P-5: Governance Token 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. $CODE is a non-financial governance token.

Token Distribution

Token Distribution

There will be 10,000,000 initial $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

Additional $CODE tokens can be minted through the governance process. This option provides protection for the DAO. Additional minting of $CODE tokens can also be fully disabled in the smart contract through the governance process.

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 83. 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 (pre-season 0 POAP or pre-season 0 snapshot vote)*

* note: the final numbers will be determined by each snapshot NFT holder receiving 400 tokens and then dividing the remaining current members allocation amount by the number of accounts eligible for the POAP/Vote bonus.

Every member will receive 400 tokens for holding the NFT at the time of the snapshot. At the start of Season 1 (TBD), 400 $CODE tokens will give membership access to the DAO. 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.

Members will receive governance tokens through a claim process. Token claims will be available for six months, after which the Developer DAO can retrieve unclaimed tokens to be added to the Treasury.

Founding Team & Advisors

The Founding Team (6 members) and Advisors (2 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 2 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.

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.

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.

Vote

Yes - Create the $CODE token No - Do not create the $CODE token