PsyDAO presents a new governance model for BioDAOs: new tokens—membership SBTs—and a new entity, a co-operative BORG.

PsyDAO’s two-token system, described below, follows the design principles of Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel-Prize winning work on governance to build a PsyDAO Commons.

Here’s how it works:

1. Fungible PSY

   Like VitaDAO, the first BioDAO precipitated by Molecule, and the BioDAOs built in its image through bio.xyz—AthenaDAO, ValleyDAO, CryoDAO, CerebrumDAO, and the wayward HairDAO—PsyDAO has a fungible token for basic one-token-one-vote governance.

   This token is PSY. The supply of PSY is 102,334,155 tokens. 102,334,15 is the 40th band of the Fibonacci number sequence and a sacred number across many religious traditions, representing personal (40-days-and-nights) and communal (40-years-in-the-desert) journeys of transcendence and integration.

   10% of the PSY supply will be sold for USD $0.10 in ETH each on a first-come-first-serve basis on the PsyDAO website beginning on April 19, 2024. April 19 is Bicycle Day, so named for Albert Hoffman’s famed 1943 bicycle ride home from his laboratory at Sandoz pharmaceutical company in Basel, Switzerland on a bolus dose of 250 micrograms of LSD-25.

   PSY tokens are necessary to acquire IPTs of PsyDAO IP-NFTs and PSY holders have the right to govern the PsyDAO treasury. Just like other BioDAO tokens don’t have rights to ownership of assets in BioDAO treasuries, so PSY tokens don’t have ownership rights to the PsyDAO treasury. But unlike other BioDAO tokens, PSY tokens have governance authority over the treasury delegated to them by PSYC holders.

2. Non-fungible PSYC

   PSYC is a membership token for the PsyDAO Commons, a cooperative that owns the PsyDAO treasuries and all DAO assets, including cash, tokens, intellectual property, and real property.

   Unlike anything we have ever seen before in BioDAOs, PSYC employs soul-bound tokens (SBTs—a fancy way of saying non-transferable NFTs) introduced by early Ethereum luminaries referenced in our footnote 1 to tokenize the core team.

   PSYC membership tokens create a blockchain-based cybernetic organization (a.k.a. a BORG) designed to behave in ways that comply with a treasure trove of SEC no-action letters regarding the selling of cooperative membership interests.

   PSYC has several special qualities:

   1. PSYC is non-transferable except with authorization from the PSYC smart contract owner.

   2. PSYC has an EgoDeath function based on the RageQuit function in MolochDAO-style DAOs.

   3. PSYC have attached art licensed from Indigenous Peoples, beginning with the Shipibo-Conibo from the Peruvian Amazon, and can mint and sell digital and physical prints and sublicenses of that art with royalties paid to their tribes.

   4. PSYC can claim portions of PSY tokens.

   5. PSYC supply is infinite but grows along the Fibonacci scale.

   The last point means that each new batch of PSYC minted must be the next number in the Fibonacci scale, found throughout nature—such as in the growth of nautilus shells—and at the root of the golden ratio, a mathematical marvel. The scale progresses by the sum of the previous two numbers, like so: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…all the way to 102,334,155 (the 40th Fibonacci number) and beyond.

   Constraining the new PSYC mints to the Fibonacci scale enables biomimetic decentralization. This means governance and ownership of PsyDAO grows, but not too fast; decentralizes, but not without losing ties; mimics, but doesn’t copy. At every Fibonacci step, the number of tokens released is less than half of the existing amount of tokens, so there is never a dilution of more than 50% at each mint. This kind of reliable governance expansion protects the democracy at the heart of the DAO, embracing the Ostrom principles by building responsibility for governing the commons in nested tiers.

   New PSYC batches are minted after every 3 votes by PSYC holders, as well as on every annual Bicycle Day, forcing governance-minimization and preventing government shutdown. The PsyDAO multisig serves an executory function, executing votes passed by PSY holders and administering PSYC vetoes. Members of the multisig can be voted off by PSYC holders, providing a check and balance of power.

   PSYC delegates and nests authority over the PsyDAO treasury to PSY holders. In other words, PSY is nested inside PSYC’s authority over PsyDAO. Votes by PSY holders can be vetoed by PSYC holders when doing so is in the interests of PsyDAO Commons.

In sum:

PsyDAO introduces a novel approach to governance of BioDAOs, combining fungible PSY and non-fungible PSYC tokens and using a co-operative entity structure. Relying on Nobel prize-winning work to prevent common problems, using biomemetic design to ensure sustainable decentralization, and making a commitment to cultural respect through Indigenous art, PsyDAO aims to ensure that its growth is both responsible and inclusive, marking an evolutionary step in the BioDAO ecosystem.