DAO Suisse - Gitcoin Grant Application

About DAO Suisse

DAO Suisse was founded as a Swiss Association in June of 2023 and has already gathered more than 70 members incl. top DAOs like Safe DAO and key industry experts from legal, financial, investment, start-up and academic backgrounds, with deep insight and experience in the web3 and DAO space.

DAO Suisse aims to foster a thriving DAO ecosystem in Switzerland by bridging the gap between industry and academia. We aim to facilitate seamless knowledge transfer, encourage educational initiatives, and inspire collaborative projects.

Background

DAO Suisse brings together a dynamic consortium of more than 30 founding members, representing a diverse range of stakeholders, including DAOs, universities, start-ups, law firms, and individuals. United by a common mission, DAO Suisse is dedicated to fostering innovation, promoting knowledge sharing, advocating for clear regulations, and providing a collaborative platform to propel the growth of the DAO sector in Switzerland.

DAO Suisse is a Swiss registered association with a non-profit purpose to pursue the following goals and enable internet native organisations: establish a common understanding of DAOs and best-practices foster a vibrant community of thinkers, academics and doers working on DAOs advise on and improve the legal framework in Switzerland further develop the DAO movement and supporting ecosystems in Switzerland create guidelines as well as best practices for DAO founders and DAO workers

What we have achieved so far

Hosting the DAO Symposium in 2022 alongside the University of Zurich Incorporating as a non-profit Swiss Association in June 2023 Generating around $30k in membership revenues at founding in 2023 Receiving a $20k Innosuisse Blockchain grant to develop the Swiss DAO Radar Growing to a 70-member strong DAO within weeks of launching DAO Suisse Association

What we aim to achieve in 2023:

Hosting the first Swiss-focused DAO Conference Publishing our DAO Radar Research project Creating a DAO Founders Club that makes it easy to start DAOs in Switzerland

Why we need a Gitcoin grant

We are looking to fund initiatives that require part-time professional support, beyond the capacity of the DAO’s council and business manager. Grants funding will help us deliver greater impact faster, and support more projects, communities and DAOs One such example: we currently estimate that starting the DAO Founders club will require a total of $30-40k to design and execute at a professional standard. Ideally we would aim to employ a program director and content director at 40% capacity for 3-4 months from October - December 2023. We believe we can cover a significant portion of these costs via revenues and sponsorships but expect a $10-20k shortfall since the program is new. Additional funding from Gitcoin and other grants would allow DAO Suisse to subsidise the first cohorts of the program

About the DAO Suisse Core Team

Sven Riva

Sven Riva is a Ph.D. candidate in private international law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and a member of the LexTech Institute. He is currently a Visiting Student Researcher at Stanford University where he is part of CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. His thesis deals with the international legal scope of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) with a focus on international corporate law a field in which he specialized in writing his Master Thesis and as a member of an international group of experts that drafted a Model Law for DAOs. He has a general interest in financial market law in particular fintech regulation and blockchain law. He has written on the application of the rules of private international law to DAOs as well as in the areas of decentralized justice, digital integrity, artificial intelligence, and international judicial assistance.

Sven is a core contributor to the DAO Suisse legal working group and a founding member of DAO Suisse.

Una Wang

Una is a multifaceted professional, who has worn a number of hats in her career. She is a dedicated researcher, leading the project no1s1 at ETH Zurich as a PhD candidate. Her research explores decentralized autonomous buildings, decentralized physical infrastructure, digital twins, and regenerative built environments. Leveraging her background in architecture, she thrives as a builder and maker. She brings ideas to life through cyber-physical integrated prototypes and products. The love of community runs in her vein. She is a facilitator for multiple DAO communities and cross-culture, multidisciplinary associations. She believes in open communication and the value in challenging conversations. She is a speaker and guest lecturer on many different occasions.

Una leads our Tooling & Technology Working Group, striving to position Switzerland globally as the top choice for DAOs. Contact her directly if you want to learn more about what this Working Group is up to.

Florian Spychiger

Florian, with a Master's in Quantitative Finance from the University of Zurich and ETH Zürich, is deeply involved in the study and application of #dao structures. He's currently a Ph.D. student and researcher at the UZH Blockchain Center and also serves as a research associate at ZHAW School of Management and Law, where he instructs on blockchain technology. Florian researches DAOs and incentives in blockchain systems. He has been involved in the blockchain field since 2016 and has won several related research projects. Florian led an industry blockchain expert group, created blockchain guidelines for the Kanton of Zurich, and initiated several collaborations between academia and practice.

Florian leads our Organizational Structures Working Group as part of the DAO Suisse Council. His unique expertise and commitment to our mission are crucial in shaping our journey toward democratizing governance.

Romedi Ganzoni

As a specialist in financial market law, Romedi Ganzoni advises both regulated companies and start-ups in the technology and financial sectors, helping them to implement their business models with creative solutions. Romedi has in-depth knowledge of FinTech/DLT and bridges the gap between new business models and applicable law. He also co-founded a prop-tech startup and understands the needs of businesses. He frequently gives webinars and lectures, publishes in his practice areas, and is regularly invited as a panelist.

Romedi heads our Legal & Taxation Working Group. His aim? To strategically navigate the legal landscape, ensuring Switzerland's position as the prime destination for global DAOs. Romedi's profound legal knowledge and commitment play a pivotal role in shaping our mission of revolutionizing the future of decentralized organizations.

Malik El Bay

Malik likes to make complex ideas tangible by building prototypes, which enable activity. He learned to experiment during his studies in Interdisciplinary Sciences at ETH Zurich, then internalized the relevance of failure as part of success while building technology start-ups. He has honed his entrepreneurial mindset as a co-founder of several organizations over the past decade. In 2017 he shaped two successful ICOs (USD 20+ million) and, in the process, discovered the potential of Decentralized Technologies. Further, Malik is a lecturer at FFHS and FHGR.

Isla Munro-Hochmayr / 1sla.eth

Isla is the Grants Lead for the Safe Foundation (previously Gnosis Safe) and a co-founder of FTW DAO. She has a background in venture capital and finance, and is passionate about DAOs, capital allocation, and innovating on financial models and systems. She is a regular speaker in the DAO space on topics such as organizational design, mental health, the future of work, and emerging web3 models for impact. She was previously part of a seed-stage VC fund investing in start-ups in Central and Eastern Europe & Baltics and has worked in and around finance and impact for the past 10 years.

Isla leads the DAO Suisse Founders Club, where we will leverage the expertise of our members, and the insights from our research, informing and supporting DAO founders who want to start their projects in Switzerland.