# Free Range Research ## Summary Free Range Research is a market research initiative led by FreeRangeDAO designed to capture and surface the questions and concerns of Ethereum validators related to the merge & the accompanying shifts in game theory / trust assumptions. ## FreeRangeDAO FreeRangeDAO is an MEV DAO focused on categorizing and classifying various forms of web3 block construction - and recommending the value distribution associated with them. FRDAO believes that toxic MEV is bad for web3, both inhibiting organic user growth and inviting heavy-handed regulatory oversight. In turn, FRDAO will provide an open forum to debate, describe and codify block construction and make recommendations regarding reward payouts for each block construction type. To date, the value extracted from MEV has primarily gone to miners and the searchers that identify opportunities. Free Range DAO (FRDAO) will focus on distributing value to all market participants that enable MEV opportunities including the transaction originator or end user. FRDAO seeks to align all market participants and stakeholders in order to self-regulate towards a healthier, more secure Ethereum network, leveraging PBS (Proposer Builder Separation) into a public good. Free Range DAO aims to provide an ‘Community aligned’ approach to validation of the Ethereum network prioritizing network health over specific opportunities to extract the most value possible from transactions, blocks and ultimately, other network participants. ## How Free Range Research will provide a whitelist of all ETH2 funded validators (~420K) that will be invited to a dedicated landing page. The landing page will include some basic information and ask users to connect their wallet. If included on the whitelist, upon connecting their wallet, a user/validator will see and be asked to answer a series of questions (10-15) related to block building, validation, MEV, and potential value flows. Upon completion of the questionnaire, validators will receive a soulbound token verifying their completion. This token will also serve as the primary governance token of Free Range DAO (FRDAO) - able to leveled up through greater involvement and participation in the DAO. At this time, however, we are solely focused on data capture via the Free Range Research questionnaire and follow up conversation via a forum + discord.