Self-governance and Cultural Values

Web3 can be defined by several unique characteristics, each of which are interconnected to varying degrees. Among these unique characteristics, self-governance and distributed robustness are two characteristics closely associated with organizational forms and collective ownership, which is one of the primary reasons for implementing the Praise Reward System on Gnosis Chain. These organizational forms serve as a new way of coordinating people with shared values around a set of common goals.

DAOs only succeed when the culture and governance frameworks are clear. Gnosis Chain, of which the GnosisDAO is a key stakeholder, can benefit from creating a culture of gratitude, where community members help each other when in need and offer praise as a token of appreciation. 

The Praise Reward System

The Praise reward system evolved out of the Giveth communities’ experiments with Reward DAO and the Commons Stack’s iteration on the system. TEC currently employs Praise and it has become an important component of maintaining the overall health of their community. It was developed as a way to value the contributions of community members. Members “dish praise” to community members using “!praise” or “/praise” in Discord or “!dish praise to/for”.

GIP-48 proposed to modify Praise for the community of validators on Gnosis Chain. Verified validators in the Gnosis Chain and GnosisDAO Discord can earn small amounts of GNO for helping community members troubleshoot issues and onboard new validators. 

The rules for the GnosisDAO Praise system are a modified version of the original Commons Stack bot. Only verified members of the Gnosis Chain validator community will have the ability to award and receive praise. A small working group, known as “quantifiers”, will quantify and evaluate praise data to determine the amount of GNO awarded, to gain insight into community values, and to decrease the likelihood of any foul play. Praise data (and the insights contained therein) will be published monthly. Quantifiers will be rewarded a small amount of GNO for each quant pool they successfully participate in.

TEC’s Praise Reward System can help nurture positive symbiotic relationships among community members of the GnosisDAO community. This sort of organic mutualism can be fostered by implementing a system whereby people are incentivized to help one another. 

The GBC will benefit as well. In addition to increasing the quality and quantity of interactions within the community, members will be more inclined to spin up a validator as rewards are distributed in GNO. This has the secondary effect of furthering decentralization of the GBC consensus layer. As the chain gains a bigger following, Gnosis Chain as the de-facto “DAO Chain” will become the gold standard of the diverse Web3 community.

Gnosis Chain

Gnosis Chain is a stable payments EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) blockchain designed for fast and inexpensive transactions. The chain uses a unique dual-token model; xDai is the stable token used for transactions, payments, and fees, and GNO is the governance token used for governance decisions and Proof of Stake protection via validators on the Gnosis Beacon Chain (GBC).

Validators propose and vote on blocks to include in the chain. The chain is secured by a staked amount of mGNO. Validators stake mGNO and receive additional mGNO as rewards for proposing and attesting blocks. 

Goals of Praise on Gnosis Chain

Community Development

Praise has been a fundamental part of TEC’s culture since its inception. TEC attributes Praise as being the primary factor for the success of the “Culture of Gratitude” they have instilled within their community. Similarly, Gnosis Chain will implement the same Praise system with the intention of creating a culture of gratitude. By recognizing and appreciating the contributions of its members, Gnosis Chain aims to become a use Praise to encourage wholesome interactions within the validator community.

Robustness via Decentralization

The vast majority of validators on Gnosis Chain are owned by a relatively small minority of GNO holders. For example, 0xc6…c07e has 19,200 active validators, second only to the 34,952 validators stakewise holds. This address has had a major influence on the outcome of all GIPs they have voted on. Similarly, there are many other addresses with relatively disproportionate large stakes of GNO. These so-called “whales'' collectively securing the Gnosis network is not ideal. The security of the network could be bolstered by a more even distribution of GNO among several addresses. Moreover, these whales possess the most voting power and can often determine the fate of a Snapshot proposal single-handedly. 

By rewarding contributors in GNO, Praise functions as a redistribution of voting power to its core base: the validator community. Though seemingly insignificant, Praise is a step towards an equitable redistribution of the governance rights of GnosisDAO. Further, there is an expectation that Praise will lead to an increase in the number of validators as people may be more inclined to spin up a new validator with their rewards. This in turn will bolster the security of the network.

Encourage Participation

It is expected that Praise will increase participation rates in the GnosisDAO Discord due to the newfound incentive to help and from positive member interactions among members of the Gnosis Chain validator community. An incentivized system that recognizes and rewards those who do good - who embody the values and ethos of Web3 - will encourage more participants to become validators.

Why run a validator on Gnosis Chain?

Earn Rewards

Rewards are given for actions that help Gnosis Chain reach consensus. You'll get rewards for running software that properly batches transactions into new blocks and checks the work of other validators because that is what keeps Gnosis Chain running securely.

Increase the Security of the Network via Decentralization

The network gets stronger against attacks as more validators enter the network, as it then requires more GNO to control a majority of the network. This means an attacker would need to control a majority of GNO staked with  100,000 validators currently securing the network.

Support an Eco-Friendly Consensus Mechanism

Validators do not require energy-hungry computers to help secure a proof-of-stake network. This makes Gnosis Chain better for the environment.

Praise Community Demo

Join us for a live demo of the Praise Reward System and an AMA session on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 @ 2:00 PM UTC. We will be discussing the roles involved, the reward team, governance decisions, the quantification process, data reports and much more! More details to follow. Subscribe to our weekly Newsletter and follow us on Twitter to receive future updates on how to attend.

Get Involved

The Gnosis community includes people from various backgrounds and skill sets. Whether you are a developer, an artist, or an accountant, anyone can set up a validator on Gnosis Chain. For those with the requisite technical knowledge, the Gnosis Chain Node Set-up Guide can get you started. For those who lack the requisite technical knowledge or are simply interested in a more stream-lined solution, DappNode and Avado offer plug-and-play NUCs designed for lay people.

To learn more, join the Gnosis Chain Discord, browse the GnosisDAO Forums and join the GnosisDAO Discord. Make sure to attend the GnosisDAO community call on Twitter Spaces every second Thursday of the month at 5PM CET. To stay up-to-date on all GnosisDAO public events, subscribe to our weekly Newsletter, and visit our Linktree and add our calendar.