Evaluating Decentralized Governance with Metagov

Addressing Cross-Chain Governance and Assessing Innovative Solutions

Introduction

Decentralized governance in the Web3 ecosystem ensures transparent and inclusive decision-making without a central authority, fostering participant involvement, community trust, and adaptability.

Organizations like Metagov, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, drive research efforts to enhance these practices, overseeing projects such as DAOstar and the Grant Innovation Lab.

DAOstar is a standards body (organization) for DAOs. They work on a range of public infrastructure and standards for improving the interoperability of DAOs. DAOstar also leads the development and advocacy of EIP-4824, which expounds on a common interface (API) for DAOs. The DAO metadata standard attempts to enhance onchain information availability of governance contracts, facilitating seamless interactions with existing and future DAO tools.

The Grant Innovation Lab is a team at Metagov aimed at improving grant programs within and beyond the Web3 ecosystem. It focuses on optimizing grant issuance and management processes through research, technical development, and community engagement. The lab plans to collaborate with organizations interested in enhancing grant operations and open-source infrastructure development.

These initiatives underscore the role of innovative governance practices in driving the sustainability and growth of Web3 ecosystems, emphasizing the need for effective governance frameworks to support decentralized technologies and communities in the space, enabling transparent decision-making, conflict resolution, and sustainable growth.

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Metagov: Focus on Internet Governance

Metagov was established in 2020 following the collaborative work on: "Modular Politics: Toward a Governance Layer for Online Communities", which outlines a strategy to address governance challenges.

Focusing their research on broad digital communities enables the organization to explore specific governance dynamics within Web3 and open-source software. They also explore how to design and manage governance structures within these domains.

Current research addresses the challenge of cross-chain governance and alternatives to delegated governance. The organization has around 14 research directors and over 1000 participants, including students, faculty, and practitioners involved in governance development and research.

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Web3 Grants Summit

Hosted by Metagov at the Gitcoin house in Denver, the summit aimed to enhance support for grantees and grantors in the space. Stakeholders from various blockchain platforms attended to strategize on improving grant programs. Key points included direct engagement with grantees, creating collaborative environments for networking and resource-sharing, and exploring innovative models like grant accelerator programs. The Grants Summit emphasized impact measurement and cross-ecosystem collaboration to optimize resource allocation within the Web3 community.

Refer to the Takeaways of the Web3 Grants Summit report for more details.

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Challenges in Meta-Governance

According to Eugene Leventhal, Executive Director of Metagov, their research addresses challenges in cross-chain governance, specifically in coordinating decision-making across heterogeneous platforms. This often leads to dissatisfaction and apathy with current delegation methods in decentralized governance.

Despite these challenges, there is a strong commitment within the Meta-Governance community for continuous improvement and innovation. Stakeholders recognize that current governance frameworks are still evolving, prompting efforts to explore new methods and tools to enhance governance practices in the rapidly changing landscape.

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ENS DAO x Metagov

The Public Goods Working Group awarded Metagov a 40k USDC grant from its Large Grants initiative.

The grant to DAOstar funds research on EIP-4824 and its impact on DAO ecosystems. It aims to improve UX by publishing a 'daoURI' text record to adopt the EIP-4824 standard. Refer to the DAOIP-6 Specification for more information. This document, along with a detailed research report, will soon be presented to the ENS community for their feedback.

Metagov's future plans involve establishing a consortia through the Grant Innovation Lab, inspired by models like the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), to operate as a member-run organization with each member representing a grant program. During this growth phase, Metagov will enhance its operations and establish robust structures to support decentralized research efforts.

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About ENS DAO Grants

The Large Grants opportunity from the Public Goods Working Group awards up to 50k USDC to applicable Ethereum or Web3 Public Goods. This grant aims to provide a pathway for foundational Public Goods in the Ethereum or Web3 ecosystems to request more significant funding from the Public Goods working group. Foundational Public Goods in the context of this grant have exceptional usefulness or an established record of making an impact for users or developers.

To learn more, visit the ENS DAO Forum and make sure to follow ENS DAO for notifications of when the next Large Grants opportunity will begin.

Leticia researches foundational ethereum open source infrastructure and related public good initiatives—she is the writer of the series on Highlighting Public Goods Grantees.