Stakeholders
Stakeholders include VitaDAO members, working group members, service providers, VitaCore, as well as any other natural or legal persons who consider themselves affected by or otherwise interested in VitaDAO.
Members of the DAO
A member of the VitaDAO is anyone who holds $VITA, VItaDAO’s token. Tokens can be obtained by providing funds or work to the structure. Members have full governance rights and can participate in governance on Discord and Discourse (informally) and via token-based voting (formally).
Token holders are the ultimate authority in what VitaDAO does, via the $VITA governance token.
Working Groups and Squads
Currently, active Working Group streams are:
- Longevity Dealflow
- Coordination
- Community & Awareness
Currently, active Squads are (under Coordination WG):
- Governance
- Tech & Product
- Legal
- Tokenomics
A working group member provides expertise and advice to VitaDAO. They should be able to provide some level of objectivity with regards to their advice. Each working group has a “working group lead”, also referred to as “working group steward” (see next section), who may define a specific structure for their respective working group how they operate, collaborate and get compensated, pending approval by VitaDAO members.
VitaDAO working groups consist of domain experts to help guide member decisions in various work-streams and organisational processes. Working groups can help define proposals to the VitaDAO members and therefore, are the execution layer. Working group meetings are scheduled and operated in the open, and the only requirement to join is being a holder of VITA tokens.
Working Group Stewards
Each working group is led by one or two stewards who usually grow into that position by contributing work of great quality to their working group for a longer period of time. A working group steward should have both domain expertise on the topic of the WG and managerial experience leading others. Anyone who becomes a working group steward is added as an admin to the Snapshot space.
- Stewards execute and make decisions on a day-to-day basis within the bounds empowered by the token holders.
- Any Working Group member may nominate other members to the Stewards group. If the Stewards reject the nomination, VitaCore can ask for a tokenholder vote.
- Stewards appoint VitaCore members.
- VitaCore is an advisory group for strategic advice, they are not a “Board of Directors” who direct Stewards, but rather the opposite - VitaCore supports the Stewards. VitaCore members should be chosen to support a specific strategic objective of the DAO.
Onboarding as a new Steward
A new steward is onboarded through the following process:
Option A
- Any steward can nominate anyone as a new steward.
- Once a new steward is nominated, any VitaCore member can challenge the nomination within a week.
- If the nomination isn’t challenged, members of all working groups vote on the nomination in the Discord channel #cross-wg-chat.
- If a majority of votes is in agreement, the nominated steward is offered the position.
- If the nominated steward accepts, they are officially onboarded as a steward.
Offboarding as an existing Steward
An existing steward is offboarded through one of the following processes:
Option A
- In a vote necessarily recurring every six months, members of all working groups vote on whether the steward should remain in place in an anonymous poll on Discord or Discourse.
- If a majority of members of all working groups do not confirm the steward, the steward is offboarded.
OR
Option B
- In a vote optionally occurring at any time, members of all working groups vote on whether the steward should remain in place in an anonymous poll on Discord or Discourse.
- If a majority of members of all working groups do not confirm the steward, the steward is offboarded.
OR
Option C
- VITA token holders vote to offboard the steward in a phase 3 vote (Discourse + Snapshot).
- If the Snapshot vote passes, the steward is offboarded.
OR
Option D
- Another steward nominates the steward for offboarding.
- If a member of Vitacore does not challenge the nomination within a week, the steward is offboarded.
OR
Option E
- The steward chooses to offboard themselves and gives notice at least two weeks in advance.
- After the end of the notice period, the steward is offboarded.
Notes and soft requirements
- A prospective steward should be mission aligned, have proven their domain expertise in the corresponding working group and bring leadership qualities.
- A prospective steward should have the support from their working group as well as a good working relationship with the other stewards.
- A new steward should see the first month as a trial period.
- A steward is accountable to the VitaDAO community and should act accordingly.
- A steward must adhere to the code of conduct.
- A steward must not be absent for a longer period of time without giving a reasonable explanation.
- An offboarded steward should remain available as a point of contact for at least two months, except if personal circumstances do not permit this.
This process is adapted from the Token Engineering Commons (TEC)’s Community Stewards WG Manifesto.
VitaCore
From VitaDAO’s inception and even before Genesis, a group of highly involved contributors helped oversee the objectives and coordinate activities across working groups, the community and external stakeholders. This group became known as “VitaCore” and continues to keep the DAO productive to date.
VitaCore is an advisory committee that represents various groups of VitaDAO stakeholders. As such, VitaCore does not have any individual members, but individuals who are part of a certain stakeholder group.
- VitaCore helps support strategic initiatives, whether it be tokenomics, network growth, strategic partnerships, etc.
- This is where many of the strategic contributors of VDP-54 will be able to provide value based on their networks and experience.
- Ambassadors from other DAOs also can contribute here. VitaCore will be no larger than 10 people + stewards.
To start with, these stakeholder groups are:
- Group 1: Working Group Stewards and Co-Stewards
- Group 2: Ambassadors of actively and significantly contributing Service Providers (currently Molecule GmbH and decentralized MATTER B.V.)
- Group 3: Ambassadors of VitaDAO’s partner DAOs (currently LabDAO)
- Group 4: Representatives from strategic contributors (currently none)
Further stakeholder groups may be added in the future.
It goes without saying that the concept of VitaCore is accountable to VitaDAO’s token holders who defined the scope of VitaCore’s executive power over operational decisions in VDP-6 and may refine these at any time in a new governance proposal. In that sense, holders of VITA are represented in VitaCore, but they are the overseeing and superior entity that governs VitaCore through proposals. Current initiatives around introducing OKRs, publishing a treasury report and other transparency initiatives will make it significantly more convenient for token holders to do so. Anyone who joins VitaCore is also added to VitaDAO’s Snapshot space as an author.
Service Providers
Service providers are members who provide services to VitaDAO, such as development work, IP sourcing, and conversion to NFTs, marketplace services, drug development services outside of project scope, etc. VitaDAO may engage service providers spanning patent attorneys, contract research firms, or third party experts to provide services to the DAO in exchange for compensation.
Service providers are remunerated both in tokens and fiat, depending on their risk profile. The list of current service providers is as follows:
- Molecule GmbH: architecture, operations, awareness, BD, genesis IP, IP NFT workflow, legal
- Decentralized Matter: awareness, community inception, marketing and DevOps
- Linum Labs AG: smart contract development and deployment support
- Keyko AG: tokenomics and system audit
- Curve Labs: governance and system audit
- Arctoris Ltd: contract research automation and R&D
Service providers will individually submit a scope of services for allocations and fiat values, and pending approval will continue to support VitaDAO for a minimum period of 3 - 12 months post-launch. Final service provider commitments can further be finalised post-launch. Allocations above 0.5% in tokens will support VitaDAO for a minimum of 12 months post-launch.
As one of the largest service providers and working group initiators, Molecule will lock its tokens into an on-chain multi-sig. Further, it will distribute its allocation across its operational team to ensure broad governance participation. An initial team distribution may allocate 1.5% across the Molecule team, intending to mirror working group allocations and incentivize broad participation. Other service providers are encouraged to adopt similar models.
Governance Framework
VitaDAO members are in control of all governance decisions by voting on VitaDAO proposals. Proposals vary by type and follow the process specified below. VitaDAO members’ votes are weighted by the amount of VITA tokens they hold.
At a certain time, a snapshot is taken of the public keys of wallets that hold VITA and their amounts of VITA, based on the latest block at that time on Ethereum Mainnet or Gnosis Chain (formerly xDai chain). The voting power for a wallet is the amount of VITA the wallet has at the time of that snapshot.
In the future, VitaDAO members may delegate votes to members of their choosing and typically will do so to members with more domain expertise. This is to be added in V2.
Multisig
VitaDAO uses a Gnosis Safe multi-sig with nine signers, who are the working group leads and trusted individuals voted in by the community. The VitaDAO multi-sig signers secure the multi-sig and execute the will of the DAO, as defined by the Token holders and Stewards. They are not a decision-making body. There is a threshold for approvals of five signatures. The current list of signers is as follows.
Tyler Golato: 0x6c1e0C4221ec9d36Cf80cd2B9b6B9B2823e4CB69
Paul Kohlhass: 0x45602BFBA960277bF917C1b2007D1f03d7bd29e4
Theo Beutel: 0xe2FbDF7fe1d77f8B73e9fa4D17F2F1FC64F7313f
Vincent Weisser: 0xb0EeCb3a98Bc1963847A81ABFC8aCBA54527b96b
Audie Sheridan: 0x51AaE7357c8baD10DB3532e9AC597efFA5C3820f
Tim Peterson: 0xfb9B22A0E3A05e4F6B49aDD981A189301F411A75
James Brodie: 0xcf930533DbB9759C84401A03c5dDc92A1A313Dd3
Niklas Rindtorff: 0x2B5cdFB0451C3A0fd1d5B7b1D9aeEADa4c6D1C27
Alex Dobrin: 0x3F04DcF85FC1d34Bd32a4fA92CA7180148989Bd6
On- and offboarding
Signers of VitaDAO’s main multisig
- require consent among VitaCore to be voted in
- require a majority vote among VitaCore to be voted out
The current list of signers of the main multisig should be kept up to date through a comment in VDP-0 VitaDAO Multisig Propsal.
Signers of VitaDAO’s longevity, operations and project-based multisigs
- Require a majority vote among VitaCore as well as confirmation by the operations working group steward to be voted in
- Require a majority vote among VitaCore as well as confirmation by the operations working group steward to be voted out
Upon the voting decision of a VitaDAO mulitsignature signer in/out, an update to the VitaDAO Governance Constitution is posted on Discourse with a post in the #cross-wg channel on Discord.
Soft Governance
In principle, as many decisions as possible should be made using a soft governance mechanism via Discord. As a general rule, on-chain votes are required for high-stakes decisions that
- revolve around the treasury and a certain level of expenses
– ≤ $10,000 USD equivalent, two working group stewards need to approve
– > $10,000 USD and < $25,000 USD, VitaCore has to approve by majority vote
– ≤ $25,000 USD and < $50,000 USD, the community has to approve by majority vote on Discourse (Phase 2 as per VDP-1)
– ≤ $50,000 USD, token holders have to approve on Snapshot (for ANY proposal involving Longevity Dealflow even if less than $50,000)
or - revolve around the rules or the rules to change the rules [the constitutional process]
or - revolve around membership and enforcement of norms [punitive measures].
Other decisions should be taken through soft governance.
Proposal Types
DAO Governance Proposal
- General DAO governance proposals;
- Treasury functions, approving new members, black- and white-listing, etc.;
- Change of governance mechanism proposal
Project Proposal
- Suggestions for new projects to bring into the DAO
Funding Proposal
- Proposals to allocate more funding to pre-existing projects to help them reach their experimental goals, reach the next phase. These are based on milestone completion, specified in the initial project proposal.
IP Proposal & Data Monetization Proposal
-
Proposal to monetize pre-existing data sets received from research laboratories;
-
Proposals to mint NFTs related to IP that are generated from projects. It also includes proposals to file for IP related to outcomes of research projects.
Proposal Process Overview
- Phase I: Informal - Post on VitaDAO Ideas Category in Discord or Discourse
→ Community support indicated by Discord or Discourse vote
- Phase II: Formal - Post on VitaDAO Proposal Category with Template and Phase II tag
→ Community support indicated by Discourse vote
- Phase III: Upload to Snapshot for token-based vote
→ Community support indicated by token-based vote
Phase 1: Ideation
This phase facilitates an initial, informal discussion consisting of VitaDAO stakeholders on Discourse regarding potential proposals to VitaDAO. Stakeholders can initiate a proposal in Phase 1 by posting their idea in the VitaDAO ideas category. This phase allows proposals to gather community insight for refinement before opening a formal poll. Project proposals submitted by externals are automatically generated and posted in the proposal channel.
Duration
Open-ended
Passing Requirement
For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 1 to Phase 2, at least 10 stakeholders must signal positive support. If a Phase 1 proposal discussion fails to garner momentum from the community, it is unlikely to become a successful proposal. If there are fewer than 5 votes within three days of posting, the proposal is voided.
Phase 2: Specification
Proposals that receive more than 10 votes are moved to Phase 2. This phase requires proposals to be posted in the VitaDAO Proposals category on Discourse using the VitaDAO Governance Proposal template (VGP) 2.
Title → 30-60 characters
Teaser → First approx. 120 characters of the content below are shown on the Snapshot main page
Summary → 200-400 characters in one paragraph
Details → any length, any formatting, can include images and hyperlinks, must include sections on motivation, specification and implementation
In addition to these fields, Phase 2 proposals must include a single-choice poll on the proposal outcome giving the options “Agree”, “Agree with revisions” (requiring a comment), and “Disagree”. Participation should be restricted to trust level 1 and above and will be increased to trust level 2 at some point (see Discourse Trust Levels 1). The poll should result in a pie chart with results visible, as per this template:
[poll type=regular results=always public=true chartType=pie groups=trust_level_1]
* Agree
* Agree with revisions (please comment)
* Disagree
[/poll]
The proposal author is responsible to incorporate comments from “Agree with revisions” votes. If their comment is fully resolved, commenting authors are supposed to change their vote from "Agree with revisions” to “Agree”.
Duration
7 days
Time limit: 3 months
Waiting period: 7 days
A mandatory 7-day waiting period for Phase 2 proposals after the last significant change to the proposal must be adhered to. A VitaCore majority will decide if the change in question qualifies as significant or not. Some examples of significant changes include changes that affect VitaDAO’s public image and the ones that revise the decision-making power and budget.
Passing Requirement
For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 2 to Phase 3, there must be one outcome with a relative majority of votes on a Discourse poll. Proposals in Phase 2 require support from two working group leads, and at least 10 stakeholders to vote. If the relative majority of votes on the forum poll indicates the result “Agree” (including any resolved “Agree with revisions” votes), the proposal will pass to Phase 3.
Proposals must also adhere to a time limit of 3 months. If a Phase 2 proposal does not reach quorum and/or does not receive enough confirmatory votes 3 months after it was first posted to the Discourse governance forum, it has not passed phase 2 and the forum thread should be closed.
Phase 3: Consensus
Phase 2 proposals are moved to Phase 3 by editing the VGP post from the previous phase to reflect the forum poll result that received a relative majority of votes, and by updating the proposal’s tag to phase 3. Proposals that pass the Phase 2 forum poll must be locked in this forum and referenced on dao.vitadao.com to become a Phase 3 vote on Snapshot.
If someone holds VITA, they have the option of assigning their voting power to a delegate on Snapshot.
Phase 3 Duration
7 days
Passing Requirement
Majority vote with 5% quorum of circulating token supply via formal token-based vote. Snapshot votes are shielded to prevent voting bias and to combat voter apathy.
Identical or nearly-identical proposals that does not pass Phase 3 on Snapshot, can be reintroduced right away under certain circumstances.
Since all qualifying circumstances cannot be exhaustively defined, the decision of whether a proposal is eligible to be reintroduced will be undertaken by VitaCore through majority vote on a case-by-case basis. The proposal author is responsible for requesting a reintroduction of their proposal, and in case of a dispute, can trigger the Dispute Resolution Process.