A Foundation for the Future
Authors: @kempsterrrr, @Narb @Crypdough.eth, @mannyornothing, @Billyjitsu
Summary
This proposal seeks to create a new, leaner foundation for Developer DAO to succeed in the future by implementing the following changes:
- One aligned core team under The Foundation with a renewed focus on community, product development and sustainability.
- Streaming Governance, Operations and Finances.
Motivation
Developer DAO has been one of the most impactful communities in web3.
Contributors across the ecosystem call Developer DAO their spiritual home, and many of them took their first steps in the DAO by building tools, making friends, and securing jobs.
It was ultimately an experiment in bringing strangers together, and to this point, it has been an enormous success.
As people secured jobs, started companies and moved on, the number of contributors and active members shrunk. Today, a small group of active contributors still show up weekly to sustain the DAO, provide opportunities to the community, and value to teams looking to engage a developer audience.
Thatās not to say there havenāt been mistakes; there have been, but the goal has always been to continue bringing opportunity to the community and delivering on the mission. This proposal seeks to acknowledge this, simplify the DAO structure, and empower the core contributors who remain whilst retaining high-level oversight from the DAO.
This proposal acknowledges the lessons learnt and proposes a new model that simplifies the structure of the DAO and empowers contributors to lean into investing their time to revive and re-establish it as a key contributor to the Blockchain ecosystems.
Scope of Work
Simplify Governance Structures
This proposal removes the following structures and/or roles from the DAO:
- Sub-DAOs
- Contributors
- Stewards
What remains is:
- The Foundation
- The DAO and its Members
The Foundation
The Foundation will act as the business and operational arm of the DAO with freedom to operate day-to-day to grow and sustain the DAO through projects and partnership. Treasury, decision-making, budget and role structures will be independent of DAO Governance but are explained below.
Foundation Team
| Role | Person(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Coordination | BillyJitsu (Back-up Manny, Narb) | Host Weekly Meetings and coordinate work |
| DD Cloud | Crypdough, Saul, Kay, 0xThresh | Design + Engineering on DD Cloud |
| Newsletter | Kay, Jamiebones | Weekly Newsletter |
| Operations | Kempsterrrr | Payroll/expenses, legal liaison with foundation |
| Partnerships | Manny | Partnerships |
Foundation Roadmap
This proposal is focused primarily on the next quarter and the foundation is committing to the following deliverables:
Execute changes from this proposal:
The initial tasks for the Foundation Team are executing the relevant changes in this proposal that are listed below:
- Removal of existing Sub-DAO Structures (Discord channels, Forum, Handbook references, removing balances from Safes)
- Rotate Treasury Signers
- Execution of treasury transactions (more below) and establishing Foundation Safes
Launch DD Ventures Partnership Model
DD ventures is an evolution of the partnerships model operated by the Labs team. It is focused on partnering with projects and protocols to amplify their reach amongst Developer DAOās community to tell their story and provide builders with the education.
https://ventures.developerdao.com
Launch DD Cloud
Developer DAO Foundation recently received a $25,000 grant from the POKT Network Foundation to finish development of, and launch, an RPC Gateway on POKT Network.
Led by Crypdough, the 1st iteration of this project will be that gateway providing RPC access to 50+ chains support in POKT Network. This is an exciting 1st step in investing in products that can help sustain the DAO over time and hats off to Crypdough for driving this project from its inception to where it is today.
Check out the landing page and sign-up for the waitlist here - https://cloud.developerdao.com/
Economic model and sustainability
This proposal establishes a sustainable framework for ongoing funding of the Foundation and by extension the DAO. The goals are as follows:
- Grow reserves for sustaining the Foundation
- Allow for upside potential for contributors
- Grow the DAO treasury
We propose the following breakdown or revenue splits:
- 10% for Foundation reserves
- 10% of the DAO
- 80% to be allocated at the discretion of the Foundation
The Foundation reserves will be allocated to low-risk yield bearing DeFi protocols at the Foundationās discretion to ensure the reserves grow further over time. The DAO retains full control over the assets in the DAO Treasury via Governance.
Treasury Restructuring
This proposal separates the DAO Treasury from the Foundation Treasury to ensure a clear separation of funders between operational costs of running the Foundation and the DAO.
Here are the addresses:
- Developer DAO Treasury: 0x7128f5ff32eD07Ce12E6a9deBE32BB40F9884b3C
- Foundation (formally Labs): 0x9270441B0a33F1d0888F0DaAB4b4857A2f4e963d
Where they arenāt already, new Safeās will be opened for chains as needed on the same addresses.
On the passing of this proposal, with Stewards being removed the signers for the Developer DAO Treasury will be replaced to match the signers of the Foundation treasury:
- Developer DAO Treasury: kempsterrrr, narb, billyjitsu, manny
- Foundation: kempsterrrr, narb, billyjitsu, manny
Budget Request
The following budget is requested from the Treasury to clear outstanding invoices owed by the Foundation.
| Amount | Token | Reason | Paid to |
|---|---|---|---|
| $ 11,239.03 | USDC | 2nd half of yearly Foundation Fee | Leeward Management |
| $ 306.00 | USD (Bank) | Legal fee for advice on change in legislation related to the foundation | Walkers |
| $ 500 | USDC | Submission of notice for POKT Grant | Leeward Management |
| $12,045.03 |
Further budget is being requested from the Treasury to
| Amount | Token | Reason | Paid to |
|---|---|---|---|
| $ 25,000 | USDC | Cash Savings for 2026 Foundation Fee to be deposited in low risk yield bearing protocol | Foundation |
| $5,000 | USDC | SaaS Subscriptions costs for the Foundation for one year | |
| $9,000 | USDC | Coordination + Marketing Narb. | |
| $ 39,000 |
Total Request: $51,045.03
Debts
The DAO has a long standing debt to Community and Design Guild Operators from Season 1. Payment on the debts were paused before the new year due to a lack of funds. In the absence of active stewards this issue was left unresolved. On the passing of this proposal, responsibility for the debt shifts to the Foundation and a conversation with the Guild Operators will be opened to find a settlement for these debts.
The DAO & Members
The DAO
The DAO will exist as it does today with the same governance rights as per the Foundations articles and bylaws. It will operate independently of the Foundation and seek
Members
Members retain ultimate oversight of the Foundation and the DAO via a Developer DAO Improvement Proposal (DDIP). Any member can submit a DDIP to change the structure (including shutting down the foundation) or request assets from the DAO Treasury to fund an idea.
The main change for Members in this proposal is that anything they request a budget for will be outside the legal scope of the Foundation. We hope over time this allows for experimentation in ideas, and we welcome anyone to submit a proposal for the budget in CODE of ideas they want to build.
If members of the DAO want to create their own initiatives, we encourage projects and experiments to be run within the community in a trial and error fashion.
If projects/ideas want to expand past the experimental stage and want to become an income generating project that will possibly interact with the DAO treasury, a few requirements are in place.
-
Sole ownership of the project. The founding team of the project is responsible for all resources for the project to survive. Aspects of partnerships, technical building, business development all rely on the project lead to keep things in coordination.
-
Suggested, not required as of yet, is to form an entity for the project. This protects both Developer DAO and the project individuals from any issues that may occur during a business transaction. It also protects the project from being taken over by other parties as the entity is owned by the individuals of said project.
-
Upon have a clear roadmap of projections for the quarter/year, we can bring in coordination to help amplify through Developer DAO marketing channels such as Twitter and YouTube. This also comes through the business arrangement of how much income generated goes back to the DAO treasury.
-
There will be quarterly reviews on the success/progress of the project and will be analyzed to see if coordination resources continue to be invested into the project. A weekly update will be required to keep coordination up to date. This can be during the weekly meeting or async before the weekly meeting.
Submitted by Piablo, Pedagogical Custodian
As Pedagogical Custodian, @Piablo will steward the following existing community initiatives, which predate āthe Foundationā and have demonstrated value to the DAO:
- Academy (ongoing): Developer education platform with proven partnerships.
- Mentorship (re-emerging): Onboarding pipeline for web3 developers, designers and founders.
Operational Structure:
- Autonomy: Both initiatives will operate under D_D Education, retaining their own multi-sigs for transparency.
Revenue Model:
-
70% to project sustainability (content, mentorship stipends, development).
-
20% to the DAO Treasury (community-controlled).
-
10% to Foundation legal/operational costs (good-faith collaboration).
Governance: Key decisions (e.g., partnerships, budget) will be ratified via Snapshot using (wrapped) $CODE.
Next Steps: A detailed proposal for D_D Education will follow, ensuring these community assets thrive independently while aligning with the DAOās mission.
Governance Process
In the last iteration of DDIP, proposals required supporting Stewards to move from forum to Snapshot. With the removal of the Stewards, a new method of elevation is required.
Moving forward, any member who holds at least 10,000 Code tokens will be able to elevate a proposal to Snapshot. If a member doesnāt hold 10,000 CODE tokens, they can still post their draft proposal and seek support from a member with over 10,000 CODE tokens to elevate
Snapshot will be configured with this threshold to allow holders to elevate proposals without needing permission or help from anyone else in the DAO.
If a member doesnāt have 10,000 CODE tokens they can still post a proposal they can seek the support of anyone sufficient CODE tokens to elevate the proposal to snapshot.
All other aspects of Proposal must still follow the template laid out here.
Drawbacks
- This centralises a lot of control of operations and activity in the DAO around the Foundation team
- Withdraws $39,000 from the Treasury outside of immediate financial commitments to sustain the Foundation and therefor the DAO.
Vote
- Yes
- No
- Abstain
: 
