👨🔬 Governance Lab #049
Lab Report #049 - Uniswap Treasury Working Group, dYdX Community Staking, Arbitrum Stable Treasury Endowment Program, and more
gm frens 👋
Welcome back to another weekly edition of the Governance Lab, your source for all things StableLab, DeFi, and DAO Governance. Theme of the week is… DAO Treasury moves. Regardless of the hurdles in place to effectively and sustainability allocate capital, DAO communities are finding ways to persevere as broader market sentiment shifts bullish. Lessons here. Enjoy 🫡
P.S. ICYMI we dropped a new StablePod w/ Marcelo (Karpatkey) last week. Moar DAO treasury management discussion in there. Who else do you want to see on the podcast? Reply here or DM us on X.
At a glance:
🦄 Uniswap DAO proposes Treasury Working Group to diversify assets
🥩 dYdX community considers staking 20M DYDX through Stride
🏦 Arbitrum DAO votes on Stable Treasury Endowment Program for RWAs
Let’s dive in 🏊
Working Group
Uniswap DAO proposes Treasury Working Group to diversify $6B war chest
The Uniswap DAO's treasury, valued at nearly $6B and mostly composed of UNI, faces challenges due to its single-asset makeup and lack of productive use. To address this, Abdullah from Arana Digital and our COO Doo, have put forth a proposal to form the Uniswap Treasury Working Group (UTWG). The UTWG would spend 8 weeks exploring strategies to diversify the treasury's assets, stabilize its value, and find revenue-generating investments beyond protocol fees. The goal is to treat the treasury more like an endowment, optimizing for the DAO's long-term sustainability and growth.
After its research, the UTWG would present at least two viable treasury management options for the DAO to consider, ideally through an RFC/RFP process. However, the proposal notes that implementing any strategies requires legal clarity on its implications and potentially adopting a legal framework like DUNA. The proposed 4-member UTWG would include Abdullah, Doo, and two additional members elected by the community. To conduct this 8-week research the proposal requests a budget of 6,000 UNI. A tentative timeline aims to establish the UTWG by mid-April if the current temperature check passes.
Staking
dYdX community mulls staking 20M DYDX through Stride for economic security boost
Reverie and Stride Labs have co-authored a proposal for the dYdX community to stake 20M DYDX tokens (~$80M) from its community pool through Stride's liquid staking protocol. The stated goal is to increase the economic security of the dYdX Chain as its TVL and trading volumes grow. Currently, around 114M DYDX tokens ($456M) are staked on the chain, compared to $140M in TVL. With user deposits growing rapidly, the proposal argues economic security should increase in parallel to outweigh incentives for malicious activity. The community pool has over 230M DYDX ($920M) available to use.
Feedback on the proposal was mixed with some heated discussion ensuing regarding the potential COI by the involved parties and the issue with overindexing in one LST provider. As a result, a separate proposal was put forward by the pSTAKE team, a competing LST provider on Cosmos. Stride’s proposal was pushed onchain without incorporating any community feedback. Voting ends March 23rd.
STEP
Arbitrum votes on onchain proposal to diversify into RWAs
Arbitrum DAO is voting on an onchain proposal to deploy 35M ARB (~$60M) from its treasury into stable, liquid, yield-bearing RWAs. The Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP) aims to support Arbitrum's budding RWA ecosystem while serving as a trial run for broader treasury diversification. Targeting assets like T-bills and money market instruments to start, STEP would be an investment that Arbitrum governance could control and recall, distinct from a grant. By nurturing RWAs on its chain, Arbitrum hopes to increase capital efficiency and avoid ceding ground to competitors.
A 6-member committee would evaluate applicants and prepare an assessment report, with the Arbitrum Foundation handling legal and custodial aspects. Committee members include Karpatkey, GFX Labs, Steakhouse, Nethermind, and North Lakes Legal. The proposal includes a 300,000 ARB budget and a detailed RFP for interested providers. The proposal previously passed a Snapshot vote at the beginning of February. The current onchain vote runs through April 3rd. If approved, applications would be accepted until May 5th, with the committee reviewing them and the community voting on final allocations by June 20th.
❲ Links ❳
🚀 Launches & Deployments
Aave Merit Program goes live
Announcing ETHFI: The ether.fi Governance Token
📑 Insights & Reports
On-Chain Non-Custodial Asset Management Infrastructure
Arbitrum DAO News Recap: March 21st 2024
Wintermute DeFi Governance Digest: March 2024 | Week 3
Uniswap Monthly Financial Report & Analysis - Feb. 2024
Balancer February 2024 Treasury Report
🧗 Milestones & Updates
LTIPP Update
Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program (UAGP) Program Update #2 (March 24)
‘Catalyze Arbitrum Gaming’ approved in Snapshot Vote
MakerDAO Impact Analysis on DSR Hike
MakerDAO Market Conditions and Competition Analysis - 21 March 2024
🔒 Security, Risk, & Hacks
Arbitrum Security Council applications are live
🗞️ Miscellaneous
Balancer: Fund Balancer Maxis Q2
Gitcoin: GTC Value Accrual Intro
Uniswap: Extension of the Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program (UAGP)
Stake DAO: 1st Grant Proposal for Stake DAO Association
📺 Podcasts & Listens
Angus (Chronicle Labs) The $10bn Oracle Powering MakerDAO on Leviathan News
❲ Proposal Tracker ❳
⚡ LIVE | Element DAO - Hyperdrive Public Testnet Implementation for Element DAO
Summary: This proposal seeks community approval to deploy a Public Testnet Implementation of Hyperdrive, a next-generation AMM protocol for fixed and variable rates. The public testnet aims to teach users and the broader community about the Hyperdrive protocol, receive feedback, test the smart contracts, and learn how governance for the protocol will work. The proposal is a step toward providing the Element DAO with an instantiation of the protocol on which it may build new product offerings. The proposal is currently live on Snapshot.
⚡ LIVE | Balancer - Year Three Funding Proposal for the Balancer Foundation
Summary: Here, BIP-566 proposes funding for the Balancer Foundation's year three expenses from April 2024 through March 2025. Major changes include replacing the CEO role with Danko8383 for operational duties, moving some Balancer Maxis responsibilities into the Foundation/OpCo, and appointing an additional Cayman-based director. Funding would come from existing OpCo funds due to achieved savings, and not require additional DAO transfers.
💬 DISCUSSION | ENS - Governance Distribution Program (v2.0)
Summary: This proposal seeks to introduce a Governance Distribution Program at ENS DAO to combat voter apathy, responsibly increase decentralization of voting power, create more aligned ecosystem participants, and bring in new voices. It proposes two key mechanisms: 1) ENS Matching, where the DAO would grant $1 in vested ENS for every $1 an account received from DAO transfers, and 2) Inertial Delegated Votes, where DAO representatives would receive 50k ENS in delegated voting power during their term, lasting for 3 years after their term ends. The proposal received positive feedback after an earlier version was largely criticized. Data analysis shows the current voting power distribution is significantly skewed, with most delegates having very low voting power, potentially contributing to voter apathy.
From the Lab
Milestone Unlocked: $100M Tokens Delegated
We’ve officially hit $100M in tokens delegated to us across 25 ecosystems. 🥳 A huge thank you to the community for the continued trust and support!
If you haven’t already, delegate to us here. 🔗
Join the StableLab Team
Join us in driving protocol growth through effective governance!
Apply for the Junior Governance Analyst role HERE.
❲ Our Voting ❳
📆 March 15th → March 21st | 🗳️ Total Votes: 46
See our full vote history and detailed rationale HERE.
Meme
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