MLabs DDAO

Introduction

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a recent innovation primarily made possible by distributed ledgers and smart contracts. Considered by some the successor of the LLC, proponents are well aware of the structure's coordinating power. For instance, Constitution DAO recently raised $47 million to participate in an auction for a rare copy of the United States Constitution. Although the DAO was eventually outbid, its highly competitive offering organized in a record short time caught the attention of CNBC and others. We aim to promote this type of agility among autonomous communities organizing on top of Cardano.

To live up to their name, however, DAOs must incorporate a significant amount of decentralized structure via smart contracts. To expedite their creation, we will implement a system that can rapidly roll out a DAO. Similar in form to the SaaS model, our DoubleDAO ($DD) system will:

1. Securely store funds of DAO token holders and the DAO

1. Include an accurate voting mechanism

1. Incorporate a configurable base framework of democratic systems with methods for extension

1. Fairly award dividends or prizes to token holders

1. Offer a front-end system available at a unique domain upon signup

Fees across the platform will be paid in Ada and DAO-specific native tokens. In turn, user-DAOs will benefit from a robust platform configured to meet their needs. Early on and throughout the protocol's lifecycle, $DD will also be distributed among User-DAOs. $DD will confer voting rights to holders and can be staked. These mechanisms will align incentives among all ecosystem participants while driving engagement and the development of the platform as a whole.

Functional Overview

MLabs has designed a governance structure we deem the "Epoch System." In this model, an application Epoch describes a period of time wherein an application behaves in a circumscribed manner. Our design ensures continuity from one Epoch to another while allowing a system to evolve following the decisions of its stakeholders. In part, we achieve this by separating the operational logic from the overarching organizational logic of a DAO. These scripts can be swapped out by changing the DAO UTXO which gets propagated further into the system.

We will create the Double DAO structure using this model – a DAO of token holders that benefit from and maintain user-DAOs relying on our SaaS-like smart contract suite. In turn, the shareholders of user-DAOs will be able to mix-and-match functionality as they construct their communities.

Double DAO will offer many benefits to users:

* Reduced audit surface area

* Reduced complexity

* Ability to engage community members in a DAO before app launch

* Extensible design that is easy to integrate

Similarly, $DD token holders will enjoy:

* Dividends

* Tier-based fee reductions

* Ability to vote for new features

* Ability to vote to spend DoubleDAO reserve funds

Why should MLabs build this protocol?

MLabs has quickly become one of the premier development firms in the Cardano Ecosystem.

We are a Plutus Partner that has made significant contributions to the space. We currently employ over 60 developers working with partners such as:

* Liqwid

* SundaeSwap

* Ardana

* CardStarter

* PlayerMint

With many more projects in the early stages of development.

Because of our work on many of these early-stage projects, we have one of the community's largest groups of Haskell / Plutus developers. Developers working on DoubleDAO will bring their collective experience to the project and ensure a successful launch.

Funding:

Total: $72,000

Breakdown:

Feature                                                       Total Time

Create DoubleDOA Mothership                     120

Basic Dao Template                                        80

Thread ID-Based Proposals                            80

Voting Mechanisms                                         80

Upkeep Bots                                                    80

Automated DevOps Rollout                           120

Audit Prep                                                        80

Spec                                                                 80

Subtotal -                                                        600

Change Budget                                               180

Total Time                                                       900 hours

Total Cost                                                       $72,000

Number of Devs                                                2

Weeks to Launch                                              24

Features / MVP:

Core design requirements:

-- DoubleDAO mothership, which manages signups, user settings, and basic DAO deployment

-- Basic DAO template with optional features (e.g., deposits/withdrawals, reward distributions, voting structures)

-- Thread ID-based proposals

-- Voting mechanisms

Off-chain requirements:

-- Upkeep bots

-- Automated DevOps rollout

Features of V2 and beyond:

-- Treasury template

-- Reserve funds spending proposal

-- Optimizations of treasury fund yields

-- Unique token ownership and minting delegation to allow maintaining a single currency across multiple versions of the protocol

What success looks like:

By the first month:

* Select a developer to head the project

* Complete the full spec

* Select a second developer

Begin work on core functionalities

* By the 3rd month:

* Basic functionalities of the DoubleDAO mothership

* Basic template mix-and-match functionality

By the 6th month:

* Integrate voting mechanisms

* Integrate robust governance including token holders' rights

* Basic off-chain and ecosystem support

By the 12th month (year):

* General testing

* Audit prep

* Audit

Expected Launch:

* 4th quarter 2022