DAO members! Please see the below as we request feedback around the Governance Token proposal.
Note: We are requesting feedback! Following feedback, the revised proposal will follow our governance process through a Forum vote and a Snapshot vote!
Please also view the FAQ - Governance Token Proposal Companion after reading this proposal!
Title: Proposal for a Developer DAO ERC-20 Governance Token
Authors: willblackburn, kempsterrrr, nader, marc, with-heart, Erik_Knobl
Summary
This proposal outlines the creation of a Developer DAO governance token - $CODE.
Token & Developer DAO Overview
Developer DAO seeks to onboard, educate, and support web3 developers with the goal to build web3 tools and public goods. With an explosion in growth, the DAO needs to further decentralize. The creation of a governance token will help the DAO expand its operations and membership through a diversified community treasury.
The token - $CODE - will provide the governing power to accomplish these goals, done by distributing tokens to existing members. A treasury will be established for future partnerships and contributions while governance will accrue to members that contribute to the future successes of Developer DAO.
The decision to create a new governance token comes as an expansion upon the Genesis NFT - Devs for Revolution. While these NFTs will be used for early voting, it does not solve for partnerships, future memberships, and future contributors. Therefore, $CODE will become the primary governance token for Developer DAO moving forward.
$CODE is an ERC-20 token on mainnet Ethereum using audited and battle-tested smart contracts open-sourced by OpenZeppelin.
Token Distribution
Token Distribution
There will be 10,000,000 $CODE tokens.
- 50% to the Developer DAO Treasury
- 25% to current members
- 10% to founding team and advisors*
- 10% to early contributors
- 5% to partners
* subject to vesting
Developer DAO Treasury
The Developer DAO Treasury - found at 0x7128f5ff32eD07Ce12E6a9deBE32BB40F9884b3C - will receive 50% of $CODE tokens. The treasury will be governed by $CODE holders and exists to further the mission of the DAO to onboard web3 developers.
Tokens held in the DAO treasury will not be used for governance. Distributions from the Treasury will only come from additional proposals that pass the full governance voting process.
CODEdrop - Current Members
Current Members of the Developer DAO will receive 25% of $CODE tokens via a retroactive airdrop. Current Members are defined as any genesis NFT holder at block #13612670. Using a snapshot of members at this time helps counter Sybil attacks leading to unwanted members receiving a large amount of governing power.
$CODE will be distributed to members as follows:
Distribution Equation:
Member allocation = 400 (NFT) + 359 (POAP or snapshot vote)
Every member will receive 400 tokens for holding the NFT at the time of the snapshot. At the start of Season 1 (TBD), membership in the DAO will require 400 tokens to be held. If a member holds a POAP from our Developer DAO town halls before Season 0 OR voted on either of our first two snapshot proposals, they will receive an additional 359 tokens. A member can receive up to 759 tokens through the airdrop alone.
Founding Team & Advisors
The Founding Team (6 members) and Advisors (3 members) will receive 10% of $CODE tokens. The Founding Team will retain 6%, current Advisors will retain 0.9%, and 3.1% will be set aside for future allocation.
50% of the Founder Team & Advisors allocation will vest at token issuance with 50% of the tokens subject to a 1 year vesting period. Distributions will happen monthly. Vested tokens can be used as governing power, while unvested tokens cannot.
It is essential for the DAO to have committed members helping lead and structure DAO operations and governance. Incentivizing these members is key to this goal. The lockup and vesting periods ensure that governing power starts in the hands of the DAO members and stays there.
Early Contributors
Early Contributors will receive 10% of $CODE tokens in addition to the airdrop. It is important we recognize early contributions made to the DAO before fanfare and a reward mechanism was in place. The 10% of $CODE tokens will be allocated by DAO members using Coordinape after this proposal passes. Founding Team & Advisors will not be eligible for these rewards.
Partners
Gitcoin will receive 5% of the token. Gitcoin has been identified as a perfect partner for Developer DAO with aligned missions and values. By partaking in a governance token swap, we receive governing power of the Gitcoin DAO and funding for our Treasury.
The Gitcoin partnership, to be passed in a separate governance vote, allocated 50,000 GTC to the Developer DAO treasury in exchange for 5% of the $CODE supply.
Delegation
At launch, we will look to switch our off-chain voting (Snapshot) strategy to ERC-20 voting with delegation. This would allow holders of governing power to delegate their power to other members in the community.
Delegation is an important part of DeGov (decentralized governance) as it allows for increased voting participation. Many votes do not require the full attention of constituents, while others may be complicated and require specific knowledge and time invested in research to understand. By delegating voting power, those that have the knowledge and desire to put in the time can serve as voters.
Delegation is optional and anyone can nominate themselves as a delegate. The DAO will set up ways to do this easily.
Governance Tokens & Distribution Advice
To draft our governance token proposal and formulate the token distribution, industry standards and leading advisors were consulted.
Cooper Turley
An early advocate for DAOs, Cooper has been an important contributor and advisor to a number of Governance Token launches including Gitcoin and ENS. Cooper has worked closely with the Developer DAO team to present the structure and rollout of this proposal and the $CODE token.
Preethi Kasireddy
Preethi is an experienced teacher, founder, engineer, investor, and banker who has built smart contracts for various crypto projects. Preethi started her crypto career as a software engineer at Coinbase and helped launch Ethereum onto the Coinbase platform. Preethi will help us become the #1 platform for Web 3.0 developers through marketing, developing new partnerships, writing technical posts, and more.