TLDR: Builder DAO, the protocol that makes it easy to deploy Nouns-like DAOs, has voted to fund a team of operators building composable web packages. These web packages provide DAOs with a common template for useful front-end components that can be repurposed and reused as needed.
The Nouns ecosystem is being driven forward by a growing list of unique projects and protocols that help to proliferate the brand in various ways. One such project is the Nouns Builder DAO, which was incubated by Zora and others and fully launched in November of last year after months of stealth development. Builder DAO offers a full Nouns DAO experience for projects to use, helping to push the Nounish identity further than ever before.
Builder DAO was initially seeded from a Nouns DAO proposal that granted the team 1000 ETH to help launch and develop the protocol into a full DAO. One of the key strengths of the Builder protocol is its simple, step-by-step process for deploying a Nouns-like DAO in just a few minutes, allowing projects and teams to fully explore the potential of this organizational model. Some interesting projects that have emerged from Builder DAO include Purple DAO, Spores, Entropy, & Public Assembly. To date, the Builder protocol has been successful in launching over 60 custom Nouns-styled DAOs.
Activity within Builder DAO is increasing rapidly, with a treasury that has quickly surpassed 700 ETH, over 40 NFT holders, and a growing list of proposals. The next step for the protocol is to deploy everything that a Nouns-like DAO may need to operate, develop, and ultimately flourish, starting with web packaging.
The Proposal: Flexible DAO Interfaces
A proposal was submitted by a team of operators, known as FF89DE, to fund the development of composable web packages that will allow DAOs to easily deploy custom front-end interfaces. This same team is responsible for creating Public Assembly, a collective turned Nounish DAO with the goal of “creating what’s missing from the internet”
In their proposal, the team of six requests 25 ETH to fund four weeks of work on the development of these web packages. The team plans to use Node Package Manager (npm), the world's largest software package manager, to create and quickly deploy useful, composable web packages that cater to the unique needs of nouns-like DAOs. The proposal includes a range of deliverables, such as an auction interface, a proposal explorer, customizable theming, mobile-ready designs, and onboarding documentation.
At the end of the four-week funding period, the team plans to submit an additional proposal to the DAO to continue directing funding toward the development of the project. Potential deliverables for a future epoch include a transaction builder for proposals and abstracted UIs that can help projects perform common DAO actions such as registering ENS, launching collections, and more.
Builder DAO inherits a Nounish governance system to drive new initiatives and make changes. In Nouns-like DAOs, governance is carried out through a daily auction of NFTs, which serve as the governance tokens. The winners of these auctions are granted the governance token and, by default, voting rights to steer the protocol in the direction they see fit. At Builder DAO, a daily auction is held for art NFTs, which increases the governance base every day.
Nounish DAOs use a quorum, voting window, and vote delay parameters to carry out governance entirely on-chain. The current settings for these parameters at Builder DAO are a quorum of five votes, a voting delay of one day once the proposal is posted on-chain, and a four-day live voting window. These parameters are constantly being refined by the early adopters and operators of the new protocol.
As of publication, Builder DAO has seen a total of 22 proposals posted on-chain, with 9 being canceled, queued, or rejected, 7 being executed, and 3 being active.
This proposal successfully passed an on-chain vote on January 6th and was executed the following day.
Big Picture
When can DAOs be formally introduced to the general public as functional organizational structures with many potential applications? In the case of most DAOs, it’s just too soon: the level of erudition needed — whether cultural or technical or both — is just too high for easy access. Nouns DAO has made strides by creating an elegantly simple governance structure based on an appealing, recognizable aesthetic. That Nounish ethos has been embodied by Builder DAO, which has shown that the Nouns governance structure is easily replicable. If “flexible DAO interfaces” can now indeed be added — allowing non-technical creators to rapidly spin up accessible DAO infrastructures — then we’ve got a whole new set of legos to create with. This brings us closer to expanding DAO communities beyond the already convinced.
We’ll be tracking this proposal activity closely at Boardroom. Follow our newsletter to stay up to date. If you’re a voter in a protocol, make sure to check out Boardroom Portal.
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