nounsintern

NounsDAO is one of the most oft-cited example of a DAO that works. However, there is opportunity to improve its governance. These governance improvements could be exported to the broader web3 ecosystem, aiding in the DAO's mission of proliferating Nouns.

Below are a list of categories (in alphabetical order) for governance experiments that I am interested in seeing. These categories are inspired by the discussions with the community and the recently conducted governance survey.

Better ROI

Given the early stage of the project, we have focused mostly on attracting talent to the DAO so we can fund them. As we mature, it will be important that we are allocating those funds intelligently.

Themes in this category include

• Retrospective analysis of funded proposals
• Mechanisms to enforce accountability
• Establishing best practices
• Improving the diligence process
• Rewarding outsized contributions

Lower governance overhead

Participating in NounsDAO governance is time consuming. Without improvements to the efficiency of the governance process, it will only take more time as DAO membership and proposal volume increases. Experiments that reduce the cost to make each decision will allow the DAO to scale.

Themes in this category include

• Delegating categories of decisions to core units
• Establishing institutional knowledge and best practices
• Automating funding decisions with governance utilities (like Prop House)

More and better proposals

NounsDAO has funded nearly 100 proposals in less than a year, but there remains high friction to attract and onboard proposers. There are ample opportunities to make the proposal process easier to use and provide resources to increase the likelihood that proposals pass.

Themes in this category include

• Proposal templates and best practices
• Video proposals and live pitches
• Requests for proposals
• Incentivized lead generation

More vote turnout

At around 13% voter turnout, the DAO has a lot of room to increase voter participation either directly or through delegation.

Themes in this category include

• More delegation
• More communication to voters and delegates
• Compensation for voting and delegation

On-chain sentiment

While on-chain proposals that transfer funds are at the core of NounsDAO governance, the majority of the DAO's time is spent in off-chain alignment. However, we lack ways to establish institutional knowledge that is viewed as credible by the community. Establishing on-chain sentiment would solve this problem if sufficiently adopted.

Themes in this category include:

• Token weighted sentiment polling
• Publish perspectives signed by DAO votes

Voter education

NounsDAO decision making is at its worst when there's a knowledge gap. That gap can be either lack of awareness or lack of expertise. Improving knowledge will lead to more engagement and better decision making.

Themes in this category include

• Reliable and comprehensive news media
• A comprehensive voter dashboard
• Open channels of communication to voters and delegates