The House of BGANs

Hi all, Snooplion here.

We've been discussing a "second chamber" for a while in the discord and this is the first proposal to officially instantiate the idea. At the top of this proposal, you'll find more explanatory descriptions and at the bottom you'll find the exact language to be appended to the BASTARD DAO CONSTITUTION. LMK if you have any questions about anything in the discord.

Introduction This is a proposal to create a new governing committee for the Bastard DAO called The House of BGANs. The goal is to establish a committee that represents the voting power of the DAO’s treasury in specific contexts. This proposal will include one context while more contexts may be added in the future via successful proposals. The idea here is that the treasury should have some say in how it is governed and by allocating the voting power of the DAO’s treasury to an elected committee the DAO can vote based on the core principles specific to its core interests as represented and executed upon by representatives of The House of BGANs.

Policy Alignment More generally, “make number go up” is the default principle for any holder of BGANs, and this can be a good North Star a lot of the time, but it isn’t necessarily always aligned with what is best for the DAO or the art collection the DAO is aimed to preserve and advance. The House of BGANs would allow for the treasury to be represented in certain votes with the primary goal of upholding the best interests of the DAO and the Bastard Gan Punk V2 collection.

The idea of a “second chamber” as discussed in Discord, or an asset price impartial voting block came to light for me while reviewing the structure of the Optimism DAO. Optimism uses a second chamber to govern the DAO's charity and donation efforts for similar alignment reasons. The BGAN community also expressed concerns regarding how the DAO might be able to defend itself from hostile takeover attempts by large voting blocks in the context of giving voting weight to groups like floorDAO who is actively accumulating a large $BGAN staking position via the NFTX pool, which may be converted into voting power in the near future. Using the Bastard DAO's treasury to vote in contested proposals when a VETO is triggered is one mechanism we can deploy that addresses both things to some degree. First, by establishing an impartial voting block of our own in a context that makes sense, and second, giving that committee the power to act defensively when contention is explicitly signaled via a VETO proposal. In this context, the DAO holding a large voting stake to protect its own interest would be incentivized and suddenly the DAO buying more BGANs is a form of improving its ability to defend itself. This is radically different than in the past when the DAO acquiring more BGANs had no political importance.

Technical Specs for The House of BGANs The House of BGANs will have 9 representatives that will be elected by a community vote. This vote will follow the same mechanics as the multi-sig elections, starting with a volunteer window and then finishing with a weighted vote through an official election snapshot that I (snooplion) will create, where the top 9 vote receivers will become representatives of The House of BGANs.

The House of BGANs will only have the power to cast a vote on behalf of the treasury holdings for any valid VETO attempt that is triggered by a community member. The House of BGANs will not be able to vote on regular proposals at this point, only when a regular proposal is passed and a valid VETO is triggered.

The House of BGANs is also not required to vote when they possess the power to vote. A VETO is a follow up community vote where the result of a proposal is being challenged. In this specific case, The House of BGANs will have permission to express its will via casting a vote on the VETO proposal. The House of BGANs will only cast a vote if it achieves a total majority vote in the context of the entire house. That’s to say that of the 9 elected members, 5 votes must be made in favor of the same choice in order for the multi-sig to cast a vote on behalf of the will of The House of BGANs. How the representatives will cast their votes when called upon is still being worked out, likely a House of BGANs specific snapshot group, more on this later.

Overall, this is a starter template for a second-chamber-like committee to vote on contentious issues utilizing the voting power the Bastard DAO accumulates, largely inspired by the idea of creating a system that cares more about the integrity of the DAO and the integrity of the Bastard Gan Punks V2 collection than anything else, increasing the DAO's ability to defend itself when necessary.

I should also note that a VETO has never been triggered by this DAO before, so the expectation is for this specific application to be rarely needed, but when it is called upon it will likely be important. The best candidates for these representative positions are community members who are consistently active in the community and available for engagement and debate in high-pressure situations.

Summary The official language to be appended to the constitution is below. The language is slightly more technical and concise reiteration of the arguments above.

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THE HOUSE OF BGANs

The House of BGANs is a committee elected by The Bastard DAO that is pledged to protect the integrity of both The Bastard DAO and the Bastard Gan Punks V2 collection by casting votes on behalf of the voting power of the DAO's treasury when appropriate.

1. The House of BGANs has 9 elected representatives.
2. The House of BGANs may cast a vote on behalf of the holdings in the DAO treasury for any proposal types that are outlined below. a. Any valid VETO proposals triggered by the community.
3. The House of BGANs must secure 5 of 9 possible votes in favor of the same choice in order to cast a vote for that choice on behalf of the treasury. a. e.g. A vote of 3-2 from 5 of 9 members means The House of BGANs does not cast a vote. b. e.g. A vote of 5-2 from 7 of the 9 members means The House of BGANs does cast a vote. c. If The House of BGANs is short on members for any reason, the remaining members still must secure 5 votes in a favor of a specific choice in order to cast a vote.
4. Representatives may be recalled and/or replaced at any time via successful proposals by the DAO. a. The House of BGANs, including the representative in question, may still vote as a full member of The House of BGANs on any VETO proposal triggered for the removal of any of its representatives.

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Thanks, everyone! Looking forward to the discussion