The Tally Newsletter, Issue 65

February 25, 2022

Feb 25

Welcome back for issue 65 of the Tally Newsletter, a publication focused on defi and DAO governance. We’ll keep you updated on key proposals, procedural changes, newly launched voting systems, shifting power dynamics, and anything else you need to know to be an informed citizen.

This week we cover UkraineDAO’s fundraising efforts, Fei’s new Tribe Launch product, plus brief updates from the DAO ecosystem!

UkraineDAO Organizes Crowdfunding Campaign

TL;DR: PleasrDAO and PussyRiot have launched a crypto fundraising effort to support people impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Crypto markets have seen significant volatility in the past week as geopolitical tensions have steadily increased. With yesterday’s invasion of Ukraine, these tensions have broken into the open and are causing broad disruption and danger to Ukrainian residents.

𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙💦 @pussyrrriot

our goal is to use what we're good at, web3, to assist Ukrainians as they cope with the Russian invasion of their country. @Ukraine_DAO @TrippyLabs @PleasrDAO

Pussy Riot Helps Newly Formed UkraineDAO Mobilize Support and Raise Funds Via NFTs - The DefiantPussy Riot, the famed punk protest art group, helped form a DAO on Thursday to support Ukrainian’s resistance to Russias assault on their country.thedefiant.io

Following in the footsteps of the hugely popular ConstitutionDAO project last year and more recent FreeRossDAO (focused on seeking clemency for Silk Road darknet market creator Ross Ulbricht), a collection of web3 power users have banded together to direct DAO coordination and crypto funding towards real world impacts on the Ukraine conflict.

UkraineDAO @Ukraine_DAO

we're minting the Ukrainian flag because it's not about any specific artists or aesthetics—it's about something much bigger than all of us, it's a pure gesture of solidarity.

Pussy Riot Founder, Trippy Labs, PleasrDAO Members Launch ‘Ukraine DAO’ - DecryptUkraine DAO, co-founded by a Pussy Riot member, is selling Ethereum NFTs to raise money for Ukrainians harmed by the Russian invasion.decrypt.co

While the democratic government in exile of Myanmar previously made the headlines for recognizing Tether USDT as an official currency, responses to Ukraine invasion represent the first case of directly using web3 tools such as DAOs and NFTs in a conflict setting. This has huge potential for rapidly gathering and deploying resources, but will likely draw scrutiny from regulators fearful of terrorist financing and sanctions violations. There’s also risk of funds being diverted or even entirely fictitious crowdfunding schemes.

UkraineDAO @Ukraine_DAO

SCAM ALERT: we have seen various scam Ukraine DAO wallet addresses circulating online. The only genuine address for contributing to @Ukraine_DAO will be shared through this official Twitter account. There won't be any BSC wallets - #Ethereum only.

Fiskantes (⭐️,🩸) @Fiskantes

Never in my wildest dreams would voluntarily funding a military goal be on my 2022 bingo card, but here we go. Refugees and civilians definitely suffer and need help too, but only holding off Russian army long enough from their victory can meaningfully shift the balance longterm

Fiskantes (⭐️,🩸) @Fiskantes

@PavelStehno @ManuAlzuru @lightcrypto @KyivIndependent Yeah, so far mostly military. It was hard decision to support military rather than civilian/refufgee relief but military is under huge time pressure and we have hopes to hold off russians long enough for putin to lose support at home and shift the political balance…long shot ik

While the efficacy and exact beneficiaries of the UkraineDAO project remain to be determined, this effort will likely drive increasing interest in web3 coordination mechanisms. And the permissionless nature of crypto networks means that these tools can be utilized across the spectrum, including by less widely accepted causes.

poordart @poordart

There are various ways of looking at this - and this conflict seems fairly clear cut ("good vs bad") I do worry tho that crypto gaining a reputation as "funding war" is an extremely slippery slope However ultimately we're here for unstoppable money - so there aint stopping https://t.co/7ahVGsXBc1

Michael del Castillo @DelRayMan

JUST OUT: Bitcoin Donations To Ukrainian Army Surpass $4 Million https://t.co/eBXKI6Ih7z

Tribe Unveils Integrated DAO Launch Product

TL;DR: Tribe launch will offer DAOs immediate access to a range of liquidity and borrowing mechanisms.

Among all of the presentations at last week’s ETHDenver conference, Fei Protocol founder Joey Santoro’s talk stands out for the huge potential impact on the DAO ecosystem. He unveiled a new launch product, Tribe Launch, that will allow for simple DAO creation and immediately link the organization and governance token to a range of financial services provided by the Tribe DAO.

Gray Matter @GrayVMatter

If you missed @joey__santoro presentation of @feiprotocol in #ETHDenver, bear with me to go over the key points!! 🧶

The core of the product is a pre-vetted token creation factory, which allows Fei Protocol to have assurances about code quality, token supply, distribution, and other key factors. With these details already addressed by default, this allows Fei to provide access to capital in a semi-permissionless fashion. For example, projects can launch with a Balancer liquidity bootstrapping pool and initial FEI stablecoin liquidity provided by the Tribe DAO. Further assets can also be rented with Fei’s partnership with Ondo Finance. Then once a substantial liquidity position has been secured, Tribe can offer a credit line of FEI tokens directly to the project’s pool on Rari Capital or through the Turbo lending system.

Tribe’s approach follows from the learnings of the Curve wars and more recently Andre Cronje’s Solidly project; DAOs themselves are the most important clients of stablecoin and liquidity protocols, rather than token holders or individual users. Creating a DAO through Tribe Launch can drastically reduce the friction involved in accessing the key financial services necessary to raise capital and build a successful network.

With several months before the product goes live, there are still many unanswered questions on implementation. On the liquidity and credit side, Fei Protocol will need to take care to defend against various forms of manipulation attacks and rug pulls, and it’s possible that this could require a tradeoff of less sovereignty from client DAOs. As an example, it might not be possible to change supply schedules or other aspects of token economics without Fei Protocol’s consent.

There’s also a question of what governance mechanisms will be supported by Tribe Launch. While snapshot polling or other off chain vote mechanisms can be set up easily for any Ethereum asset, on-chain governance mechanisms typically require key functions to be deployed within the DAOs token contract. And beyond low level contract infrastructure, we may also see growing demand for scalable DAO tooling and service providers (interfaces, payroll and HR systems, various SaaS and cloud services, etc) as barriers to DAO creation continue to fall and draw in a cohort of less experienced operators. Despite the clear challenges, Tribe Launch has a unique and attractive value proposition for the next cohort of decentralized organizations.

In Brief:

Tally News

Thanks to everyone who met with us or stopped by our booth at ETHDenver! We look forward to seeing you at the next community conference!
You can now launch your own NFT DAO with immediate integration to Tally’s governance app! Check it out at dao.new

Ethereum Ecosystem