## FinancierDAO (working title) Proposal v0.02

changelog 051221:

* general document structure tweaks
* added section about subreddit
* added specific DAO mission statement
* detailed the tribute options
* added more details on governance voting
* added anti-sybil details

### Intro

Forged in the daily threads of /r/EthFinance, a new DAO emerges from the ashes of the 50% flippening point. With the strong community bonds from back in the ETHTrader days, as well as the high signal-to-noise ratio the community has fostered over the years, it is time to develop a DAO for several reasons, outlined in this formal proposal (rough draft).

### Will it be tied to the subreddit?

Up to the DAO. It may diverge with time, but the first few months of the DAO will probably have a considerable overlap of users.

### The DAO's mission

The FinancierDAO should do what it does best. ETHFinance is one of the rare bastions of the crypto space which focuses on the tech before the hype, and through the collective wisdom, we find quality dApps, promote education, and dispel FUD. By pooling the collective resources together, we can go further and make a larger impact on funding education, public goods, and act as a cohesive voice in support (or disagreement) of Ethereum governance decisions.

### But why?

ETHFinance has one of the most valuable, high-knowledge, and passionate communities on Reddit and it would be a shame to not leverage this information asymmetry in an organized way. After ConstitutionDAO, the power of coordination within communities was apparent, and a DAO can foster this already great community into something even tighter-knit and even become a new corner of the ETH landscape.

# DAO design

### General structure

A DAO's structure follows its purpose. A [MolochDAO](https://medium.com/raid-guild/moloch-evolved-v2-primer-25c9cdeab455) is the best option for ETHFinance, as it has become the swiss army knife of DAO design. This model contains a built-in treasury, direct voting capabilities, and management options which allow for a lot of flexibility. This keeps the DAO structure under one roof and doesn't split it amongst a bunch of wallets and sites (multisig, treasury, Snapshot, etc etc).

### Okay, but where?

DAO tech has matured enough where it's feasible to deploy a MolochDAO with a full frontend *without sacrificing decentralization* using [DAOHaus](https://daohaus.club/). This can be deployed completely on Arbitrum to help reduce operating costs while inheriting ETH's security vs a sidechain. Using a turnkey solution also ensures battle-tested DAO tech without as much risk as a custom solution, which can introduce smart contract bugs, coordination failure, and burnout.

### How would people join?

They would submit a Proposal to the DAO with their (optional) tribute of a whitelisted asset to be deposited in the treasury. Existing members would be able to vote them in if everything checks out. An opt-in system retains more valuable contributors. Quality > quantity.

### Anti-Sybil solution

At least for the beginning, users should tie their ETH address to their Reddit account or Twitter to avoid an early user consolidating governance power. This can be loosened with time as the membership increases, as it becomes harder to attack.

### What's on the whitelist?

ETH, for now. The DAO can always accept new tribute ERC-20s through governance.

### Sounds good, but how do we start?

To summon a MolochDAO using DAOHaus, we first need Summoners, or founding members. Below is a list of reputable candidates that are actively commenting in the daily threads, but this is solely for the first week as we vote in more members to scale and decentralize. I have not reached out to anyone on this list yet, as it's still the planning stages.

* jtnichol
* superphiz
* InsideTheSimulation
* ethlongmusk
* liberosist
* swagtimusprime
* logristhebard (responded, available)
* pseudotheos (me)
* savage-dragon
* tricky_troll

### So how are we gonna get voting power?

This is the make-or-break point for DAOs. There are a bunch of options, but there needs to be clear consensus on the specific model before going further. The options are:

* [Quadratic voting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_voting) - in which every opted-in member of the subreddit would have a base vote, and optional contributions to the treasury would give additional voting power nonlinearly. Gitcoin Grants are an example of effective quadratic principles in action.
* Pro Rata voting - Unlikely to be chosen as it turns into plutocracy
* Past/Future Reddit participation - absolutely not, this would destroy the community much like the Donuts experiment at /r/ethtrader.

There is a balance to be met here, and one we are actively discussing. Let us know your thoughts!

With the MolochDAO contracts, you can burn your voting power for your share of the treasury back at *any time*, allowing for complete flexibility and anti-ruggability. For a DAO to work properly, it has to be trustless and have no single point of failure.

### Closing notes

DAOHaus was chosen because it's a perfect jumping off point, it's on L2, and it's battle tested. It doesn't require new code, tokenomics, or a massive amount of effort. If there are unforseen issues with the design, it is trivial to move out of DAOHaus into another platform, all we need is consensus.

### Links

A barebones discord to organize in is here: https://discord.gg/PbfZtcnQzv

If you have any input on this document or want to chat about it, reach me there! I'd like to keep this as open and transparent as possible from day 0. My twitter handle is [@pseudotheos](https://twitter.com/pseudotheos) if you want to drop a follow or send me a DM, always happy to chat.