Abstract
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (aka ‘DAO’) have been a hot topic over the last few years, growing alongside the meteoric rise of the overall cryptocurrency industry. Efficacy of DAOs, however, has been another side of the coin hotly debated. A fine balance between efficient governance and holistic governance needs to be struck for the organization as a whole, to fulfill its function of effective governance and ensuring long-term success.
The innate dilemma within a DAO as seen today is that there is a natural discussion between (1) the founders & builders working on the protocol and (2) the overall community supporting the project as to what direction to take when there is a conflict of interest. This is largely due to people focusing on their own benefits as a top priority, instead of acting upon the long-term interest of the overall community and team. There are many examples of such behavior which will be elaborated and examined in the future.
As such, TranchessDAO will be initiating an empowerment initiative for the overall community to both improve governance structures, overall efficacy and align incentives for both protocol and community called the “Tranchess Community Council”.
Tranchess Community Council Structure
Structure
There will be three main bodies involved in the new TranchessDAO structure:
- The Core Tranchess Team
- Tranchess Community Council
- Overall Tranchess Community
Each of the 3 main bodies will have the ability to vote on proposals, however only the Tranchess Core Team and the TCC are able to write new proposals.
Selection of TCC Members
The Tranchess Community along with the Tranchess Core Team will vote to elect suitable members of the TCC. The ‘pool’ of potential TCC members will be from the Tranchess Troopers of the Month group, currently consisting of ~25 members.
- The Tranchess Troopers of the Month initiative is a monthly award given out to 3 exemplary members of the Tranchess community. These individuals can be viewed as a more ‘groomed’ representation of the Tranchess community. Over time, they have proven they are capable of long-term developmental analysis, commitment to Tranchess and the Tranchess community, and each have their own skill-set with particular areas of expertise.
Members will also be nominated based on their affiliation, skills, and familiarity on certain chains, i.e. we want the TCC to encompass the Tranchess community across blockchains and beyond.
There will be a total of 6 TCC members, with re-selection of the TCC members occuring every quarter.
A quarter provides enough time for users to acclimate and impact on the community.
Initial selection of the TCC members will be done via 2 steps:
- Each member interested in becoming a TCC member will be required to input in just a few key words their key strengths as well as which country/region in the world they are. These few key facts should help provide a high level background. Key words can also include what their vision is on how they want to contribute to the TCC. Activity over recent months will be taken into account as well and shared
- There will be an anonymous survey where the TotM will vote on their top 6 choices for the TCC members.
Incentives for the TCC Members
Communication and Development Alongside Tranchess Core Team
- They will have multiple channels of communication set up to directly liaise their ideas and thoughts with the Tranchess team
- As the Tranchess Core team gets to know the members of the TCC, there can be potential opportunities for the team to introduce them to other Web3 entities for future career opportunities or collaborations
Set Quarterly Airdrops
- This will be provided via the form of airdrops
- Total budget allocated to this will be $8,000 USD in CHESS and airdrop style & amounts will be determined at a later stage
- Payment is voted upon and determined on a quarterly basis
- [The first quarter will be a trial phase, so payments will begin post-Q1]
Main Functions of the Tranchess Council
- Representing the Community through Proposals, advisory to Tranchess Core team, relaying feedback & thoughts from Community, and relaying feedback during TCC meetings.
- General advising of the Tranchess Team based on personal expertise & view
- Balancing the needs of the community with the longevity and long-term success of Tranchess
- Active management and engagement of discussion with community through participation in AMAs, fireside chats, community events, and more.
Implementation
TCC will be rolled out gradually over a period of time (~6 months, 2 quarters). This is done to ensure gradual empowerment of the TCC in general and to ensure continuous flexibility and room to develop for the Tranchess Core team. There are multiple risk factors that need to be accounted for as this is a pioneering initiative with many unexplored areas. There is a gradual empowerment process highlighted in the graphic on the right.
Bi-weekly meetings will be held for updates, discussions and feedback.
The Value of TranchessDAO and the TCC
How does this differ to current DAO governance?
How current DAOs work is that anyone with any tokens is able to vote. This makes it less efficient as people always will keep their own short term interest in mind, causing an innate conflict between long term development of the protocol and short term benefits of stakeholders.
What the Tranchess Council will introduce is an additional layer of filtering where the wider community can provide their long term developmental suggestions and proposals via the TCC and their proposals, but the best interest of the protocol is still kept in mind via a balanced approach
How TCC and TranchessDAO allows for multichain DAO Governance?
Currently, Multichain governance is difficult given users are not able to vote on a single proposal across chains. This makes it difficult for one overall community to be effectively represented, as usually the chain with the largest TVL will play the major role in overall governance.
How TranchessDAO handles this is via 2 key functionalities:
1. Tranchess allows for a multichain governance environment utilizing our own native cross-chain bridge (powered by Multichain). This allows users to bridge their locked and unlocked CHESS across chains, so they can move freely. This gives users full control over their own preferred governance priorities, so they can vote on the chains and proposal they are interested in.
2. TCC introduces another aspect where the TCC will consist of members from multiple chains. Each members will have their own priority centered around a certain chain. This way, proposals provided by the TCC will be well-rounded to cover multiple chains and voting will happen across chains on Snapshot.
