Decentralization. Accountability. Optimization.

Harmony takes the community’s sentiment seriously – it lives at the center of every action the DAO Operations team makes and is the impetus for this document. The following was, first and foremost, informed by community feedback during open DAO calls.

Summary

There is no one way to DAO, at least for the time being.

To seize this opportunity, means to ask ourselves important questions regarding DAO culture, and if we are currently living up to what we envision it to stand for. Ask yourself:

1. Are the DAO’s being created sustainable, scalable, and accountable?
2. Are we creating an enviroment where Harmony DAO’s are incentivized to responsibly grow, serve, and uplifttheir communities?
3. What does the journey of a successful DAO look like, and do we any examples in the current ecosystem?
4. What does the journey of a DAO community member look like, and can a DAO be a suitable replacement for their career?
5. What are the most important operations of a DAO, and do our current approval requirements appropriately emphasize the importance of those primary operations?

If you’re answering thses questions honestly, then youre no doubt aware that change is needed. Particularly on the cusp of the 1 year anniversary of the DAO Ops program. In times like these it’s surprisingly easy to point the blame fingers at eachother, likely spurring continued seperation and negative community sentiment inside our Harmonious Foundation. What takes courage is to be proactive in humility, to seek feedback from all who’ll give it, and to right past mistakes by refocusing your efforts on what matters. The community and the hand that feeds it without seeking reward. Harmony DAO fund is a rain forest, and the DAO’s and DAO tools within are the trees, animals. We (DAOs) have been operating in silos and abusing our natural habitat instead of acting collaboratively as one living breathing ecoosystem. No forest is sustainable under such enviromentally harmful practices. But have no fear, in this “Year of the DAO” 1DAO has the potential to be Smokey the Bear AND Captain Planet!

Reasoning for 1DAO Alliance

Problem

Over the past 60 days, the DAO operations team has analyzed the Harmony ecosystem and determined that the assertion to fund 10,000 DAOs is principally and logistically unfounded. This is not to say Harmony cannot be “The Home of 10,000 DAOs by 2026;” however, the strategy must change to ensure that DAOs on Harmony, and the tooling solutions that support them,  become scalable, sustainable, and accountable.

Unsustainable Math

If Harmony gave $50K to 10,000 DAOs, that's $500M – much more than the Ecosystem development fund and 10x what we have allocated to DAOs. Every DAO on Harmony is currently dependent on Harmony for its capital. The program in its current state is not sustainable and executing an actionable plan for self-sustainability through revenue generation isn’t prioritized. The creation of these negative-sum DAO relationships will drain the fund and likely produce a robust ecosystem of zombie DAOs.

Lack of Data

With no strong examples of successful DAOs, combined with a lack of enthusiasm for DAO reporting, the DAO ops team cannot confidently prove that DAOs are viable organizational structures – nor prove that they warrant continuous support and financial allocation. Providing quality guidance or optimizing best practices is impossible without quality data. Approved DAOs aren’t incentivized to do anything past what’s required for funding, which has led to a general lack of accountability, low participation in reporting, and an absence of clarity in the DAO ecosystem.

Unclear Standards

Measuring the productivity of the DAO ecosystem by the number of DAOs onboarded, paired with a lack of DAO education has created an abundance of potential “Zombie DAOs,” or failed DAOs. The absence of verifiable education levels amongst DAOist is the leading cause of most of the prevalent problems in the DAO ecosystem. Chief among these are lack of accountability  within communities, lack of successful financial distribution to the community, lack of infrastructure stemming from unfamiliarity with tools, low engagement rates, and near-zero business development plans for self sustainability.

Outlook

The 10,000 DAO goal is a Vanity Metric with an unfounded and haphazard approach. This isn’t to say we can’t make Harmony "The Home of 10,000 DAOs;" though, it will require a new and deliberate path forward.

Our Thesis

We propose a new strategy for Harmony's 10,000 DAO ecosystem:

1. Design a research-based framework that lays the infrastructure for a scalable DAO ecosystem
2. Release comprehensive guidelines for DAO approval, KPIs and Ranking, and DAO reporting standards
3. Get back to basics with a scalable approach that starts with the 1DAO Alliance – a unified point for data collection and communication

The DAO operations team believes the 1DAO Alliance will guide Harmony to become the “Home to 10,000 DAOs”

Important Questions to Consider:

• What is the journey of a successful DAO look like?
• What is the journey of a DAO community member look like?
• What are the most important operations of a DAO?
• How can a DAO be a suitable replacement for a career?

1DAO Alliance

What the 1DAO is...

• 1DAO is Harmony’s Iteration on a Town Hall. Since members from all Harmony DAOs make up 1DAO alliance, DAOs will now have an open forum to voice concerns, contribute to the education of new DAOists, and craft best practices for DAOs moving forward.
• 1DAO is a data-collection point. A much needed catalyst to bring uniformity and consistency to DAO reporting, 1DAO will allow the DAO operations team to optimize the grant process while giving all DAOs the opportunity for more informed decision making. In addition, consistent reporting will make it easier for new DAOists to vet and join DAOs.
• 1DAO is a hub for the new verticals of DAO to explore the development of a complimentary DAO ecosystem, helping one another grow while reducing DAO overlap.
• 1DAO is an ecosystem-wide voting mechanism. All DAOs will help approve any new DAO grants and ecosystem guidelines.
• 1DAO is the base layer of education for new DAOists on Harmony.

What the 1DAO is not...

• The 1DAO Alliance is not a DAO. It is a meeting point for all of the DAOs on Harmony to grow asynchronously and should not be considered a DAO that other DAOs report to.
• 1DAO Alliance is not centralized. It’s an alliance made up by the sum of its parts. It’s designed to responsibly govern, scale, and report to itself and promote ecosystem-wide accountability.

How Does the 1DAO Alliance Work?

First, each DAO in the alliance must meet the requirements of DAO, as set by the DAO operations grants team.

Minimum Viable DAO (MVD)

1. Nine Member Multisig Vault
2. 100+ Vote on chain
3. Membership Token (NFT or other)
4. 1DAO Representative
5. Mandate, Deliverables, and Metrics
6. ONEReputation Circle*

Operating Procedure

1DAO Alliance meetings will occur one per week for a 1 hour timeframe. Out of respect for the members, timekeeping will be prioritized so that every agenda item is discussed. The weekly agenda will be as follows:

1. Roll Call

Attendance for all 1DAO representatives are taking, a factor that will be taking into consideration for peer-review bonuses and future grants.

2. Vertical Reporting

Each week, 1DAO representatives from each DAO will convene for a mutually agreed upon amount of time. During this meeting all DAOs from a specific “Core DAO Vertical” will present a summarized report to the alliance, covering 1) deliverables and metrics, 2) accounting, and 3) membership and ONEReputation circles. The presenting vertical will rotate quarterly, leaving two additional weeks each quarter for a 1DAO alliance report and a DAO operations team report. Each DAO is expected to report when their corresponding DAO vertical is scheduled to present. Which vertical is your DAO in? That is up to each DAO to decide.

(Example: Basic DAO determines it’s a part of Tool DAOs and therefore reports to the 1DAO alliance on the ninth week of each quarter.)

The 10 Core DAO Verticals

1. Community DAOs: DAOs that engage IRL and on the web with members of the Harmony ecosystem...
2. Education DAOs: DAOs that facilitate integration and teach
3. Marketing DAOs: DAOs that focus on consistent branding, messaging, and discoverability across the Harmony ecosystem.
4. Research DAOs: DAOs that initiate exploration or audit with the intent to enhance the wider ecosystem technically and otherwise.
5. Developer DAOs: DAOs that focus on network development, maintenance, and integration.
6. DeFi DAOs: DAOs that focus on growth, education, and accountability in Harmony’s Decentralized Finance ecosystem.
7. NFT DAOs: DAOs that focus on growth, education, and accountability in Harmony’s NFT ecosystem.
8. Gaming DAOs: DAOs that focus on growth, education, and accountability in Harmony’s Gaming/GameFi ecosystem.
9. Tool DAOs: DAOs that operates in collaboration with other DAOs to promote best practices, reporting, and accounting.
10. Future DAOs:

3. DAO Grants Voting

Each week the 1DAO Alliance will act as the final say in any grant funding from Harmony to new DAOs. Keep in mind that the DAO looking to receive funding should be present at the meeting, since the requirements of the MVD state the a grantable DAO must have a 1DAO alliance representative. Should the DAO receive grant funding, funds will be moved into the 1DAO multisig vault for distribution.

4. Discussion Forum

Using Reddit and Commonwealth, any remaining time will go toward discussing any posts directed at the 1DAO in descending order of upvoted popularity. Should there be any discrepancies in what to discuss, a 1DAO Alliance vote will be taken on the spot to determine the desired order of discussion.

5. Treasury Discussion (weekly) and Peer Bonuses (once per quarter)

Each week the 1DAO will determine if any financial decisions need to be made, such as stake matching (see below) or investing. Additionally, using the ONEReputation tool, DAO representative will award peer bonuses during this time, once per quarter.

Value to Harmony Protocol

With considerable community discussion as to whether Harmony’s DAO grants are causing sell pressure on $ONE (which is mathematically unfounded) paired with the necessity for self-sustainable practices within DAOs, we are asking that each DAO in the 1DAO alliance stake 25% of the treasury as well as 25% of any Harmony grants. The amount that each DAO stakes will be matched by the 1DAO (funded by Harmony). Any tokens generated from staking will b added to the 1DAO alliance treasury for OneReputation peer-based DAO bonuses and other 1DAO initiatives.

While we can by no means tell DAOs what to do with their treasury, this model promotes both longterm self-sustainable practices and bolsters the entire DAO ecosystem.

(Example: Basic DAO has $50K in its treasury and receives an additional $10K grant. $15K is expected to be staked to a Harmony Validator. Upon reporting this to the 1DAO alliance, the 1DAO will stake $15K as well. All token rewards will be used

All approved grant funds will be sent to the 1DAO treasury for distribution (accountability and autonomy)

What does the 1DAO need to get off the ground?

Budget

Funding for peer bonuses.

Harmony Participating in peer bonus for attending 1DAO Council meetings.

How much do we need to stake to yield 50,000 ONE per week. (5,000 x 10 DAOs) (Matching DAO?) Direct to the DAOs. Using ONERep.

Proposal — 28,889,000 ONE to stake w/ 5 Validators as recommend by vote by the Validator DAO.

Staking rewards - 50,000 ONEs to Weekly ONERep Peer Bonuses for 1DAO Council participation.

(Price tag: ~$3.5M)

Technical needs

• Graph integration
• Gnosis update
• Token Minting
• NFT Explorer

How is the 1DAO Alliance’s success measured?

Financials, reporting on alliance votes, milestones, attendance, any investments