How BottoDAO manages Botto
Botto as an artist is managed by BottoDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that is governed collectively by its members. BottoDAO consistently strives toward true decentralization in its governing process, and a number of processes have been employed to allow for participation and collaboration among the entire Botto community.
Together, the members (or stewards) of BottoDAO vote on Botto’s art, discuss, propose, and vote on governance proposals, and actively collaborate on the marketing and branding of the project. While the idea of DAO governance is still in relative infancy, BottoDAO has demonstrated effectiveness and adaptability since its founding in Q3 of 2021.
Governance of Botto is a living and evolving process that always aims to maximize the participation and engagement of our community. In the same way that Botto’s Art Engine is always improving thanks to the efforts of voters, governance has been growing and improving over time thanks to all participants.
The DAO has two main responsibilities:
Governance and Participation:
To allow DAO members to discuss the project, propose changes, and vote on those proposals.
Curation and Progression:
To curate Botto’s art and advance its capabilities over time.
The following outlines what BottoDAO does with these responsibilities:
Decision-Making: Governance provides a structured process for making decisions that affect the DAO and its underlying protocol or project. This includes changes to the protocol, updates to the governance framework itself, treasury management, and strategic direction. Governance ensures that decisions reflect the community's will.
Community Engagement: The governance process encourages active participation from the community. By involving members in discussions, proposal formations, and voting, it fosters a sense of ownership and engagement among participants. This engagement is crucial for the DAO's health and success, as it relies on the collective input and collaboration of its members.
Transparency and Accountability: Governance mechanisms are designed to be transparent, ensuring that all actions and decisions are visible to the entire community. This transparency builds trust among participants and holds proposal owners and decision-makers accountable for their actions and outcomes.
Flexibility and Adaptation: Through governance, BottoDAO can adapt to new challenges, opportunities, and technological advancements. Proposals can introduce new features, adjust existing mechanisms, or pivot the project's direction in response to the evolving blockchain ecosystem and the DAO's needs.
Resource Allocation: Governance plays a critical role in determining how the DAO's resources are allocated. This includes funding for projects, grants, partnerships, and other financial decisions critical to the DAO's growth and sustainability.
Quality Control and Improvement: The proposal and voting process allows the community to weigh in on the quality of the art pieces generated, features of the platform, and overall project direction. This collective scrutiny helps maintain high standards and continuous improvement in the DAO's outputs.
BottoDAO’s Governance Process
All of BottoDAO’s governance decisions are conducted through a process that begins with initial proposal discussion, and moves on to periods of formal proposals, review and deliberation, and a final vote to determine if the proposal becomes adopted.
The following provides further detail in each step of the DAO’s governance process.
Step 1: Initial Proposal Discussion in the Botto Discord
BottoDAO governance is conducted on the community’s Discord server. Here, the community shares their ideas and discusses ongoing topics related to how Botto is managed. In the Discord, DAO members can share ideas of how to improve the project’s various processes, from technical aspects of the project, to its marketing and branding, creative development, financial structure, and more.
All are welcome to participate in brainstorming and discussion of potential protocol improvements. Before any formal proposal is submitted, community discussion takes place. The #governance-discussion channel is used for for general governance, and the #artist-management channel for art-related governance.
Governance ideas that advance in discussion are formalized as Botto Improvement Proposals (BIPs)
Step 2: Writing a formal Botto Improvement Proposal (BIP)
The governance channel is the best place to get feedback on your idea and refine it further. However, in order for an idea to move forward towards implementation, it is necessary to formalize it as a proposal in the Botto Forum. Proposals are set forward first by following the proposal template in order to allow for a clear and succinct presentation for the DAO to consider.
It is generally good practice to reach out to one of the core team members or other DAO members in order to get some initial feedback prior to submitting a proposal.
Step 3: Proposal Review by Governance Moderators
When a proposal writer believes their proposal is ready for a vote, they can share it in #governance-topics channel and tag one of the Governance Moderators for a review. (e.g., @choobie or @hudsonsims).
The governance moderators are allocated up to 72 hours to conduct their evaluation and provide response.
During review, the moderators will:
- Ensure the proposal aligns with the required template and offer suggestions for any necessary adjustments.
- Pose questions to the relevant team members if additional information from the core team is needed.
- Recommend modifications to better reflect the ongoing discussions, while noting that the drafter is not obliged to agree with every discussion point. However, differing opinions should be documented in the “Cons” section of the template.
Following review, the governance moderators will publicly suggest any changes in the #governance-discussion or #governance-topics channels as applicable. The team will then deliberate on these suggestions and request an updated submission.
Upon completion of the proposal, the governance moderators will proceed to:
- Assign a BIP (Botto Improvement Proposal) number.
- Encourage the proposer to post it on forum.botto.com.
- Add appropriate tags to the proposal.
- Announce the finalized proposal in the #forum-proposals channel to allow DAO members to provide feedback on the Forum.
This process ensures a thorough and transparent review, fostering constructive discussions and enhancing proposal quality.
Step 4: Final Deliberation on the Forum (7 Days)
The announcement in the #forum-proposals channel signifies the commencement of a seven-day discussion period. This is the crucial phase for in-depth debate about the proposal and its implementation specifics.
Proponents are encouraged to respond to feedback and critiques during this period. They should either integrate this feedback into the final version of the proposal or acknowledge it in the "Cons" section of the template.
The team will issue 48–hour reminders before the end of the discussion period. If there is a lack of clear consensus, or if new, significant comments are still being posted, the governance moderators may opt to extend this discussion window as necessary.
After the discussion period concludes, the governance moderators and the proponent will mutually decide on a suitable date and time within the following week to initiate the Snapshot vote. Additionally, they will collaborate on a summary to be posted on the Snapshot website, ensuring clarity and comprehensive understanding of the proposal for all voters.
Step 5: Snapshot Vote (72 hours)
After the conclusion of the deliberation phase, the team will lock the forum proposal. This action ensures that no additional information can be appended once the Snapshot vote has been initiated.
The voting system is managed by administrators from both the Gnosis and the original treasury on the Snapshot platform. The launch of the vote, along with the agreed-upon summary, will be communicated through multiple channels.
It is important to note that Botto governance only allows for participation by Botto token holders who meet the following eligibility criteria:
1. Hold at least 1 $BOTTO staked in the Governance contract.
OR
2. Hold least 1 BOTTO-ETH LP share staked in the Liquidity Mining contract.
Further Information:
- A mere balance of $BOTTO in one's wallet does not qualify for voting rights.
- The influence of a member's vote is directly proportional to the amount of $BOTTO they have staked in governance or liquidity mining contracts.
- A quorum threshold has been established at 500,000 $BOTTO. Votes are only deemed valid if this quorum is met.
- For a proposal to pass, it must achieve a supermajority of two-thirds, equivalent to 66.66% of the total votes cast.
- This structured voting procedure ensures a fair and representative decision-making process, reflecting the active participation and investment of the DAO members in the project.
Final Remarks
As we’ve seen many times over in human history, it is not just a singular moment in time that decides the future, but a coalescence of different threads that combine to produce a completely new emergent phenomenon.
Botto is the first AI artist governed by a human community, and relies on Web3 incentive frameworks to be governed effectively. As such, this is only the beginning of an exciting journey of growth and discovery. As a result of BottoDAO’s governance model, Botto will continue to be as organic and fluid as the ongoing dance between nature and technology.
Please join us on Discord and forums and let us together be part of this evolution.
Further Reading & Resources
To learn more about getting involved in BottoDAO, join our Discord and forums
Discord:
https://discord.gg/botto
Governance Forum:
https://forum.botto.com/
Blog:
https://www.botto.com/digest
To learn more about governance, consult the following documentation
Docs:
https://docs.botto.com/details/governance
Botto Governance Updated (Mar ‘22):
https://medium.com/@iambotto/governance-retrospective-and-update-to-v2-0-82a8e761e45b
Botto BIP Template:
https://forum.botto.com/d/8-use-botto-proposal-template
Botto 101 Continued
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