🗳 This Week in Governance - November 22: Expand, Attack, or Sue

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

Duncan Dobbelmann

Nov 22, 2023

Indexed Finance survives a governance attack
SuperRare proposes DAO expansion to address data fragmentation
Aragon DAO to pursue legal action against Aragon team
Uniswap delegates compete for more UNI
Optimism proposes its security council members

Voting Activity (L7)
🗳️ 26,198 ballots
👥 13,486 voters
📜 249 proposals
🌐 57 active DAOs

Query more data using the Governance API

Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 Let’s get into it!

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Boardroom for Builders: Governance API and Kit
Making sense of complex governance data is crucial. Boardroom's developer tools, the Governance API and Kit, provide developers with the means to seamlessly integrate governance functionalities and data into various applications, enhancing governance interactions. Discover how these sophisticated yet user-friendly components are tailored to present essential governance information in the blog.

📰 News

SuperRare proposes DAO expansion to address data fragmentation

SuperRare Labs proposes reorienting the DAO's priorities to develop Rare Protocol, focusing on addressing data fragmentation in the web3 creator economy. This protocol establishes a decentralized registry for creators, collectors, assets, and historical provenance to enhance discoverability and authentication in the NFT sector. While continuing to steward the SuperRare marketplace, the proposal includes repositioning the DAO and governance token around Rare Protocol, electing a new council, and empowering the Foundation with increased responsibility. This initiative is intended to significantly impact the NFT ecosystem and advance the web3 creator economy.

Indexed Finance survives governance attack

According to Bitcoin World, a malicious proposal within the largely unfrequented Indexed Finance DAO aimed to drain its remaining $90,000 — but was narrowly defeated after a blackmailer alerted former contributor Laurence Day, who mobilized opposition on social media. The exploiter, needing 400,000 NDX to pass the proposal, was initially blackmailed for a share of the profits — but refused. The article points out that this incident highlights a growing issue in DeFi: stagnant DAOs with immutable code and unattended treasuries can become targets for exploitation.

Aragon DAO to pursue legal action against Aragon team

A recently passed proposal in the Aragon DAO grants Patagon Management LLC 300,000 USDC to pursue legal action against the Aragon team for shutting down the ANT token and withholding funds. This move is in response to the Aragon team's unilateral decision to dissolve the Aragon Association and shut down the ANT token, which angered a faction within the community. Patagon's role will involve leading negotiations and a lawsuit, with a focus on achieving what is claimed to be a more fair distribution of assets to token holders. The proposal includes a detailed plan for managing and auditing the legal funds, with bi-monthly public reports on expenditures. It also outlines the process for further financing, if required, and establishes an Oversight Committee to monitor the case.

📜 Proposals

Recently Closed

Uniswap: Competition of Delegation of UNI to Active but Underrepresented Delegates

This proposal concerns delegating UNI to active but underrepresented delegates within the Uniswap community. Seven qualified delegates have applied, and through snapshot voting, the top four will receive a delegation of up to 2.5 million UNI each. The remaining UNI will be distributed proportionally among the other candidates based on votes received. The proposal aims to enhance transparency and engagement by supporting these underrepresented delegates in the governance process and will eventually move to an onchain vote. Voting ends on November 22nd.

Ending Soon

ApeCoin: ApeComms Collaboration for Education and Community Building

This AIP proposes collaborating with ApeComms to enhance public communication efforts for the ApeCoin ecosystem at no cost. The proposal aims to increase access to accurate information, highlight progress within the ecosystem, and feature accepted AIPs, fostering a more informed and engaged community. Key initiatives include written proposal assessments, educational Twitter Spaces, and interviews with community members. This proposal does not require funding from the ApeCoin DAO and will be administered by the Ape Foundation. Voting ends on November 22nd.

Upcoming

Nouns: Bridging the Transparency and Accountability Gap Between Funded Projects and the Community

This proposal suggests establishing a third-party service, ThePASS team, to improve transparency and accountability in the Nouns community by tracking and overseeing funded proposals. The proposed service includes analyzing funded proposals, communicating with builders, archiving updates, compiling monthly reports, and hosting town halls for discussion and feedback. The goal is to ensure that proposals are executed effectively and transparently. The proposal requests 26 ETH for six months of operations. Voting starts on November 24th.

🎙️ Rather Listen?

The Boardroom Roundup brings you the latest DAO news headlines and governance proposals every week:

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📚 Reads

From Closed Doors to Public Forums: A Lesson for DAOs from OpenAI, by Drew Coffman
State of Crypto 2023: Spotlight on Crypto Policy, from a16z
The Past, Present and Future of Public Goods Funding, by Carl Cervone
An Open Letter RE: Blockchain Domain Name Patents, by nick.eth

🎧 Listens

Token Holders vs App Users: Who Matters Most? on 0xResearch
Software Eating the State with Samuel Hammond, on Bankless
Jaris @ BanklessDAO | DT Interview, on DAO talk

💬 Forums

Cosmos: The Governance of Cosmos Interchain Security

This post summarizes the research report "The Governance of Cosmos Interchain Security" (by Darcy Allen, Chris Berg, and Sinclair Davidson, and supported by the ATOM Accelerator DAO). The report highlights how Interchain Security (ICS) facilitates mutually beneficial security arrangements between the Cosmos Hub (producer chain) and smaller sovereign chains (consumer chains). It emphasizes the importance of robust governance processes for successful and sustainable ICS agreements, addresses potential risks, and offers recommendations for improving these governance structures. These include establishing agreement-level governance bodies, managing foreign exchange risks, and providing a decision tree and template for onboarding new consumer chains.

Kleros: The Problem of “should” Statements in Primary Documents

This forum post discusses a proposal to modify the interpretation of “should” and “should not” in the Kleros General Court Policy, suggesting they be understood as imposing requirements or prohibitions. Two regulatory options are presented, with the first being a non-ambiguous rule for literal interpretation and the second allowing multiple interpretations. The proposal addresses ambiguities in these terms and aims to enhance predictability and certainty in the Kleros justice system. It also points to a need for clearer primary documents from services/platforms/dApps integrated with Kleros.

Mantle: Embedding philanthropy into Mantle’s treasury

This proposal from the Glo Foundation suggests that Mantle swaps $1M of its treasury for Glo Dollar, a stablecoin designed to generate basic income for people in extreme poverty. The swap aims to embed philanthropy into Mantle's treasury, diversify its stablecoin holdings, and support the development of a public-benefiting stablecoin. Glo Dollar is regulated, backed by cash and US Treasuries, and its reserve revenues are donated to GiveDirectly’s basic income programs.

Optimism: Security Council Vote #2 – Initial Member Ratification

The Foundation proposes appointing members to the Security Council under the Collective Council Framework 2, with terms of either 12 or 18 months. Members are required to pass screens by the Foundation and complete rehearsals for confirmation. Cohort A includes individuals from Phoenix Labs, Connext, DBA, the Glowworm Foundation, and other organizations, while Cohort B comprises OP Labs PBC, Ethereum Foundation, Synthetix, Coinbase Technologies, and more. The Security Council's initial role in Phase 0 involves co-signing protocol upgrades for OP Mainnet. Addresses and transactions for this role are still being provisioned, and a Council Lead, appointed by the Foundation, will be announced later.

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