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# System prepended metadata

title: More meta

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# New Delphi
- An art project to create a virtual city interface for the [Moloch DAO V3 smart contracts](https://github.com/MolochVentures), with [MUD](https://v2.mud.dev/) on [Optimism](https://www.optimism.io/), trying out some ideas from the ancient city of Delphi. 
- Gamify the DAO processes.
- No-code way for Moloch DAOs to spin up their own Autonomous Cities.
- EIP5661 for DAO governance
- Side Quest: Explore integration  with retroactive funding mechanism.

discord: Jsimbouras#2339
telegram group: https://t.me/+mhFrVnJF24djMTc0

I was initially inspired by this paper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227360806_Lessons_from_Delphi_Religious_markets_and_spiritual_capitals that describes the ancient city of Delphi as a neutral nexus for coordination, integration and a hub for intellectual and artistic exchange, operating outside the influence of existing power structures.

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rk__yq5Vn.jpg)

*Apollo slaying [Python](https://mythopedia.com/topics/python), establishing the Oracle of Delphi*

The city of Delphi was built around the Oracle. Representatives of other city-states would come to the Oracle seeking guidance on important matters such as alliances, campaigns, setting up new colonies, and the founding of new cities, and offer Tribute.


![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/ByVQV6jVh.jpg)

Upon entering the Oracle to seek guidance they would encounter an inscription with three principles:

"Know thyself"
"Nothing in excess"
"Surety brings ruin"

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/By0vkq542.jpg)


Τreasuries erected by each city-state that visited Delphi served as places to store their Tribute, wealth and treasures for safekeeping. In addition, the Treasuries where a way for each city-state to publically display the loot from their victorious campaigns to others who visited the oracle at Delphi.

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/BkGDMpoE2.jpg)
*Ancient Delphic multisig*


This could be similar to how treasuries/gnosis multisigs function in the Moloch DAO framework. Autonomous projects could use their treasuries to offer Tribute to the Oracle in a self custodian way, receive guidance from the Oracle before setting off on their campaigns, and to publically display the loot gained from their victorious campaigns against [Python](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Python-Greek-mythology) (also known as Moloch, the god of coordination failures, these days).



![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/BkjSPKcVn.jpg)
*Solarpunk Delphi*

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SkM5wtcVh.jpg)

The treasuries were also used to fund religious and cultural activities in the city of Delphi, such as festivals and games, that were significant for gathering intel. Visitors from various city-states would attend these events, allowing for the exchange of ideas and information.

Similarly, the cultural artifacts held in the Treasuries of our virtual city as Tribute, as NFTs or other tokens, could be used to fund the various city-building activities, festivals/events and the creation of new artworks.

The MVP would be a low resolution version of the city, with the Shrine of the Oracle and the Treasuries, built around the moloch DAO smart contracts, a simple proof of concept that can be further co-created through autonomous contributions. It would be possible to explore how [a retroative funding mechanism](https://protocol.ai/blog/transcription-vitalik-buterin-funding-the-commons/) could also be integrated, playing with the double meaning of the "Oracle".

https://medium.com/ethereum-optimism/retroactive-public-goods-funding-33c9b7d00f0c

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/B13ntFqEn.png)


The idea of creating a virtual city governed as a DAO is a fun on-chain art experiment, a new way of visualizing a DAO, an exploration of DAO-as-artwork, and offers a testing ground to try out more [experimental cryptoeconomics](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/453sid/empirical_cryptoeconomics/).

Practicing with a small-scale autonomous city as a neutral nexus founded in an obscure corner of a virtual world, we can gain the freedom to explore the tools, ideas and culture so as to build more creative, resilient, scalable systems to address the big coordination challenges [In Real Life](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/10/31/cities.html) that lie ahead. “The explicit application of game theory to symbolic action and culture ... should not be considered a diversion or a side application but rather a necessary step in game theory’s own internal agenda. ...[In] pursuing the logical consequences of ‘material’ rationality, game theory ﬁnds culture".

We should build it soon

[Time-As-Platform: Ether’s Phoenix & The Memorial Monument - Simon De La Rouviere](https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/time-as-platform)

[Crypto Cities - Vitalik Buterin](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/10/31/cities.html)
