Cosmos Hub X DAO DAO

[ATOMAcceleratorDAO]

Greetings community,

With the passing of proposal 895 the community has voted to support permissioned CosmWasm on the Cosmos Hub - unlocking a variety of potential smart contract use cases that can help build additional utility for $ATOM stakeholders. The first among these we believe could be extremely useful would be DAO DAO - decentralized governance tooling and human organization tooling in Web3 - empowering communities to rapidly turn tokens into meaningful votes and actions. DAO DAO smart contracts are audited and widely used across the broader Cosmos.

DAO DAO Github Link | DAO DAO App

The following is a list of some of the key utilities that DAO DAO can unlock for the Cosmos Hub:

• No-code UI for making proposals, voting, and exploring DAOs
• Sophisticated organizational structures using SubDAO hierarchies and Authz
• Seamless cross-chain accounts, allowing for Interchain staking and app integrations
• Vesting payroll management and retroactive compensation solutions
• Treasury spends and swaps
• Manage staking and rewards
• On-chain, governance gated key / value store
• Proposal inbox, push, and email notifications
• Discord integration
• Customizable DAO widgets
• DAO Press: publishing tools for a DAO run blog and official communications
• DAO-managed validators
• Smart contract management (instantiate, execute, migrate, manage admins)

DAO DAO is open source and uses the flexible well known BSD-3-clause license.

We would love to get comments below on how you would feel about DAO DAO smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub once permissioned CosmWasm gets implemented on the Cosmos Hub.

Potential SubDAOs for better social coordination

With DAO DAO, the Cosmos Hub community could establish and govern a range of SubDAOs dedicated to advancing the Cosmos Hub in a manner that is transparent, flexible and secure, surpassing the current multisig paradigm that has hitherto managed a significant portion of our capital and funds. SubDAOs serve to construct decentralized organizations with specific mandates, mitigating the opacity and risks associated with reliance on predominantly private organizations.

By equipping our community with tools for managing incentives, coordinating decision-making, and facilitating communication, DAO DAO stands to enhance our operational efficiency and cohesion.

Here is a (creative) list of long-term potential SubDAOs that one could imagine that may emerge:

• Validator DAO: Validator DAO could implement mechanisms for assessing validator performance and coordinating upgrades to the validator set, thereby enhancing the security and decentralization of the network. Could serve as a means for gathering validator specific feedback and help signal validator operator specific consensus.

• Community DAO: A Community DAO could serve as a forum for community engagement, governance participation, and resource coordination. It could host discussions, organize events, and support initiatives that foster collaboration, inclusivity, and alignment of interests among Cosmos community members.

• Marketing & Outreach DAO: A Marketing & Outreach DAO could focus on promoting awareness, adoption, and usage of the Cosmos Hub and its ecosystem. It could devise marketing campaigns, engage with media outlets, and cultivate partnerships to enhance the visibility and reputation of the Cosmos brand globally.

• Research & Development DAO: A Research & Development DAO could drive innovation, experimentation, and prototyping of new technologies, protocols, and features for the Cosmos ecosystem. It could fund research projects, coordinate collaborations, and incubate promising ideas to advance the state-of-the-art in decentralized infrastructure and applications.

• Education & Onboarding DAO: An Education & Onboarding DAO could develop educational resources, training programs, and support services to onboard newcomers, developers, and stakeholders into the Cosmos ecosystem. It could create tutorials, documentation, and mentorship initiatives to facilitate learning and skill development within the community.

• Security & Compliance DAO: A Security & Compliance DAO could establish standards, protocols, and procedures to ensure the security, integrity, and regulatory compliance of the Cosmos Hub and its ecosystem. It could conduct audits, assessments, and enforcement activities to mitigate risks and maintain trust in the network.

• Ecosystem Integration DAO: An Ecosystem Integration DAO could foster collaboration, interoperability, and synergy with other blockchain networks, protocols, and projects. It could explore partnerships, standards, and cross-chain initiatives to expand the reach and utility of the Cosmos ecosystem across diverse use cases and industries.

These SubDAOs could operate autonomously within the broader governance framework of the Cosmos Hub, leveraging DAO DAO smart contracts to facilitate transparent decision-making, efficient resource allocation, and community participation. By specializing in specific domains and objectives, they could effectively address the diverse needs and priorities of the Cosmos ecosystem, driving its growth, resilience, and innovation.

I also want to acknowledge that a variety of contributors are already doing the vast majority of the above functions (often multiple in parallel). Over the next multiple decades, I would envision a world where these Cosmos Hub SubDAOs help aggregate and enhance existing contributors (not disclude them or isolate them). Additionally, these specific SubDAOs could become powerful means of onboarding & empowering more contributors into the Cosmos Hub ecosystem.

Cosmos Hub has a path to become the leading governance community in all of Web3, aiming to expand the influence of the most powerful interchain asset ($ATOM) & the adjacent ATOM Economic Zone - ultimately improving both the breadth & reach of the broader IBC ecosystem.

We acknowledge that these are aggressive (if not radical) long term initiatives, we do believe though that DAO DAO is a key first step in the journey towards a more organized and cohesive Cosmos Hub governance.

Potential Risks

While DAO DAO smart contracts offer numerous benefits, there are also risks associated with their implementation on the Cosmos Hub. By addressing these risks proactively, the Cosmos community could maximize the benefits of decentralized governance while mitigating potential drawbacks. Some potential risks include:

• Security Vulnerabilities: Like any smart contract system, DAO DAO contracts may be susceptible to security vulnerabilities, bugs, or exploits that could result in loss of funds, disruption of operations, or manipulation of governance processes. We should however note that DAO DAO contracts have been audited by Oak Security, and the DAO DAO team is committed to securing future audits.

• Centralization of Power: Depending on the design and implementation of DAO DAO contracts, there’s a risk of centralization of power within certain groups or individuals who may control a significant portion of voting power or resources, potentially leading to governance capture or unfair influence. Note that you can use DAO DAO contracts to make a centralized system or a radically decentralized one.

• Complexity and Governance Overhead: Introducing DAO DAO contracts adds complexity to the governance structure of the Cosmos Hub, requiring ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and decision-making regarding the operation and evolution of the contracts. This could result in increased governance overhead and decision-making friction.

• Coordination Challenges: Coordinating multiple SubDAOs and their activities within the Cosmos ecosystem may pose challenges in terms of alignment of objectives, resource allocation, decision-making processes, and communication channels, potentially leading to inefficiencies or conflicts.

• Legal and Regulatory Risks: The use of DAO DAO contracts may raise legal and regulatory concerns, particularly regarding compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and governance standards. Failure to address these risks adequately could result in legal liability or regulatory intervention.

• Community Discontent or Disengagement: Mismanagement, disputes, or failures associated with DAO DAO contracts could lead to disillusionment, discontent, or disengagement among members of the Cosmos community, undermining trust in the governance process and ecosystem viability.

Next Steps

At AADAO, we use DAO DAO extensively for our own operations and are actively developing a grant for DAO DAO to deploy onto Gaia. Our grant will likely cover costs related to the infrastructure, maintenance and continuous development of DAO DAO, as well as some customizations and feature requests to better align DAO DAO with the Cosmos Hub.

Once DAO DAO is ready to be deployed onto Gaia, a “White List Proposal” will go onchain for Cosmos Hub governance to approve the deployment of DAO DAO.

At AADAO, we are excited to actively advance this integration partnership, unlocking the next stage of social coordination for the Cosmos Hub.

We would love to get comments below on how people would feel about DAO DAO smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub once permissioned CosmWasm gets implemented on the Cosmos Hub.

–

Authored by @Carter_Lee_Woetzel
Strategy Committee
Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO)

Co-signed by Noah Saso
Co-Founder & Lead DAOer
DAO DAO

[jasonsprouse]

@ATOMAcceleratorDAO

At AADAO, we use DAO DAO extensively for our own operations and are actively developing a grant for DAO DAO to deploy onto Gaia. Our grant will likely cover costs related to the infrastructure, maintenance and continuous development of DAO DAO, as well as some customizations and feature requests to better align DAO DAO with the Cosmos Hub.

I have some input on some DAO features I’m intrested in exploring/contributing for some of the RWA/RWP I’m currently in negotiations on. Not much different than the UX of proposals so the feature requests should be minimal, but also a little extensible.

I haven’t explored the whole blockchain universe of DAO frameworks, but can anyone tell me a DAO framework they like more than DAO DAO? No bias.

As a side note here are some DAOs I know:

• Aragon
• Colony
• Moloch

[kopeboy]

Being one of the most active users of DAODAO since elected on the Juno Development Department, I am in favour of this proposal, especially if it brings greater transparency and more participation to the Cosmos Hub and all of its teams & treasuries.

If you are looking for members to join, collaborate, provide feedback or help governing the to-be-formed DAOs, feel free to contact me on X (kopeboy), Discord (.kopeboy), or LinkedIn.

FYI, since you are talking about funding DAODAO, please note that itself is already governed as a DAO on Juno and it was already funded by JUNO community pool with Prop #285.

[kopeboy]

There is also realms.today on Solana (DAOs and Governance | Solana), that I tested. It can be powerful and has some interesting integrations with 3rd parties (like ID verification), but the UI is less intuitive, more complex than DAODAO imho and UX worse in general.
Solana doesn’t have protocol on-chain governance so you could say DAODAO has the additional feature of showing and making any proposal (all Cosmos SDK chains’ x/gov and every DAO’s prop on each of them) look like they were part of the same, cross-border governance framework, and making you feel a cosmonaut citizen (thanks to IBC too).

Another powerful governance system is the one of Polkadot & Kusama and their parachains, which have some important features that are still missing on Cosmos and DAODAO, both on-chain (like different tracks, voting conviction by time locking, voting-power delegation to any account, etc.), and off-chain, with nice UIs like Subsquare and Polkassembly that let you find on a calendar, filter, comment, etc. on each proposal (things that DAODAO UI still lacks).

I think the most popular governance frameworks on EVMs usually don’t vote directly on-chain, so it’s a different paradigm (not sure worth exploring now), but I’m sure the DAODAO team can tell us more.

[jasonsprouse]

Good information.

I haven’t seen the Polkadot/Kusama and Solana DAO frameworks. I’m of the opinion that traditional businesses will function well under a DAO framework and DAO organizational structure, understanding the pros and cons of different DAOs and their underlying protocols could make a difference in how efficiently those organizations function.

Paypal fits into this nicely too. Being able to send proposals and invoices to customers and be paid in crypto, cash or credit after the work is completed adds flexibility and meeting your customer where they do business. Exploring a paypal DAO-DAO integration would be worthwhile.

It’s would be nice to see a thorough study done with the strengths and limitations of different DAOs. I think DAO DAO will excel with the RWP and Cosmos can too in general.

[simon_warta]

I love the initiative, DAO DAO and its team.

However, I wonder how you envision contract security upgrades to work. State of the art is that for permissioned CosmWasm setup with no address allow listing every security patch has to go through a 2 weeks govenance voting period. In the Open Source space those patched are released as source code and if not they can likely be reverse-engineered. That means any security fix to DAO DAO or any of its dependencies leaves all instances unprotected for more than 2 weeks. In cosmwasm-std we had security issues that could only be fixed by updated contracts twice now. Only a small number of dapps were affected but that was pure luck.

This question is relevant for any contract but I just heard the spaces about DAO DAO today.

[noahsaso]

hey simon, we’re planning to go the whitelisted address route. requiring the whole chain to vote to deploy 15+ contracts every time we want to release new features/security upgrades is too much and poses the security risks you mention. that is just unreasonable, and the chain should only have to decide if we are allowed to deploy and maintain these contracts. this privilege can always be revoked later, so there are the sufficient checks in place IMO.

to keep everyone safe, i believe we need to be able to deploy new versions ASAP, so the whitelisted address route makes the most sense to me.

DAO DAO’s security model is different from other dApps because we don’t actually host contracts for you to interact with—we just write and audit them, and you instantiate your own when you make a DAO.

thus DAO DAO DAOs are entirely sovereign—i.e. the DAO DAO team cannot upgrade anyone’s contracts. a DAO is the admin of all of its own contracts, including itself (dao-dao-core). while this adds some friction to upgrading DAOs, requiring social systems in place for communicating when there are necessary security upgrades, it also ensures that there is no single point of failure. it’d be convenient if we could push a button and update all DAOs at once, but that comes at significant trade-offs that are definitely not worth it.

if one were to compromise the whitelisted address, they couldn’t harm any existing DAOs. they’d need to also compromise Vercel and/or GitHub, or our personal development machines, in order to deploy changes to the UI to use the new code IDs they uploaded, and then wait for people to make DAOs with those new code IDs, move funds into the treasury, etc. it would take a lot of aggressive social engineering over a long span of time that is far too easy to discover relative to how long it would take to pay off. all the contracts and UI are open source, so you can compare code IDs/checksums easily.

hope that helps!

[simon_warta]

This helps a lot, thank you!

I agree with allow-listing the dev team of the contracts as this helps with upgrading software.

[serejandmyself]

You can always do something similar to what I seen on ETH some years ago on a smaller project. Each contract, etc that was supposed to go into the code, was first published for review on a forum, where it went through a set of stages basically:

• dev review
• peer review (community engagement, bug program, etc)
• dev review

this skips the onchain review, yet retains a peer review feel (not each contract has to be checked, its up to the community)

[FHZ]

Thank you, AADAO , especially for including the potential risks section.

A quote from the previously proposed constitution post:
“…adding excessive functionality to the Hub will increase attack vectors and detract from its central role of providing security for the ecosystem.”

By adding extra functions onto the Cosmos Hub, i.e. CosmWasm, and now potentially DAODAO (which, as a product/tool seem useful/great), for greater collective confidence and transparency, could you share who exactly is a part of the DAODAO team + Oak Security team? Strongly believe sharing this would align with one of the Cosmos Hub’s core values of transparency and increase general confidence in enabling cosmwasm (long term), particularly making known any conflicts of interest + affiliations.

Transparently communicating this would be extremely helpful and arguably, absolutely necessary, simply due to the fact that there is not one “community,” but many, within the Cosmos/Cosmos Hub - both / / and everyone in between.

Thank you!