Hey dxDAO’ers & friends, I’m looking for some feedback on a potential proposal / business idea for the DAO:
Background
The excesses and incentive failures of the ICO phase have led to the realization that blockchain projects need ways to both accountably and sustainably fundraise. The continuous organization / fairmint model used by the dxDAO is a significant step in the right direction.
The successful launch of the dxDAO continuous fundraiser was a historic moment for DAOs, demonstrating that a truly decentralized, blockchain-native organization can fundraise using the innovative mechanics of continuous organizations.
This model offers a number of interesting advantages:
- Members can focus on building, not fundraising
- Community members can get a genuine stake in the organization
- The organization does not give away governance rights to investors, unless it wishes
- Open access to investment (within existing legal limits)
What is dxRaise?
The vision of dxRaise is for the dxDAO to be an investment bank of the future - facilitating a new world of orgs which manifest the ideological underpinnings of decentralization, transparency, and fairness.
It’s essentially a two-fold proposal:
- Help other organizations we like setup and run OpenRaises of their own, with compensation to the DAO via fees.
- Build a listing platform for OpenRaises, curated by the dxDAO. Approved projects will be able to list their fundraising campaigns here, and users will be able to invest.
A few analogies to consider:
“Kickstarter for DAOs”
“Decentralized Fairmint”
“Gitcoin grants for fundraising”
In light of the general zeitgeist, the possibility of transparency, access, and fair distribution seems especially poignant:
- Large & growing wealth inequality
- Worker disillusionment with the reality of the gig economy
- Value of data accruing to a few entities
- Low trust in institutions
Proposal (Draft)
The first steps are taking what was learned from the dxDAO fundraise to improve the OpenRaise UI and explanations of it’s mechanics. After some polishing, marketing operations would be put in place to generate awareness, and reach out to quality teams that may be interested. Teams would be supported in developing their own raises, initially without a platform.
The next phase would be building out the fundraising platform to list approved projects. Approval of projects would be handled via the dxDAO consensus mechanism.
dOrg + potentially other parties would be commissioned for the following work:
| Milestone | Details | Compensation | Estimated Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fundraising dApp 1.0 | * Show sell curve * Show best price between curve & external markets * Integrate external markets directly? * Improve explanation text * Explanatory videos of model * Remove DXD / dxDAO references in code | TBD | TBD |
| Marketing / BizDev | * Write & share dxRaise whitepaper w/ influencers * Liability release? * Design & build landing page * Write & share press releases | TBD | TBD |
| Growth & Retention | * Weekly curated DAOs email | TBD | TBD |
| dxRaise Platform | * Design and develop full dApp, using feedback and knowledge gained from previous milestones * Facilitate dxDAO approvals directly on a smart contract | TBD | TBD |
This proposal is in a draft status, and will need further thought & discussion to flesh out completely. I’m curious to see the thoughts and sentiments of the dxDAO community towards a project of this nature.
