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Author: Donald
Date: 19 Apr 2023
Democratizing governance through blockchain technology has become an exciting endeavor, championing the principles of decentralization and transparency. Enter Voteaire, a user-friendly platform designed to facilitate the creation and operation of on-chain voting systems within the Cardano ecosystem. As an embodiment of these principles, it is transforming traditional governance models, highlighting transparency, decentralization, and accessibility for all, while eliminating the need for central authorities.
By employing blockchain's decentralization feature, Voteaire helps protect the voting process against undue influence or manipulation, distributing decision-making power across a vast network of participants. Moreover, the platform ensures accountability and openness by permanently recording all transactions, including proposals and votes, on the blockchain. Every piece of information, including data specifications, are openly accessible in a public, open-source repository for verification purposes.
Voteaire redefines on-chain voting, leveraging the immutable nature of blockchain technology. Based on the initial concept introduced by SPOCRA for their board of directors' vote, it operates by extending this fundamental principle. The platform employs transaction metadata to permanently store ballot proposals and votes on-chain, with the 'metadata key 1916' as an homage to the year Canadian women first gained suffrage. Anyone with the necessary technical proficiency can probe the blockchain directly to validate the voting results, ensuring transparency and immutability.
In terms of accessibility, Voteaire stands out by prioritizing user-friendliness, enabling even non-technical users to create and participate in proposals effortlessly. By connecting their wallets and submitting a transaction, users can actively engage in community decision-making processes. Voteaire supports three different wallet types: GeroWallet, Eternl, or Nami, with a minimum of 1 ADA to cover transaction fees.
For voting, the process starts with the user signing in to Voteaire using a compatible wallet. After signing in, the user views the list of submitted ballots, selects a ballot, reads its description, and chooses their preferred option before submitting their vote. Note that users can only vote for ballots marked as "ACTIVE."
Voteaire offers three types of ballots — SIMPLE, DELEGATED, and POLICYID — each with slightly different voting procedures and weightings. In a SIMPLE ballot, the vote's weight depends on the amount of ADA in the user's wallet at the time of the snapshot. A DELEGATED ballot requires delegation to a specified pool for the vote to count, with the vote's weight depending on the size of the user's delegation to the pool. In a POLICYID ballot, the vote's weight is determined by the number of tokens associated with a specific POLICYID in the user's wallet at the snapshot.
The platform addresses the so-called "Franken-Address Vulnerability," which could allow a malicious user to manipulate voting results. By requiring votes to be attached to a delegation transaction rather than a standard payment transaction, it ensures that voters cannot misrepresent the amount of funds they control, adding another layer of security to the process.
Voteaire employs Cardano epochs to define voting periods, providing flexibility to voters. It uses snapshot dates in the Cardano blockchain ledger to weight the votes for SIMPLE and DELEGATED ballots. For POLICYID ballots, snapshots are directly taken by the platform itself.
Moreover, Voteaire has established essential conditions to ensure vote validity and maintain user delegation status and rewards integrity. It only recognizes the first vote if a user attempts to cast multiple ones, and it requires votes to be part of a delegation transaction. Also, when a vote is cast, Voteaire re-delegates to the same pool the user is currently affiliated with, avoiding any negative impacts on delegation status or rewards.
In conclusion, Voteaire is leading the blockchain-powered shift toward more democratic governance models. By utilizing blockchain's transparency and immutability, it offers an innovative platform for voting, emphasizing the significance of each vote while ensuring users maintain control over their delegation status and rewards. As the platform evolves, it promises to become an indispensable tool for those aiming to shape a more equitable future through the power of blockchain technology.
Relevant Links:
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 19 April 2023
Token distribution is an important task for DAOs. It can be a time consuming task to distribute to all members safely. TosiDrop is a token distribution platform developed for Cardano and Ergo blockchains. They offer a service for communities to distribute tokens to their members in a secure manner. They also have their own tokens called cTOSI and eTOSI. cTOSI runs on Cardano and eTOSI runs on Ergo. The
On Cardano, TosiDrop offers two ways to distribute tokens. Airdrop and Vending Machine style. On Ergo blockchain, only airdropping method is available.
TosiDrop platform also has stake pools. Users can delegate to support them and pay no fee on claims.
Airdrop: TosiDrop offers a service of airdropping tokens to the community members through uploading a list of addresses via a CSV file.
Vending Machine: On this method, members of a community sends ADA to an address and receives tokens in return.
There are two billon tokens. One million of them is cTOSI on Cardano and one million is eTOSI on Ergo. These tokens are used for governance and revenue sharing. 10% percent of the tokens are allocated to the core team and 30% are being distributed to NETA/cNETA community. 60% are being distributed to the public.
TosiDrop charges communities a fee for using TosiDrop services. These fees generate revenue in the form of ADA and ERG and will be enjoyed by holders of the TOSI tokens.
Currently the TosiDrop platform does not support adding your project to their platform. Only way to use it to distribute tokens as a DAO is to contact the developers of TosiDrop. They will have a different method in the future.
Token distribution is a very important thing for DAOs. They can generate funds for their projects via these tokens. TosiDrop is a platform to make this task easy and safe. Token distribution is one of the services needed by DAOs and there are platforms on Cardano that aim to solve more of those problems. I believe those tools can be much more helpful for DAOs.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 19 April 2023
Token distribution is an important task for DAOs. It can be a time consuming task to distribute to all members safely. TosiDrop is a token distribution platform developed for Cardano and Ergo blockchains. They offer a service for communities to distribute tokens to their members in a secure manner. They also have their own tokens called cTOSI and eTOSI. cTOSI runs on Cardano and eTOSI runs on Ergo. The
On Cardano, TosiDrop offers two ways to distribute tokens. Airdrop and Vending Machine style. On Ergo blockchain, only airdropping method is available.TosiDrop platform also has stake pools. Users can delegate to support them and pay no fee on claims.
Airdrop: TosiDrop offers a service of airdropping tokens to the community members through uploading a list of addresses via a CSV file.
Vending Machine: On this method, members of a community sends ADA to an address and receives tokens in return.
There are two billon tokens. One million of them is cTOSI on Cardano and one million is eTOSI on Ergo. These tokens are used for governance and revenue sharing. 10% percent of the tokens are allocated to the core team and 30% are being distributed to NETA/cNETA community. 60% are being distributed to the public.
TosiDrop charges communities a fee for using TosiDrop services. These fees generate revenue in the form of ADA and ERG and will be enjoyed by holders of the TOSI tokens.
Currently the TosiDrop platform does not support adding your project to their platform. Only way to use it to distribute tokens as a DAO is to contact the developers of TosiDrop. They will have a different method in the future.
Token distribution is a very important thing for DAOs. They can generate funds for their projects via these tokens. TosiDrop is a platform to make this task easy and safe. Token distribution is one of the services needed by DAOs and there are platforms on Cardano that aim to solve more of those problems. I believe those tools can be much more helpful for DAOs.
Author: Donald
Date: 19 Apr 2023
DripDropz: Democratizing Token Distribution on the Cardano Ecosystem
A new player has entered the Cardano ecosystem, aiming to revolutionize token distribution for blockchain projects. Introducing DripDropz, an intuitive platform that offers token dispensing services to projects of all sizes within the Cardano community. The platform welcomes delegates to reap the rewards by providing the ability to withdraw a variety of tokens while remaining delegated to a community pool.
DripDropz has introduced a native utility token, $DRIP, with a maximum supply of 45 billion tokens. These tokens are allocated exclusively for users of the platform, distributed through DripDropz at a flat rate. Each delegate will receive 1,000 $DRIP tokens per epoch, with the possibility of tokens rolling over when the Hydra back payment feature is implemented.
To receive $DRIP tokens, delegates must have a minimum of 10 ADA staked to any stake pool. There is no maximum ADA limit for user wallets. Wallet splitting is allowed and encouraged to a degree, as long as users continue to delegate to community pools.
To withdraw tokens on DripDropz, users should follow these steps:
Visit the DripDropz site and enter your wallet receive/stake address in the search bar.
Select up to 10 tokens for withdrawal based on your wallet's ADA amount and delegated pool.
Confirm your selection and pay the required fee to complete the withdrawal.
The withdrawal process repeats every epoch, allowing users to maximize their token rewards.
DripDropz applies a small fee for each withdrawal, which serves as the platform's sole revenue source. The fee structure depends on the number of tokens withdrawn and covers Cardano transaction fees, Phyrhose processing fees, and DripDropz service fees.
DripDropz offers a referral system that rewards both the referrer and the referred user with 1,000 $DRIP tokens. To participate in the referral program, users must create an account on DripDropz, which will grant access to the referral page where they can input their referral payout address.
In conclusion, DripDropz presents an innovative approach to token distribution in the Cardano ecosystem, benefiting both blockchain projects and community members. By simplifying the process of token withdrawals and providing incentives for users to engage with the platform, DripDropz is set to make a significant impact on the Cardano landscape.
In the world of digital currency, the DripDropz platform stands as a noteworthy innovation. This platform is beneficial to various stakeholders in the Cardano blockchain, particularly the delegates. All delegates, irrespective of their pool, are entitled to receive a variety of tokens or a "grab bag". This is an incentive to delegates to stay in community pools while still receiving highly sought-after tokens.
Community pools also benefit from the DripDropz platform. Usually, token distribution is limited to a pool's delegates. However, DripDropz allows for retention or addition of delegation to a pool by extending the distribution beyond the pool itself. As a result, pools hosting token drops can reward their delegates with additional token bonuses.
DripDropz also creates an opportunity for token projects to distribute their tokens without needing to run a pool. The token projects can also choose their token distribution level, whether to distribute tokens to specific pool delegates or all delegates across the blockchain. This system allows token projects to attract new users onto their platform and acquire new consumers via wide token distribution.
The DripDropz platform utilizes its utility token, $drip, which has a maximum supply of 45 billion. The tokens are allocated entirely for DripDropz users and are distributed via the platform. The platform distributes $drip tokens at a flat rate, with each delegate receiving 1000 $drip tokens per withdrawal per epoch. These tokens, however, will not roll over when the Hydra back payment feature is implemented.
DripDropz also encourages wallet splitting to a degree, allowing delegates to acquire the most $drip tokens and maximize token rewards. Even with multiple transaction fees due to wallet splitting, delegates are encouraged to spread their delegation to community pools.
In terms of governance, DripDropz aims to become a truly self-governed Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). DripDropz users will be able to vote on all future decisions related to the platform, starting with token onboarding. Holders of $drip tokens will vote on which token projects to add to the platform, and subsequently, on offboarding of tokens. Once the initial rounds are completed, the community can use $drip tokens to vote on all business matters pertaining to DripDropz. The platform will then transition from a Limited Liability Company to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
DripDropz also introduced the Coin Desirability Index (CDI), a measurement of a project's or token's desirability. The CDI measures the number of views or impressions versus withdrawal rate. This tool should mitigate the issue of spam tokens and, combined with phase 2 voting, allow users to remove undesirable tokens from the platform.
DripDropz offers solutions to technical difficulties, such as stuck transactions. Users experiencing such issues can manually push through any stuck transactions by contacting DripDropz. Furthermore, the platform allows anyone to distribute their token projects without charging any onboarding or distribution fees. DripDropz recognizes addresses with active stakes in a pool, which can be any pool on the Cardano blockchain. Users do not need to send Ada from the same address they are claiming tokens with, making the process more flexible.
The DripDropz platform operates on an epoch calendar. Each epoch, rewards reset and reload, and users need to visit the platform every five days to withdraw that epoch’s rewards. Though the platform does charge a fee, it aims to keep costs low by combining two or three standard transactions into one, thus lowering fees for everyone in the transaction and processing data more efficiently. This operational design aims to address the challenges of Cardano Stakepool default setups and the limitation of mempool sizes, contributing to the overall efficiency of the blockchain.
However, the Cardano blockchain's surge in demand has led to some challenges, including long delays in transaction completion and intense competition to get individual transactions on chain. Every transaction has an equal chance to arrive on the chain; it simply has to find its way to a mempool, get in line, and find a peer that will produce a block soon. To address this issue, DripDropz is working on the efficiency of its transaction handling, particularly focusing on optimizing its approach to two-part transactions.
In conclusion, DripDropz represents a significant innovation in the Cardano blockchain ecosystem. It offers benefits to delegates, community pools, and token projects while striving to improve the efficiency of transactions. By aiming to be a self-governed DAO and promoting wide token distribution, DripDropz is a pioneering platform in the digital currency world.
Relevant Links:
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 19 February 2023
DAO governing is a very important and challenging task for any DAO, especially for DAOs of non-technical communities. There are many projects and organizations that aim to ease the process of establishing organizations on the blockchain. Agora protocol is a library of smart contracts that aims to provide an easy and functional DAO government. Unlike other documents we created that inspect DAO governing organizations and projects, Agora is not a DAO, it does not have tokenomics or a token. Agora is just a library for governance. We will examine what Agora does and how Agora works. Also, we will have a deep dive into staking. You can check #dao-governing and #smart-contract as they can be informative for understanding this document.
Staking is a process in blockchain networks where users hold a certain amount of cryptocurrency or tokens in a specialized wallet, known as a staking wallet. Staking one's assets serves as an incentive to ensure that one has a stake in the proposal one votes on for the context of governing or for more general cases, one has a stake in the network's proper functioning. Staking also helps to prevent malicious actors from attacking the network, as their staked assets would be at risk of being forfeited if they engage in nefarious activities.
Agora library is created to be a one-size-fits-all governance library for projects on the Cardano blockchain. It aims to be a modular and flexible library. The library includes the smart contracts for the management of a treasury containing ADA and other assets like Tokens and NFTs, changing on-chain parameters for the DAO and the minting process of particular tokens. These traits are arbitrary and can be added to the system at any point. This is very important because proposals can adapt to any change. When a proposal is created, it must clearly define what its effects will be if passed and members are incentivized to read about the proposal before they vote. Those proposals are time-sensitive and start with a review phase. Members can read and make their decision in this phase. After the review phase, members vote on the proposals with their governance tokens.
In Agora, proposal voting system works with stake pols and voting tallies. When a user votes with their stakes, the stake is added to the stake pool and voting tally is updated accordingly. In Agora, governance starts with stakes. Members deposit their governance tokens into a stake. Every member's stake creates the staking pool. Members, at any time, can withdraw from their stake. This staking pool provides the ability to manage the relationship between voting weight and the governance tokens. All members are free to withdraw their stake before the voting process. Voting is done by transactions. These transactions lock the voters' stakes and tag them with the proposal they voted on. The transactions also add the voters' contribution to the vote tally so there is a mutual locking mechanism. This mechanism prevents double voting using stakes without creating unnecessary locks on stakes. If a voter decides to withdraw their staked tokens, they have to retract their vote before the withdrawal so the vote tally always represents the sum of all actively locked tokens behind a specific vote. Members can also vote on multiple proposals because the lock only prevents withdrawing and depositing governance tokens.
When the voting closes, the final vote tally becomes frozen and the proposal encodes several possible outcomes. All proposals have one common negative outcome which is no action. The proposals can have, depending on the DAOs rules, a quorum for the votes and if any of the actions do not reach the quorum, the proposal fails. If any of the actions of the vote reaches quorum, the action that is encoded for the majority vote has to be taken.
When an action that is not no action comes out of the vote, the effect comes in. The proposal encodes a list of effects that must take place. Unlike the traditional systems where an elevated actor implements the effects, any member is able to implement the effects of the proposal. In practice, this actor is most likely going to be someone deeply involved with the particular DAO but technically any member can do it. The executive power for the specific action is temporarily extended to the actor who wishes to implement the changes but there are also checks in place that guarantee the change is done correctly.
There are possible drawbacks of on-chain governance that may result in low participation in projects.
Very few things live on-chain. Implementing effects properly which are off-chain cannot be guaranteed. As not all decisions have on-chain effect, most decisions are to be made in the spot.
On-chain governance is by nature public and visible which is a good thing mostly but this can also lead to coercion, intimidation and bribing to achieve a desired outcome.
Exploitation of DeFi protocols can also cause being able to vote without having a stake.
Participation can be limited due to the low incentives involved. Transaction costs can lead to voters with low amount of governance tokens not participating due to their low influence and the voters with higher amounts of governance token are incentivized to vote.
Agora aims to solve an important blocker for most people which is setting up the infrastructure of the on-chain organizations. The Agora Library can be very useful for new and existing DAOs and can be used by other projects for more detailed and tailored governing infrastructures.
Relevant Links:
Disclaimer: The content is for informational purposes only, may include the author’s personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of littlefish Foundation. Most of the information covered in this article was obtained from several links above mentioned and was analyzed independently.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 31 May 2023
Round Table is an open-source wallet on Cardano blockchain. Unlike any other ordinary wallet on Cardano, Round Table aims at making multisig more accessible to its users. Multisig wallets can be one of the most essential tools for DAOs. DAO treasury management is usually run by a single individual with the wallet credentials. Multisig wallets can distribute the responsibility to a group of people and not a single individiual can override others power. DAOs aim decentralization but normal wallets can not provide the financial decentralization but multisig wallets are a perfect solution to this problem.
In order to understand multisig concept, we need to understand how a normal Cardano wallet works. A Cardano wallet, in most basic terms, is a safe that keeps assets inside. Like a physical safe, accessing the assets inside the wallet, the owner needs a key. When you make a transaction, you create a transaction by the assets in your wallet and then sign this transaction to be processed. Multi-signature or Multisig is a special type of wallet. In order to access the assets in these wallets, you need multiple keys just like those fancy super secure vaults in banks. A multisig wallet needs two or more different keys to sign the same transaction. This significantly increases security and decentralization.
Personal Wallet
Multisig wallet
Multisig
Timelock
Custom multisig logic
Nested Policy
You can use Round Table just like any other Cardano light wallet. Round Table personal wallet only supports 24 words recovery phrases. ADAO has a video tutorial about creating a personal wallet with Round Table.
This is where Round Table differs from other Cardano wallets.
Multisig
You can add as many signatories as you like for the wallet.
Timelock
Timelock is a very useful feature. It is used to limit the timeframe the wallet can be used. You can specify a specific date or even a slot for the wallet to activate and a date or slot for the wallet to lock permanently. Be careful, if the expiry date is passed, all the assets inside the wallet will be irreversibly locked.
Custom Multisig Policy
This is a very important feature. With this feature, you can specify how the transaction will be signed. For example, the transaction might require only one of the signatories, at least a number of signatories or all signatories.
Nested Policy
With this feature, you can get the customization to the next level. You can give some signatories a specific timeframe to be able to sign transactions, create a requirement of specific signatories and much more. Basically, your imagination is your limit here.
We have tested the multisig wallet with different methods. We have used popular Cardano light wallets, Round Table personal wallet, and cardano-cli wallets. Light wallets are very easy to use with Round Table, the signing process very simple and require no funds from these wallets as the transaction fees are paid by the multisig wallet. These are the light wallets supported by Round Table:
Nami(no staking)
Round Table personal wallet works flawlessy with the multisig wallet as expected.
Using Round Table wallet is quite easy. You can go to it's web app here and start setting up your wallet. Another way to use it is running its web app on your local machine. How it's done explained in detail here. Also you can check this video tutorial about deploying your own Round Table wallet.
Using the web app is the most convenient way because setting it up on local machine requires some knowledge about web apps and require installation of various tools. Using the web app for the multisig wallet does not seem to have any security concerns since the signing keys are in your wallet of choice not on Round Table.
Here you can watch this video tutorial about how to use Round Table Wallet.
Treasury management is very important for DAOs. It needs to be safe. Not a single individual should be able to in full control of it. The organization might choose how to operate their resources off-chain but without the multisig wallets, these decisions cannot be on-chain in other words, treasury cannot be fully safe. Multisig wallets like Round Table solve the on-chain problem.
DAOs need to be careful using Round Table though. Round Table operates on Smart Contracts and by their nature, smart contracts are irreversible. If the organization set wrong timelocks, they might not access their funds until the timeframe begins or if the timeframe ends so soon, they can lose their funds forever. The loss of one of the signatories can also lead to the loss of funds permanently. Organizations should be extremely careful setting multisig wallets up and avoid any mistake to avoid the loss of funds.
Round Table is an open-source application. DAOs can customize it to their own interests and integrate it into their own platforms.
Round Table is an easy to use wallet but we think it might need some improvements. First one is, there is no option to view transaction history on the app. Platforms like Cardanoscan are needed to view transaction history of the wallet address. Also, the transaction on signing process can only be accessed via its URL, it would be better to access it on the app. Another possible improvement is, to be able to download the transaction and send it to the signers. The ability to change the signatory information is very convenient. Round Table, in total, is a very easy to use and essential tool for DAOs.
Round Table fills a much needed gap in the Cardano Community with its multisig feature. Multisig transactions are usually very complex transactions to build and having a tool that allows multisig conveniently and easily is very important for a lot of DAOs. Multisig wallets hugely improve security of funds and contribute decentralization.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 31 May 2023
Round Table is an open-source wallet on Cardano blockchain. Unlike any other ordinary wallet on Cardano, Round Table aims at making multisig more accessible to its users. Multisig wallets can be one of the most essential tools for DAOs. DAO treasury management is usually run by a single individual with the wallet credentials. Multisig wallets can distribute the responsibility to a group of people and not a single individiual can override others power. DAOs aim decentralization but normal wallets can not provide the financial decentralization but multisig wallets are a perfect solution to this problem.
In order to understand multisig concept, we need to understand how a normal Cardano wallet works. A Cardano wallet, in most basic terms, is a safe that keeps assets inside. Like a physical safe, accessing the assets inside the wallet, the owner needs a key. When you make a transaction, you create a transaction by the assets in your wallet and then sign this transaction to be processed. Multi-signature or Multisig is a special type of wallet. In order to access the assets in these wallets, you need multiple keys just like those fancy super secure vaults in banks. A multisig wallet needs two or more different keys to sign the same transaction. This significantly increases security and decentralization.
Personal Wallet
Multisig wallet
Multisig
Timelock
Custom multisig logic
Nested Policy
You can use Round Table just like any other Cardano light wallet. Round Table personal wallet only supports 24 words recovery phrases. ADAO has a video tutorial about creating a personal wallet with Round Table.
This is where Round Table differs from other Cardano wallets.
Multisig
You can add as many signatories as you like for the wallet.
Timelock
Timelock is a very useful feature. It is used to limit the timeframe the wallet can be used. You can specify a specific date or even a slot for the wallet to activate and a date or slot for the wallet to lock permanently. Be careful, if the expiry date is passed, all the assets inside the wallet will be irreversibly locked.
Custom Multisig Policy
This is a very important feature. With this feature, you can specify how the transaction will be signed. For example, the transaction might require only one of the signatories, at least a number of signatories or all signatories.
Nested Policy
With this feature, you can get the customization to the next level. You can give some signatories a specific timeframe to be able to sign transactions, create a requirement of specific signatories and much more. Basically, your imagination is your limit here.
We have tested the multisig wallet with different methods. We have used popular Cardano light wallets, Round Table personal wallet, and cardano-cli wallets. Light wallets are very easy to use with Round Table, the signing process very simple and require no funds from these wallets as the transaction fees are paid by the multisig wallet. These are the light wallets supported by Round Table:
Nami(no staking)
Round Table personal wallet works flawlessy with the multisig wallet as expected.
Using Round Table wallet is quite easy. You can go to it's web app here and start setting up your wallet. Another way to use it is running its web app on your local machine. How it's done explained in detail here. Also you can check this video tutorial about deploying your own Round Table wallet.
Using the web app is the most convenient way because setting it up on local machine requires some knowledge about web apps and require installation of various tools. Using the web app for the multisig wallet does not seem to have any security concerns since the signing keys are in your wallet of choice not on Round Table.
Here you can watch this video tutorial about how to use Round Table Wallet.
Treasury management is very important for DAOs. It needs to be safe. Not a single individual should be able to in full control of it. The organization might choose how to operate their resources off-chain but without the multisig wallets, these decisions cannot be on-chain in other words, treasury cannot be fully safe. Multisig wallets like Round Table solve the on-chain problem.
DAOs need to be careful using Round Table though. Round Table operates on Smart Contracts and by their nature, smart contracts are irreversible. If the organization set wrong timelocks, they might not access their funds until the timeframe begins or if the timeframe ends so soon, they can lose their funds forever. The loss of one of the signatories can also lead to the loss of funds permanently. Organizations should be extremely careful setting multisig wallets up and avoid any mistake to avoid the loss of funds.
Round Table is an open-source application. DAOs can customize it to their own interests and integrate it into their own platforms.
Round Table is an easy to use wallet but we think it might need some improvements. First one is, there is no option to view transaction history on the app. Platforms like Cardanoscan are needed to view transaction history of the wallet address. Also, the transaction on signing process can only be accessed via its URL, it would be better to access it on the app. Another possible improvement is, to be able to download the transaction and send it to the signers. The ability to change the signatory information is very convenient. Round Table, in total, is a very easy to use and essential tool for DAOs.
Round Table fills a much needed gap in the Cardano Community with its multisig feature. Multisig transactions are usually very complex transactions to build and having a tool that allows multisig conveniently and easily is very important for a lot of DAOs. Multisig wallets hugely improve security of funds and contribute decentralization.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 19 April 2023
People at Paideia are developing a DAO management tool called Paideia. Paideia supports creating a DAO, token distribution, treasury management and much more. It is being developed for Ergo and Cardano blockchain currently. The platform is currently running on Ergo blockchain and is being developed for Cardano. We contacted the team behind Paideia and they currently cannot give a certain date for the Cardano launch but they are working on the tool. They also plan to have the same or very similar properties on Cardano blockchain as they have on Ergo. I have done the deep dive on the Paideia White Paper and the Paideia App.
Paideia is a web app designed for DAO management. It is an open-source project. Users need to connect their wallet in order to use it. Paideia supports the features below:
Governance Management
DAOs can choose the style of governance they want and create tokens and distribute them with their community.
Proposals
Members with the authority can create proposals.
Voting
Voting can be done on Paideia and and the type of voting can be chosen. The types of voting are:
Token-based quorum voting: In this system members with governance tokens can participate in the vote. The admin can choose a quorum for the vote. For example, if the quorum is set to 50%, the minimum positive votes have to be at least 50% of the all votes.
Quadratic Voting: This method uses calculation to optimize voting power. In this method number of participants have more effect than voters with power. It can be used to prevent the domination of whales.
Single Choice Voting: Voters can only allocate their entire voting power to only one choice.
Approval Voting: Voters can choose multiple choices and their each choice has equal weight.
Ranked Choice Voting: Voters can have multiple choice but they have to rank these choices. First choice has the highest weight, second and third have less.
Weighted Voting: Voters can spread their voting power across multiple choices.
Token Creation/Issuance
DAOs can mint and distribute tokens according to their preferred mechanism.(Direct sale, dutch auction, airdrops et cetera)
Tokenomics
DAOs can control the number of tokens that are distributed or withheld for specific groups, their vesting schedules and visualize them by graphs and tables.
Staking Tools
Paideia supports staking of the tokens.
Reputation System
Paideia supports building of reputation and validation information. It can also incentivize people by giving bonuses.
Treasury Management
Paideia allows proposals that include treasury staking, providing liquidity to earn LP revenue. It also allows other smart contract interactions through DAO management panel.
Paideia has a very user friendly user interface which is very informative at the same time. Platform has a Dashboard for the DAO. that page gives brief information about the DAO, Token stats, active proposals and latest activity. There are also pages for Proposals, Financials, Members, Activity, and DAO Config.
The proposals page displays all the proposals the DAO has generated with a search function that can show different categories of proposals.
Financials page shows information about the token of the DAO. A lot of different information can be found on this page like token price change and market cap. There is also graphs for tracking the price changes of the token.
Members page shows the members of the DAO as the name suggests.
Activity page shows comments, proposals, transactions and staking. This page can be very informative to catch up with the DAO.
The DAO Config page is the most important page. Here the admins of the DAO choose the voting mechanism of their choice, adjust the parameters for the voting system. The design of the DAOs page can also be manipulated here. By design, I mean colours and logo. The DAO can also be terminated in this page.
Paideia seems to be on track on their milestones so far. For 2023, some of their plans are:
Implementation of cross-chain functionality.
Creation of side-chain and stand-alone DAO management tool outside of the Paideia website.
Paideia has created a very useful platform for DAO management and activity. This tool has great features already and has a huge potential.Even though, Paideia is not on Cardano yet, the platform should be followed closely. As mentioned before, we contacted the team at Paideia and they plan to implement same of very similar functionality to their Cardano platform. Also they announced the work on Cardano on Twitter on March 30, 2023.
Both Cardano and Ergo smart contracts are written in functional programming languages. These kind of languages are quite difficult and not widespread. I believe tools like Paideia are of utmost importance for the popularity of blockchains increase of the number of DAOs. There are projects like Clarity Protocol and Summon Platform on Cardano for the DAO governing and management problem and more projects will definitely bring down the entry barrier for new DAOs.
Summon Platform originates from the ADAO Community which is a Cardano DAO focused on open-source software development. Summon Platform aims to help Cardano communities on building their own on-chain DAOs. This service is particularly beneficial for communities that do not have experienced web3 developers, as it provides them with the necessary tools and resources to create and manage a DAO.
A DAO, or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a type of organization that operates on a blockchain and is run through a set of predetermined rules that are encoded into smart contracts. DAOs are decentralized, meaning they are not controlled by any single individual or entity, but rather operate based on the collective decision-making of their members.
Generally, DAOs are used for managing a community, making decisions about the distribution of funds or resources, or voting on proposals. One of the fundamental principles of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) is the idea that "code is law", meaning that the rules and functions of the organization are encoded into its underlying code and enforced automatically through the execution of smart contracts on the blockchain. They are designed to be transparent and efficient and this allows for greater accountability and transparency, as all actions and decisions can be easily traced, audited and accessed by anyone.
One of the key considerations when a community decides to create a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is to clearly define the purpose and rules for the organization. This includes determining the specific functions and goals of the DAO, as well as how it will be governed and how decisions will be made. The next step is to write the code for these rules and functions in a smart contract and deploy it to the blockchain. This will allow the DAO to exist and function on the blockchain, and will ensure that the rules and operations of the organization are transparent and open to inspection.
As mentioned previously, smart contracts are a digital representation of the rules and conditions that will govern the DAO. These contracts are written in code and stored on the blockchain, allowing for the automatic execution of the agreed upon terms. It's important to note that writing the code for smart contracts can be a complex and technical process. It requires a strong understanding of programming languages such as Plutus, as well as other specific requirements and constraints put in place by the Cardano blockchain.
When a DAO smart contract is deployed to the blockchain, it will continue to execute according to the rules and functions that are encoded into. However, it is possible that the DAO may need to be updated or modified over time in order to address changing circumstances or address unforeseen issues. This could involve updating the smart contract code in order to add new features or modify existing ones.
Updating a DAO smart contract can be a complex process, as it will require modifying the underlying code and deploying the updated version to the blockchain. This typically requires the support and approval of the DAO community.
In order to effectively create and maintain a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), a community will likely need the ongoing support of experienced developers who are proficient in Plutus programming language and familiar with the Cardano blockchain platform.
The Summon Platform MVP offers a range of services for creating and managing a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), including the generation of tokens, the ability to stake tokens using smart contracts, the management of proposals, and the execution of transactions. It also includes an advanced Native script multi-signature wallet for securely storing and managing tokens. Lets analyze this 5 services one by one:
Token generation: A DAO may use tokens as a means of representing ownership or membership in the organization, and may issue tokens to members or stakeholders as a way of incentivizing participation and aligning incentives. Token generation refers to the process of creating and issuing these tokens.
Smart contract token staking: Token staking refers to the process of holding tokens in a smart contract as a way of demonstrating commitment to the organization and aligning incentives. A DAO may use smart contract token staking as a way of ensuring that members are committed to the success of the organization and have skin in the game.
Proposal management: Proposal management refers to the process of creating, reviewing, and voting on proposals within a DAO. This can be used to make decisions about the direction and operations of the organization.
Transaction execution: Transaction execution refers to the process of executing and recording transactions within a DAO. This can include transferring tokens, updating the smart contract code, or taking other actions as required by the rules of the organization.
Advanced Native script multi-signature wallet: A multi-signature wallet is a type of digital wallet that requires multiple parties to sign off on a transaction before it can be executed. An advanced Native script multi-signature wallet is a particularly secure and flexible type of multi-signature wallet that can be used to store and manage tokens within a DAO.
Overall, the Summon Platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools and resources that enable communities to create and operate a DAO effectively. With these services, communities can create and manage a DAO in a decentralized and automated way, allowing them to effectively coordinate and direct their activities.
-D.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 14 June 2023
Bro Clan is an open-source multisig wallet on Cardano Blockchain. Even if it is called a "wallet", the multisig wallets and normal Cardano wallets are profoundly different and their use cases have almost nothing in common. A multisig wallet opens the possibility of keeping assets in a more secure and, most importantly, a true decentralized safe. A multisig wallet is more like a safe in a bank. These "safes" are essential for DAOs because keeping DAO funds in a normal Cardano wallet would give a single individual a tremendous power and it is against the philophy of decentralization.
Bro Clan wallet currently is in beta test. It supports Mainnet, Pre Production and Preview Testnets. It allows the user to configure the provider. The provides are Blockfrost, BroClan and Kupmios(Kupo and Opmios). The Kupmios choice turns Bro Clan wallet into a full-node wallet.
In order to understand multisig concept, we need to understand how a normal Cardano wallet works. A Cardano wallet, in most basic terms, is a safe that keeps assets inside. Like a physical safe, accessing the assets inside the wallet, the owner needs a key. When you make a transaction, you create a transaction by the assets in your wallet and then sign this transaction to be processed. Multi-signature or Multisig is a special type of wallet. In order to access the assets in these wallets, you need multiple keys very similar to vault in banks. A multisig wallet needs two or more different keys to sign the same transaction. This significantly increases security and decentralization. Also, multisig keys can have time limit. For example, some keys would only work until a specific date or they can be activated after a specific date.
Multisig
You can add as many signatories as you like for the wallet.
Timelock
Timelock is a very useful feature. It is used to limit the timeframe the wallet can be used. You can specify a specific date or even a slot for the wallet to activate and a date or slot for the wallet to lock permanently. Be careful, if the expiry date is passed, all the assets inside the wallet will be irreversibly locked.
Custom Multisig Policy
This is a very important feature. With this feature, you can specify how the transaction will be signed. For example, the transaction might require only one of the signatories, at least a number of signatories or all signatories.
Nested Policy
With this feature, you can get the customization to the next level. You can give some signatories a specific timeframe to be able to sign transactions, create a requirement of specific signatories and much more. Basically, your imagination is your limit here. It is a little hard to use this feature, be careful when setting it up.
We have tested the multisig wallet with different light wallets. Light wallets are very easy to use with Bro Clan, the signing process very simple and require no funds from these wallets as the transaction fees are paid by the multisig wallet.
Creating the signing logic is a little complicated. [Round Table] wallet definately does it better. Bro Clan supporting downloading transaction information is useful, but sharing the transaction with other people is difficult. It seems all participants will have to load the wallet and sign. Having a transaction URL to share would be more convenient. Also, we tried to import the transaction on some wallets and failed. Overall, Bro Clan is a wallet with significant potential. We will definately be following it when it becomes live on Cardano Mainnet.
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 18 April 2023
Decision making in DAOs are quite difficult in general because unlike traditional organizations, DAOs make their decisions with their community. DAOs distribute special tokens to the community for the voting process and only members with these tokens are allowed to vote. Number of owned tokens also have effect on the voting, people with more than a specific amount of these tokens can also make proposals. The number of tokens needed to make proposals and the weight of the tokens during voting are determined by the DAO itself. Almost every DAO struggle with decision making as it can be time consuming, expensive. Development of smart contracts, that are rather difficult to create, and a front-end for their community to participate in the governance process is needed. Crystal is a DAO tool developed by Clear Contracts and Clarity community. Clarity community is also the power behind Clarity Protocol. Crystal makes the process of voting easy and customizable enough. This document will dive deep into this app and try to answer how it works, what it does, what the roadmap for this tool is, and how DAOs can benefit using this tool.
There are ways to set up DAOs. Difficult to set up but easy to use way is to write the specific smart contracts and to set up the platform that is connected to those smart contracts. This way is easy to use for members but very difficult to set up and require people with different set of technical skills. This way can be advantageous because DAOs can be in full control of their system.
Crystal allows communities to conduct off-chain voting. This off-chain voting system can utilize governance tokens just like on-chain voting. DAOs can customize the powers these tokens have. For example, people with more than 100 tokens can be admins. Communities can start their governance process very easily by setting up their DAO in Crystal platform.
Off-chain voting is done on the Crystal platform and the variables of deadlines, proposals and voting can be set up easily.
Crystal uses on-chain data to conduct off-chain voting. Voting is done based on one or more governance tokens. The Policy IDs of the governance tokens are kept in Crystal and governance token information is fetched from the wallet connected to the platform and used to calculate the weight of the vote, and ability to make proposals. Admins can also decide if they want to reward the community for participating in the voting process. The off-chain voting has two main steps, proposal, submission and voting.
Proposal: Proposal creation can only be done by the admins of the DAO. The platform distinguishes admins from the other members by the amount of governance tokens. Proposals are usually a statement of a problem. After proposal is created, the submission period begins right away.
Submission: Members of the DAO submit possible solutions to the problem stated in the proposal during the submission period. The creator of the proposal decides who can submit during the proposal creation step. Either all members can submit or only admins can. The submission period lasts for the time specified by the creator of the proposal. This date is specified during the proposal creation. After the submission period ends, the voting period begins. During this step, the proposal will show Accepting-Submissions" status.
Voting: After the submission, the voting period begins where all members of the DAO can cast and retract votes on the submissions. This period also has a time limit specified by the creator of the proposal during the proposal step. During this period, the proposal will show Voting status.
After the voting deadline, no more votes will be counted and the result will be final.
A member is required to connect their wallet to Crystal platform in order to participate in the voting process. This is essential because the governance token information is required in the voting process.
Cardano is famous for being a quite difficult platform for development. Setting up a platform is already challenging task and having a blockchain integration especially Cardano blockchain integration is even more challenging because of Plutus programming language. Crystal offers a solution for this problem but I don't believe Crystal is the optimal solution for the governing problem but it is definitely a very useful tool. Tools like Crystal brings down the entry barrier to Cardano very significantly.
Pros
Off-chain voting is free. On the other hand on-chain voting requires transactions and these transactions have fees.
Brings down the entry barrier for new DAOs significantly.
DAOs can start to function in a short time.
Cons
This platform is not decentralized entirely because of the off-chain voting.
DAOs do not have the full control of their governing system.
Crystal does not have testnet support. People who want to test it out need mainnet tokens but Clarity Community is a very helpful community and will probably help.
Crystal is one of the much needed tools in the Cardano ecosystem. It brings down the entry barrier for people with ideas but no technical backgrounds. Even though I believe Crystal is good for new organizations on blockchain, these organizations should eventually migrate to their own governance system as their community grow. Crystal is being developed by the Clarity Community continuously and it should be followed closely.
Mercurychat is a wallet to wallet communication dapp that can be integrated into other apps or dapps.
As of 17th Nov, 2022, they support:
one-to-one chats (off-chain & on-chain/NFT messaging)
group chats (friends and family)
community chats (NFT gated and non-gated), categories & individual channels
can be integrated into any platform (APIs available)
Go to https://mercurychat.io/chat
Connect wallet (Supported wallets: Nami, Eternl, Flint, Typhon, Gero & NuFi)
Start new converstion (you need to enter public address), Browse Communities, or Create Community.
Start a new conversation/create group:
Click on 'Start new conversation'
Enter one or more public addresses/$handles
Click on 'Start chatting'
Browse & Join Communities:
Click on the 'search/magnifying glass' option on the side menu
Pick a community and start chatting (Note: You'd be able to join 'some' only if you have the specific NFT in the wallet )
Create Community:
Click on the 'add/plus sign' on the side menu
Name your community
Set up gating permissions based on: a. NFT Polocy ID b. Stakepool ID (wallets stked with the pool can join)
Create categories and channels in each category (similar to discord): Click on 'settings/gear' icon by the community name --> Name & Create category --> Click on 'settings/gear' icon by the category name --> Create Channel Note: Individual category/channel permissions are not yet available.
Profile Settings:
Click on the 'settings/gear' icon at the bottom the screen by your wallet address.
Click on the default profile pic and choose an NFT in your wallet as your profile pic.
Click on 'Select Handle'and choose a handle as your profile name.
Message Notifications (Email): Click on 'preferences' in the side menu and enter email adddress to get notofications (once per day) when you receive a message.
Integrating Mercurychat (into other platforms):
Link to NMP Packages Note: The below NMP packages are available for mercury chat integration.
Mercury Chat database is centralized at the moment. The team will look for solutions in the future
The team is very open to ideas and take community feedback. Needs to be seen if feedback is implemented.
The UX/UI is slightly rough (small typos & ease of use) since the team is focusing on building functionality at the moment
The team has kept the rodamap and timeline open for the time being
Personally I'd recommend the app for individuals and platforms as long as personal/sensitive information is not shared
Author: Emir Olgun
Date: 18 February 2023
Clarity community is working on a protocol called Clarity Protocol that aims to ease the process of building DAOs by providing the infrastructure of Smart Contracts and Tokens. The infrastructure is based on a protocol called . We will see what Clarity Protocol does, how it works and why would it be beneficial for new DAOs. We will also dive deep into the concepts of Smart Contracts, DAO governing, DAOs and Tokens in order to understand Clarity more in this report.
DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. It is an organization that is governed by a set of rules encoded as computer programs on a blockchain. DAOs are designed to be decentralized, meaning that no single person or entity controls the organization. Instead, decisions are made by consensus among the members of the DAO, who typically hold tokens or shares in the organization.
DAOs operate using smart contracts. These smart contracts automate many of the processes and decision-making functions of the DAO, including voting, budgeting, and allocation of resources.
A smart contract is, in the most basic terms, an executable program running on the blockchain. This program is a contract that checks for certain conditions, which are pre-determined, to execute a transaction. The importance of smart contracts is they provide trust between opposite parties of the transaction as the conditions of the contract can be seen by anyone and these conditions are not alterable. If the conditions of the smart contract cannot be met, the funds locked in the smart contract can never be accessed by anyone, it is absolutely impossible. For example, locking a DAO’s treasury in a smart contract, which only allows withdrawal when a number of people sign the contract, can provide a very high level of security and prevent a member with a high level of governance power to spend the money on things which the community does not agree on.
In most Blockchains, there are two types of assets; native asset and the assets that are created by third parties to run on the blockchain. In Cardano, the native asset is ADA. The other tokens can be minted by users and used as a means of exchange or can have much more properties than the native assets. Some of these properties are, DAO governance, a password like ticket for accessing certain Smart Contracts, Websites or DAOs. NFTs are also a specific form of a token.
How to govern? This question is as old as humankind. Almost all systems we created are based on delegation. Because we cannot participate all the time and the decision-making process can be very long, we chose to give the power of governing to a smaller number of people. With the help of Blockchain technology, we can now participate in the decision-making process easily. We can create proposals, vote on proposals and execute successful proposals as members of a decentralized community. Blockchain technology also provides transparency for our communities. The treasury of the DAOs can be visible to anyone and the control of it does not have to lie with a single member.
Clarity Protocol provides very useful services which are;
Smart Contracts for managing DAO treasury.
Smart Contracts for voting for proposals.
Governance Tokens for the DAOs.
Clarity protocol is a library that provides the smart contracts and Tokenomics for governing DAOs. In a DAO every member has a right to vote on proposals. This voting system is similar to the weighted voting system where every individual has different voting power. Clarity Protocol uses tokens for this system. In this protocol, members with sufficient tokens can also create proposals for other members to discuss and vote on.
Every member’s voting power is determined by how many governing tokens they have in their wallet. A user deposits their governance tokens into stakes, which allows them to create and vote on proposals. Staked amount determines the voting weight. Those proposals can be the management of the DAO’s treasury, changing on-chain parameters of the DAO or minting tokens or NFTs. Any proposal on vote has a default state of fail unless certain conditions are met. These conditions are usually a level of approval votes, so it does not work like our traditional voting systems where the majority of the vote decides what happens. For example, if the approval level requirement is 2 million tokens, the proposal will fail if the majority voted positive and the tokens marked with approval are less than the barrier.
Forming a DAO for non-technical people can be quite challenging and open to fraud. A service for setting up the infrastructure of a new DAO can be extremely useful and more importantly bring down the barriers of entry to the blockchain ecosystem significantly. With services like Clarity Protocol, new DAOs can create their own governing tokens, other tokens and NFTs. Set up their governing system and treasury management protocols quite easily.
Clarity community is planning to have the Clarity token as the governing token for the Clarity ecosystem. The total supply will be 2,000,000,000 with a 6-decimal precision.
The team is the founding members which include core groups of founders, developers and contributors of the Clarity Protocol. The team is on a 2-year linear vesting period.
The advisors are the industry professionals who provide value to the DAO either through networks, research or specialized knowledge.
This treasury can only be spent with the approval of the DAO through and on-chain vote. This treasury pays out rewards to Clarity DAO members for participating in governance or opting in the DAOs incentive structure.
Tokens allocated for community airdrops.
Tokens allocated for incentivizing liquidity.
Tokens allocated to create relationships, support other organizations and projects and fund educational initiatives.
Tokens allocated for funding the future development of the ecosystem such as developer support, marketing, fundraising and administration.
Most DAOs have different needs and the generic smart contracts for DAO governing might not provide their needs correctly. Users or organizations will be able to write their own proposal features as the Plutus language allows and put them in the marketplace for other DAOs to browse and use. The usage of other smart contract features will be rewarded on the marketplace.
DAOs will be able to implement a system where members of the community will be rewarded when they take part in voting on proposals and participating in DAO activities. The reward amount and denomination would be set by the DAOs themselves or Clarity. The rewards may be provided by the DAO itself or by Clarity for participation in a Clarity-powered DAO.
Creating sub-working groups for specific tasks in DAOs can be quite efficient and effective. Rapid organizational change allows the organization to easily adapt the needs. The sub-working groups will be able to have their own funds or can be funded by their DAOs. When the sub-group is no longer needed, the group can be disassembled and the remaining funds can be allocated to another part of the DAO.
Currently, Clarity protocol determines a user's vote weight by the amount of governance tokens staked, further plans include calculating voting power using different mechanisms. One example is a reputation mechanism.
Clarity Community is addressing a very important problem of the blockchain ecosystem. Non-technical people have a hard time entering the ecosystem and this problem blocks the ecosystem to achieve its potential. A service to set up the infrastructure of a DAO would bring those barriers down and enlarge the blockchain ecosystem significantly. One problem that comes to one’s mind is, how would a non-technical DAO could trust the smart contracts that are on the Clarity marketplace to do what they want or not have a backdoor for certain individuals to access DAOs finances or decision-making mechanisms. The Smart Contracts should have auditing mechanisms by other organizations and the non-technical DAOs might need a technical advisor for vetting the contracts they use.
Relevant Links:
In the future more features are expected and some of them are explained in the .
Disclaimer: The content is for informational purposes only, may include the author’s personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of littlefish Foundation. Most of the information covered in this article was obtained from and was analyzed independently.
