🗳 This Week in Governance - Mar. 30
🗳 This Week in Governance - Mar. 30
A weekly resource covering crypto governance, politics, and power.
📣 Key Points
Court rules bZx DAO token holders are like a general partnership
Arbitrum’s governance kicks off with its first improvement proposal
Optimism announces results of RetroPGF Round 2
Stargate DAO to deploy on four new chains, aims for cross-chain leadership
Voting Activity (L7)
🗳️ 266,560 ballots 📈 (L2 szn)
👥 70,418 voters 📈
📜 273 proposals
🌐 83 active DAOs
Let’s get into it 🔥
🎙️ Weekly News Update
The Delegate Podcast discusses the hottest DAO governance updates curated from this newsletter. In 20 minutes, the episode covers major protocols and governance activity:
1:00 Uniswap | Fee Switch | Cross Chain Deployment
4:30 Sushiswap | Legal Defense
8:40 Optimism | Bedrock Vote
10:12 DeFi Llama Drama
13:00 Maker Constitution
15:00 Arbitrum | AIP-1
18:00 Aave | Governance V3
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🗞 News Brief
Court rules bZx DAO token holders are like a general partnership
On March 27 there was an important ruling in the Sarcuni v. bZx DAO case (we wrote about the related Ooki DAO-CFTC action in October). As Lawtoshi noted on Twitter, the judge in the case “denied the motion to dismiss of members of the DAO who held governance tokens (BZRX), finding the DAO is plausibly alleged to be a general partnership.” The means that token holders are “plausibly alleged to have owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs” — and this could set a precedent for considerations of the liability of DAO members in future cases. As drnick writes, it could well be that “random degens voting in a DAO can be considered liable for what a DAO does.” But drnick also notes the several peculiarities of this particular case and argues that “this looks like an application of general partnership law to DAOs” — rather than going after random token holders. “Your fun NFT gardeningDAO isn’t about to get the full might of American hegemony rammed in its face. I think….” he writes.
Arbitrum’s governance kicks off with its first improvement proposal
Since Arbitrum’s airdrop last week — which has been written about extensively elsewhere — the Arbitrum DAO has been weighing its first Arbitrum Improvement Proposal (AIP). AIP-1 is a broad proposal that in effect establishes the structure of the DAO and its funding. The proposal describes the aims of the DAO, which is comprised of $ARB holders; the Arbitrum Foundation, which “serves the Arbitrum DAO by administering the wishes of the community and otherwise adhering to its guiding values” and oversees grant making; a Security Council of 12 members empowered to execute both emergency and non-emergency actions; a Data Availability Committee concerned exclusively with the Arbitrum Nova chain; and a DAO-governed treasury of over 3.5 billion $ARB. Undergirding this proposal is the frequently referenced Constitution of the Arbitrum DAO, which provides greater detail and definition in many areas. The Arbitrum documentation also lays out the proposal creation / submission / approval process, which will not be unfamiliar to most DAO participants. Comments on AIP-1 have been largely constructive, though some feel that it’s not clear exactly which elements of the proposal the DAO is meant to approve.
Optimism Announces Results of RetroPGF Round 2
The Optimism ecosystem is driving growth through its Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) initiative, which allocates capital to builders who have contributed to public goods. The Collective invests in projects and individuals that have created a positive impact, supercharging tooling, education, infrastructure, utilities, and open-source software that make Optimism the best crypto ecosystem to build on. The recently completed RetroPGF Round 2 saw 195 nominated projects and people awarded funding by badgeholders, who voted on how to allocate 10M OP to projects that have supported the usage and development of the OP Stack. RetroPGF's sustainability and economic model for public goods will be a key part of Optimism's future and growth.
Stargate DAO to Deploy on four new chains, aims for cross-chain leadership
Stargate DAO, a cross-chain bridge solution that connects various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, has received approval for a proposal to deploy its protocol on four new chains, including Coinbase BASE, Polygon zkEVM, ConsenSys zkEVM, and zkSync. The goal of this proposal is to enable liquidity transfers between zkSync and the eight other chains that Stargate currently supports. The proposal recommends bridging stables such as USDC and USDT, as well as ETH to support these pools, and for Stargate to emit STG to ensure that the total value locked (TVL) within the pools is proportional to the transfer volume. This proposal aims to establish Stargate's position as a leader in emerging ecosystems and secure its market share.
📚 Good Reads
The Sequence, from Folklore and rafa
Made by Humans but Governed by Code? by Federico Ast
Butter’d Aave Delegate Initiatives, from lajarre (Butter)
The State of DAOs & Governance, from the DAO Governance Collective
Decisions in DAOs - What Causes the Pain? from RnDAO
Self-interest, Self-sacrifice, and DAOs, by Doo Wan Nam
Announcing the Results of RetroPGF 2, from the Optimism Foundation
Mainnet Shapella Announcement, from the Ethereum Foundation
Australia Leads the Way in Crypto Regulation, from Coinbase
The DAO Governance Conundrum Part II, by Leo Paturel
MakerDAO “Endgame Plan” ratified in new “Constitution”, by Jeremy Nation for The Block
State of DAO Funding, by Ryan Holloway
Summoning Hydra Ventures, from pet3rpan and Hydra Ventures
Forums:
Compound: Q1 Product Update (2023)
Optimism: Cycle 11 - Grants Preliminary Roundup
Radicle: Start the Foundation org
🧵 Threads
Let’s get back to basics, from Aaron Soskin
Web3 and the ownership economy, by Daniel Ospina
It’s 2028 and I’m having a conversation with my father, who died 14 years ago, by David Phelps
🎧 Listens
Leadership secrets of DAOs, from Origami
Transforming Audiences into Communities with Reka from Guild.xyz, on Mint
Arbitrum DAO Launch, on DAO Talk
Weekly DAO Gov Contributor Coffee Chat, with Coordinative
📜 Highlighted Proposals
FWB Q2 Strategy & Budget
Friends with Benefits on Monday passed a proposal (with over 93% voting in favor) to approve FWB’s second-quarter strategy and budget, which were presented together for the first time. The proposal reviews the successes of Q1 — aimed toward “leaning into FWB as ‘a new kind of social network’ that values intimacy over scale, that is collectively governed, and that produces meaningful digital and physical experiences.” For Q2, conserving cash is a priority while FWB seeks a model that will produce sustainable revenue (through FWB FEST, for example). Q2 will also see FWB make some major “system upgrades” (such as working on membership mechanics). Specific initiatives are outlined in the proposal, but it is noted that each will go through its own, separate discussion and proposal process. The Q2 budget is estimated at ~$417k.
✅ Voting started: March 23
⏰ Voting ended: March 27
⚡ Type: Snapshot vote
💬 Read the discussion
✍ Author: FWB
Templatize Legal Agreements for Deals
This proposal — which ultimately did not reach quorum although voting was nearly 100% in support — requested 70,200 USDC from the treasury to pay international law firm Reed Smith to create a loan agreement template for borrowers in Goldfinch deals. The goal is to “adapt traditional debt mechanics for on-chain mechanisms, standardize deal terms and reduce deal execution cost and timelines.”
✅ Voting started: March 23
⏰ Voting ended: March 26
⚡ Type: Snapshot vote
💬 Read the discussion
✍ Author: Aaron (Warbler)
Inclusion of L2 Users in SafeDAO Governance
Arguing that “L2 users have been ignored by the community and excluded from previous decision-making processes,” the proposal author hopes to correct this situation by the distribution SAFE tokens to L2 users — which would allow them to participate in the governance of the DAO. The current distribution of SAFE tokens includes only mainnet users, potentially leaving out a large number who use L2s for various reasons (including gas fees). Responses to this proposal, which is in the forum discussion phase, indicate that at minimum the proposal still needs to include airdrop criteria before it can be fully considered.
💬 Read the discussion
✍ Author: neobucks
Privacy Pools - v1
MolochDAO describes itself as “the original grant-giving DAO,” and with this proposal it considers granting Chainway $100k to “develop and deploy a demo version of Privacy Pools v1, an innovative privacy solution combining the capabilities of Tornado Nova and Proof of Innocence.” Half of the grant would be provided up-front, and the remaining half after completion of the circuits and contracts. The team hopes to deploy on a testnet by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
⏰ Voting ends: March 31
⛓️ Type: On-chain vote
💬 Read the discussion
✍ Author: Chainway
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