Relay roadmap for DAOs 2022

One week out from the launch of relay.cc, the time is right to share a roadmap and our views on how Relay will support and affect the DAO ecosystem.

DAOs adapt to changing conditions through the proposal process, with members drafting and passing high-value proposals that impact DAO operations. The lifecycle of a proposal is comprised mainly of a few people drafting it, a small amount of people discussing it, and a larger number of people voting on it.

The inefficiencies and pain points in this process are causing DAO frameworks to trend towards greater decision-making power for smaller groups of delegates. Empowering delegate agency allows DAOs to pass successful proposals with greater velocity, and in turn the DAO demands more accountability and expert knowledge from delegates.

Relay aims to be the communication medium delegates use and trust to govern well. A combination of communication, tracking, and reputation solutions will equip delegates with the tools needed to have productive and authentic rapport with DAO members and contributors.

We've already launched the first piece of these solutions, relay.cc, consisting of:

  • 1:1 encrypted, decentralized, and open-source wallet to wallet chat

  • ENS-aware

  • Broadcast functionality: DAOs to members, Delegates to their delegators, and NFT creators to the holders of a collection

With this chat cornerstone in place, Relay is soon releasing what we call the Athens Governance Engine: a powerful virtuous cycle of roles, actions, and features that empowers delegates and generates positive governance results. [Aug 2022 edit: pushed to early 2023]

Athens Governance Engine features:

  • Proposal Lifecycle Dashboard

    • Token-gated drafting stage

    • Customized “tracks” or checkpoints depending on the impact of a proposal

    • Public read / token-gated write for discussing

    • Voter Guides (public delegate viewpoints on the merits of a proposal)

    • Vote off-chain, much like Snapshot, with integrated discussions

  • Delegate Profiles

    • Data-rich and professional public profiles

    • Voting history and participation rates

    • Self-described background and voting ideals

    • DAO membership and NFT gallery

    • EPNS integration for polling and notifications

    • LensProtocol social graph integration

    • Gitcoin Passport Proof of Personhood integration

    • Encrypted messaging with DAO contributors and their delegators

  • DAO Operations

    • Token-gated, public chatrooms

    • Post-proposal data and comments from the DAO, tracking the impact of proposals

    • Dune Analytics integration to track DAO health metrics

These features in aggregate will allow delegates to craft better proposals in a space designed for promoting intelligent debate. The end goal is to supply delegates with the tools to govern well.

DAO governance requires a neutral arena for all parties and viewpoints, so Relay believes we must adhere to the principles of being an open-source public good. With this in mind, Relay aims to make the frontend as permissionless as possible to function with any DAO governance framework.

This decision necessitates the creation of safeguards against malicious actors in the DAO/token space. In the short term, Relay will work with DAO admins and NFT creators, with clear plans to move to a decentralized system of allowlists/denylists (similar to this implementation). More on that in a future post.

If you find these topics exciting, we invite you to join our Discord, follow on Twitter, or start your own encrypted web3 chat by sharing xmtp.chat/dm/[your0xaddress]!

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