Financial proposal: PrimeDAO token swap

Proposal information

Please vote here

Summary

Aragon and PrimeDAO core contributors propose for voting to their respective tokenholder communities a strategic token swap. PrimeDAO is a collective that enables DAO2DAO coordination by building tools that turn DeFi into a cooperative game. This proposal is initiated as we acknowledge a strategic product and governance fit. The current DAO2DAO tools have valuable functionalities, such as decentralized token offering and token swaps, that align as an extension of Aragon’s future product. With this proposed token swap, both parties are able to converge their products and goals by actively participating in each other’s governance.

Both parties propose a swap of $50k in ANT to $50k in D2D.

Proposal description

This proposal contains a strategic token swap between Aragon and PrimeDAO, of $50k in ANT to $50k in D2D.

PrimeDAO is a DAO builder collective focused on enabling DAO-to-DAO coordination. Launched in 2020, PrimeDAO has built a synergistic product suite that provides value to DAOs through their entire lifecycle, from project review and support to a token launchpad and DAO Dealmaking platform. PrimeDAO has strategic partnerships with different DAOs and completed token swaps with Balancer, Celo, Gitcoin, OlympusDAO, and more.

The current product overview of PrimeDAO is threefold, namely:

  • Prime Launch:A decentralized token launch platform that allows DAOs to host a fixed-price launch (Seed) or liquid launch (LBP) effectively with support from a network of service DAOs and potential backers
  • Prime Deals: Makes web3 partnerships simple, through an interface for DAO2DAO interactions, such as joint ventures and token swaps
  • Prime Rating: A public good in the form of a permissionless framework that quantifies web3 project quality, and therefore provide transparency in the DeFi space

In parallel to the swap, the two teams will do a soft-integration. It will take the form of a detailed how-to guide that explains the potential joined use of Aragon Client and Prime Launch.

As PrimeDAO is actively monetising some of its products, a potential future deeper integrations will likely include a revenue share element accruing some of the captured value into Aragon.

Proposal rationale

Prime DAO is a prominent name in the DAO ecosystem and would be a powerful ally in terms of a team with a proven track record of creating DAO tools that are both conceptually sound and provably useful.

Aragon is focusing on building smart contract infrastructure for on-chain permission management systems. Ultimately this infrastructure should be connected/extended by tools that enable DAOs to interact with external agents or assets. Connecting to functional modules and products such as the aforementioned ones developed by Prime DAO, is an essential element of scaling Aragon’s value proposition.

By plugging into Aragon’s ecosystem, PrimeDAO will benefit from Aragon’s wider reach and offer its modules to DAOs that might otherwise be unaware of its value propositions.

This proposal enables a stake in each other’s DAO, and therefore the two projects will have both the incentives and the means (through governance participation) to synchronize product evolution and coordinate better while they decentralize.

Risks & Limitations

The current treasury of PrimeDAO has an estimated runway of 12 months. The risk of running out of runway could lead to product development being slowed down or stopped completely. While the technology is open-source and could be leveraged by Aragon and other DAOs even without the PrimeDAO organization being operational, there is merit in having it well-resourced so it can continue to iterate on the technology and provide its services. PrimeDAO is mitigating the runway risk by monetizing its tools, namely, a product fee on Launch (~1.5% per launch) and Deals (~0.3% per Deal).

Additionally, there is a possibility that PrimeDAO and Aragon products are technically infeasible to integrate, and ergo incompatible. However, close collaboration between both projects should mitigate this risk. Aragon’s new product is lean and flexible, designed in its essence to allow and encourage integration of products benefitting the entire DAO ecosystem - Prime’s products are a great example of that. As such, the incompatibility risk is low, especially as both parties have intentions of working together and look for ways to ensure product integrations.

Team information

Luuk Weber, an experienced DAO strategist, and Treasury manager. Leads Strategy for PrimeDAO and runs Kolektivo Labs, a Web 3.0 Venture Studio with 15+ contributors. Before co-founding PrimeDAO, Luuk ran a DeFi Fund from the Amsterdam stock exchange and spent some time contributing to BalancerDAO

Alp Ergin, the current Ops and Partnership Lead of PrimeDAO with a background in Impact Start-ups and Investment Banking. Alp carries loads of experience from his time in the core of Gitcoin and has also started multiple initiatives including Co-founding dCompass and Inverter Network.

Funding information

Both parties propose a token swap of $50k in ANT to $50k in D2D.

The amounts of ANT and D2D tokens correspond to the $50k value and will be calculated based on a 7-day backward looking TWAP (time weighted average price) taken at the time this vote is published to the respective voting infrastructure of each of the two communities.

The following terms are proposed for the strategic token swap:

  • 6 month, soft lock-up period (token lock-up not enforced on-chain but on social level)
  • Due to the soft lock, full voting power will be granted immediately upon closing of the sale
  • Terms are symmetric for both parties

Disclaimer

This proposal is composed by @fartunov @Ricktik6 @juliettech, in collaboration with the PrimeDAO team

10 Likes

Luuk here, one of the Stewards of PrimeDAO. Excited to see this proposal come together; I’ve been a long-time fan of Aragon and have launched and participated in multiple projects that used the Aragon technology in my four-year journey as a DAO coordinator.

I look forward to connecting the PrimeDAO tools and services to the Aragon Network and working together to push the boundaries of DAOs.

7 Likes

Also excited to see this proposal come together between two strong teams! Support moving this forward and letting the collaborations commence!

4 Likes

I’m a supporter of win:win proposals. The token swap itself is an effective means to help decentralise governance. Long term clear potential upside. Solid proposal.

2 Likes

As DAOs take on more legal wrappers to insulate developers and participants generally where do you see token swap trading? transactions and trades have different reporting mechanisms in some places and it could be useful to document this part of the procedure for future use? This might actually be a lot simpler than it sounds and isn’t meant to be a stopping block.

Second question - I see the utility of the features = should we include a budget for development up front? $5-10K for a proof-of-concept token launch with EVM CRISPR or a similar tool seems like a very light lift and if it’s worth investing $50k in swap maybe we can get a simple demo? For all I know it may not require any development?

Also = dCompass looks rad = rust-based edns? that seems like it could be an especially useful product… could we talk about how dcompass could be used in the dao tooling space and what the digital touchpoints could be in a real-world scenario?

1 Like

I think that Including budgets for development would be a step to far…

Lets focus on only a token swap so both projects are able to start participating in each other’s governance.

2 Likes

Thanks for the great proposal @Ricktik6! Personally, I dig the token swaps! A great way for us to build our community and create opportunities in the space for collaboration.

The only question I have is around :

Are we planning on creating integration with Aragon Client as it stands? Or are we looking more into a plugin for the new Aragon App? As far as I know, the current Aragon Client is a bit buggy and difficult to use. Definitely all for integrations, especially on this level, just want to make sure it’s something people can/ will be able to use in their DAO. Not just integrations for the sake of doing so.

Another thought that comes to mind upon diving deeper into PrimeDAO I see they are doing token swaps with a total of 11 other organizations as well. Could this lead to other opportunities for Aragon? Creating a more tight-knit community of organizations while also increasing participation in each other’s governance? Sounds cool! :nerd_face:

3 Likes

This looks great, love to see us partnering with PrimeDAO.

  • Due to the soft lock, full voting power will be granted immediately upon closing of the sale

How will Aragon handle voting with D2D and PrimeDAO with the ANT they receive? Do I get to determine if votes are a yes or no? Will it be an Aragon Vote over how Aragon will vote on PrimeDAO proposals? Will a committee decide?

2 Likes

Thanks for raising these points guys!

We can look into other opportunities for Aragon as long as they are beneficial for the Aragon ecosystem @Shawncubbedge

There is no decision been made (yet) on how Aragon will handle meta-governance @brent

I think more importantly it is how others will do meta governance. Imagine we do a swap for $5M then the other organization has one person voting with the $5M that came from our treasury. A whole other topic, does not need to be solved in a 50k swap.

3 Likes

I also support this collaboration as I see optimal synergies between Aragon and PrimeDAO’s missions.

Also the terms of the swap seem fine. Perhaps I would add an additional soft vesting schedule of 6 months after the lock-up. I am available if you feel the need to prepare a written contract.

4 Likes

Proposal is live for vote

Find the TWAP price calculation here

i’m going to gently push back on this = there’s a lot of open source and enough for you to pitch at the very least a bad idea… maybe add a budget for gitcoin for an open proposal session?

Voting Live Aragon Voice

@Ricktik6 for visibility could you add the vote link to the top of the proposal also please?

1 Like

@alibama, this is the idea of a demo that the teams arrived at. To your point, it seems to require no development at this point.

That being said, if you have ideas on how dTech can contribute here it would be rad! Third-party integrations are part of the compensated scope of the guild so if you have the bandwidth to support this project and a specific idea of how we can coordinate if the proposal passes.

Proof that the token swap succeeded:

Thank you @LuukDAO and team for the awesome collaboration!

3 Likes