Have you ever tried to get involved in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) only to feel like your voice didn't matter? You're not alone. While DAOs are excellent at raising funds, establishing a vision, and managing a treasury, they often struggle with a fundamental problem: community participation.
Most DAOs operate on a system of token-weighted voting, which tends to concentrate power in the hands of a few large token holders. This leaves smaller stakeholders and community members feeling disenfranchised. Their participation often feels pointless, leading to a decline in engagement and a sense of disillusionment.
But what if we could change that? What if we could create a system that fosters genuine participation and rewards the best ideas, regardless of who they come from?
The DAO Toolbox: Powerful, but Flawed
Modern DAOs use a powerful suite of tools to manage their operations, but these tools don't always encourage broad participation.
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Governor contracts (OpenZeppelin): These are the on-chain backbone for voting, allowing for secure decision-making and vote delegation.
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Tally: A user-friendly interface that makes it easy to vote and delegate your tokens, providing a clear overview of proposals and outcomes.
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Snapshot: A gasless voting platform (meaning you don't have to pay a fee) used for signaling and temperature checks before a formal, on-chain vote.
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Safe: The DAO's treasury wallet, a secure multisignature wallet that requires approval from a trusted group to move funds.
Together, these tools protect a DAO's funds against a variety of attacks and provide a framework for governance. However, they don't solve the core problem of participation.
Why Participation Fails
The current system discourages two key groups from participating:
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Stakeholders: Even if a decision significantly impacts them financially, the influence of a single vote is often too small to justify the time and effort required to review complex proposals. They often delegate their votes and step away.
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Community Members: These individuals are excited about the DAO's vision but don't hold a large number of tokens. They quickly realize their vote won't change the outcome, and the process of submitting their own proposals can be frustrating and unrewarding.
This leads to a vicious cycle: a small group of paid insiders ends up reviewing every proposal, and community influence shrinks. Even delegated voting, which is meant to help, often leads to voting power consolidating in the hands of a few large delegates.
A New Model: Updraft
To truly fix this, we need to move beyond the traditional vote. We need a system that rewards genuine contributions and makes participation a positive-sum game. This is where Updraft comes in.
Updraft is a new mechanism designed to improve community engagement, ideation, and building. It's a way for DAOs to source and fund great ideas without the limitations of a typical yes/no vote.
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Ideas Emerge from the Community: Anyone can propose an Idea and attract supporters. The system tracks the level of interest in an Idea, which can come from both community members and larger stakeholders.
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The Best Ideas Get Nurtured: As an Idea gains interest, it attracts drafters who propose concrete Solutions to implement it. This creates a competitive but collaborative environment where multiple solutions can be funded.
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Rewards for All: In Updraft, contributing to a good Idea is a positive-sum game. You can earn rewards not just as the creator of an Idea, but also as a supporter. This incentivizes a broader range of people to participate and contribute to the DAO's vision.
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A Powerful Assurance Contract: The funding mechanism is designed as a dominant assurance contract, which means the most rational strategy is to fund public goods. This ensures that the DAO's resources are channeled toward solutions that benefit the entire community.
The New DAO Workflow
With Updraft, a DAO's workflow becomes more dynamic. The DAO's traditional tools are used for high-level governance and treasury management, while Updraft handles the creative, community-driven parts.
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DAO votes on a campaign: Token holders use their standard tools to vote on a high-level direction for innovation. For example, Gitcoin DAO could create a campaign to "Improve the developer onboarding experience for our grants program," or Arbitrum DAO could create a campaign to "Fund new projects that improve the security and efficiency of the Arbitrum network."
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Community grows and rallies: The campaign attracts new community members, who are excited to earn by creating and supporting Ideas and funding Solutions. This activity increases engagement and participation, actively growing the community's size and reach.
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Solutions are funded: A trusted multisig of DAO stewards reviews the top-ranked Ideas and Solutions that emerged from the community. They then use the committed funds to directly fund Solutions and airdrop to Ideas on the Updraft platform.
This revised process allows a DAO to leverage the wisdom of its entire community, ensuring that the best ideas are identified and funded, and that participation is a rewarding experience for everyone.
Here's a visualization of the new workflow:
Conclusion
By integrating Updraft, DAOs can finally move beyond the vote. They can foster a culture where every member has a real chance to contribute, earn, and build, transforming a passive community into a vibrant and engaged ecosystem. The future of decentralized governance isn't just about who has the most tokens—it's about who has the best Ideas.
Come to the Updraft discord to start your campaign today.