Grant Proposal: DAOBase

Community Grant Applications
#1

Grant ID: 8686vgqdt

Summary:

Over the past period,The Graph Advocate DAO has consistently supported excellent projects and teams. As DAOs evolve, the importance of not only allocating funds but also optimizing fund allocation becomes more pronounced. Consequently, transparency and accountability play an increasingly crucial role.

As a result, we propose to collectively establish a dedicated transparency and accountability dashboard website for The Graph Advocate DAO. The tracked content on the website would include an overview of DAO data, treasury balance, governance data, voters, delegators and proposers, as well as DAO committees. This would be beneficial for:

:star2:Understanding the status of the treasury and potential optimizations.
:star2:Improved tracking of proposal progress and funded project developments.
:star2:Aggregation and data analysis of voter profiles and profiles of funded individuals.
:star2:Governance data and comparisons with other DAOs in the industry to provide data-driven optimization.

I have read and agree to the privacy policy:
true

Describe what your project does or is aiming to do in 50 characters or less:
Enhance transparency and accountability for The Graph Advocate DAO through the implementation of dashboards and reporting.

If available, please enter a link to your project below:

How far along are you?:
Our team(DAOBase) has dedicated two years to tracking and researching DAO data. We’ve successfully built our flagship product, daobase.ai, from the ground up. This platform serves as a DAO aggregator, currently encompassing over 100,000 DAOs and 3 million voter data entries, making it the largest DAO database in the current landscape.

Additionally, we have established collaborations with various DAOs such as MakerDAO, ApecoinDAO, MeebitsDAO, BanklessDAO, and Yearn.Finance.

Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you’re making?:
We chose to specialize in the accountability sector because of our expertise and capability to address its unique challenges.

Proof of Professionalism👇
:computer:Product: https://daobase.ai/
:1234:Dune Dashboards: https://dune.com/thepass
:open_book:Research: https://medium.com/@daobase_ai
:thinking:Transparency Report Example: DAO BASE — DAO Aggregator

Additionally, given that DAO supervision and management are still in their early stages, there are relatively few teams deeply committed to this sector, providing an opportunity for emerging teams like ours to showcase our capabilities.

Furthermore, we conducted research on our DAO partners (200 samples). Over 90% of mature DAOs consider transparency and accountability crucial, with more than 80% of DAOs across all types recognizing their significance. Therefore, we believe this will become a standard feature for DAOs.

What’s new about what you’re making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn’t exist yet (or they don’t know about it)?:
I believe what we are working on is in the early stages of the industry, so the attention might not be as high yet. Some DAOs have identified this issue, but currently, there are no widely adopted or standardized products and teams dedicated to this matter in the market. Therefore, they often rely on internal talent within the DAO for data and reporting. However, we believe that with the same cost, a high-quality third party can deliver a more excellent and professional solution. This is also the essence of DAO, bringing in more talent to serve the project

What’s your vision for how your project will impact The Graph and/or web3?:

  1. We believe that as The Graph allocates funds, monitoring the effectiveness and delivery of these expenditures becomes increasingly crucial. This is a pivotal aspect of DAO governance, and the expertise of the DAOBase team can assist The Graph in optimizing governance and fund management efficiency.

  2. With the launch of our transparency and accountability platform, we can oversee project and proposal details, thereby better incentivizing outstanding contributors.

  3. In DAOs, it seems like numerous events unfold daily. Data dashboards and reports of this nature will help lower the entry barriers for newcomers, thereby aiding in attracting more talent to the DAO.

How will you measure success?:

  1. To complete the transparency and accountability website, featuring:

:star2:DAO fundamental data analysis metrics (Basic information/Treasury/Governance/Users).
:star2:Proposal tracking and analysis.
:star2:Voter and delegator analysis and tracking.
:star2:Project archive tracking and analysis.
:star2:Proposer archive tracking and analysis.

  1. To complete transparency reports *2 (monthly).

What milestones will you achieve in the coming weeks/months, with or without the grant?:
We have outlined our development plans and schedule for the next two months in the following document: The Graph Advocates DAO Development Timeline - Google Tabellen

Please select who you think will benefit from your project?:
Other

How much funding are you looking for? (USD):
10000

Provide a breakdown of your requested funding:
Below is our development plan, including the individuals involved, schedule, and development budget usage. With this grant, our primary objective is to conduct in-depth exploration of DAO data and enhance the transparency and accountability of the DAO. You can find more details in our spreadsheet:

Have you applied for (or already received) funding from somewhere else?:
Yes

If yes, please describe where you’ve received funding from and how much you have, or will, receive:
DAOBase is backed by VC, and besides that funding, we have received some grants and rewards from other ecosystems:

Alibaba & ChainIDE Hackathon Gold Winner: $5k
Tezos Grant: $10k
Gitcoin G19: ~$2k

Can you share any information about current/past web3 experience?:
Proof of DAO Work :muscle:

:star2:Aggregated data from over 133k DAOs and 3.7million voters, making it the largest DAO database to date.
:star2:Integrated 20+ governance platforms, including Aragon, Molonch DAO, MakerDAO governance, OpenZepplin, Nouns Build, Compound governance, Snapshot, KyberDAO, AAVE, Syndicate, and more.
:star2:Forged over 200 new partnerships with verified DAOs.
:star2:Notable partnerships include MakerDAO, ApecoinDAO, BanklessDAO, KyerDAO, MeebitsDAO, and others.
:star2:Research Examples​:point_down::
:open_book:Exploring Aragon: Pioneering DAO Infrastructure Enabling Comprehensive Governance:https://medium.com/@daobase_ai/exploring-aragon-pioneering-dao-infrastructure-enabling-comprehensive-governance-ce35d57fe2c
:open_book:Exploring DAO Governance: An Empirical Study on Snapshot: https://medium.com/@daobase_ai/exploring-dao-governance-a-empirical-study-on-snapshot-2a1084e54471

Why are you interested in contributing to The Graph and/or web3?:
I am interested in contributing to The Graph DAO for two main reasons. Firstly, The Graph project itself is compelling. Its innovation and technical depth make it a field I want to immerse myself in. Secondly, I appreciate the positive atmosphere of The Graph DAO. The collaborative and open spirit of this community is an ideal environment for collaboration. Both aspects together ignite my enthusiasm to contribute to this ecosystem.

Are you applying as a team or individual?:
Team

What type of grant are you pursuing?:
Project (one-off)

Please select the category your project best fits into:
Dashboards & Analytics




Primary Community Poll

Do you fundamentally support this grant application, knowing that the final scope and grant amount may differ from the requested proposal?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters




Grant Committee Vote

Do you recommend this grant to the DAO?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

3 Likes
#2

Hello, thanks for submitting such a detailed application!

After reviewing your application I have three initial questions:

  • Can you provide a detailed breakdown of the funding request of $10k?
  • Can provide details on what specifically the partnerships with MakerDAO, BanklessDAO, etc consisted of
  • What information would you need from the DAO to complete your projects?

Thanks again! Looking forward to your response.

2 Likes
#3

Hi there! Thank you for the response! And here are my answers, hoping they address your questions!

  1. Absolutely! Here’s the breakdown of the funding request: The Graph Advocates DAO Development Timeline - Google Tabellen

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It’s primarily for developing an exclusive accountability website for The Graph Advocate DAO.

  1. Our collaborations with MakerDAO, BanklessDAO, etc are focused on building their verified DAO profiles. Here are some references:
  1. I’ve provided a more detailed idea description here: Proposal for The Graph Advocate DAO Transparency Dashboard

Basically, we require essential information about the DAO, including its introduction, social details, onboarding documentation, precise treasury address, governance framework, relevant links, and board member relationships within the DAO.

The most challenging work for us lies in organizing proposal data, including funded projects, project categorization, project analysis, project completion and fund disbursement statuses, on-chain and real-world funding tagging, proposer and project relationships, and voter and delegator analyses, etc.

1 Like
#4

We believe The Graph is a pioneer in the DAO space. While spending funds, establishing financial accountability is crucial！We are looking forward to contributing to The Graph DAO with our professional skills and introducing new talent pools to the DAO.

A more detailed idea description, pls check it here: Proposal for The Graph Advocate DAO Transparency Dashboard

1 Like
#5

Hey!

Thank you for the time and for your effort!

So I have some questions regarding this proposal:

  • Can you elaborate on the specific expertise and experience of your team members in developing DAO-related data platforms?
  • What key performance indicators (KPIs) will you use to measure the success and impact of the transparency and accountability dashboard on The Graph Advocate DAO?
  • What is the estimated timeline for the completion of the initial version of the dashboard? Are there any major milestones in the development process?
  • How will you ensure the privacy and security of the data collected and displayed on the dashboard?
  • What are your plans for making the dashboard user-friendly and accessible to a diverse range of users with varying levels of technical expertise?
  • How does your proposed solution differ from or improve upon existing transparency and accountability tools used by other DAOs?
  • Beyond the initial launch, what are your long-term plans for maintaining and updating the dashboard?

Wish you good luck and thank you!

3 Likes
#6

Greetings @Mialalala!

We want to see some answers to the questions, so we can go on the next stage!

Thank you!

2 Likes
#7

overview of DAO data, treasury balance, governance data, voters, delegators and proposers, as well as DAO committees.

Just curious to know the source of this data. How do you plan to obtain it—through a subgraph, API, or any another method?

#8

Thank you very much for your questions! Those are fantastic ones! We sincerely apologize for the delay in responding; we happened to be on vacation and being a bit slow there. We truly appreciate the community’s patience and understanding! And here are what we thought:

  1. Our team possesses extensive expertise in the DAO space. Over the past two years, we’ve built the current leading DAO aggregator, consolidating data from over 100,000 DAOs and more than 6 million voters for analysis. We’ve created data dashboards and processing tools for various governance protocols, including Snapshot, Aragon, Safe, Syndicate, among others. Additionally, we’ve provided community transparency and governance reports for ApecoinDAO. Our team members actively participate in the governance of Nouns DAO, GnarsDAO, Aavegotchi DAO, BanklessDAO, and more.

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  1. That’s a great question! Several factors determine the effectiveness of such a data dashboard for DAOs:
  • Frequency of updates on project funding progress and team communication.
  • Optimization and savings achieved with grant funds, including governance direction recommendations.
  • Increase in proposal submissions and proposers’ engagement through incentives and recognition.
  1. We anticipate completing this data dashboard in two months. Key milestones are detailed here: [Link to Google Spreadsheet].
  • Product Design + Project Research
  • UI Design
  • Data Parsing and Backend Development
  • Data Analysis
  • Frontend Development
  • Report Content Writing
  • Design Beautification
  • Report Output
  • Backend Development and Debugging
  • Complete Testing
  • Server Preparation

  1. Currently, we default to making all data publicly transparent to the community. However, we welcome feedback from the community and teams on whether data should be token-gated or subjected to other restrictions.

  2. An excellent question and a great reminder:

  • We can draft an article on transparency and accountability to inform everyone of the purpose, importance, and usage.
  • Develop a tutorial video providing a walkthrough of the entire platform.
  • Organize a Twitter Space event post-product launch for community governance discussions and introductions.
  1. Presently, there aren’t many competitors. Examples include Curio, which builds transparency dashboards, and Steakhouse, which provides reports. While these platforms offer transparency dashboards, Daobase’s product specifically for DAO data is already well-established and free. However, these dashboards don’t address accountability concerns.:point_down:
  • How much funding has been disbursed from the treasury to date?
  • What are the classifications of the funded projects? Which categories dominate, and is the distribution balanced?
  • Currently, what projects have received total funding? Who are the contributors, and how are they associated with specific projects?
  • What are the updates and progress for the projects we have funded?
  • Are there more individual proposers, or is there a rising proportion of repeat proposers?
  • On average, how much funding does an individual proposer receive, and what is the average completion period for projects?
  • Who are the current delegators, and how can we identify them?
  • Which contributors stand out as exceptional, and should they be rewarded additionally?
  • With the increasing number of funding rounds and rewards, is there an improvement in user governance data?
  • In comparison to other DAOs, what is the current level of treasury expenditure and governance data?

Our solution goes beyond providing basic data; we aim to establish a “Proposal Repository, Project Repository, and User Repository” to truly help everyone understand the current use of funds and provide data support for optimizing governance solutions.

  1. We won’t be requesting additional fees later on to maintain, as the data will be automatically fetched. If we receive signals from the community for periodic reports, additional research, or major feature changes, we’ll make additional requests. Also, if the team or community wishes to take over code maintenance, we can assist in the transition.
#9

Great questions!

  1. DAO Data: The sources of DAO data primarily comprise 2 components:
  • 1.1 Platforms such as Aragon and Snapshot host a wealth of DAO information related to issuance and governance. We integrate this data into our platform by meticulously monitoring official contract logs and APIs.
  • 1.2 We have dedicated operations personnel who actively engage in various communities and social media platforms, enabling us to promptly discover new DAOs for addition to our platform.
  1. Treasury Balances: For the treasury balances of most mainstream public blockchains, we rely on data service platforms such as Alchemy and Moralis APIs. In the case of a few public blockchains, we engage in communication with official channels to obtain the corresponding balance APIs for integration.
  2. Governance, Voters, Delegates, Proposers:
  • 3.1 For on-chain governance data, we monitor governance contracts where contract records include events like proposal creation, voting, execution, etc. By meticulously monitoring these on-chain event logs, we obtain detailed information about all DAO proposals, including the initiator and users’ voting records on proposals. Regarding delegated representatives, we typically monitor the DAO’s governance token, where the token contract involves delegation methods. By closely monitoring all delegation event logs, we gain a clear understanding of which users delegated their voting power to whom.
  • 3.2 For off-chain governance, such as Snapshot, their official API provides the necessary data, and we access this information through API calls.
  1. DAO Committees: The contract of a multi-signature wallet includes methods to retrieve information about the wallet’s managing members. We can directly call these contract methods to obtain details about the members of the multi-signature wallet.

Hope those answer your questions!

In the end, we believe that a robust governance mechanism requires a accountability framework. We consider this to be a starting point and hope that The Graph can support this initiative as a DAO pioneer.

#10

As you mentioned, you will be obtaining data from Aragon, Snapshot host, and other sources. Since these are paid services, could you clarify whether you plan to maintain the project indefinitely within the grant amount you applied for or you will support for a limited period?

1 Like
#11

Thank you mate for the feedback again!

The data related to governance protocols like Aragon and Snapshot is free of charge and only requires our technical work.

However, certain tools like Alchemy may incur fees. Since our in-house team already utilizes this functionality in our flagship product, DAOBase, we consider it a small bonus and fully support it.

In summary, there have been inquiries regarding fees from other collaborators. Our commitment is as follows:

The fee for the dashboard is a one-time grant, as it is a persistent project, and we won’t impose any additional charges.

Exceptions would be:

  • Major updates to the project (in which case a new application would be submitted in the future)
  • Reporting （need go through the community again if needed）
#12

Greetings!

The presentation of the project will be in the public-voice-chat channel on the Graph AdvocatesDAO Discord server on January 30th at 10:00 UTC. Entrance is open and everyone is welcome to come in and ask their questions during the presentation!

Thanks everyone for your attention!

1 Like
#13

Thanks @doxe01.eth! We’re looking forward to meeting everyone, showcasing our ideas, and receiving valuable feedback from all.

Talk soon :heart:

#14

Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in the presentation yesterday. Witnessing the pitches from long-term contributors of The Graph Advocate DAO was truly inspiring for us as newcomers eager to contribute to the ecosystem. We believe that a vibrant DAO attracts continuous talent.

As mentioned in our presentation, our accountability system primarily covers four areas: “DAO Governance Data Integration,” “Proposal Archive,” “Project Archive,” and “Proposer Archive.”

This system is designed to assist in the following areas:
:star2: Facilitating a clearer grant and project management process.
:star2: Tracking the progress of various funded projects and individuals.
:star2: Providing data support for optimizing subsequent governance and rewarding high-quality contributors.

Here is the UI design we created for the accountability system for The Graph Advocate: UI Design

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out to us at miabao_beep.

1 Like
#15

The majority decision of the Grant Committee concludes to not recommend this proposal for DAO funding. Please recognize that this is not a statement on the proposal itself, but rather an aggregated reflection by committee members taking into account a number of factors, such as alignment to The Graph and web3 ecosystem, budget available to support grants and prioritization relative to other proposed grants.

Thank you for submitting this proposal, and you are encouraged to stay engaged in the Graph community. You are also welcome to submit new grant applications in the future with proposals that may generate stronger support from the committee.

Sincerely,
Graph AdvocatesDAO

1 Like