DAO tooling helps with the creation, management, and governance of decentralized autonomous organization which includes voting, making proposals, and managing a collective treasury, etc. If we could sum it up into a few words, they are ultimately tools for conversation and coordination.
Stepping out of the industry context for a second, there is something universal about these processes. Governance and its operations is essentially collective decision making for resource management. So if we flip the script and ask for whom rather than what DAO tooling is made for, the answer might be a group, project, or collective looking to practice self-custody over shared assets.
But there are scarcely any tools that are just as intuitive for seasoned DAO members and newcomers alike, let alone for those completely alien to space who might benefit from the technical features of a DAO.
For the veteran, signing off on proposals and executing transactions is still a cumbersome process, which would similarly describe user experience for a newcomer learning how to navigate multiple interfaces for governance. And explaining what a DAO is to the average bystander can feel weirdly unnatural and overcomplicated, not necessarily because web3 language is infamously esoteric, (though that definitely doesn’t help) but because organizing is experiential–learned by doing.
Even if the third use-case is not the target audience, wouldn’t designing governance tools for them be just as usable for a bullish veteran?
Enter NinDAO
Going back to what was said about DAO tooling as conversation and coordination tools, Telegram as a chat messenger goes a step further as a conversation-as-coordination tool with the use of bots.
That’s why we’re building @nindao_bot, the Telegram bot that turns group chats into DAOs using Safe multisig. By leveraging a familiar chat interface, both web3 natives and newcomers alike can easily start and manage their own DAO without leaving the conversation.
Shared ownership should be an accessible experience, and this vision is inclusive of those both familiar to DAOs and those who aren’t. There should be easier ways to not only practice self-custody but learn about why it can be a more beneficial and secure way of managing assets.
How it works
By bridging together Telegram, Wallet Connect, and Safe Multisig, NinDAO becomes an intuitive solution that converts the chat into an interface for DAO management.
To create a DAO added to the desired group chat, participating members register or sign-in through the bot which connects their Metamask to their Telegram handle using Walletconnect. The bot does not require access to the user’s private keys as everything is stored in Metamask. Once all agreeing members connect with Metamask, the group chat owner then initializes the DAO by creating a Safe Multisig with the public keys.
The bot features on-chain governance operations: DAO members can manage their treasury, execute multisig transactions and proposals, and add or remove members. These features are all done without leaving Telegram.
Conclusion
If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience
Tools are the means to realize ideas, but they do not realize the ideas themselves. That’s on us.
Imagine explaining what Instagram is to someone who has never seen it before versus showing them the app itself. The knowledge transfer is faster and more accurate, while allowing that person to decide if it would be a nice addition to their life. It is unlikely that one would explain with any seriousness the pros and cons of its centralized architecture in great detail.
While it is without a doubt important to understand the technical aspects of DAOs for builders, we are still building from the internet already in use. That means we need to design for the collective habitus of existing internet culture, which is shared among the DAO expert, the amateur, and the complete beginner – usability.
…and because @ninDAO_bot can be used by anyone with Telegram, it can increase and diversify use-cases for DAOs by making it easy to create and manage them through the familiar interface of a chat.
@ninDAO_bot is in its alpha stages, but for a demonstration preview, check out our presentation featured on Safe community call #4.
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