🔲Governance
Effective governance is central to the MachineDAO’s mission of advancing open-source robotics. The governance process integrates both off-chain and on-chain mechanisms, enabling developers, token holders, and community members to shape the DAO’s direction transparently and adaptively. By leveraging proven frameworks such as Aragon and adopting a veToken-based voting model inspired by Curve, the MachineDAO achieves a balance of efficiency and accountability while learning from successful DAOs.
Phase 1 - Ideation
Initial ideas originate informally within the MachineDAO community, often discussed on the official Discord or Discourse forum. This phase focuses on gauging interest, assessing benefits, identifying risks, and refining concepts. Community feedback ensures that only well-reasoned ideas advance, aligning proposals with the DAO’s mission and avoiding unnecessary complexity. Participation in these discussions is open to everyone, regardless of DEUS token ownership.
Phase 2 - Draft Proposal
Once an idea gains sufficient community support, it moves into the Draft Proposal stage. A standardized proposal template, provided within the MachineDAO documentation, ensures consistency and comparability across proposals.
Draft proposals must clearly outline the project’s objectives, expected outcomes, required resources, and preliminary timelines. Community members can comment, suggest modifications, or request additional details before the proposal progresses. Each proposal will have a clear reference ID for tracking purposes.
To proceed to the next stage (Snapshot voting), proposals must demonstrate community support via an online Discord poll or garner backing from 0.5% of the xDEUS supply as proof of interest.
Phase 3 - Snapshot Voting
This non-binding, off-chain voting stage allows DEUS token holders to gauge community sentiment without incurring gas costs or triggering immediate execution. A positive Snapshot result signals readiness for the next phase. Feedback or adjustments may be suggested before moving to the due diligence process.
Phase 4 - Proposal Due Diligence
Before on-chain voting, a scoring committee prepares a due diligence report, which includes:
Strategic assessment
Financial implications
Exit strategies
Risks and mitigations
This report ensures voters have a clear understanding of the proposal’s rationale and potential outcomes. The due diligence process takes a minimum of two weeks, during which the scoring committee remains neutral and focuses on providing comprehensive information to the community.
Phase 5 - On-Chain Voting
Following a successful Snapshot vote, proposals move to on-chain voting via the Aragon OSx framework. This phase involves formal governance decisions enforced through smart contracts.
The veToken Model
DEUS, the DAO’s native utility token, must be locked to mint xDEUS, which grants governance rights.
xDEUS is a non-transferable ERC-1404 token, ensuring governance influence remains decentralized and cannot be easily traded or concentrated.
Quorum and Scheduling
On-chain voting occurs at regular 4-week intervals to streamline decision-making and governance overhead. The schedule is as follows:
Week 1 (Day 1-3): Informal temperature check via Discord poll
Week 1 (Day 4-7): Snapshot vote
Weeks 2-3: Due diligence on active proposals
Week 4 (Day 1-4): On-chain voting
Week 4 (Day 5-7): On-chain execution
Minor decisions that do not require fund transfers may bypass on-chain execution, relying instead on Snapshot voting for manual implementation.
Quorum thresholds, defined as a percentage of the xDEUS supply participating, ensure proposals have sufficient community engagement. Both "YES" and "ABSTAIN" votes contribute to quorum, encouraging active participation. Over time, governance parameters such as quorum levels and voting durations may be adjusted as the DAO matures.
Dual Governance Plugin
In the DAO’s early stages (first 24 months post-TGE), an optimistic dual governance plugin from Aragon will enable core contributors to propose actions while granting token holders veto rights. This approach facilitates rapid iteration and core-team-driven initiatives, transitioning toward greater decentralization as the community grows and accumulates xDEUS voting power.
Phase 6 - Execution
Approved on-chain proposals are executed automatically via the Aragon framework, which may include:
Allocating treasury funds
Supporting projects
Adjusting governance parameters
Launching new asset series
Smart contract-based execution ensures transparency, reduces manual intervention, and guarantees all approved actions are implemented as intended.
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