The final step in creating a fully decentralized protocol is to transition into a DAO.
Today, the Punk Domains protocol is taking its first steps towards that goal.
This will not be a hurried process, but rather an open and ongoing journey of research, development, and iteration until we find the best governance model for Punk Domains.
We’d love for you to come along for the ride and help shape the future of Punk Domains governance.
What is the Punk Domains protocol
Punk Domains is a modular web3 domain protocol.
It offers a variety of domain extensions, including one-time purchase domains, renewable domains, and soulbound domains. New types of domains can easily be added in the future.
Punk Domains’ main goal is to provide domain extensions for DAOs and other web3 communities. Some of the current partners include Giveth Names (.giveth domains), Klima DAO (.klima domains), PoolTogether (.pool domains), Layer2DAO (.L2 domains), and the Smol Brains NFT community (.smol domains).
The role of governance
Now that the core development of the Punk Domains protocol is finished, the focus of the future DAO will be bringing on new domain partners and deploying the protocol on other chains.
The DAO governance will be in charge of setting the prices for domain extensions and issuing new domain extensions. And if the need arises, the governance will also have the power to vote on developing new types of domains.
Governance Research Council (GRC)
Becoming a DAO isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to take some serious research and iteration to find the right governance model for our protocol.
The biggest challenge is figuring out how to govern a multi-chain protocol. The Punk Domains protocol is live on multiple blockchains, some are L2s and sidechains, others are L1s (but all are EVM compatible).
We’re not alone in this challenge, so we’ll do a research on how other protocols are handling it (or intend to handle it), and stay on top of the latest developments in governance tooling.
This research and development of our governance system will be done by the Governance Research Council (GRC).
Membership to the GRC will be open to anyone, and we want to bring together people from all walks of life and skill sets to help find the best governance model for Punk Domains.
The funds from membership NFT passes will go towards covering the costs of the GRC process, mainly development expenses.
5 phases of the road to the DAO
The GRC process will consist of the following 5 phases:
Phase 1: The Gathering Phase
This phase is starting with this blog post. Our goal is to get our community members excited to be a part of this journey, and to encourage others to join us and help shape our future governance system.
Phase 2: Brainstorming & Research Phase
Once we’ve got enough members on board, the Governance Research Council (GRC) will get to work. During this phase, members will brainstorm different governance models, and research various governance tools and services.
Phase 3: Development Phase
In this phase, the GRC will turn the governance model ideas into actual solutions that will be tested in phase 4. This phase will require funds (gathered from membership passes) to cover the development costs.
Phase 4: Testing & Iteration Phase
Each developed solution will be deployed on testnets and thoroughly tested. Based on what we learn from this testing, we’ll make changes to the solution or scrap it altogether if it’s not the right fit.
Phase 5: Deployment & Launch Phase
The solution that proves to be the best fit for the Punk Domains governance will be deployed across all supported networks. This will mark the launch of the Punk Domains DAO.
–
It’s worth mentioning that these phases won’t happen in order (one after the other) but rather in parallel. The only exception is the last phase, which will start when everything is good to go.
Get notified when GRC Membership Passes are available
If you’re interested in helping shape the Punk Domains governance, drop your email below and we’ll let you know when the journey begins.
