DAO Chronicler [vol. 3]

GM fellow DAO builders and enthusiasts!

Welcome to this volume of the DAO Chronicler, the source for all your DAO-related news and DAOstar updates.

Don’t know about you, but we’re just getting over our strain of the ETH Denver plague. At this point, did you even go to a crypto conference if you don’t get sick?

More importantly, we’ve officially opened our Slack and invite all DAO builders to jump in on the conversation. Join here!

What’s Inside ⬇️

🌐Headlines from around the DAO ecosystem

📝DAOstar’s State of DAO M&A research report

🦄ETH Denver at the Metagov house recap

Obol Collective approves staking mechanism for the OBOL Token

• Decentralized validator ecosystem, Obol Collective, introduced OBOL Staking via OIP#1, which is intended to enhance governance participation, protocol security, and utility for the OBOL token. OIP#1 allows token holders to stake OBOL and earn rewards, while also leveraging DeFi financial utility and maintaining governance power via a liquid staking token, stOBOL. This proposal follows on the heels of other major initiatives, such as the OBOL token sale on CoinList and the Collective's first Retroactive Funding Round. The staking platform is projected to go live on Tally following a complete audit of the liquid staking token contracts.

Report on the health of Arbitrum’s grants program

• Castle Labs and DefiLlama evaluated and provided recommendations for improving the Arbitrum DAO’s grant programs. The data revealed that the DAO is missing critical tracking mechanisms and evaluation frameworks to measure real ecosystem impact, with funded projects lacking measurable KPIs attached to their grants. Recommended enhancements were made in the following areas: governance and operations, funding and budgeting, as well as impact and accountability. Check out the full report here!

Berachain Releases a Governance Update

• The update announces the formation of the BGT Foundation, an independent entity representing the collective interest of BGT (Bera Governance Token) holders and carrying out actions on their behalf. The core focus areas of the BGT Foundation includes: stabilizing Berachain’s core infrastructure, distributing the BGT token, encouraging active liquidity, rolling out third-party dApps in a structured deployment phase. Further, Berachain will soon transition to Governance Phase One, where proof-of-liquidity (PoL) will be enabled not just for BeraSwap pools, but for any protocol.

• Aave proposes updated Aavenomics

• Arbitrum DAO’s Evolution of Decentralized Governance

• Blockful is building a Governance Security Dashboard

• Certora’s design review and risk analysis of Lido Dual Governance

• Compound’s proposal to launch Morpho-powered lending vaults on Polygon

• ​​CoW DAO establishes a legal structure

• Lido’s Governance Manual

• Liverpeer approves GovWorks, a meta-governance SPE

• o1Labs takes ownership of the technical roadmap for Mina

• Optimism’s Futarchy Contest is now live!

State of DAO M&A Report

In collaboration with leading crypto-focused investment banking firm, Areta, and Jillian Grennan, Assistant Professor of Economics at Emory University, this research report explores the novel phenomenon where a DAO merges with, acquires, or is acquired by another entity—whether another DAO or a traditional company—in order to form a combined entity under shared governance. This report provides an overview of the state of DAO M&A, examining four key case studies, analyzing the financial metrics and deal structures involved, discussing the governance challenges encountered, exploring the unique legal and regulatory considerations, and finally, considering the future outlook for these transactions.

We did it!

We hosted countless builders, researchers, and DAO ecosystem contributors across seven high-signal events. We discussed theories of change and impact frameworks at the two-day Grant Operators Workshop, debated governance systems and incentive structures at the Delegate Incentives Dinner, listened to several leaders of the DAO space during the lightning talks at the DAO Day of Fun, and learned all about Contribution Systems from Professor Ellie Rennie.

Oh, and Josh made his signature shakshouka at the DAOstar brunch. Where else but the Metagov house can you get a homemade breakfast served to you during a crypto conference?

Here are some pictures to relive all the great memories!

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That’s all for now. As always, thanks for reading and subscribing to DAO Chronicler by DAOstar!