[RFC] Solution to Improve DAO Governance Efficiency

1. Motivation:

I believe Nexus Mutual is very serious about the its Governance Process and involving community in making key decisions as evidently by the amount of work has go into this document (link)

I’m a co-founder of Syncvote. I believe our tool can add tangible value to the implementation of Nexus Mutual’s governance process without any changes to the current setup. The goal is to let admins and members focus on making decisions instead of getting lost in tech stuff.

2. Problem Now:

I see 3 existing problems in implementing Nexus Mutual governance process:

  1. The proposer must remember all the technical details of the governance process to avoid making mistakes.
  2. The proposer has to bounce around different platforms, such as Discord, Forum…, for each step of the process.
  3. Any solution that could potentially consolidate everything into one platform for consistency and ease of navigation would require the DAO to abandon its current setup and adopt a new one.

3. How We Solve It:

Syncvote provides a chrome extension. It works as a unified front-end for any DAO member that wants to make a proposal to Nexus Mutual. It acts like a central hub, no more bouncing between different platforms. Members can kick off and handle proposals, watch progress, and move through stages – all in one interface.

Why Syncvote will fit nicely into the current Nexus Mutual practice:

  1. Non-invasive, there isn’t any new platform to familiarize with, just open the extension and click “start new proposal” to start.

  2. The extension works with all the platforms DAO has been using, so you don’t need to make any changes to your current setup.

  3. It’s free, our goal is to eventually put every DAO to operate completely on-chain, so until Nexus Mutual decides to write data on-chain; it won’t cost you anything.

My co-founder’s created this video to illustrate how the plugin works for a DAO: Syncvote Demo

4. Next Steps to Implement:

To implement this transformative solution for Nexus Mutual, we propose the following steps:

  1. After the proposal has been passed, I will convert the Governance Process into a format compatible with Syncvote. An administrator/coreteam member can help me to follow-up and also check its accuracy.
  2. After that, Nexus Mutual will start announcing to community members on forum, announcement channels on discord and twitter… that they can start using Syncvote extension to make new proposals from then on.

In conclusion, I see this as a straightforward implementation that helps to smooth governance experience for Nexus Mutual community members. I would be grateful if Nexus Mutual adopts Syncvote.

Thank you for reading my post. I would like to have your feedback on this topic.

Hey @como,
Thank you for sharing your proposal and sharing about Syncvote. I’ve seen Syncvote posting proposals across quite a few different DAO governance forums, so I wanted to ask two (2) follow up questions to see if this solution is specific to certain governance frameworks:

  1. Is Syncvote designed to work with any governance framework or is it designed to fit the GovernorAlpha and/or GovernorBravo frameworks?. The Nexus Mutual protocol doesn’t currently use either framework at this time. In our latest roadmap, we’ve outlined a governance research project to review ways to potentially upgrade our governance achitecture to make protocol governance more inclusive. However, this means that the Mutual’s governance achitecture may be changing. I just want to understand if there are any technical limitations for the governance frameworks Syncvote is compatible with.
  2. Can you share other DAOs that have adopted Syncvote?. Mutual members tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to new DAO tooling. If Syncvote hasn’t seen wider adoption, I’m unsure if I’d support it’s adoption within the Mutual.
    Of Note: In the past, the Mutual used the GovBlocks platform, which was deprecated. Adoption new governance tooling comes with the risk that it could be deprecated and new processes would need to be adopted. That’s one risk I’d like to avoid in the future.

I also wanted to share some general comments:

  • Mutual members interested in participating in governance have all the available resources linked on this governance forum in the category descriptions. Members may need to consult the documentation, but the process is summarised in the category descriptions on the forum in detail.
  • I’m hesitant to require members to download browser extensions to participate in the governance process. While it can present a more convenient experience, it can also targeted by bad actors who make a duplicate extension in an app store. Wherever possible, I try to avoid requiring members to download any applications or verify their identity outside of our official channels.
  • Nexus Mutual has two different types of governance: protocol governance and DAO governance. The purview of these two governance subsets are different, as we outline in the documentation.
    • NMPIPs (protocol governance) are used when members want to upgrade an aspect of the protocol, allocate Capital Pool funds toward investments, etc.
    • NMDPs are used when members want to create a funding request from the DAO treasury, which is a completely separate pool of funds from the Capital Pool.
    • Given this, how would Syncvote work with two (2) different governance subsets?

I’ll look forward to your responses.

Note: I’ve added an [RFC] tag to your proposal title to reflect it’s a request for comments.

Thank mate for your comment. Let me clear your concern:

  1. Syncvote is designed to work with any governance framework. Syncvote can customize different processes to fit each Dao’s requirements.

  2. Idle Dao has adopted Syncvote in their governance process
    Governance process - Idle

  3. Yes, it’s true that the governance process is there for member to view, but it’s often lengthy and complicated, Syncvote provides a visualized workflow which is not only cover the governance process in detail but also easy to understand and follow
    This is the workflow I created on Syncvote for Nexus Mutual:
    SyncVote App

  4. About the extension: it doesnt require wallet connection, so your money is save. If you have any further concern, let me know

  5. Syncvote can customize different processes, if you want, drop me a message on discord (como4723)and we can discuss the way Syncvote handles this issue.

Again, thank you and I’m waiting to hear from you

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