DAO Membership and admission
Although MCV’s fundraising and asset management will happen on-chain, many of its decisions will be coordinated through social consensus, using “off-chain” communication channels such as group chats, video meetings, and in-person meetings. These interactions help the members develop and evaluate ideas, initiatives and values together long before they submit a formal proposal to a vote of the members. In the cypherpunk tradition that shaped maxims such as “don’t trust, verify,” the culture of this DAO is one of personal responsibility. Every DAO member will be expected to take an active community role in remaining fully informed about the DAO’s developments and progress.
As such all DAO members are recognised as managing members of the LLC and will have full economic, informational and governance rights in the LLC. Within the DAO, there are three main recognised categories of membership, in which a DAO member may fall in and out of depending on the member’s level of activity at a given time:
Mages are DAO members that are considered to be actively participating in the members’ shared management efforts, including activities such as sourcing investment opportunities, conducting deal due diligence and conducting asset management. DAO members that are not “accredited investors” must participate as Mages and should be promptly expelled from the DAO (see “Member expulsion” below) if their level of participation falls below their expected managerial responsibilities.
You can think of Mages as the ones who actively study the laws of Magick and practice their knowledge in the battlefields alongside their melee and ranged based comrades, weaving in and out, casting powerful spells and providing strategic advice to field commanders.
Goblins are DAO members that may choose not to exercise such rights and powers to the same extent as Mages do, despite legally having all the same managerial rights and powers under the Grimoire. Although Goblins may still be expelled from the DAO at any time, there is no expectation that Goblins will be expelled for inactivity and lack of participation. For legal reasons, Goblins must be deemed as (“accredited investors”). These Goblins, despite holding a passive role in the DAO, can also become Mages if they choose, and may go from a Goblin-Mage to a pure Goblin.
You can think of Goblins as having the right to hide away in their moldy dens, hoarding their gold, deciding to live within the shadows. But, at any time, they may get restless for knowledge, study the laws of magick and don the Mage’s gowns to work their will upon the world.
Summoning team members are operational delegates responsible for services around legal, financial and coordination related tasks approved, directed and supervised by Mages. Delegates can be, but not need not be members. Summoners’, tasks may include but are not limited to:
- Coordination
- Making sure all other DAO members are aware of proposals
- Making sure the standard of participation is enforced
- Initiating or encouraging ragekick proposals regarding members that fall below minimum participation
- Managing notice mechanism to ensure DAO members are notified about pending proposal votes in time to participate
- Entering into approved legal contracts representing the the DAO
- Taking approved actions with respect to off-chain funds/assets of the DAO
- Recruiting service providers such as outside accountants, lawyers, etc.
- Coordinating the DAO’s public relations
- Taking actions to register DAO’s off-chain property, if any
The summoning team are incentivised to participate with fees to be negotiated and determined by the initial founding DAO members at the start of the DAO and with future services to be paid out of the DAO’s payment tokens (eg. cash equivalents) to avoid accruing any long term liabilities.
You can think of the summoning team as a chaotic neutral group of mercenaries and pirates who fight for gold and glory, hunt for bounties and go on long ranging raid parties to take down the occasional dragon. They aid the Mages of the DAO and provide additional operating support.
The Moloch DAO v2 smart contract standard is inherently well suited to facilitate MCV’s community governance goals by virtue of several features:
- Membership Admission is Permissioned: Membership for MCV is a permissioned processes which reflects the wisdom of MCV’s existing membership. Before new membership proposals are submitted on-chain and voted on, candidates must be first championed by an existing member of MCV and undergo internal member driven evaluation where various aspects of their membership are considered: culture fit, expertise, legal viability, etc...
- Continuing Membership is Permissioned and Community-Policed: For a person to continue being a member of MCV, that person must implicitly have the consent of an economic majority of MCV members. Any member may at any time propose that another member be expelled from the DAO (see “Exiting members” below), and if that proposal is approved by sufficient other members, the person will lose their MCV shares and governance rights while receiving (through one of the mechanisms as described under “Exiting members” below) payment tokens and claims tokens representing the percentage of MCV’s property to which the member is entitled under the Grimoire.
Membership shares, although potentially conceived as a “tokens” in a loose sense as they are balances tracked on Ethereum, are non-transferable. The Grimoire also prohibits sharing of private keys of the address that “owns” MCV shares on Ethereum, except in the event of a change in ownership by operation of law, such as when a member dies or, if the shares are community property in a marriage, upon a divorce.
Moloch DAO v2 smart contracts embodies the cypherpunk design principle of “opt-in” and self-sovereign choice, and thus exit from the DAO has been made as easy, trustless and economically riskless as possible. Hence MCV’s members are able to RageQuit at any time with respect to all or any portion of the member’s shares and receive payment tokens and claims tokens representing the percentage of MCV’s property to which the member is entitled under the Grimoire.