This is an apparent consensus vote, open to ROOK and xROOK token holders.

• Vote 'No objection' if you agree with the proposal.
• Vote 'Object' if you disagree with the proposal. If voting ‘Object’ to the proposal, you are encouraged to voice your reasoning on the Rook Forum. Objections that are backed by a strong argument may potentially hold more weight than a simple objection vote.

Sophon Recommendation

The Sophons reached a consensus of "no objection", with all five recommending in favor of this proposal.

Results

KIPs that receive > 50% ‘No Objection’ votes do not automatically pass. On completion of the vote, ‘Object’ votes will be analyzed and discussed by the Rook team and community. If a significant number of objections occur, the vote will either be marked as ‘Failed’ or enter a reconciliation phase. For more information, see the Rook Governance Beigepaper.

Proposal Full Text Links

LINK Forum post LINK Github post of record

Proposal Text

kip: 44
title: create incubator dao
category: other
author: @j_z 
status: voting
created: 2022-03-21
revised: 2022-03-29, 2022-03-30, 2023-04-04
replaces: KIP-0, KIP-1
dependencies: N/A

Proposal

Fund an Incubator DAO to govern a large asset pool and explore new concepts for the ROOK token.

References

[1] 0xDAO
[2] Index Coop
[3] Index Coop Market Cap
[4] Crunchbase

Background

Summary

This proposal funds an Incubator DAO to govern a large asset pool and explore new concepts for the ROOK token. Volunteers who self-identify and are elected from the community will become the multisig signers and sophons for the new DAO. The Incubator DAO will be independent, and its name, mission, strategy, rules and so on, will be decided entirely by ROOK tokenholders. At this point it is envisioned that the Incubator DAO will use the ROOK token for governance only.

Analysis and Rationale

The Rook DAO is designed around building software for large, risk-averse users and customers over a long period of time. Its conservative governance model is tailored for this specific mission, and generally prevents it from prioritising tokenholder-centric policies on treasury management or tokenomics in the current regulatory climate.

In the current Rook DAO, tokens are votes rather than shares, meaning that the treasury value is unrelated to the token value. Various initiatives like emissions, governance, staking, and utility, have all apparently failed to increase interest in the token over the last two years. Some tokenholders with new ideas for where to take the token are apparently discouraged when these ideas do not align with the specific mission or requirements of the current DAO, and are rejected.

Rather than continue to see tokenholder ideas rejected due to a lack of alignment, this proposal acknowledges the potential mismatch, and seeks to empower those tokenholders instead, by funding a separately-governed “Incubator DAO” with a large asset pool consisting of USDC resulting from swapping various ERC20 tokens (see Specification), plus 162,780 ROOK, and 10 ETH (for gas).

With these assets, the Incubator DAO will be better capitalised than well-known projects like 0x DAO ($4.1M at launch [1]), Index Coop (52.5% of tokens allocated to the community treasury [2], or $6.3M as of April 4, 2023 [3]), or a typical series A startup [4]. It will have a yet-to-be-defined mission or objective, unencumbered by the mission, expenses, and requirements of the current DAO. The Incubator DAO will be free to define its own mission, experiences, products, brand and marketing, and collectively manage liquidity, asset strategy, tokenomics, and governance in ways that totally align with tokenholder interests.

When the Incubator DAO is funded, the current DAO will lose its link to the ROOK token, and its governance will change to a system driven by its multisig signers, who will use a simplified voting system that maintains effective controls over assets in the Treasury and Strategic Reserve. This change will allow the multisig signers to efficiently sort through the legal challenges related to the Strategic Reserve wallet before carrying the project forward.

DAOs are flexible organisations that are uniquely suited to the ever-changing environment of DeFi. While they may not always be the fastest at making decisions, they are adaptive and highly durable. As participants in one of the oldest successful DAOs in the industry, we want to see tokenholders protected and empowered on their own terms.

Implementation

To receive funding, the Incubator DAO must inherit the governance of the current DAO as its initial framework. It must elect at least 4 multisig signers and 4 sophons. At least 2 sophons should not be multisig signers. No signer or sophon may be a contributor of the current DAO. Nominations for signers and sophons must be by open solicitation, and people must be allowed to self-nominate. There must be a public vote to elect signers and sophons from among the nominated candidates. A multisig wallet must be created to serve as the treasury for the Incubator DAO. Elected signers must be added to the multisig, and any non-elected signers must be removed.

On ratification of this proposal, numerous ERC20 tokens will be swapped for USDC (see Specification). Once the swaps are complete, and the above criteria are met, the USDC output of the swaps, plus 162,780 ROOK, plus 10 ETH (for gas) will be transferred to the Incubator DAO multisig.

The current DAO will at that point become governed by its multisig signers.

Execution

See the “Specification” section for execution details.

Monitoring and Reporting

The Treasury Team will prepare assets and monitor their transfer to the Incubator DAO. An update will be posted when asset transfer is completed.

Specification

On ratification of this proposal:

1. Swap the following for USDC:

   6,692,498.00 DAI

   3,557,859.80 USDC

   234,719.88 kDAI (LP token)

   616,487.33 kUSDC (LP token)

   2700.49 ETH

   622.34 WETH

   1,437.45 sETH2

   1,212.23 rETH

   37.70 rETH2

   955.77 stETH

   23.15 WBTC

   3,038.98 ALCX

   100.17 cvxFXS

2. Verify that the Incubator DAO has created a multisig wallet and elected a set of at least 4 multisig signers and 4 sophons.

3. Transfer the USDC from (1), 162,780 ROOK, and 10 ETH, from the current DAO treasury to the multisig wallet in (2).