GOV-001: AthenaDAO Governance Framework

Governance Framework Overview

• AthenaDAO members control governance decisions through voting on AthenaDAO proposals. Proposals vary by type and follow the process specified below.
• AthenaDAO members’ votes are weighted by the amount of ATH tokens held and used for a particular vote.
• AthenaCore members consist of Full-Time Employees or and Contractors paid by AthenaDAO in ATH tokens or stablecoins.
• AthenaDAO working groups consist of domain experts to help guide member decisions in various workstreams and organizational processes. Working groups can help define proposals to AthenaDAO members to vote on
• In the future, AthenaDAO members may delegate votes to members of their choosing and typically will do so to members with more domain expertise.
• AthenaDAO may engage service providers spanning patent attorneys, contract research firms, or third-party experts to provide services to the DAO in exchange for compensation in fiat, stablecoins, or ATH Tokens as agreed with each provider.
• The initial goal is to mimic successful execution patterns in the biotech industry. Over time, we expect further governance mechanisms to emerge around AthenaDAO.

Stakeholders Community Outline

Community

A community member of AthenaDAO is anyone who has joined AthenaDAO’s discord, follows the AthenaDAO newsletter, and/or has subscribed to social media channels to receive information related to our activities. Community members who have voting power hold $ATH, AthenaDAO’s token. Tokens can be obtained by providing funds or work to the structure. $ATH token holders have full governance rights and can participate in governance on Discord and Discourse (informally) and via token-based voting (formally).

AthenaCore

AthenaCore are the members of the DAO who have committed to take on the responsibility of managing day-to-day operations, community and stewardship of the DAO, and supporting all the working groups interactions and mandates - pre-launch and post-launch.

AthenaCore consists of the initiators of the DAO, as well as other selected members who have shown by their contribution a commitment to the mission. Going forward, AthenaCore will explore how to add and the requirements, expectations, and conditions for new members.

AthenaCore has no special privileges over normal token holders except they are financially compensated for their monthly contributions.

AthenaCore implements the confirmed proposals on snapshot and is in charge of the Admin, as well as in charge of the multisig.

Working Groups, Stewards, and Contributors

AthenaDAO working groups consist of domain experts or motivated contributors to help execute in various workstreams and organizational processes and KPIs. Working groups can help define proposals to the AthenaDAO members.

By default, most contributors are not paid for their services, with some exceptions. The contributors that are compensated get a combination of $ATH and stablecoins and their compensation is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Active Working Groups:

• Science & Dealflow
  • Source, evaluate, and negotiate the research agreements. Lead research projects and represent AthenaDAO in academic and industry events.
• Community & Awareness
  • Focused on increasing awareness of AthenaDAO and its mission, building a strong and engaged community, educating members and the broader audience on women’s health, and onboarding women and researchers into web3. Anyone with writing, designing, marketing, and community-building experience should join.
• Operations
  • Support functions (admin, logistics, treasury, coordination). If you want to join this group, you have experience in operations, logistics, or production.
• Governance & Tokenomics
  • Manages the governance and tokenomics processes of AthenaDAO. Governance is where those interested in helping define how new mechanisms will thrive.

Note: The Science & Dealflow, Operations and Governance & Tokenomics working groups require Non-Disclosure Agreements as they might be privy to sensitive data. AthenaDAO is committed to adhering to academic and industry standards.

Service Providers

Service providers engaged by AthenaDAO encompass professionals who provide a range of services, such as technical development, IP procurement, NFT conversions, and more. Compensation for these services can be in the form of fiat, stablecoins, $ATH tokens, or a combination thereof. The terms of compensation are determined on a case-by-case basis.

AthenaDAO Proposal Types

AthenaDAO proposals fall under the purview of the three main areas that are core to the DAO: Governance, Community, and Science & Research.

DAO Governance Proposals:

• General governance proposals
• Treasury events and management
• Proposals to change governance in order to improve existing mechanisms
• Proposals that relate to Working Group changes, suggestions, or creation

Community Proposals:

• Proposals for community-driven endeavors, introducing new projects or initiatives that align with AthenaDAO’s goals
• Requesting resources, funding, or collaboration from the DAO to realize the community project’s goals
• Suggestions for new projects for AthenaDAO to advance research, partnerships, or DAO-lead events

Science & Research Proposals:

• Allocation of funds from the DAO’s treasury to support new or existing research projects
• Requests for grants or funding from the DAO for specific research focus initiatives
• Proposal to monetize pre-existing data sets received from research laboratories
• Proposals to mint NFTs related to IP that are generated from projects. It also includes proposals to file for IP related to outcomes of research projects

AthenaDAO Standardized ADP Nomenclature and Versioning

In the pursuit of clarity and streamlined governance, we propose adopting a standardized nomenclature and versioning system for AthenaDAO’s Proposals (ADPs). This framework aims to facilitate easy access to the latest governance information while maintaining a well-organized repository of proposals. The proposed categories are as follows:

• GOV-000 Series - AthenaDAO Governance Proposals
  • Encompasses proposals related to the governance structure, processes, voting mechanisms, and token-related matters.
• COM-000 Series - Community Proposals
  • Pertains to proposals for community-driven endeavors.
• S&R-000 Series - Science & Research Proposals
  • Focuses on proposals involving allocation and management of funding for projects and initiatives.

Additional notes:

• As ADP proposals are approved, they will be labeled as “APPROVED - ADP-xxx: XXX”.
• As ADP proposals are not approved, they will be labeled as “NOT APPROVED - ADP-xxx: XXX”.
• Should a new ADP proposal entail substantial changes to a prior ADP, the previous version will be labeled as “DEPRECATED - ADP-xxx : Valid Until [DATE]”.
• In instances where changes are minor or procedural, amendments may be made inline, referencing the modified ADP.

Proposal Process Overview

Phase I: Ideation

• Duration: up to 10 days
• Tool: Discord

Community members and token holders initiate discussions by posting ideas and suggestions in the designated Discord channel in the AthenaDAO Discord Server.

Ideas and suggestions are then discussed and refined on the AthenaDAO Discord Server. Once the idea or suggestion gathers support (20 reaction emojis), it is considered for Phase II.

Before being posted on Discourse for Phase II discussions, the Governance Working Group helps to formalize the proposal in the appropriate template. Only proposals by ATH holders are permitted to pass to formalization.

Phase II: Specification

Proposals that receive more than 20 reaction emojis are moved to Phase 2. This phase requires proposals to be posted on Discourse using the AthenaDAO template besides proper naming, while the ADP template requires all proposals to include fields including but not limited to a Simple summary, abstract, motivation, specification, and implementation.

Phase III: Formalization

• Duration: 5 Days
• Tool: Discourse

Proposals are posted on AthenaDAO’s Discourse for further discussion and refinement.

A single-choice poll with “Agree,” “Agree with Revisions,” and “Disagree” options are included.

Poll results are displayed in a pie chart format for transparency.

Phase IV: Consensus

• Duration: 3 Days
• Tool: Snapshot

Phase III proposals with majority support advance to Phase IV.

Proposals are edited to reflect the forum poll outcome and tagged as phase-4.

Successful Phase IV proposals are locked on the forum and referenced on snapshot for on-chain voting.

Phase IV proposals require majority approval with a 5% quorum of the circulating token supply through token-based voting.

Expedited Decision

For time-sensitive decisions (example: engaging in opportunities, etc), the Core Team has the ability to publish them directly on Snapshot for a 24-hour voting window. The Core Team needs to explain on Discourse why this is an expedited decision and the rationale behind the proposal.

Soft Governance vs. Token-based Voting

To foster agility in the decision-making process, we want to use soft governance mechanisms for most decisions, primarily managed through Discord.

As a general rule, on-chain votes are required for high-stakes decisions that:

• Revolve around the treasury and a certain level of expenses
  • Less than $20,000, AthenaCore has to approve by majority vote
  • More than $20,000 equivalent of AthenaDAO’s treasury; token holders have to approve on Snapshot
• Revolve around the rules or the rules to change the rules [the constitutional process]
• Revolve around membership and enforcement of norms [punitive measures].

Formal token-based voting addresses pivotal and high-stakes issues; other decisions should be made through soft governance.

Tools for Governance

Templates

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