Aragon evolution & meta-strategy

[cemfdagdelen]

This morning I woke up with a strange energy and a lot of neural excitement. I had to put my mind into words which I didn’t know what to do with. So I’m posting them here. Hope my rambling reach some sort of resonance. This is not meant to tie to any solid steps apart from a potential ideological influence in the community.

The rise of Moloch DAO is not an isolated event. Thinking that we are in an anti-rival modality would be naive since the ecosystem is constantly making choices. Choices on where to allocate, how to vote, attribute etc. These choices are ideological but also pragmatic. Choices also generate feedback loops reducing complex information into preferential validations. A priori conclusions which are based on misguided analogies.
It is still necessary however to observe the grounds from which these choices and impressions emerge in order to cultivate an alternative.

Aragon has been subject to a backlash and the two major arguments relate to plutocracy and inactivity of the numerous organizations which have spawned on its platform. These criticisms do have some validity and we must have a clear vision in dissecting them.

Plutocracy is game of capture, simple and explicit. In an ecosystem where the unicorn values dominate, systems which go against the “commonist” and equitable vision for the future will be excluded. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is especially true where the stakes are highest: governance. In reality the “game of capture” is over-emphasized since AragonOS is modular and non-monolithic. But Aragon’s own AGP votes is an easy target with which all of Aragon’s potential is compressed into a single judgement.

The criticism which should be taken more seriously is the latter. In order to emphasize impact, shining examples of decentralized coordination and their design ingenuity must be brought forward instead of mere quantity. Aragon has pulled together an insane amount of functionality and has one of the — if not “the” — most powerful builder community. Now is the time to prepare for launch by calibrating the last missing pieces. The uniqueness of Aragon is, must and will come from its modularity, its functional diversity. Each interoperable application adds to the network effect. In that light (not you John), Aragon must be a playground for a mechanism designer. With all its features, Aragon provides unprecedented capacity to the “new entrepreneur”. It is essential however that the support mechanisms for these impact creators are established. This goes beyond funding, towards an ideology and a modus operandi. The weapons are almost ready, now is time for target practice. Shifting the mind from shots fired to targets struck.

Soon, Aragon will have its “clear use-cases” together with its bootstrapping mechanisms which will undoubtedly turn a page in decentralized co-operation movement. Bringing into the family, the brightest mechanism designers and researchers will add fuel to this emergent fire by turning Aragon’s potentialities into realities. The Aragon Coop and DAOincubator have the potential of being the catalyst for such phase shift by (a) emphasizing the community & (b) facilitating experiments.
As the project which initiated the space & cast the word “the year of the DAO”, Aragon must lead the way.

[luis]

@cemfdagdelen

In order to emphasize impact, shining examples of decentralized coordination and their design ingenuity must be brought forward instead of mere quantity

Totally agree. I think we should prepare some case studies and put them right on the website. That’d help people understand the real value prop.

---

Agree with the final statement, we came up with the “year of the DAO” meme, and we will make it happen

[burrrata]

@luis

I think we should prepare some case studies and put them right on the website. That’d help people understand the real value prop.

This would be amazing. I’d love to see more DAOs being deployed, documented, and turned into template that people can easily deploy.

Also, we’re actually doing this with 1Hive ! The goal is to create and use a DAO to sustainably work on open source software and research. Our first goal is to build the cryptoeconomic model for the 1Hive DAO. Then we’ll dogfood it while we do research on token models for DAOs that can help support sustainable open source development of the commons. This will include education materials, working (Aragon) applications, and DAO templates that can easily be deployed. This will allow us to build, test out, and document the 1Hive DAO model so that anyone who wants to do something similar can easily do so

Then we’ll expand into research on other token models and making the HCL a reality, but one step at a time…

[burrrata]

Each interoperable application adds to the network effect. In that light (not you John), Aragon must be a playground for a mechanism designer. With all its features, Aragon provides unprecedented capacity to the “new entrepreneur”. It is essential however that the support mechanisms for these impact creators are established. This goes beyond funding, towards an ideology and a modus operandi. The weapons are almost ready, now is time for target practice. Shifting the mind from shots fired to targets struck.

I could not agree more. I actually just hinted at this in another comment on the forum. Aragon has so much to offer the world, but for the most part it seems like a very small community with the same few people commenting/building/discussing things. I’d really love to see broader awareness of DAOs and Aragon in the world. I think that’s where the majority of the interesting applications and usecases are going to come from: people who just want to get stuff done and use DAOs as a tool to empower their communities. These are the people who need DAOs the most. We need them too in order to get feedback that helps us improve our products and communities.

I think this starts by engaging ANT holders and blockchain/web developers. There’s so many cool projects, esp the social ones that help people connect/collaborate, that aren’t getting the support they need. The og crypto community that built Ethereum and other blockchains really loves infrastructure development, but there’s other aspects of the space that are just as important. Optimizing for engagement and, dare I say it… marketing are essential to actually build a community around a product/platform. DAOs are all about communities. They literally exist to help people collaborate more effectively. While marketing is sometimes viewed as a dirty word in developer communities, all it really means is finding ways to communicate the value you’re offering to the people who need it the most. We really need to start doing more of that.

[LouisGrx]

@burrrata

DAOs are all about communities. They literally exist to help people collaborate more effectively. While marketing is sometimes viewed as a dirty word in developer communities, all it really means is finding ways to communicate the value you’re offering to the people who need it the most. We really need to start doing more of that.

I think that’s a good point. What do you thing is lacking the most currently and that Aragon is doing wrong/not doing enough?

[DanielS]

IMO we are experiencing a classic app/infrastructure cycle dynamic within the context of competing narratives and occasional trolling

->DAOs/Apps/UseCases inspiring infrastructure which then enables new types of DAOs etc…

The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase | Union Square Ventures

Right now we are at a step where use cases such as Moloch showcase the power of crypto-incentives for coordination around single simple objectives where all the mechanics are deployed towards that purpose.

For example by turning on its head the concept of liquidity with the inability for a philanthropist to take profit while not appearing an asshole for taking away stake destined to grants the dao locks in donators and enables creation of shares backed by those funds to finance work by other actors.

However this system also has its limits:

• excellent mechanism for grant allocation, not as good for managing an organisation A to Z

• while frictions are necessary for the governance of polities these must lie on an equilibrium between free association and exiting/avoiding tyranny of the majority and a certain “forking barrier”/incentive to remain that acts as the necessary glue for constituents to stick together in most small disagreements.
  Burning at rage quit prevents an exit where a participant recoups rights on the underlying asset (share), this is part of the power of this system (skin in the game at its max and exit in case of hack) but also its limit.

• Due to the burning of tokens at exit, the only way of acquiring shares would be through purchase of private keys resulting in a huge liquidity discount

• entry barriers that prevent mass participation in this governance. I would not go as far as calling generous philanthropists oligarchs as some on social media do, what is happening in this experiment is positive for the ecosystem, however it appeared conveniently enough during a phase where the Block Reward DAO debate hit the wall of stakeholder mapping and avoidance of rent-capture, and where Moloch replaced the multi-stakeholder DAO narrative with grant allocation by a certain class of financially and politically powerful individuals that are the only ones able to vote on proposals and thus generate discourse. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is not for me to judge, however it does acts as a brake on the scalability of such a DAO.

Where Aragon lies is being strong on talent and community, strong on infrastructure with a simple and extensive framework to build on.

When the needs of most users will transition from “simple mechanics DAO” to “powerful infrastructure as a DAO factory” Aragon will be in prime position. But to keep attracting DAOs/talent/funding and to build the right infrastructure Aragon must also address the current phase of the cycle and its narrative.

Aragon should thus be a host to experiments such as this one and others and display them as examples of DAOs in action, bringing in more users to the platform, more eyes on the code, and more value flowing in the same network of DAOs generating powerful network effects.

Current and future infrastructure must be leveraged in a manner that takes such mechanism to the next level by giving capabilities such organisations would not find anywhere else leading to the next generation of daos/use cases: modular permmissioning, rewarding contributors throughout Payroll and Rewards, fundraising via Apiary, collaborative code and documentation editing on Pando, arbitration through the Court, vote weighted Dot allocations and surveying etc….

This infrastructure then is showcased and improved upon by a host of daos/uses cases. This can be accelerated by making a large amount of small “bets” on experimental DAOs with simple UX and mechanics (for example via Nest).

Upcoming release of novel templates as well as ones that mimic existing successful and requested mechanics create conditions where users can both use these within Aragon and push them further via modification.

More base templates that are easily improvable->high amount of base governance rules with high extendability->more experimentation->acceleration of evolutionary governance process

In the meantime the rest of the pack is distinguishing itself through a strong emphasis on community and communication. While Aragon has amazing videos, articles, blog posts etc… there is no single example of a “community dao” in action at scale.
Arguably Aragon itself is this community DAO, however the goal here should be to showcase non Aragon DAOs that are built on the platform and growing, nevertheless it could be useful to scale the Aragon community to non flock and nest members as an example to the Coop and CFDAO.

Communities that generate their own unique culture, memes and discourse and become embryonic governance structures that generate empirical learnings for digital polities of the not so distant future….

The problem here is not money, CFDAO and Cooperative are for the current scale of these experiments reasonably funded, it is not the activities either, but the manner in which these are communicated to external actors to attract more users and scale the DAOs.

The CFDAO must become the vessel through which souls are taken from one world to the next. But every grouping of people to truly become a community must pass through several stages defining:

-on-boarding rules (defining the inside and the outside)

-clear and simple objective (a “headless horseman”/absurdist DAO would lose itself in endless debate about its own nature instead of coming up with solutions to the targeted problem)

-rituals (what small things define this community in a unique manner)

-norms (what off-chain reoccurring behaviours define the interaction between people)

-memes

-notions of culture and identity

This could include for CFDAO actions already suggested by others: CFDAO monthly to attract more people, an on-boarding guide, website, mobile notifications to increase participation, facilitation in the early stages to keep discourse from devolving into an idea soup.

Regarding non-Aragon DAOs i’m on-board with writing some DAO primers that would describe in layman terms:

-Name/ETH Address

-objectives

-mechanics

-on-boarding process

-status (participants, funding etc…)

-story/testimonials

-packaged in a clear visual format

[burrrata]

@burrrata

I think we should prepare some case studies and put them right on the website. That’d help people understand the real value prop.

I think @luis nailed it.

we should prepare some case studies and put them right on the website. That’d help people understand the real value prop.

Dev UX

In my own experience exploring DAOs (and really anything new), context is key. Just having a bunch of abstract information and theories (and even code and docs) floating around only appeals to a limited audience that enjoys theorizing or has the background to connect the dots in their head. For the rest of the world, they need to see it to believe it. Practical concrete working examples of DAOs solving problems that were hard (or intractable) before, but are now within the realm of possiblility is exciting. It’s revolutionary in fact. I think that’s why we’re all here. We see that and we get that. We just have to find better ways to communicate that to the rest of the world so they can see it too.

I think that starts by creating/supporting a few really novel, useful, and interesting projects that use DAOs IRL. Then, once people are interested, there needs to be beautiful, up to date, organized documentation and resources for people to learn how and why these work. Then we need to make it dead easy to replicated the models, deploy them, and hack on them. It needs to “just work.”

More concretely I think this looks like:

• intensive support/development on 3-5 projects that showcase what DAOs can do that was not possible before
• documentation, user guides, and education resources: focusing on the context of the specifically, not just abstract facts. This means saying that in order to solve X problem, we use Y app. Y app solves this problem for us and makes X possible. This is how Y app does that. This is much more compelling than just documenting what app Y is from a technical yet abstract perspective. It addresses a real need that the user/project has in a tangible and relatable way.
• easy to deploy and hack on on templates and code: templates for the 3-5 projects so that people can reproduce them. Also, the code needs to work. No errors or bugs when you startup. I’ve approached the Aragon ecosystem 2-3 times in the past and lost interest after a day or so because I kept getting errors when trying to follow the tutorials. I get that we’re moving fast and building never before built infrastructure, and the team is doing an amazing job, but anything that gets put into a tutorial/doc needs to be bullet proof and finalized. Otherwise the dev ux sucks.

Engagement Within Aragon

Beyond all that though, I think we need to give more support to the marketing team. Our social channels desperately need more love:

• /r/aragonproject is dead compared to other project subs
• ANT holders barely engage with ecosystem activities
• this forum is amazing, and I love everyone here, but it’s the same handful of people driving all the conversations

You can’t force people to engage or have lively discussions, but I think that getting creative around how we engage could help a lot. This could include creating a DAO that members of the forum, sub-reddit, etc can opt into. This could then involve:

• using the Allocations app to reward community members who engage and drive conversations
• creating a TCR that signals top content in the forum (potentially with prizes for the authors)
• rewarding top posts/comments in the social channels
• creating weekly/monthly prizes for ideas/initiatives around UX or community development
• rather than having a wishlist on the forum, have it be a GitHub repo with bounties staked to each item so anyone can get involved and be rewarded for doing so
• create incentives for Nest and Flock teams to engage with the broader community, share what they’re doing, and get feedback. It’s implicitly expected that they will do this, but a nudge (or strong push) in this direction could help signal that it’s a priority

These are just a few ideas, but the goal is to provide simple, fun, and non-binding ways for people to start actually using the Aragon client. As is, everything is taken very seriously which creates fear/pressure around on-chain voting and using the app. If the first time you use the Aragon client is for something high stakes, you’re going to have a poor/stressful experience. If the first time you use the Aragon client is fun and social, it’ll be rewarding. Then as you get more involved and comfortable with the apps and concepts, you might do more serious things like vote in AGPs or even using a DAO to manage your own community. An AGP should not be the first time someone uses Aragon! By the time someone votes on something that has real world consequences they should be familiar and comfortable with the UI and concepts that drive the process. We need to make this happen with with fun, social, low-risk ways to onboard people and get them using the product.

There’s been talk of exploring these things with the Cooperative and CFDAO, but they’re too closed off and bogged down in endless conversations. I check in here almost every day and I still don’t know everything that’s going on. We need to simplify. The process needs to be simple, the goals need to be simple, and it needs to be so easy that everyone can get involved.

Engagement Outside Aragon

Beyond games and strategies to engage the current Aragon community, there also needs to be a drive to engage people outside of the core Aragon bubble, and even outside of the blockchain/ethereum bubble, to show people that DAOs are here, they work, and they can solve human coordination problems much faster and cheaper than current alternatives. There’s a few project I know that are doing this, but we need to find more:

• 1hive is targeting open source developers, creating tools and resources that will help make open source sustainable and community governed.
• Daonuts is using Aragon to improve governance on the /r/ethtrader subreddit and is creating novel ways to onboard users from trusted web2 platforms like Reddit to trustless web3 platforms like Aragon.
• MolochDAO (which would’ve been perfect for an Aragon project) is focused on funding Ethereum2.0 development.

What these projects all have in common is that they have a real community around the project and the DAO empowers those communities. We need more of this. I think there should be an initiative to reach out to projects that are currently using Aragon DAOs and better understand their needs, help solve their problems (technical bugs or understanding how to use the Aragon apps/client), and provide ongoing support to ensure their success. This provides 2 things for the Aragon ecosystem:

• examples of DAOs that real people use to solve real problems
• marketing/awareness of Aragon and DAOs within those communities and everyone who interacts with them

Edit:
In addition to reaching out to current DAOs/communities and supporting their initiatives, we could also have a global hackathon. This would involve:

• a lot of prep work to creating guides and materials to make sure that help web/blockchain devs get started fast
• marketing/outreach so that everyone knows about the hackathon
• refining a wishlist of actionable concrete items that people can start building right away and get prizes for
• communicating that there’s an upgrade path from hackathon to CFDAO to Nest Grant to Flock team. We would also need to refine that process in the early stages as the CFDAO/Cooperative thing is kind of in a weird place right now. This would send a strong signal to devs that the Aragon community is committed to helping people learn about DAOs, create DAOs, and scale DAOs to help their communities/organizations. Hopefully this will make getting started easier for devs and also justify the initial investment of time devs and community managers would have to invest to participate in the hackathon.

While these are all more or less goals on the roadmap, having a concrete thing (like a hackathon) to work towards with a ship date will help to focus energy towards making it happen. It also makes everyone accountable because all the pieces have to be in place for the event, you can’t put things off or get to it later. Furthermore, it creates an incentive for people who have been curious about Aragon to actually dive in and try it out. All in all this could create a lot of awareness around Aragon and create more live working DAOs that can grow and evolve as communities actually use them.

Hope these suggestions are helpful

[burrrata]

Wow… Just read through your post after writing mine and you literally said all the same things lol. I could not agree more.

->DAOs/Apps/UseCases inspiring infrastructure which then enables new types of DAOs etc…
https://www.usv.com/blog/the-myth-of-the-infrastructure-phase

Right now we are at a step where use cases such as Moloch showcase the power of crypto-incentives for coordination around single simple objectives where all the mechanics are deployed towards that purpose.

The power of a simple solution focused on a single problem is so often underappreciated. No solution is a fix-all magic bullet for all problems, but I’d rather solve a single problem than endlessly look for a holy grail that does not exist lol

When the needs of most users will transition from “simple mechanics DAO” to “powerful infrastructure as a DAO factory” Aragon will be in prime position. But to keep attracting DAOs/talent/funding and to build the right infrastructure Aragon must also address the current phase of the cycle and its narrative.

Aragon should thus be a host to experiments such as this one and others and display them as examples of DAOs in action, bringing in more users to the platform, more eyes on the code, and more value flowing in the same network of DAOs generating powerful network effects.
This infrastructure then is showcased and improved upon by a host of daos/uses cases. This can be accelerated by making a large amount of small “bets” on experimental DAOs with simple UX and mechanics (for example via Nest).

While Aragon has amazing videos, articles, blog posts etc… there is no single example of a “community dao” in action at scale.
Arguably Aragon itself is this community DAO, however the goal here should be to showcase non Aragon DAOs that are built on the platform and growing, nevertheless it could be useful to scale the Aragon community to non flock and nest members as an example to the Coop and CFDAO.
Communities that generate their own unique culture, memes and discourse and become embryonic governance structures that generate empirical learnings for digital polities of the not so distant future….
The problem here is not money, CFDAO and Cooperative are for the current scale of these experiments reasonably funded, it is not the activities either, but the manner in which these are communicated to external actors to attract more users and scale the DAOs.

clear and simple objective (a “headless horseman”/absurdist DAO would lose itself in endless debate about its own nature instead of coming up with solutions to the targeted problem)

This could include for CFDAO actions already suggested by others: CFDAO monthly to attract more people, an on-boarding guide, website, mobile notifications to increase participation, facilitation in the early stages to keep discourse from devolving into an idea soup.

Started sketching out what this might look like with The Coop.

Regarding non-Aragon DAOs i’m on-board with writing some DAO primers that would describe in layman terms:
-Name/ETH Address
-objectives
-mechanics
-on-boarding process
-status (participants, funding etc…)
-story/testimonials
-packaged in a clear visual format

1hive is working on all this in the context of sustainable community governed open source development. Many of the things you mentioned are on the to-do list in the issues of our website repo. Would love to get your feedback if you want to check it out and get involved.

Also happy to help build out The Coop into something that could actually be used by the CFDAO, Aragon Cooperative, or anyone else in the community that wants it, but it’s currently just a WIP that I spent two days on.

@DanielS

While Aragon has amazing videos, articles, blog posts etc… there is no single example of a “community dao” in action at scale.

We’re not at scale yet, but 1hive is a legit community DAO that’s doing real things, making real decisions, and shipping real products and code

[Julian]

Hey all,

Nice thread, some great posts on here…

@burrrata - while absolutely agreeing with 95% of what you’re saying, this steady drip drip of diss is not ok … e.g.:

@burrrata

There’s been talk of exploring these things with the Cooperative and CFDAO, but they’re too closed off and bogged down in endless conversations

@burrrata

We would also need to refine that process in the early stages as the CFDAO/Cooperative thing is kind of in a weird place right now.

You and I have spoken via dm and there was none of this - why you choose to do so on here seems, well, political if I’m honest. I’d asked you to work with us and you said you’d rather do your own thing. And that’s cool, but the above isn’t, enough now please (or speak with us directly, in a separate thread). [EDIT: Having now seen other comments on other threads, seems we’re now into full-on trolling territory.]

Otherwise though, seems we’re pretty much @all on the same page with regard where we perceive action to further the project is required - and great too that this is happening in a public forum, rather than the ‘what can we do to best make this work’ breakout room type discussions that have been previously taking place. (Props Cem:)

Because I still think actually we all fundamentally seek the same thing - for the Aragon (& crypto) Ecosystem to effectively take on the dominant power structures of our day, which is ruining the planet and enslaving its people. It’s a tough gig!

Think too there’s a lot going on ‘under the hood’ atm with various projects and potential avenues, and I’m optimistically looking forward to there being several moments in the near future with regard wider usage and recognition.

I for one normally recoil against what’s considered marketing but am finding myself shilling like crazy wherever I go atm - these tools and this community really matters to me, so it’s actually really easy - ‘grassrooting’ is, I believe, the marketeers ‘holy grail’.

Because there is no ‘one true path’ when it comes to promotion and seeking the widest possible recognition for our decentralised community, except the reality that all of us are grafting our hardest, with everything we’ve got, in many directions at once.

So yes to all the above (well, nearly all:) and whatever else we can best throw at it - the arc of justice, prevails with us.

[sepu85]

There’s been talk of exploring these things with the Cooperative and CFDAO, but they’re too closed off and bogged down in endless conversations. I check in here almost every day and I still don’t know everything that’s going on. We need to simplify. The process needs to be simple, the goals need to be simple, and it needs to be so easy that everyone can get involved.

oh dear!!! if decentralized governance would be as easy as I don’t like people disagreeing with my proposals, all should do what I propose none of us would be here.

Consensus in a decentralized system (computing or social systems) has an implicit cost! And I’m sorry if you haven’t realize that. Of course we need things to be simple but reaching simplicity is complex (and that’s where our focus to work is!, in solving that complexity) Specially among human organizations where we are giving possibility to individuals to engage into a common cause where there might be different visions and opinions among people.

The conversations that are happening about CFDAO are not endless! There are meaningful discussions that we need to have in order to be sure that the proposals we will do the the AN will be the better. If you had come to our yesterday’s meeting you would have realize that.

We need to calm down and realize that we won’t change the world in one day, I really understand you man, I’ve been in your position several years ago, but for everyone’s heath (your’s and the csommunity health) please try to be more conscious about other’s positions and not only yours, this is key for reaching consensus! Your environment won’t adapt to you if you don’t decide to adapt to it first. Once you understand this it would be easier to influence as much as you clearly want to.

[luis]

When the needs of most users will transition from “simple mechanics DAO” to “powerful infrastructure as a DAO factory” Aragon will be in prime position. But to keep attracting DAOs/talent/funding and to build the right infrastructure Aragon must also address the current phase of the cycle and its narrative.

Absolutely agree.

---

We need more experiments and better communication around them.

[luis]

BTW @Julian @burrrata @sepu85 would love if you can keep the CFDAO discussions in separate threads related to them, although I understand the urge to reply inline so other people see your take on external opinions

[Julian]

Sure and apologies.

I’m sorry, just can’t let such unsubstantiated comments be taken as correct.

And am honestly unsure why this is happening.

Anyway - appreciate your message

[burrrata]

BTW @Julian @burrrata @sepu85 would love if you can keep the CFDAO discussions in separate threads related to them, although I understand the urge to reply inline so other people see your take on external opinions

I apologize in the past for derailing the EthDAO thread. That should have been moved to a different thread asap. My bad.

In this thread, however, I proposed meta-strategies that could help the Aragon ecosystem evolve. They are generic ideas open for discussion. I have not mentioned anything about the CFDAO. As such, I feel like my comments in this thread are on topic. If not please let me know and I’ll disengage, but otherwise I’d like to continue discussing meta-strategies for Arago’s evolution.

[luis]

It’s all good

[burrrata]

Network Effects

To continue my long winded ramblings on Aragon meta strategies, another thing that I think is greatly under appreciated in the Aragon ecosystem is network effects.

DAOs that solve a specific problem (e.g. MolochDAO) are great because they’re often very simple, they work, and solving a specific problem creates a focus on product/community development. That being said, these models do not generalize. If you have a slightly different problem, or need to apply the model in a different context, you often have to roll this yourself or start again from scratch. This is why platforms are so important: they allow people to reuse modular components to build on top of the platform rather than rolling their own. We’re seeing this with Ethereum enabling smart contracts, Polkadot (probably) enabling para-chains, and Aragon enabling DAOs.

The beauty of a platform like Aragon is that it’s a framework for combining applications and protocols to create DAOs. Every application has utility on it’s own, but when combined you can often create something that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Take for example MolochDAO. To implement something like this on Aragon we would need a few things:

• a Redemption Vault that allows members to redeem their membership against a DAO’s assets
• a Dissent Forwarder app that only allows members to redeem their membership against the DAO’s assets if they have voted no or abstained from the last vote
• a Deposits App that requires that members place a deposit before forwarding an intent to the DAO to create a vote.
• a Token Request App that allows new members to create proposals to offer a tribute to the DAO vault in exchange for becoming a member (if current members appropove the proposal).

Each one of these is a useful application in it’s own right, but when combined they create something more powerful: MolochDAO. The beauty here is that if these applications existed on Aragon , any developer would be able to recreate the MolochDAO model in a few minutes. If they wanted to change the parameters or use a different type of app for their DAO vault (perhaps an Apiary bonding curve), they could do so with a few clicks. The more applications that are added to the Aragon platform the more possibilities there are. Each application added empowers current and future DAO developers to quickly and easily create the DAOs they want for their communities.

Now, this probably seems obvious to a lot of people reading this. Frankly, now that I look at it I’m not saying anything new here. Platform business models and network effects have been explored and documented for a long time now, but… I never thought about Aragon this way until recently. I think this is because there weren’t very many examples of live DAOs out in the wild. The concepts were just too abstract and there wasn’t an immediate need or desire to grok them fully. Now that’s changing. DAOs are being deployed in the real world (not just white papers), and they’re solving real problems (stable coins, commons development, etc…). Aragon, a platform for developers to create modular apps that anyone can incorporate into their DAOs, is now on mainnet. This means that DAOs are being tested in the wild and it’s possible to recreate and extend them all on Aragon. This will empower developers and communities to extend those models quickly and safely to solve tons of open problems.

I think we really need to stress this. Every app that gets added to the Aragon platform does not just add the value of a single app, but also the value that is unlocked when combined with other apps on the platform. The value is greater than the sum of it’s parts. It might even be exponential.

Just talking about it isn’t enough though. We need to support all of the developers who want to learn about and build DAOs. We need to make it as fun and easy as possible for them to succeed. As I mentioned in previous posts on this thread, a hackathon would really help focus energies towards this goal and create awareness around the platform. Also creating a standard template that app developers can follow to easily create user onboarding guides, application documentation, and integration/installation guides would go a long way to improving developer UX adoption. We’re finally at the point where we can build DAOs that work and solve real problems in the real world. We have the platform to do it. Let’s get more DAO developers on board so that we can create exponential value for all parties involved

• Full disclosure: we’re working on a standard template for docs/guides, MolochDAO apps, and tools to improve developer UX at 1Hive. I’m not sharing all this to promote 1Hive (although that’s a plus too). I’m sharing this because I think it’s so important that everyone in the Aragon ecosystem deeply understands and supports DAO developers on the platform. The work we’re doing isn’t just for us, or for our little projects, but the ripple effects that are created as those apps and usecases combine and evolve into a dynamic modular ecosystem that empowers communities across the globe.