Paideia: DID based DAO membership

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Robert Pieter van Leeuwen

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

By attaching DID's to DAO membership the freedom for a malicious actor is limited further on chain, making a hostile takeover harder to perform.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We intend to use GPL v3.0

[METADATA] Horizons

DAO

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

In the Aiken contracts created in the previously funded Paideia proposal anyone with governance tokens can become a member of a DAO. In this solution we intend to build further onto these contracts, by making it optional for a DAO to require a DID to be attached to membership. A similar solution for DEX's has been proposed by Sundae Labs and is currently being worked on the Permissioned Pools project.

So allowing a DAO to define what requirements there are on membership giving the DAO greater control on who can become a member without fully limiting it to a whitelist.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The solution not only counteracts malicious actors, but also opens up for on chain governance where identity is important.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

I have worked on multiple Aiken based projects and other Cardano solutions.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Fully research DID capabilities on Cardano to improve current knowledge and find best solution that fits our use case.

Deliverable: Report describing DID capabilities and conclusion, will be included in public github repo

Make a specification for the implementation building on top of the basic Paideia contracts specification.

Deliverable: Full specification of intended implementation, describing validators, actors and transactions. Included in github repo

Aiken implementation of the specification with working test cases to verify.

Deliverable: Short video explaining the code, any deviations from the specification (due to unforeseen problems) and running test cases + a link to github repo holding the code.

Example off chain code implementation to run the Aiken contracts on test net.

Deliverable: Link to github repo + links to successful transactions

Project close out report and video.

Should clearly describe how the deliverables have fulfilled the proposal.

Will be included in the github repo

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Most of the work will be executed by myself, although I do intend to consult other Aiken proficient developers for feedback on design choices.

Robert Pieter van Leeuwen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-pieter-van-leeuwen-28b8b853/

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Milestones:

1. 20000 ADA 2-4 weeks of work
2. 30000 ADA 2-4 weeks of work includes budget for external feedback
3. 50000 ADA 4-8 weeks of work includes budget for external feedback
4. 25000 ADA 2-4 weeks of work
5. 10000 ADA 1-2 weeks of work

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Many organizations hesitate to relinquish control to a DAO because of the mentioned problems. With DID member based DAO's we can attract more DAO usage and in turn improve Cardano adoption. If this can prevent just one hostile takeover of an established DAO the prevented losses will likely exceed the cost of development.