On January 15th, the first two DAO and governance calls of the year were held. The focus was on level-setting to establish a foundation for upcoming discussions. The primary goal was to identify any governance-related pain points people have been experiencing, and discuss the status of proposals from CCC1.
The recordings of the calls can be found in the call links here. This post provides an overview of the discussions from these calls.
Quick Updates
Important Voting and Coordination updates
- Monthly Voting Cycle: The voting cycle for January was adjusted to accommodate the holidays, but the typical cycle will run from the 1st to the 10th of each month.
- First CCC Proposal: The first proposal out of the Co-Creation Cycle focused on user research.
- Voting with Safe: Some experienced difficulties when voting with Safe. The issue should be resolved, but please indicate if you experience any problems!
- EthDenver Coordination: Delegate Day for Denver is prepared, and RSVPs can be made through the live Luma link here: Delegate Day. Additionally, it would be helpful to know if you would like the voting cycle to be adjusted to accommodate for the conference or if you think the cycle is fine as scheduled. Input is welcome!
Recurring Themes
Guiding Principles for Proposals
- Order of proposals: While there isn’t a strict prioritization of proposals, some are naturally positioned as bottlenecks to other proposals or have gained more traction than others. These dynamics are important considerations when determining how to move forward effectively.
- For example, Data, Metrics, and Infrastructure will be needed to measure the impact of various initiatives. At the same time, the proposals for an Initial Funding Program and Local Nodes seem to have the most traction.
- Unified Initiatives: The vision is for proposed initiatives like the incubator, funding programs, local nodes, education efforts, and delegate training to eventually work as an interconnected ecosystem rather than isolated efforts. These activities should complement and enhance one another, creating a cohesive and effective approach.
- The Role of Scroll DAO Foundation: The Foundation’s role in proposals is to provide operational support and enable success without dictating direction. The aim is to maximize coordination while maintaining the DAO’s autonomy and excitement.
- Co-creation: The ideal is for multiple parties to collaborate on each proposal, when possible. You do not need to be a delegate to get involved. Your input is valuable and welcomed if you have a particular area of knowledge and interest. If you’re interested in any proposal, at any stage, please add your name to the relevant document. This helps ensure you’re informed about updates and included in discussions or calls.
Geographical Focus Concerns
Concerns about pursuing a regional focus were expressed, leading to a discussion of the strategy and rationale behind this approach. Some of the discussed considerations included:
- Strategic Regional Alignment: The initial focus aligns with regions identified by Labs as strategically significant but remains open to non-geographic-specific applications. This ensures flexibility while prioritizing areas where efforts are most likely to succeed.
- Start Small, Iterate, and Scale: The approach emphasizes starting with manageable initiatives in key regions, iterating based on results, and scaling up as programs gain traction. This method allows for focused deployment of resources and better measurement of effectiveness.
- Leveraging Existing Context: Strategic regions were partially selected based on their familiarity with stablecoins and crypto, which reduces the onboarding effort and allows for smoother program implementation.
This regional strategy aims to create a scalable, data-driven framework while building localized networks that support broader ecosystem growth over time.
Proposals Discussions
Ideas discussed during the call included:
- Data, Metrics, and Infrastructure
- The foundation will own this initiative and plans to set up a delegate cluster or committee to help address critical questions.
- This step should be completed before launching the grants program to avoid bottlenecks.
- Internally, the foundation plans to use HubSpot for data management, so any solutions will need to integrate with it. Collaboration with OSO is likely.
- Strategic Deliberation:
- A key question was raised: Do we have enough foundational information after the Strategic Alignment sessions during CCC1 to start on grants and local nodes, or should we start with Strategic Deliberation first?
- Deliberation and Sensemaking
- The following distinction was made between this proposal and the last: This proposal addresses the deliberative frameworks used generally, as opposed to the above which is a proposal for a specific, targeted experiment to determine strategy.
- Education Program
- Feems, an independent researcher, has written an initial draft on educational programs (Read Here).
- Key considerations for this program are:
- Scope: Should the program focus on general Web3 education or Scroll-specific content?
- Format: Ideas included virtual coding modules where participants can interact with code.
- Alignment: Syncing with Labs’ education initiatives (Labs Recap and Ecosystem Growth Strategy).
- Approach: Determine whether to develop new materials or focus on distributing existing resources effectively.
- Treasury Diversification
- Progress has already been made here, with a cluster forming and recordings of prior conversations available for review.
- Local Nodes
- Current conceptualization from Foundation:
- The framework for local nodes includes DeFi as the vertical and regions as the horizontals, connected through four separate programs.
- The Foundation will act as a cohesive thread.
- Hyper-local expertise will complement broader vertical expertise.
- The ideal timeline is to have all programs launched within 3–6 months.
- Would love to see separate proposals for each of the four strategic regions.
- The DAO is not by any means beholden to these regions, but starting with them can allow for foundational alignment with the strategy of Labs and things can be expanded from there.
- The way they hope these things progress is with 2-3 delegates working on each of these proposals so one group doesn’t own a given region.
- The approach also hopes to map high-context community members who can be called to help in co-design. If you have interest in collaborating on any of the local node proposals, please place your name in the document where all of the interested parties are located.
- Each region should be designed based on the understanding of culture and needs.
- Current conceptualization from Foundation:
- Delegate Training Program
- There two key considerations: new and existing delegates
- There is the opportunity for distinct avenues for them, such as:
- A public-facing accelerator to attract and train new delegates.
- Optional or requested training programs for delegates, along with a bootcamp designed for participants of varying knowledge levels to provide a clear pathway for those interested in governance and enabling them to get involved upon completing the program.
- Graduates who meet specific criteria can also be considered for delegation, fostering a pipeline of well-prepared contributors.
- Training for existing delegates on interpersonal skills, governance basics, and effective decision-making.
- A public-facing accelerator to attract and train new delegates.
- Foundation will likely have ownership of the initial program (4–8 weeks) with DAO involvement in areas where they have expertise (e.g., lived delegate experiences).
- Option for building a resource library for immediate access to governance learning materials.
- Initial Funding Program
- Feedback highlighted the need to consider both grants and investments, possibly renaming the funding program to reflect this broader scope.
- Boundaries may include equity requirements for funding above a certain threshold.
- Other types of support, such as Scroll’s “seal of approval,” marketing, and full-cycle builder assistance, can provide value beyond financial contributions.
- Flexibility will allow iteration and improvement as the program evolves.
As a reminder, these are ideas that were discussed but do not necessarily represent final decisions. For more specifics, please see the recordings.
How to Get Involved
- If you haven’t already, add the Governance Calendar and join the next DAO & Governance Call.
- Explore the Proposal Library and add your name in any proposals that interest you.
- Continue the conversation!