Developer DAO

Authors: @kempsterrrr @Erik_Knobl @ntindle

This is a summarized/truncated version of the complete proposal. See the forum link for comprehensive details.

Summary

This proposal establishes the following:

• Governance Role Definitions, Responsibilities and Rewards: Member, Contributor, Steward
• Governance Structure: DAO, Foundation, Sub-DAOs
• Funding Process and accountability mechanisms for Sub-DAOs

Motivation

As highlighted and discussed in the forum post “Can we build a better game”, whilst we have achieved a lot we can be proud of during Season 1, we’ve also realised several challenges with our current model.

To be successful over the long term and have a serious impact on the Developer DAOs mission, we need the Governance and organisational Structures in place for Contributors to more freely create value for the DAO, its Members and the ecosystem, as well as a more equitable and fair distribution of resources and value.

Scope of Work

Governance Roles

Summary: the proposal defines Member, Contributor, and Steward roles.

Members are required to hold >= 400 $CODE tokens OR a D4R NFT to access our discord community. This can be changed via DDIP or any authority delegated to a Sub-DAO via DDIP.

Voting power in Governance scales linearly based on the number of $CODE tokens held. For example, someone with 1 $CODE token has 1 vote, and another persona with 100 $CODE tokens has 100 votes.

Members have no accountability to the DAO beyond adhering to our Code of Conduct.

Contributors work for the Developer DAO Foundation or Sub-DAOs (defined below). Sub-DAOs are atomic units in the DAO and have independent processes for hiring and rewarding Contributors, to which Members must adhere to become a Contributor.

Stewards are elected Members as well as the nominated Developer DAO Foundation Director who help “Steward” the DAO via elevated responsibilities in Governance. Their objectives, responsibilities, accountability, and election format are specified within the proposal.

Governance Structure

Members Govern the DAO via DDIP.

This proposal establishes a new Governance Structure by replacing our existing Budget Application process with a new process for forming Sub-DAOs via DDIP.

The Developer DAO Foundation

The DAO (and therefore its Members) are represented in meatspace by The Developer DAO Foundation, a non-profit entity limited by guarantee with no beneficial owners.

The Foundation has three directors; one community director (Kemp) and two professional directors from Leeward Management. The directors must enact the Members’ will as determined via DDIP and follow this unless they are compelled to violate the Foundation’s Articles, ByLaws or any other laws applicable to the Foundation.

You can read more about the formation of the Developer DAO Foundation here.

Sub-DAOs

A Sub-DAO is an entity or group of Contributors delegated responsibility for a Domain of Operations by Members via DDIP.

Sub-DAOs are the atomic units of how Developer DAO advances its mission. As such, ratifying Sub-DAOs sets boundaries on what is and isn’t in the scope of DAO governance.

Any Member may start a Sub-DAO and gather momentum by posting on the forum. Until a formal proposal for a budget is made and accepted, this Sub-DAO is considered “draft”.

A Sub-DAO can be as broad or narrow as its initiators like, but Sub-DAO proposals must satisfy the following criteria or risk being removed by Stewards:

• Have a clear objective that aligns with the Developer DAO’s mission.
• Distinguish itself from or explicitly state its improvements on any existing Sub-DAO
• Propose clear budgets and timelines for producing intended outcomes
• Have a multi-sig setup with at least 3 signers

Sub-DAOs can have the following states: Draft, Proposed, Active (Foundation), Active (Own Entity), Renewed, or Archived.

For comprehensive details on the formation process, scope, OKRs, accountability mechanisms and expectations, visit the forum.

Drawbacks

This is a far-reaching proposal that makes significant changes to the DAO structure. Whilst a lot of time and energy has been spent debating and discussing the contents of this proposal, it will ultimately be an experiment in coordination to get it right.

The proposal explicitly seeks to limit the need for DDIP for operational decision-making by delegating specific responsibilities to Stewards and Sub-DAOs.