Unwinding PrimeDAO <> Aragon Token Swap

Aragon DAO
1

TLDR:

In October 2022, Aragon Network DAO and PrimeDAO executed a token swap as the first step in a succession of collaboration initiatives. As of July 2023, the intended collaborative initiatives have yet to materialize, so we propose to unwind the original swap. The proposal is simultaneously presented to the Aragon DAO and PrimeDAO.

Description:

If the proposal passes across both communities, the following actions will take place onchain:

The execution of these steps is not automatic and will depend on trusted actors within the two communities to initiate the respective transactions.

Note: Considering PrimeDAO’s treasury currently holds only 22,000 ANT, the unwind can be partial and represent ~74% of the original transaction.

In addition, the voluntary unwinding of the token swap will preserve the good relationship between the two communities and ensure future collaboration opportunities can be pursued collaboratively when they emerge. Furthermore, it will be a powerful signal to both communities and the overall web3 ecosystem that DAOs can act in good faith even when plans fall through.

Objective:

The objective is two-fold:

  • Preserve the excellent relationship between PrimeDAO and Aragon DAO and ensure the feasibility of future collaborations
  • Empower both teams to focus attention away from a stagnant opportunity instead of spinning wheels with a failed initiative

Details:

The respective original proposals can be found as follows:

The swap was executed through Prime Deals with the respective transactions as follows:

The proposals were a first step towards deeper collaboration between the two projects. While the teams were in an active dialog, no collaboration has not materialized over the past nine months. Below is a list of attempted and unsuccessful collaborative initiatives:

  1. Publish and co-market a guide on leveraging Prime Launch and AragonApp to create new DAOs and bootstrap liquidity [Not published]
  • Since the swap, Aragon has released a new product suite, including Aragon OSx and Aragon App, making a guide focused on the legacy product impractical.
  • While Aragon’s products are live on the Ethereum and Polygon Networks, Prime Deals mainly focuses on the Celo Network, making it difficult for the two products to be used together.
  1. Sharing of prospective projects interested in using the respective product of the partner [zero shared leads]
  • While Aragon’s products are live on the Ethereum and Polygon Networks, Prime Deals mainly focuses on the Celo Network, making it difficult for the two products to be used in conjunction with each other.
  • Overall negative market sentiment has decreased demand for new DAO formation and liquidity bootstrapping in general.
  1. Participation in each other’s governance process between PrimeDAO and Aragon DAO [no cross-governance activity]
  • PrimeDAO has not wrapped its ANT balance to vote in the Aragon DAO.
  • No PrimeDAO representatives are actively involved in the Aragon Forum.
  • As of May 2023, Aragon DAO still cannot participate in PrimeDAO’s governance which is still not based on the D2D token subject to the swap despite the passing of PDP #013 on February 1st, 2023
  • No Aragon DAO representatives are actively involved in the PrimeDAO Forum
  1. Deeper integration proposals [not published]
  • The PrimeDAO team has drafted a proposal for customizing Prime Launch as an Aragon native functionality.
  • The Aragon team advised against moving the 4-month-long $240,000 project as there was lacking evidence of demand for a combined value proposition (see point 2 above).

Furthermore, shortly after the swap was executed, the core counterparties at PrimeDAO who championed the original proposal shifted their focus toward different projects (Kolektivo Network and Inverter Protocol, respectively), slowing the overall progress and communication flow.

Risks & Dependencies:

  1. Unwinding is enforceable on the social layer only - Aragon DAO and PrimeDAO should each pass their respective proposals to unwind the swap successfully. As onchain DAO-to-DAO swaps are nascent, there are no legal or onchain repercussions if either community refuses to unwind the swap. We rely on social layer consensus and personal and organizational reputation to ensure collaboration.
  2. PrimeDAO liquidity - the current balance of PrimeDAO treasury is below the value of the ANT tokens that PrimeDAO received during the swap. As a result, even with a positive outcome of the respective votes across both Aragon DAO and PrimeDAO, it is possible that PrimeDAO will not be able to honor the unwinding in full.
10 Likes
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Hi Ivan,

Given the fact liquidity seems to have been pulled from PrimeDAO, a textbook case before a shutdown, this seems incredibly pertinent and should be pushed forward ASAP to a vote

1 Like
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agree w this, lets get our tokens back

4

I concur.

5

let’s unwid the swap

6

Thanks for pushing this forward @fartunov. In agreement to unwind the swap and look forward to PrimeDAO doing the same to preserve the potential for future collaboration going forwards.

5 Likes
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Given that PrimeDAO has sold part of the ANT they received as part of the original swap and I will include wording to reflect that the outcome could be a partial unwind. The proposal will go up for voting early next week

5 Likes
8

In support of this proposal and appreciate Ivan bringing this up for a vote.

9

It’s now up in the Delay App: Aragon DAO

In just under 7 days it will go to vote.

3 Likes
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Hello, do you have this up for vote in PrimeDAO yet or are you waiting for it to be completed through Aragon first?

11

The vote is now live: Aragon DAO

2 Likes
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Indeed before casting the Aragon vote inside Prime we have to see the outcome here. We are also waiting for Aragon’s D2D to be moved from the AA to the Ecosystem multisig so we can participate in the vote in Prime (ETA of that move is end of this week).

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Hello everyone, the vote is over and has passed by 100%

I’ll let @fartunov explain next steps in detail with timelines.

14

gm gm! Its great seeing such a resounding community support!

I am working with the ops guild to put the proposal on Snapshot on Prime’s side, however we are still waiting for AA to transfer the tokens to an address we can access.

I share an update here once we manage to put the proposal up on Prime’s side. If you would like to voice your support you can do so in the PrimeDAO forum but the most meaningful help the community can do is to help rallying other size-able D2D token holders [e.g. Balancer, Olympus, Gitcoin] to support the proposal once it goes up

2 Likes
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Hi Ivan,

The transfer of the tokens should happen shortly.

Cheers,

1 Like
16

is there an update on the status of this?

17

gm! Thanks for following up. We still don’t have access to the D2D tokens :man_shrugging:

18

uh @Joan_Arus said 6 days ago you would have those shortly?..

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what is causing the delay?

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Hi there @AntHolder ,

Unfortunately, the transaction to send the tokens expired without enough signer quorum as some were OOO. It was re-submitted here, should be executed by tomorrow.