Decentraland

by 0xd11a019a70986bd607cbc1c1f9ae221c78581f49 (Yemel)

Introduction

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is a type of organization run through smart contracts on a blockchain. It is governed by the rules encoded in its smart contracts and by the decisions made by its stakeholders, who are typically its members or token holders. A DAO can be used for decision-making, resource allocation, and governance of a project or community.

Motivation

The Decentraland DAO was created as the governance platform for the decentralized metaverse in order to ensure its longevity and adaptability. The metaverse is a public good and its governance should be treated as such.

Decentralized governance is an ongoing and adaptable process that is not perfect, but serves as a guiding principle. It is hoped that the successes and failures of the DAO will generate knowledge for future iterations and inspire other online communities.

Historical context

In 2018, the Decentraland DAO was originally run by an off-chain voting app called Agora , developed by the Decentraland Foundation. It weighed votes based on the number of contributions made by initial stakeholders, using a token voting scheme. At that time, the DAO decided to assign voting power (VP) to LAND holders .

In September 2020, the DAO moved to an on-chain smart contract using Aragon’s tools . The DAO took the form of an Agent that claimed ownership of all critical contracts and a treasury of MANA. The DAO Agent can be commanded through on-chain community voting or through a Security Advisory Board entrusted to protect the DAO in the event of a security risk .

The new Aragon scheme was more transparent and decentralized than the previous one, but it had low usage due to the fact that stakeholders had to pay Ethereum fees to cast a vote.

In May 2021, the DAO launched the current governance platform using Snapshot’s off-chain voting and empowered a DAO Committee that acts as a “trusted proxy”, enacting the results of off-chain voting on-chain.

Since then, the DAO has voted on several topics related to VP, including enabling VP delegation , assigning VP to owners of wearables L1 , and keep VP assigned to the landowner in rental contracts .

The Problem

There is an ongoing conversation about the VP distribution and how a few wallets can have a significant impact on a vote. The current voting scheme has led to several issues:

• Newcomers believe their vote does not make a difference.
• The legitimacy of a vote flipped by one address is questionable.
• Big holders prefer to abstain from voting to avoid backlash.

This issue can be summarized as a lack of balance in the distribution of voting power, leading to a feeling of disenfranchisement among newcomers and a potential for abuse by large holders.

The following strategies offer potential solutions to address this problem and create a more fair and democratic governance process:

Strategy 1: Give VP to active contributors
This strategy aims to compensate valuable contributions to Decentraland with VP in order to create positive reinforcement for valuable actors. Some activities that could be compensated include:

• Active players
• Event organizers
• Game creators
• Wearable creators
• Active voters
• Code contributors

Strategy 2: Community Delegates Program
Active participants with good reputations should be eligible to represent the DAO and receive a significant amount of VP delegated to them.

To maintain their role, they should vote and comment diligently on governance proposals. This strategy aims to bring a variety of viewpoints to the decision-making process and create a more informed community. A strong community should be able to prevent selfish actions by large holders.

A call for delegates was made a year ago, and this proposal should build upon that.

Strategy 3: Limit the amount of VP a single wallet can hold
This strategy aims to balance the distribution of VP by limiting the amount of VP that a single wallet can hold. For example, one vote should not weigh more than 20% of the threshold (minimum participation). This would reduce the potential for abuse by large holders and give small holders a greater impact on the voting process. It would also ensure that a single vote cannot significantly sway the outcome of a vote, promoting a more democratic governance process.

Conclusion

The persistent issues surrounding the VP distribution in the Decentraland DAO highlight the need for a more balanced distribution of voting power. The three proposed strategies – giving VP to active contributors, establishing a community delegates program, and limiting the amount of VP a single wallet can hold – offer potential solutions to address this problem and create a more fair and democratic governance process.

• Yes
• No
• Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO