Citizenship is a key part of open and democratic systems. By being thoughtful about how little we restrict participation in governance, we can create within those boundaries a system that is MORE open. We’ve written a blog post about this here.
We propose that POKT DAO enshrine Citizenship as a pre-cursor to any governance power. Only when people understand and are aligned with the mission and values of our organisation, and knowledgeable in the mechanics of how our DAO and governance operate in driving towards our future vision, should they be entitled to participate in that system.
This is an important step in designing a system that is owned and governed by it’s users, and also happens to be an excellent way to onboard people into our community.
Technical Requirements:
We propose that Citizenship is attained by completing two quests which prove knowledge of, and alignment with, our Mission, Vision, Values (DNA) and DAO & Governance mechanisms.
- The DNA quest - A credential attained by understanding and committing to uphold the purpose, vision and values of Pocket
- The DAO quest - A credential attained by understanding the governance, grants, impact and operations of our DAO
Upon completion of these quests the user receives the Citizenship credential. This credential will enfranchise this person as a DAO Voter in the Citizen House, a 1 person 1 vote house which we propose has exactly 10% of total voting power in the DAO. The value of any one Citizen’s voting power in the Citizen House would be inversely proportional to how many Citizens are in the house. That is to say that the total voting power of all Citizens can never be more (or less) than 10% of total voting power.
Technical Specification
The specification for these requirement is as follows:
1. The Quest platform
MyGateway will be the verified credentials provider for all credentials in our governance upgrade. Each DAO voter would sign up to mygateway and receive a Gateway ID. This ID will link relevant wallets to a unique identifier which holds the individual credentials.
Credentials are created on the platform mygateway.xyz and are presented to users for completion on the sister site tryodyssey.xyz .
2. Quest Format
Quests are a combination of readings, quizzes and activities (TASKS) to demonstrate alignment and knowledge with the stated goals of the governance system. They replicate (somewhat) the format of previous governance quests, in a process that is primarily automated via mygateway.xyz.
Upon successful completion of quests, a credential is provided to the users POKT or EVM wallet. Completion of quests and credentials enable voting power in the new governance houses (more detail provided in subsequent specifications).
3. Citizen Quests
The DNA Quest: Alignment with our Mission, Vision and Values
Description:
POKT DNA is what defines the POKT Network and our shared commitments as part of this community. It is a keystone credential in our governance system, alongside the DAO Cred that unlocks your Citizenship, and the ability to vote on proposals.
Tasks:
- Understand POKT’s DNA
- Understand Sovereign Crypto Networks
- Understand POKT’s Mission & the RPC Trilemma
- Understand POKT’s Vision and our Values as an Open Organization
- Commit to represent and uphold the POKT DNA (Not upholding the Pocket DNA and being a good steward of the project can result in losing your governance power)
Artifact:
Upon completion of the DNA Quest, the user will receive the DNA Credential
The DAO Quest: Understanding How We Operate
Description:
We learn more about our governance, ecosystem funding, DAO operations and how POKT thinks about their systems. After completing this Cred, you’ll understand how you can participate in our ecosystem via mechanism like POPs and sockets, understand your responsibilities as a DAO voter, and if you’ve got the DNA cred, be able to vote in the Citizen’s house.
Tasks:
- Understand the Operating System of the POKT DAO
- Understand the Ecosystem Thesis and our stated Ambitions
- Understand the Era mechanism, including Cycles, the Budget and Era Allocation
- Understands the ethos of Pocket’s Governance, including Proof of Participation, Modular Governance and 3D Governance
- Understand the Paths to Community Participation, including Grants, RFPs and other funding mechanisms
- Understand Proposals (PIP/PEP/PUP) including how to prepare them, requirements for acceptance as well as proposer expectations
- Understanding Impact, including the Impact Scorecard and how we allocate resources in priority to what drives the project forward
- Understand our voting technology (currently Snapshot) and how to vote in the POKT DAO
- Commit to represent and uphold the POKT Governance system in your actions as a voter (Not participating in Governance can result in loss of governance power)
Artifact:
Upon completion of the DAO Quest, the user will receive the DAO Credential
4. The Citizens Credential
The Citizens Cred: 1 Vote in our Citizens House
Description:
Citizens are voters in the Citizen’s House of POKT DAO. They are the voting block that represents the full breadth of our community. Anyone who commits to and upholds our POKT DNA and understands the role of our DAO Governance system can become a Citizen.
Citizenship is a requirement to have governance power in all governance voting houses. All Builders and Stakers must also be Citizen’s to vote in the DAO. The Citizens house will maintain the same voting system as our current Pocket governance - 1 person 1 vote.
Tasks:
- Complete the
CITIZENS QUEST - Complete the
DAO QUEST
Artifact:
Upon completion of the DNA Quest AND the DAO Quest, the user will receive the Citizenship via the Citizen Credential and become a voter in POKT DAO
5. Meta-governance
The parameters for the Citizen Quests, the Credentials, and the subsequent voting power in the Citizen’s House shall all reside with the broader Meta-governance mechanism selected by the DAO. Details of this meta-governance will be provided in a later proposal.
To be clear, this will provide the ability for governance to be dynamic, as stated in the original vision document for 3D Governance.
To give just one example, we are already working on an Onboarding Credential that ensures anyone entering the POKT DAO has the ability to start participating and driving impact on Day 1 of becoming a Citizen.
6. Trade-offs and risk mitigation
Our ambition to create a permissionless, yet restricted, entry to participating in POKT DAO does create some nuanced considerations about risks and capture. We have thought on these deeply and wish to share our logic here so that it can be further tested.
- Citizenship is a 1 person 1 vote system with exactly 10% of total voting power. Whether there is 10 citizens, 1000 citizens, or 1M citizens (dare to dream) the total voting power will always equal 10%
- The Citizen’s house therefore encourages broad representation of all the stakeholders and participants in Pocket, without ever giving this group alone the majority voting power in the DAO. The more highly permissioned houses like the Builder and Staker House will ensure that the majority of power in the DAO resides with engaged users who are driving impact and have the most at stake
- Citizenship, in the context of the broader system, is unlikely to be botted in a way that can impact the integrity of the citizens house. Citizenship voting power still relies on having a valid Gitcoin Passport as a proof of personhood, all citizens complete involved quests (across multiple platforms), and mygateway.xyz use anti-bot mechanisms like CAPTCHA within the quest architecture itself
- The meta-governance mechanism will have the ability to evolve requirements for maintaining integrity of the system
The above expresses the desired direction for the use of Citizenship in POKT DAO. We are happy to provide further information or documentation related to the technical implementation as needed. Please don’t be shy in letting us know what you need.
Many thanks, PNF
