the expansion of the Public Good brand, which has created a cc0 beer reflecting the culture of cc0, Public Good, and Nouns. The proposal requests a total of 47,000 USDC (~25 ETH) to fund three strategic directions: expansion into new regions through partnerships with breweries in the US and Europe, increased marketing efforts in Brazil, and the introduction of new product categories such as BBQ sauces and sunscreen. The proposal emphasizes the role of real products in amplifying visibility and legitimizing the ecosystem outside of crypto Twitter, thereby facilitating onboarding and paving the way for the ecosystem to work beyond speculation. The proposal ended on July 10 with just over 50% voting against funding the project.

Ending Soon

Aave: GHO Mainnet Launch

This proposal seeks to launch GHO, a native stablecoin for the Aave platform, with two initial facilitators: the Aave V3 Ethereum Facilitator and the FlashMinter Facilitator. If approved, users of Aave V3 on Ethereum will be able to mint GHO against their collateral, making stablecoin borrowing on the Aave Protocol more competitive and generating additional revenue for the Aave DAO. The introduction of GHO would also allow the DAO to manage GHO's financial framework in a decentralized way and adjust GHO's interest rate as necessary.

Upcoming

ApeCoin: Understanding and Improving the Governance Participation

This proposal by DeepDAO aims to enhance governance participation in ApeCoin DAO through data analysis and segmentation. By understanding the interests and activity patterns of APE token holders, the proposal seeks to develop targeted onboarding incentives and initiatives, optimize governance processes, and cultivate a more engaged community. The proposal requests $15,000 in funding portioned out after two milestones over the course of six weeks.

💬 Forums

1inch DAO considers grant request to develop a constitution

The forum post details a grant request by the StableLab team to draft the first version of the 1inch DAO Constitution, aimed at supporting the DAO's transition towards decentralization. The proposed constitution will define the responsibilities of 1inch Labs and 1inch DAO, implement accountability mechanisms, and provide a consistent framework for managing the DAO. The grant, totaling $26,000 USDC, will cover various tasks including preliminary research, drafting, community engagement, and editing, with payment to be made upon submission of the deliverables.

Aave considers modifications to a direct-to-onchain proposal framework

The forum post proposes a renaming of the existing Cap Update Framework to "Direct-to-AIP Framework" and the addition of an emission manager role. The new framework aims to provide a more streamlined governance process for specific protocol actions, bypassing the TEMP CHECK & ARFC stages and going directly to the AIP stage with only an ARFC forum post-publication requirement before AIP creation.

Aura Finance contemplates hiring Chainalysis

A forum post proposes adopting Chainalysis' Proactive Incident Response (Proactive CIR) to protect Aura from potential hacks or exploits. The proposal highlights the increasing threat of cryptocurrency theft from DeFi platforms and positions Chainalysis' solution as a leading asset recovery tool. The proposed Proactive CIR, costing up to $30,000 for 12 months of coverage, would provide Aura with a rapid-response retainer service, offering benefits such as deterring hacks, reducing response time, guaranteeing support, and providing technical skills and a vast network for asset recovery.

Optimism discusses financial-interest disclosures among and between projects and delegates

The original forum post raises the question of a potential conflict of interest involving General Magic, led by Griff Green, and its connections to several mission proposals in the Optimism DAO. General Magic, which provides grant writing services and contract work to grant proposers, has been linked to several proposals that Griff, a delegate with approval power, has voted to advance. The post raises questions about whether Griff or General Magic has a financial interest in getting these applications approved, whether this interest has been properly disclosed, the terms of upfront lending to these projects, the eligibility of affiliated proposals for voting, and the potential implications on governance distributions and practices.

SafeDAO reveals the first draft of a new governance framework

The forum post presents the new Governance Framework - a proposed structure to manage the SAFE ecosystem. The author outlines the framework's key components, including a multi-tiered governance model, a community treasury, and a system for proposal submission and voting. Discussion revolves around clarifying the framework's details, with community members expressing support and raising questions about its implementation and potential impact on the SAFE ecosystem.

Uniswap proposes a new token model

The forum post proposes a new token model for Uniswap's UNI token in light of the v4 code release. The author suggests that the UNI token could replace ETH as the primary asset pair for long-tail assets on Uniswap, arguing that UNI has essentially zero opportunity cost and is more correlated to long-tail assets than ETH, making it less susceptible to impermanent loss. To facilitate this, the author proposes a two-part plan: the creation of a Uniswap Credit Facility (UCF) to make UNI more accessible to liquidity providers, and the implementation of incentives programs to encourage the use of UNI as the base pair.

📚 Reads

Onchain Hypercultures: Plausible Adoption Funnels for Global Integration, by LGHT
DAO Harvard Proceedings - Part 1: Lawrence Lessig and Sandy Pentland Discuss Code and Law, from Metagov News
Rethinking Legitimacy in DAOs, by philh
Why Hydra Is On a Mission to Propagate Community Driven Investment DAOs, from Hydra Ventures
95 THESES for the second half of 2023, from Ryan Selkis
Understanding Grants Framework Design at Metacamp, by Disruption Joe

🎧 Listens

Octant: The Platform for Governance Experiments with Julian and James, on Green Pill
Highlights from Arbitrum DAO Governance, on the Delegate podcast
Don’t DAObt Me, on DAO Talk
DAO News Report & Interview with Daniel Ospina, on Just DAO It
Sovereign Identity and the Future of Money with Nick Johnson, on The Story of Money
Luxury Media w/ Jihad Esmail, on On the Other Side
Wachtell Lipton’s David Adlerstein and Kevin Schwarts on Decentralization, Smart Contracts, Tornado Cash & NFTs, on Law of Code

💭 Ecosystem Takes

🎈 Have a Meme

📮 Stay Up to Date

📥 Sign up for Vote Updates
Set up custom notifications to receive daily roundups of new and upcoming proposals in three simple steps:
Connect Your Wallet → Select Your Projects → Save Preferences 👏

Activate Notifications

Boardroom

Discussion about this post