DAO Drops develops web3 grants tooling and conducts research to support Web3 grants managers and communities. It is a sub-project of dOrg.tech, a web3 developer DAO operating since 2019.

The purpose of this grant is to contribute to our next two open source drops that can be used by grant round operators as well as DAOs who are scaling their member base.

What DAO Drops Has Built So Far

DAO Drops V1

In 2022, we developed DAO Drops V1, a pilot to explore the power of distributing decision-making power over fund allocation based on on-chain activity. The purpose was to assist intelligent, rapid deployment of Ethereum Foundation funds, beyond their small staff.

• Voting Power Assignment: Based on three distinct on-chain data sets, providing a replicable model.

•   A playful, game-like UI to make the voting experience delightful. We received rave reviews for this piece, nearly everyone found it easy to use and fun.

•   Design thinking for long-term DAO-ification of the program

•   Stats: Distributed $250,000 in grant funding to 57 nominees. 277 voters (out of 40,000 eligible), median grant size $3,056, largest grant $18,185. Active contribution from nominees during and after the round for communications and grant design evolution.

Github

Pair Drop

To increase fairness in evaluation and further reduce popularity biases, we built an adaptation of DAO Drops that uses pairwise comparison voting. It is available as a forkable app here: https://github.com/dOrgTech/PairDrop

•   Dynamic Voter Points: Distributed via a script that scrapes on-chain data to identify expertise and experience.

•   Customizable Pair Selection: Effective with as few as five pairs, even with limited voters.

•   BudgetBox Integration: Uses Colony's machine learning model to create a preference graph for fund distribution. We believe this mechanism is an underutilized way for communities to harness their collective intelligence in an efficient and unbiased manner.

Github

Our research and findings from both drops is available for peers in the Web3 grants ecosystem to learn from. https://daodrops.gitbook.io/dao-drops-research It includes options for solving the problem of centralized curation of nominees.

Next Steps

We are now focused on developing open source tooling for DAOs and communities, and making the tools we've developed so far accessible to teams who want to use them.

The next drops we are working on include:

Privacy DAO

Aiming to ensure the privacy of its members, this infrastructure supports encrypted, anonymous interactions and fund allocations, critical for civic activism and human rights DAOs.

• Use Case: Financing Indigenous land defenders while protecting their identity and location.

How to Build a DAO Onboarding Bot

This quarter, we will release a guide to create an AI-driven RAG bot for community data, streamlining grant applications and reducing communication overhead.

• Applications: Assists grant writers by referencing previous applications and DAO-generated knowledge, also useful for new member onboarding.

Timeline: Both projects will be completed within three months.

Threshold: $250. Funding from this round will be additive to our capacity to deliver and increase our ability to release more drops. Full transparency, we have a total of USD-equivalent 34k from Octant funding rounds, to apply to our upcoming drops. DAO Drops is funded by grants, or if it's a tool we've already built at dOrg for our own DAO operations, the initial build is funded from our shared treasury and then the forkability and communications/release of it is handled through DAO Drops, to make it more widely available.

Future Plans

• DAO Drops V1 as a forkable app.

• Forkable Passport for DAO membership and voting power. Based on dOrg passport that we developed for participation in our developer collective, it includes earning reputation, voting, skill credentials, and more. It can be used to support interoperability across grants ecosystems to assign voting power and roles.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you want assistance building or have questions about our R&D. We have deep expertise on the technical side, as well as decades of experience developing coalition-based grants programs. The research from our grants development is publicly available for anyone working on public goods funding innovations. https://daodrops.gitbook.io/dao-drops-research

DAO Drops team at dOrg.tech

Muath Juady, Ori Shimony, Marko Negroni, Magenta Ceiba, Andrei Taranu, Anita Caldera