Creating Cardano DAO Infrastructure

Detailed Plan

The individuals behind ₳DAO are already using DeFi protocols, studying blockchain policy, developing code, and running other projects in the Cardano community. In Q4 of 2021 the group came together because of the exciting prospect that Smart Contracts and the Plutus Application Backend would allow the Cardano blockchain to compete with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and other blockchains that are currently popular for DAO structures.

₳DAO was officially instantiated on 11/13/2021, when 16 tokens were minted and used to successfully sign its governance smart contract on mainnet. As a DAO all voting and governance is done on-chain in public view so that it can be audited by members or examined as an example for others. Governance tools currently require use of the Cardano CLI but ₳DAO developers are working on a GUI interface to streamline interactions with the blockchain.

DAO Token Policy ID: <https://cardanoscan.io/tokenPolicy/5b01968867e13432afaa2f814e1d15e332d6cd0aa77e350972b0967d>

All development of ₳DAO tools is open-source and placed in our Github repository alongside meeting notes and documentation. A primary focus of development is to make sure these tools are not only appropriate for ₳DAO but for other DAOs or any group on the Cardano blockchain that may wish to adopt them. Tools will be flexible as we recognize that different groups will have a need for different structures of organization and governance.

Roadmap & Key Performance Indicators

Catalyst funds will be used to develop the ₳DAO governance scripts and formally establish launch the organization on the web. Since submitting our Project Catalyst draft proposal we have advertised the DAO on social media channels, held discussions in Twitter Spaces, and grown our Discord server to over 300 members.

To ensure we execute on our ideas we have set ourselves the following goals of development for 1-month, 3-months, and 6-months.

By the end of Month 1, we will have a functioning governance system for ₳DAO GovToken holders. Much of this work has already been done on the personal GitHubs of member developers and should soon be ready for integration into our functional system. Our suite of scripts will enable proposal functionality. Proposals specify one of three use cases:

Spend from treasury
Mint new GovTokens
Update Identity NFT of underlying governance script

Every ₳DAO GovToken holder will be able to vote on whether a proposal should be passed or not.

We will also establish the ₳DAO brand standards, website, and guidelines for organizational interaction with outside systems. Considerations for contributor bounties, membership rewards, and vestments will also be made. All information will be saved on our Github account which shall serve as the source of truth for the organization.

By the end of Month 3, we will build a web-app and/or graphical user interface for engaging with ₳DAO governance. Our goal is to use an existing cardano wallet with a working dApp connector to streamline interacting with initiated proposals. This will allow users to participate in governance without having to set up the CLI on their own equipment.

By the end of Month 6 and beyond, we will build a website that allows any Cardano user to generate treasury and governance scripts that can be used to form their own DAOs. These scripts will be based upon the ₳DAO template. While GovToken holders of a DAO will maintain control over their organizations the website can be used as an interface for coordination and governance. We will also begin exploring additional forms of governance and tokenomics so that DAOs can choose the methods by which they operate.

We will also begin our efforts of DAO seeding by incentivizing mentorship and collaboration of new organizations. DAO members will help newcomers navigate the DAO ecosystem and all members will participate in contributing to the various facets of the DAO's mission, receiving acknowledgement and bounties for their efforts, based on the contribution and available rewards. All of our tools and papers will be open source and we are already in talks with multiple organizations who are interested in collaborating on the tools being developed for DAO governance. We believe the synergy of DAOs cooperating in the Cardano community will be of great benefit to the value and development of the network.

Cost Breakdown

$30,000 - Back-end Tools

$2,000 Enable Governance for all Government Token holders in the coming month

$3,000 Enable functionality to create proposal for our scripts in the coming month

$7,500 Allow wallet integration without depending on cardano-cli over the next 3 months

$10,000 Create a website as an endpoint for creating individual treasury/governance scripts over the next 6 months

$2,500 Research and implementation of various consensus models over the next 6 months

$5,000 Refinement and testing of our Plutus scripts over the next 6 months

$15,000 - DAO Seeding

$5,000 Expand website to allow for any DAO to participate in treasury/governance functions

$10,000 Provide incentives for DAO mentorship and collaboration

$5,000 - Web and Branding

$5,000 Establish branding, website, and register professional services needed for organizational structure in the coming 6 month.

Conclusion

By embodying the mantra of "Decentralization Together," we hope to kindle imaginations and provide the framework and other resources for ideas to become the basis for separate autonomous entities all united by a common thread – decentralization. Community members will achieve this by voting to enact new policies and choose which best practices to adopt, from governance to funding. We are not constrained by legacy systems, but we are aided by a vision of a better future, allowing us to be agile and adaptive in our approach, seeking out solutions that can lead us to shared greatness.

The Team

The following members of ₳DAO are respectfully submitting this proposal.

AdaMinnow (aka TCT) is an entrepreneur and business founder owner/operator. He is a member of multiple DAOs on other blockchains including Ethereum and Harmony and has been one of the foremost community organizers bringing people together to form ₳DAO.

Adam Rusch holds a PhD from the University of Illinois in Education Policy where he works as a Lecturer and eLearning Specialist. He is the organizer of the Champaign Blockchain meetup group with a passion for cryptocurrency education and public policy.

dzCodes is a professional problem solver who started as a potential web designer/frontend developer around seven years ago but quickly moved through the frontend to the backend. He is currently on his way out of corporate jobs to open-source and blockchain.

Ibis is an NFT digital mixed media artist, with over a decade of sales and marketing experience, primarily representing leading brands in the retail tech industry. He holds a degree in graphic design and has experience with the Adobe Suite, branding, copywriting, & social media management.

Nicolas Cerny (Lovecoach) is currently working as Business Analyst focused on requirements engineering and project management. His aim is to establish proper workflows and organizational structure for ADAO. He is passionate about decentralized governance and all things crypto.

Riley attended the University of Washington for Computer Science and Mathematics with a strong interest in applied mathematics, blockchains, and AI. He is currently writing software used by over 75% of Fortune 500 companies and working hard to shift away from a 9-5 career.

Sims has over 10 years in entrepreneurship running multiple businesses along with seats on various governance boards. He followed a natural path to DAOs and is passionate about developing the best open-source tools for the Cardano community and beyond. Lets Build!

If you would like to get to know us and the other members of ₳DAO please join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/rQGBzsstNx

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