Gitcoin // Radicle Public Goods Alliance

Forum post: https://gov.gitcoin.co/t/gitcoin-radicle-public-goods-alliance-temp-check/10825

Summary

We propose a Public Goods Alliance be formed between Gitcoin and Radicle. Gitcoin and Radicle will provide a mutual grant of their respective native tokens (GTC and RAD) to the partner DAO’s treasury. Voting power from these tokens will be delegated to multisigs controlled by the partner DAO. Gitcoin will receive a range of RAD (dependent upon the final grant rate) and Radicle will receive 500,000 GTC, making both DAOs top 10 delegates in one another’s governance [1].

Context

Llama builds economic infrastructure for DAOs. We are an opinionated layer on top of DeFi protocols that helps DAOs take treasury actions including treasury diversification, liquidity provisioning, token swaps, and more. As part of our goal to grow the DAO economy, Llama has engaged with key stakeholders from the Gitcoin (Scott) and Radicle (Abbey) communities to propose a Public Goods Alliance. We presented our plan to Gitcoin’s Mutual Grants Committee and, after incorporating feedback from the committee, would now like to present the alliance to the broader Gitcoin community. You can view some of our work here. For more on Llama and our initiatives, see below.

Overview of Radicle

Radicle is a decentralized code collaboration network built on open protocols, allowing developers to collaborate on code without trusting intermediaries. Radicle provides the benefits of a centralized code collaboration platform while retaining Git’s peer-to-peer nature.

Purpose

As web3-native DAOs, Gitcoin and Radicle share similar missions of growing the public goods ecosystem. The Gitcoin and Radicle communities have rallied around this public goods mission and informally worked together over the last few years, co-hosting events and integrating Radicle in Kernel. In the future, Gitcoin and Radicle can benefit from more product integrations and a closer relationship. As the two operate in similar spaces and have complementary focuses, Llama believes a formal Public Goods Alliance between the two DAOs would be mutually beneficial. We view this alliance as a unique opportunity to formalize the partnership that has developed over the last few years by gaining a governance stake in each other’s communities. The alliance will allow the communities to:

• Collaborate on a shared vision through governance in each other’s communities: The mutual grant makes Gitcoin and Radicle major governance stakeholders in one another’s communities. Each community will have influence in the other’s governance process, enabling them to best represent their interests and to more closely collaborate on a shared open-source vision.
• Develop synergistic features and products: A formal partnership and vested token interest creates opportunity for closer collaboration on features and products that will benefit both communities. This could provide the necessary support for joint development on things such as using Radicle’s decentralized identity for Gitcoin Grants and Gitcoin becoming a de facto funding mechanism for open source projects on Radicle.
• Set precedent for future community alliances: Both Gitcoin and Radicle’s treasury strategies outline the basis for mutual grants and community collaborations being influential to the success of the protocols. This alliance can serve as a basis and provide the template for future collaborations for Gitcoin, Radicle, and the larger web3 ecosystem. In the future, and with alliance-member approval, more DAOs could be brought into the alliance.
• Diversify each DAO’s governance base: Today, the distribution of voting power at both DAOs is concentrated in the hands of internal contributors. Both DAOs would benefit from a more diverse voter base, especially one that includes a like-minded partner DAO as one of its top stakeholders. To achieve this, Llama proposes that Gitcoin receive RAD (depending on final grant rate) and Radicle receive 500,000 GTC, formalizing the alliance between the two DAOs and making each DAO a top 10 delegate in each other’s governance.

After the proposal is executed, both DAOs agree to hold the others’ tokens for a minimum of 2 years.

Proposed Voting Process

Two committees (one committee from each community) of 3 representatives will be chosen to focus on metagovernance in each community. 2 representatives will come from the respective community, while 1 representative will be from the Llama team. Community representatives should have a similar level of engagement as Gitcoin Stewards; they should have the context needed to make decisions on most proposals that Radicle is putting up for votes.

The committees should vote independently, though the two should collaborate on joint governance proposals and initiatives relating to the strategic alliance.

The committee will be responsible for keeping track of all proposals in the other community and bringing them to their respective community for discussion. For each proposal, the committee will vote on behalf of their respective community, informed by their community’s values, the goals of the Public Goods Alliance, and feedback from the broader community.

Votes will be executed out of a multisig controlled by the Metagovernance Committee. Upon receiving the mutual grant, the Treasury will automatically delegate votes to the multisig.

Reporting & Criteria for Success

In order to allow the communities to evaluate the success of the alliance, it’s important to provide comprehensive, objective reporting on how the partnership is working. Reporting should be done on a monthly and quarterly basis to share results with both communities. Below are several ideas about how to gauge success of the alliance.

• Governance
  • Participation rate in each other’s governance votes
  • Number of proposals posted in each other’s forum by the committee
  • Number of comments posted in each other’s forum by the committee
  • The impact of cross-governance participation, with a particular focus on the major or contentious proposals
• Social
  • Number of co-sponsored events and their attendance
  • Community sentiment regarding the partnership and overall governance involvement (e.g. community members’ willingness to hold the other protocol’s tokens, voting on the other community’s proposals)
• Product
  • Number of development hours contributed to joint projects
  • Joint features / products / integrations shipped or in-flight

The quarterly review might include the above information and additionally report on:

• Furthering Gitcoin and Radicle’s primary mission
  • Whether and how the partnership has helped Gitcoin build and fund public goods on web3
  • Whether and how the partnership has helped Radicle develop resilient, peer-to-peer collaboration software
• Collab / interoperability
  • Cross-community interoperability and its growth trajectory
  • Other synergies, or the lack thereof

Ragequit Options

In the event that one party wants to reverse the deal after the mutual grant has been executed, Gitcoin and Radicle will need to strike a new agreement and run it through the governance process. Considering the operational complexities, compromise of the future roadmap, and damage of capital and goodwill the other community may endure, the party that initiates the reversal should reasonably expect less lenient terms, such as a partial return of the originally granted assets. Each DAO may choose to leave the alliance and return tokens within one month of the proposal being executed.

Ideas for Extensions of the Alliance

We view this mutual grant as just the beginning of a long alliance between Gitcoin and Radicle. In the future, we would like to explore more options to further the alliance. Several ideas include:

• Gitcoin and Radicle commit funding to a jointly-governed pool and use it to advance public goods (grant programs, product development, etc.)
• Having new public-goods-centric DAOs join the alliance

Asks from the Community

We are looking for 2 community members to serve on the Metagovernance Committee. If you are interested, please reach out to Scott or Dan.

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[1] Source: Radicle delegates, Gitcoin delegates.

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About Llama

Llama is building economic infrastructure for DAOs. We have worked with some of the leading DAOs, including Aave, Uniswap, dYdX, Gitcoin, Radicle, PoolTogether, FWB, Harvest Finance, and Fei Protocol, among others. Llama has implemented on-chain proposals, constructed treasury strategies, designed liquidity incentive programs and on-chain indices, and built analytics dashboards and financial reports. Llama’s 45 contributors are among the most active in the DeFi and DAO ecosystem and include engineers, DeFi strategists, data analysts, quants, and accountants.