DAO Vote 3

Introduction

The current Gravity Finance structure, in reality, is a “partial” DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). This means, for major decisions relating to the Gravity Finance platform and admin fees etc, the Founders propose governance votes to the DAO, however ultimate control in executing on the vote outcome lies with the development team and founders to implement. Additionally, the Dev team also currently controls the Gravity Finance Treasury (100m GFI) tokens.

As founders, we feel that the Gravity Finance project is now established enough that a transition to a full DAO is the next logical step. As such, we are currently in talks with various DAO tooling companies, projects and developers to take advice and direction on the next steps that are required for this transition to take place.

Once we have gathered sufficient information and have a clear plan for the transition into a full DAO we will provide updates to the DAO to discuss, at which time any required proposals and votes on specifics can be decided and actioned.

As part of this minor restructure, moving forward our Dev Team will operate under the name ‘Next Version Labs’. As NV Labs, we will be partnering with new projects and networks as well as working on and launching new products, most of which will be non-financial products.

We expand on this towards the end of the document.

First on the agenda; In order to transition to a “full” DAO, the founders will be ceding the 100m GFI Treasury assets from the Founders control to the Gravity Finance DAO control. This will take place in the coming weeks/months ahead as we progress through the necessary steps and continue to take advice on DAO structure, legal etc.

Once this process is completed, the DAO will be able to decide how the100m GFI is utilised, along with the other assets owned by the treasury. Additionally any future changes to the DAO owned Treasury will naturally go through DAO Governance votes.

This 100m GFI represents a little under 10% of the Gravity Admin Fees that are currently directed to the dev-team and are intended to cover wages, development and other operational costs.

Note: The transition to becoming a DAO, and the transfer of the current treasury from Founders to DAO is not up for vote, this is something we have talked about since launch and even mentioned in the original white paper.

Second on the agenda, and indeed the main focus of this proposal and vote; The Gravity Finance DAO needs to decide on the future development of the Gravity Finance platform and project.

All projects and platforms need a development team (Dev Team) to maintain current products, dApps, websites, as well as to develop new products, expand to new networks, create new business collaborations and partnerships, have a presence at events etc.

After the transition, the Gravity Finance DAO can decide if the current Dev Team will remain unchanged or if any changes should be implemented, i.e. who will operate, maintain, develop and carry out business relations on behalf of the DAO. This brings us to the current proposal to be voted on.

----- Proposal ----- As above, all platforms and projects need a Dev Team. This proposal, and the vote-options below, outline our current line of thinking with regards to the DAO deciding who, and indeed how, the platform will continue to be developed and funded.

------------------------------------ Option 1 ------------------------------------

Gravity Finance DAO employs the current Dev team which will operate as a service provider under the name ‘NV Labs’. NV Labs will continue to maintain and develop the platform and will cover operational costs (wages and server costs). In return, the DAO agrees to pay 10% of Gravity Admin Fees to NV Labs.

Contract-level changes would be implemented, directing 10% of Admin Fees generated by Gravity Finance Products, including income from Gravity Finance partner products to NV Labs.

“Partner products” are products/projects where Gravity Finance are involved with the development/ownership/operation etc, and receives income from another project as a partner, e.g. QuickPerps.

NV Labs will continue to operate on the current scaled-down budget, until such time that the 10% Admin Fees are sufficient enough to scale back up, at which point the 10% allocation will be utilised specifically for Gravity Finance development purposes, such as hiring additional developers and social media managers (community managers moving into paid roles).

The DAO will be responsible for additional costs, specifically external (paid) marketing, exchange listings, event sponsorships, travel and accommodation for events etc (all of which are items that could be voted for and funding figured out if required).

The day-to-day operations would continue to be subsidised by NV Labs and private investor(s) as they currently are now.

------------------------------------ Option 2 ------------------------------------

Gravity Finance DAO employs the current Dev team which will operate as a service provider under the name ‘NV Labs’. NV Labs will continue to maintain and develop the platform. In return, the DAO will cover all operational costs (as above, $30-35k per month for wages, server costs etc), and look to expand the Dev team when the DAO budget is sufficient to do so.

This option would likely require the DAO to figure out funding options. It is possible that the DAO could raise funds by disposing of some of the GFI Treasury (OTC), or off-set costs with admin-fees, but as above, currently the admin fees are not sufficiently high enough to cover operational costs and therefore require subsidising. Operational costs would not be subsidised by NV Labs or private investors in the event option 2 passes.

------------------------------------ Option 3 ------------------------------------

Gravity Finance DAO seeks and hires an alternate development team to take-over maintenance of the current project as well as the development of future products.

This option would likely require the DAO to figure out funding options. Given that the DAO will own and control the 100m GFI Treasury, the DAO will be earning some income from admin fees, however in our opinion the current admin-fees are not sufficiently generating enough income to cover costs for a hired Dev Team.

------------------------------------ Option 4 ------------------------------------

Further discussion is needed. NV Labs (the current Dev Team) will continue to maintain and develop the platform for now while further discussions are undertaken and a new vote/proposal is discussed and put forward.

----- Additional Details on NV Labs (Dev Team) and vote Option 1 -----

If the DAO Votes for Option 1, the current Dev Team (under the name NV Labs), will continue to work on Gravity Finance on behalf of the DAO, and the scaled-back operational costs will continue to be subsidised privately. In practical terms, there would really be no noticeable change to how things operate currently, apart from the fact the DAO would agree to pay 10% of the Gravity Admin Fees directly to NV Labs without NV Labs owning any GFI tokens, additionally this means NV Labs would have no vote-weight for DAO decisions and voting rights.

In addition to the Gravity project, NV Labs will be collaborating with other projects and working on other blockchain products, i.e. non-financial/non-defi products, such as entertainment, gaming, gambling, etc.

While NV Labs is employed by the Gravity DAO as per vote Option 1, in the instance where an NV Labs controlled project launches a new token, and it is feasible within the tokenomic structure to do so, every effort will be made to allocate a percentage of the tokens to the Gravity DAO.

This vote is obviously a big decision for the DAO. As always we welcome and encourage open discussion prior to this vote and will open a new channel in the Discord server dedicated to this.