👨🔬 Governance Lab #044
Lab Report #044 - SAFE Token Utility, dYdX Ecosystem Development Program, Aura DAO, dYdX v4 Governance Space, and more
gm frens 👋
Welcome back to the Governance Lab, your weekly source for all things StableLab, DeFi, and DAO Governance. Apologies for the short hiatus, the team was feeding elephants and enjoying villa life for our team offsite in Kuala Lumpur. After that, I took a quick trip to Mexico City to enjoy enchiladas and sightseeing. Now, we’re back, well-rested, and eager to jump back into all things governance.
This week I bring you a special jam-packed edition to make up for the past few weeks... Enjoy:)
At a Glance 👀
🦺 SafeDAO discusses SAFE utility
💎 dYdX DAO receives proposal to renew its Grants Program
🍟 Aura DAO considers franchising Hyperlock
🎙️ dYdX v4 Governance Spaces w/ Keyrock & dYdX Foundation
Let’s dive in 🏊
Token Utility
SafeDAO discusses SAFE token utility
On Tuesday, Steven, the Head of Protocol Design at Safe, shared a forum post to discuss the utility of the SAFE token. In his post, Steven highlights the token strategies and utilities previously suggested by the Safe Community, while also proposing an expansion to the token's utility through the Safe Activity Program.
The primary objective of the Safe Activity Program is to incentivize active participation and contributions from Safe users within the ecosystem. Participants in this program will have the opportunity to earn rewards such as sponsored transactions, season NFTs, and distribution of SAFE tokens. The Safe Ecosystem Foundation will be responsible for the development and coordination of SAP, as outlined in the proposal.
Grant Funding
dYdX DAO discusses Grants Program Renewal
The grants program at dYdX is undergoing an evolution. Formerly known as the DGP, the Ecosystem Development Program is the proposed new-look community grants program aimed at supporting the infrastructure, chain services, protocol development, and growth of the dYdX ecosystem. Launched in January 2022, the DGP has successfully approved over $5.6M in funding. As the program's expiration date approaches on March 1st, 2024, a new proposal has been posted to renew and fund the improved structure.
With the introduction of dYdX Chain, the proposed program not only undergoes a name change but also shifts its focus towards longer-term and more substantial projects. The RFP design and application sourcing will receive improvements, along with enhanced engagements with service providers.
The DEP will consist of many of the same contributors as before, including Reverie, RoboMcGobo, Mackay, Lemma Solutions, Clifton Lee, and various Trustees. In total, the proposal requests $12M in DYDX to cover all DEP costs for an additional 24 months. An on-chain vote is scheduled for February 19th.
Franchising
Aura DAO looks to expand into Blast via Hyperlock
Last week, Aura DAO received a proposal seeking to ratify Hyperlock as an official franchise. Hyperlock is a new meta-governance and yield-boosting protocol for Thruster, the flagship DEX built on L2 Blast. According to the proposal, the benefits of franchising the protocol to the DAO include future HYPER tokens, governance power, and increasing influence in new ecosystems. The proposal highlights the rapid growth of Blast with over 1.25B in deposits. An additional proposal will follow with a loan request of $200k for operational costs.
❲ Links ❳
🚀 Launches & Deployments
Introducing the Starknet Provisions Program
Frax launches Fraxtal, its new L2
Introducing M^Zero
Introducing Non-Fungible DAO
Introducing Susa, a Decentralized Derivatives Exchange
Aave v3 live on Scroll
Dymension Mainnet is live
📑 Insights & Reports
Bi-Cameral Design, Daos and Lean Startups?
Farewell to the GHO Liquidity Committee
What builders can learn from RetroPGF 3
Governance Participation at Compound DAO: Voter Discovery and Segmentation
Dark DAOs
Community Treasuries: A Measurable Quality of Governance Effect and Potential
🧗 Milestones & Updates
Optimism Token House Approves 27 Mission Requests
CoW DAO’s 2023 in Numbers
Wormhole (W) Tokenomics & Governance Plan
AURA Tokenomics Optimisation and Emission Reduction
GHO reaches $1 peg
Introducing the Optimism Collective’s Security Council
STRK Inflation Schedule
Introducing Euler's New Governance Platform
🔒 Security, Risk, & Hacks
MakerDAO: 2023 Risk Year in Review
🗞️ Miscellaneous
Navigating the DSS Governance Module: A Key to Decentralized Decision-Making in MakerDAO
Introducing Dolce Vita at Aave DAO
dYdX Reduce minimum proposal deposit amount and Increase maximum deposit period
Deploy Uniswap V2 on all chains with V3
Establish the Aave Protocol Embassy
Integrate Oval for the BAL & SNX Ethereum V3 Markets
Advanced Delegation Rollout Plan at Optimism
Elect a Leader of the Apecoin DAO
BanklessDAO Pauses All Funding, Aims to Restructure
Head of Hop DAO Ops Elections
CoWswap turns on Fee Switch
Long-term Strategy for Cosmos Hub
SparkLend Parameter Updates
Paladin DAO: Renew Delegate Incentive Program
Announcing Jito Foundation Delegates
Grant Funding at the Uniswap Foundation
zkSync and Treasure DAO: Crafting a Future in Decentralized Gaming
Infinex Governance Points Engagement Campaign
InstaDapp Fluid Launch Proposal
📺 Podcasts & Listens
Sam Macpherson: Maker Endgame on The Parsec Podcast
❲ Proposal Tracker ❳
✅ COMPLETED | GnosisDAO - Onboard into Centrifuge Prime
Summary: This proposal aims to onboard GnosisDAO into Centrifuge Prime, enabling the DAO to invest in RWAs. The proposal asserts that the DAO will gain additional yield, benefit from improved legal protection for RWA investments, and access additional sources of credit. The proposal suggests allocating $10M USD to Centrifuge. Furthermore, it proposes establishing a legal conduit for the DAO, owned and operated by GNO tokenholders, to enable secure investments in RWAs. To cover the expenses associated with structuring, 50,000 USDC will be paid to Centrifuge for legal and other related costs. The proposal concluded on Monday, Jan 29th with ‘For’ as the winning option.
✅ COMPLETED | ApeCoin DAO - ApeChain: Selection of Proponent to Build ApeChain
Summary: This proposal seeks to confirm which proponent will build ApeChain, ApeCoin’s standalone blockchain. In December, the APE Foundation posted an RFP inviting teams interested in building the ApeChain to apply. A total of four finalists were selected and are currently being voted on in this proposal, Horizen Labs (Arbitrum), Polygon (Polygon CDK), A-Team (Optimism), and Matter (zkSync Stack). The proposal concluded on Thursday, Feb 15th with Arbitrum as the winning option.
⚡ LIVE | Aave - Orbit Program Renewal
Summary: This proposal aims to renew the Orbit Program, a community initiative rewarding the most active recognized delegates at Aave DAO. The proposal seeks to retroactively compensate 4 delegates (EzR3eal, StableLab, LBS Blockchain, and Michigan) with 20k GHO streamed over the next four months for their past governance contributions (Sep. 2023 - Feb. 2024). Additionally, the proposal includes a gas rebate for various delegates and service providers who submitted proposals during this period, although this aspect will be discontinued due to the recent v3 governance upgrade. Furthermore, the proposal introduces Orbit Tracker, a front-end application showcasing Aave's recognized delegates and their participation activity.
⚡ LIVE | SafeDAO - Split Delegation: Gnosis Guild
Summary: Here, Auryn from Gnosis Guild presents an OBRA proposal to fund the development and implementation of split delegation, transitive delegation, and delegation term limits. This proposal builds upon these previously developed features and funds the development of the registry, Snapshot strategy, Snapshot delegation updates, and backend tooling. The proposal seeks a total of 60k USDC to support the provided work.
💬 DISCUSSION | Aura - Aura Foundation Funding 2024
Summary: The proposal aims to secure funding for the Aura Foundation in 2024, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the research and development of the Aura Finance protocol. The Foundation, which was established in 2022, seeks to appoint Michael Robinson as the new Foundation Director. The proposal requests a total of 100k USDC and 175k AURA to cover expenses throughout the calendar year.
💬 DISCUSSION | TreasureDAO - Ecosystem Selection for the Treasure Chain
Summary: This proposal seeks to determine the ecosystem for the development of Treasure Chain. Treasure Chain will function as a dedicated layer 2 blockchain, serving as the settlement layer for Infinity Chains, a decentralized gaming network. The proposal includes a forum poll that presents Optimism, zkSync, SKALE, and Arbitrum as the available options. A separate Snapshot vote will follow to ratify the chain choice, configurations, and other details.
From the Lab
Arbitrum Long-Term Incentives Pilot Program
Our proposal to launch a pilot program, aimed at testing long-term incentives at Arbitrum DAO, has reached quorum. Based on community feedback, we made several changes to the proposal before proceeding with an on-chain vote. These changes include providing clarified budgets for various positions, enforcing disclosure of conflicts of interest for the Council, setting the max budget spend at 45M ARB, granting the DAO the power to reject any proposals, defining retrofunding for contributors to the Pilot Program, and more. Voting on the proposal is now live until February 17th.
Ajna Governance Operations Support Grant Proposal
Ajna Protocol has officially relaunched. As part of the community grants program, we’ve submitted a proposal to help support the protocol’s governance operations with community calls, research reports, and more.
Read the full proposal here.
SafeDAO Enhancing Governance Accessibility & Participation
With the recent implementation of OBRA at SafeDAO, we've submitted our proposal to optimize and foster governance activity for the DAO. Through frequent and expanded updates, as well as facilitating community discussions, we aim to drive Safe governance further. Voting on the proposal is now live until February 19th.
Read the full proposal here.
dYdX v4 Governance Space w/ Keyrock & dYdX Foundation
On Thursday, Raphael hopped on an X Space with Thanasis (Keyrock) and Josh (dYdX Foundation) to discuss dYdX v4 governance. The group dove into the protocol’s transition into a Cosmos chain, where v4 governance can improve, and more.
Listen back to the recording here.
❲ Our Voting ❳
📆 January 19th → January 25th | 🗳️ Total Votes: 28
📆 January 26th → February 1st | 🗳️ Total Votes: 24
📆 February 2nd → February 8th | 🗳️ Total Votes: 50
📆 February 9th → February 15th | 🗳️ Total Votes: 41
See our full vote history and detailed rationale HERE.
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Bonus Content: Team Offsite 🇲🇾 + CDMX 🇲🇽
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