🏫 Governance
Our decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a member-owned community without centralized leadership.
gm.token = Governance Token
gmDAO governance is coordinated using a gm.token minted on our V2 contract that grant one voting power. Admission to the DAO is limited to people who have a confirmed ownership of it in a cryptocurrency wallet, and membership may be exchanged. It entitles the holder to vote & propose the direction of the DAO. The possession of more gm.tokens translates to greater voting power.
Organs of the gmDAO association (off-chain)
The gmDAO is now incorporated off-chain as per the Swiss law as an non-profit association, domiciled in Zug, Switzerland. Being an association involves legal and moral duties according to Switzerland’s law. Therefore, our governance process needs to match those requirements while staying true to our original vision of a tokenholders driven, decentralized, flat-hierarchy governance. Incorporation allows us to :
Interact with other parties: Our DAO couldn’t sign contracts or enter into agreements without corporate personhood, which our DAO gained when it created the association.
Protect the liability of our contributors: If our DAO was not incorporated, it could be considered a general partnership. This means that all our contributors would be liable in the case of a lawsuit or other legal issue.
Hire employees: The gmDAO needed a legal wrapper to legally hire employees rather than paying workers “under the table,” or “off the books,” which is technically considered tax evasion.
Pay taxes: To be legally compliant, DAOs need to pay their taxes. Whenever money is changing hands, we needed to consider the tax implications.
According to the Swiss law, the association has to be composed of three organs, which allows mutual monitoring of their actions. These organs, their rights and duties are described below. I’ll call them pod for convenience and clarity.
The Board
⚠️ Any member of the General Assembly Pod may become a member of the Board Pod, provided that they are elected as such during one of the General Assembly meetings.
The Board is the executive layer of the association. It is responsible for day-to-day execution of the community proposals and is initially composed of the three founding members of the association (Cyphr, DeFi Beats, Ze_Boubs). The Board Pod tasks and duties are :
represent the Association in public
prepare, organize, execute General Assembly meetings
dismiss a contracted contributor
secretary tasks : daily accounting, keep track of the association events, prepare budget and annual accounts
execute decisions taken by the DAO and its members, as long as they are decisions related to the fulfillment of the purpose of the Association.
manage the DAO assets
The General Assembly
⚠️ Any natural person or legal entity may become a member of the General Assembly, as long as they provide their name, address, and email (these informations won’t be disclosed publicly) before 10 days of the General Assembly meetings. Application for membership must be made in writing to the Board Secretary (Ze_Boubs).
In front of the Swiss Law, The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the association. The General Assembly ordinary meeting is organized by the Board Secretary at least once a year with a 30 days notice, but if >10% of members vote in favor of an extraordinary assembly it will take place at the specified date with a 10 days notice. The General Assembly tasks and duties are :
elect, monitor and dismiss of the members of the Board
accept the Association's budget and annual accounts
dismiss a contracted contributor
grant discharge to the Board Pod
determine the members contribution
pass resolutions on the adoption and amendment of the Articles of Association, including the Standard Governance Process
pass resolutions on the dissolution of the gmDAO Association
passing resolutions on matters reserved to it by law or by the Articles of Association or submitted to it by the Board.
🗳️ Each member of the General Assembly has one vote at the General Assembly meetings. The General Assembly meetings shall pass resolutions and carry out elections by a majority of one vote more than half of the members present, unless otherwise provided by law.
The same applies for the extraordinary Assembly meetings.
Every member is responsible to gain the technological knowhow to be able to participate on votes on the General Assembly : it can be held in person, in hybrid forms of participation (i.e. via Skype, phone, Slack and others) or even digital forms are explicitly possible. The Board monitors the proper democratic decision-making process of members, which are not participating in person.
The DAO members community
Every on-chain token holder is also a member of the gmDAO Members Community. The voting process of the Member Community is digital and blockchain-based. Token holders don’t need to disclose their identity in order to vote.
The detailed rules and procedures for votes by the Member Community are detailed in the Standard Governance Process.
The Board is responsible for executing the DAO members community decisions.
Governance Rules
The gmDAO is ruled by a list of rules that apply no matter what. In no case can these rules be bypassed for any reason. If it comes to a payout that is in a rush, we recommend the author to pay for it upfront and try to be compensated later. Please notice no payment is guaranteed as long as the dao didn’t vote for it.
gmDAO governance is managed by a thorough governance process described below. All Snapshot proposals are voted by gmDAO token holders. All choices are encrypted and only visible once the voting period is over.Proposals that are passed are executed by the Gnosis multisig (mainnet: 0xe1a4cb40A1D672Bb7901b646Bb18Eb7B70BD5952).
The gmDAO multisig signers have committed to executing the will of the gmDAO. This includes all decisions which stem from the Standard Gsovernance Process.
List of Proposals and Quorums
60
Community consultation, workgroup creation and community initiatives(without funding). Single or recurrent payout (workgroup funding, individual retainers, community initiative). Total financial commitment ≤ 10000$
80
Single or recurrent payout (workgroup funding, individual retainers, community initiative). Total financial commitment ≤ 10% of the DAO treasury
120
Dismissal of a contributor contracted by the DAO. The DAO may terminate an individual on retainer following a serious default of the contributor’s obligations under the terms of the agreed upon retainer or upon gross misconduct of the contributor which gives rise to a right to dismissal. Gross misconduct is defined as an act or omission that is flagrant and deliberate, and that substantially deviates from the standards of behavior that are commonly acceptable. Examples of gross misconduct may include, but are not limited, to: gross negligence, offensive behavior, theft, or reputational or financial damage to the DAO. The DAO member initiating the proposal must document written notice to the contributor and proof of gross misconduct or recurrent failure of contract obligation.
180
Amending the standard governance process. Single or recurrent payout (workgroup funding, individual retainers, community initiative). Total financial commitment ≥ 10% of the DAO treasury. NB : the General Assembly has decisional power over the governance process, and therefore is free to override/approve/dismiss the proposed change. Adoption of the new governance process will be effective when voted during the next General Assembly meeting.
Voting Systems
🗳️ Several voting systems are available for proposal authors. Only the basic vote is accepted as a definitive result. Exemple : Say we’re voting to change the name of gmDAO. The author should cast two different votes : a Ranked Choice Voting or a Weighted Vote to “vote on what name fits the most”, then a basic vote on “should we change the gm.dao name ?”.
Basic Voting
Each user can select one of three options: For, Against, Abstain.
Ranked choice voting (Instant Runoff Voting)
Each user has to rank all choices in a desired order. In the first step votes are counted for each voter's number one choice. If a choice receives more than 50% votes (cast on number one choices of each user), that choice wins. The result will show the percentages reflecting how users voted for their first choice only. In the second step if the first-choice candidate doesn't get over 50% of the total votes the choice with the fewest number one votes is eliminated. Voters who had chosen the defeated choice as number one now have their number two choice counted as their number one choice. The process continues over multiple rounds until a choice has more than half (> 50%) of the total votes. Pros: Favors the option with the strongest support and reduces wasted votes. Cons: Complex to understand. Will only determine one winner, doesn’t work well to select 2 or more winning options.
Weighted Voting
Each user can spread their voting power across any number of choices, from one to all. Their voting power will be divided between their chosen options according to how much weight they attribute to each option by increasing or decreasing the voting power fraction. Pros: Allows voters to express support for more than one option and specify how much they support each of them. Cons: Requires more time and adds complexity to the voting process.
Standard Governance Process
💡 IDEA
When you have an idea for a proposal, share it, discuss it, argue about it in #gm-forum Try to raise consensus and to gain some support from fellow members. Start drafting your future proposal following the proposal templates, using the Templates above.
📚 PROPOSAL
If you would like to move forward and open the discussion to the whole DAO — post your newly created proposal following the rules displayed in #proposals.. Temp check is displayed under each proposal with 🟢/🔴 reactions. This is made to display any contentiousness of the submitted proposals. Proposal’s author is able to either modify it or postpone it to a later cycle which allows more time to discuss it. Proposals that have at least 20 🔴 reactions will automatically be postponed to the next GC; as an incentive to review it and raise more consensus. However, the author will be able to force it into snapshot at the next GC regardless of any contentious opinion. Proposals are locked and can't be modified from the time they are included in a GC.
⚠️ Any new proposal submitted to discussion/temp check after Monday 00:00UTC will not be included in the upcoming cycle, as stated in the picture below. ⚠️
⚖️ GOVERNANCE CYCLE (GC)
Step 1 - Cool-Off
⏳ Day 1-2 of Governance Cycle: (Saturday 00:00 UTC - Monday 00:00 UTC)
Beginning on the first day of the governance cycle, proposals are locked and can't be modified on Notion.
Step 2 - Vote
⏳ Day 3-5 of Governance Cycle: (Monday 00:00 UTC - Thursday 00:00 UTC)
Formal voting is conducted in Snapshot. Voting will be open for at least 72 hours. Typically, voting will open on day 3 of the governance cycle and close on day 6 .
All Snapshot proposals are voted by gmDAO token holders. All choices are encrypted and only visible once the voting period is over.
In a basic voting system (For/Against/Abstain), the proposal must raise at least 60% votes in favor, as long as the appropriate quorum threshold is reached.
Step 3 - Execution
⌛ Begins on Day 6 of Governance Cycle - Thursday 00:00 UTC
The proposals that passed voting are now ratified and will be executed as soon as possible by the responsible entities.
This, for example, can involve the transfer of treasury funds which will be executed by the DAO's Gnosis multi-sig (0xe1a4cb40A1D672Bb7901b646Bb18Eb7B70BD5952)
4. Note on Workgroup creation
In the case where members decide to take over a workgroup lead, they’ll have to put up a proposal following the Workgroup Creation Template in order to request usage of the gmDAO brand and clarify its relationship with the gmDAO community. Typically, the template must include the following :
Rationale: Provide the rationale behind your proposal. Why is it needed ? What is the vision behind ? How does it align with the DAO vision ?
Specifics: Define the relationship with the DAO. How do you plan to use the gmDAO brand ? How do you plan to drive back value to the DAO ?
Provide details on execution : basic governance (2/3 threshold ?), organisational and technical constraints, contributors/products involved, constraints and requirements, maintenance.
If contributors/payouts are involved, specify tasks & duties, wages, hours committed. Provide as many details as possible about each position.
Dissolution of the DAO
The dissolution of the Association can be adopted with a majority of 2/3 on a General Assembly or in circumstances provided by law. If the dissolution is decided, the liquidation shall be carried out by the Board with the help of the multi-signers, unless the Association’s General Assembly appoints special liquidators.
The net assets remaining after payment of all debts and other charges and after settlement of other obligations shall be allocated to a purpose in accordance with the purpose of the Association by resolution of the General Assembly. In the case of a dissolution, token holders are not entitled to receive a % of treasury assets nor any other benefits.
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