CIP-2: Consensus on DAO Tooling

Title: CIP-2: Consensus on DAO Tooling Authors: Avicenna, Inevitable, Jon Ray, and Andrew Swartzberg Created: 9/19/2022

Summary

Jade Protocol requires robust DAO tooling and a comprehensive governance platform for proposal ideation, discussion and polling. We are proposing the onboarding of two new tools for the DAO. The first is Guild.xyz, which is a gating platform for Web3 communities (this will replace the existing Collab.Land implementation). The second is a Web3 governance platform being developed by a member of our community. This platform can be accessed by connecting a Web3 wallet to a secure website & will be tailored to meet our exact needs. This includes a fully customized UI that is consistent with Jade Protocol’s new branding.

Abstract

This is the second of three proposals designed to obtain community consensus on new innovations within the Jade Protocol DAO for immediate implementation.

We are currently using Collab.Land for token-gating and Discord for governance ideation and discussion. Proposals are then posted on-chain for voting using Snapshot.org. While Discord is great for discussing ideas, there is no polling mechanism that can simulate the various token-driven voting strategies that we use on Snapshot.org. This proposal seeks to implement robust tooling that will augment the governance experience and create a seamless work flow for ideation, discussion and on-chain voting. This new web-based platform will expand our ability to share token-gated information with users (i.e., fund report & Unicorn Project repository) without requiring them to connect their wallet with Discord. The platform will also provide another avenue for our DAO members to receive announcements and ticket based support outside of Discord.

Guild.xyz

Transitioning from Collab.Land to Guild.xyz would also provide us with a more robust system for “gating” certain channels based on community participation in addition to token balances in user wallets. Guild also allows us to easily utilize the Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) to create new roles and benefits for users who are actively engaged with the DAO. Guild.xyz continues to add new features on a regular basis and has grown substantially in the last few months. We believe this will provide a superior gating and engagement experience for the community moving forward.

Web 3 Governance Platform

The new Web3 governance platform being worked on by “Inevitable” (a community member) aims to achieve all the above stated goals. A dedicated governance platform will also reduce clutter in Discord, creating a better user experience in our server. Most importantly, their token-weighted polling mechanism can be used quickly and easily to obtain “temperature checks” during the course of proposal discussion. The polling strategies can be easily customized, for example, we would be able to simulate polling results using the sum of vested tokens from bonding and the existing sJADE balance on both Avalanche and BNB chains’ for a given wallet.

Costs

Guild.xyz is free, however the new governance platform being developed by Inevitable will have an associated monthly subscription cost of $499. That said, we may be able to negotiate a referral agreement that gives us discounted access to the platform.

Motivation

With the CIP-1 rebrand to highlight our growing set of DAO tools and community engagement, Jade Protocol needs a better governance system for ideation, discussion, and voting. Currently, Discord is limited in its ability to provide a seamless governance experience. Furthermore, our token-gating mechanism (Collab.Land) has been buggy and has not enabled any new features for some time.

A shift to using new tooling does pose some risks, but we believe these new additions offer a myriad of benefits that greatly outweigh any risks, which are outlined below:

• We will get discounted access to what is usually an expensive service (some DAOs pay thousands a month for customized Discourse forums that offer more than what we need). When compared to Discourse, this option will be highly customizable to our needs without the massive price tag. Features include: customizable polling weights, in-app ticket support, customized UI, web based token-gating for content/forums, and a robust interface for ideations & discussion.

• Prior to paying for the service, Jade Protocol’s community will be allowed to beta test Inevitable’s web-based governance platform and we will also receive a free UI customization package for being one of their first clients.

• Supporting and promoting services developed by community members continues to support the narrative that Jade Protocol is a community-driven project with a true desire to elevate good ideas from our users and implement them based on the will of the DAO.

• Using Guild.xyz will open up the ability to gate Discord access based on Twitter engagement, AMA participation, and other POAP “activity” metrics that are more granular than token balance alone. We view this as a massive improvement over Collab.Land.

The proposers view these changes as natural next steps for the DAO as we begin utilizing more robust DAO tooling. These tools will support our ability to discuss and implement changes that will enable Jade’s continued growth. We believe these changes will also help ensure a seamless onboarding experience for new users during our next phases of growth.

The primary risks associated with using a brand new governance platform are delays in development and the costs of paying for a service that is not yet “battle tested” by other DAOs in the space. That said, Inevitable and his team are dedicated to taking the MVP to market within the next 21 days and have enough runway for ~1 year of continued development at their current burn rate.

To be clear, this runway is based on independent funding and Jade Protocol is not funding this project in any way. This runway does not consider income that the platform may generate over the next 12 months, meaning that successful adoption of the platform has the potential to further extend the runway.

From a security standpoint, the platform only uses “sign” transactions to connect and read your wallet token balance. This is similar to the “gasless” voting mechanism used on Snapshot.org and does not pose any additional risk for end users.

The risks associated with switching from Collab.Land to Guild are transitional problems that may occur during the switch (losing access to certain gated channels, etc). We will conduct thorough testing to avoid these issues.

Next Steps

A high level summary of how the proposal will be implemented:

• A “Governance” category will be created in Discord which highlights a clear and succinct workflow for governance ideation, discussion and proposals. A Snapshot feed will also be created to notify users when proposals go on-chain.

• Once ready, the new governance platform will be integrated with the existing governance workflow to facilitate a more robust experience for the end-user. The minimum viable product is set to be ready sometime mid to late October for beta testing by the community.

• Collab.Land will be retired in favor of Guild.xyz, as it provides a more robust gating experience. We will also change the naming of token-gated roles to the following: ** Tier III (>100 sJADE) Role will be re-named “Citadel” ** Tier II (>10 sJADE) Role will be retired until further staking benefits are created ** Tier I (> 1 sJADE) Role will be re-named “DAO Member”

Voting

This is a DAO Proposal that was drafted by community members Avicenna, Inevitable, Jon Ray, and Andrew Swartzberg. An initial draft was presented to the community via Discord on 9/24/2022 at 16:34 PM UTC. After 72 hours of community discussion, the proposed edits were incorporated and consensus was reached. This vote will be subject to a 24 hour warmup period, followed by a 5 day voting window.

If you agree with this proposal, a [YES] vote would confirm the following:

• Implementation of Guild.xyz and the removal of Collab.Land from Discord.
• The renaming of token-gated roles and the temporary removal of the Tier II role.
• Moving forward with using the proposed Web3 governance platform built by Inevitable and his team.
• Assuming a successful beta test of the platform, this proposal confirms the approval of a 1-year budget of $6,000 that covers all governance platform fees for up to 12 months.

If you disagree with this proposal, a [NO] vote would confirm the following:

• Continue to explore using other existing governance platforms, such as Discourse.org (costs $18,000 annually for their Enterprise solution with similar customization requests). These costs are based on quotes from the BAYC and Radiant Capital teams with similar proposals.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.