An innovative, federated, organizational DAO structure to provide a framework for Gravity Bridge Growth.
The Cosmos ecosystem is an interconnected constellation of projects that are increasingly trading and interacting with one another as an interoperable ecosystem. Recently, the ICF team shared this interconnected vision of the Cosmos ecosystem, a continent of interconnected towns, with the Hub serving as the port city.
This visualization could be expanded to imagine all Cosmos blockchains as cities, interconnecting over the IBC highways, with Gravity Bridge connecting these cities to commerce in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Bridges, in both the physical and digital space, are infrastructure akin to aqueducts, roads, and sewers. They must be highly functional, reliable, curated and maintained to “just work” every time. When making the choice which bridge to travel over is the reliability, safety and practicality of the bridge, not its bells and whistles, that are the determining factors.
It is with this practical focus that we look to establish not only governance standards, but also long-term stewardship and stake. The bridge infrastructure held and maintained by Cosmos core entities, builders, and the blockchain “cities” and their citizens, provides aligned focus to see that the bridge works, every day, come whatever may. An enduring infrastructure that’s open and usable to all, empowering the Cosmos ecosystem with liquidity and interoperability.
Via Appia, an historic Roman road completed in 312 BC, perseveres
Democratic governance of large scale projects is also an exercise in attention, as it is nearly impossible to get a balanced understanding of all things at any given time. This typically results in much of daily operations being handled by a core development team.
How the development team interacts with governance, what happens as the project matures, and how to establish proper checks and balances: These are typically under-developed topics, leading to points of friction and occasional volatility within communities.
Gravity Growth is a vision of a multi-entity stewardship and curation: a structure of checks and balances to not only maintain the smooth operation of infrastructure, but to position it to weather any storm and carry it into the future.
Gravity Growth takes inspiration from worker-owned cooperatives, where those that build and are materially involved in the creation and curation, have voice and a stake in its outcome. It aims to strikes a balance between organizational efficiency and stakeholder engagement, with foundational architecture and decision making from a diverse and practical group of stakeholders.
The federated DAO will be composed of representatives from the Gravity Grants team and working groups known as Gravity Groups, which manage a multi-sig GRAV wallet. This multi-sig is for curation and administering of Gravity Grants.
Gravity Groups could be segmented into the following categories:
Community Development
Marketing
Recruitment and Ecosystem Growth
Development Tooling
Cosmos Public Goods
Instead of a corporation or insider council, each Gravity Group, or sub-DAO, will elect a representative to be a member of Gravity Grants and a signer in the 2/3 multi-sig. After the service of the initial charter members, growth members should be elected at least yearly, or a special election can be called through governance. These members evaluate the completion of Gravity Grants and release the remaining funds.
Gravity Grants are set up as individual grants, voted on through governance. These grants need curation and oversight from a working group, or council, that can provide community guidance and remit final and/or milestone payments in GRAV to the Grantee. This provides administrative oversight and curation. The group members are also uniquely positioned to perform outreach and coordinate with other Cosmos entities, and as such they too should receive GRAV compensation for their work.
Gravity Grants is intended to reward builders and maintainers, distributing stake alongside user and growth focused reward programs such as liquidity mining or community pool airdrops.
Proposed roadmap
Initial seed airdrop to Cosmos and Osmosis: completed
Liquidity Mining Rewards on Osmosis: completed
Liquidity Mining Rewards on Gravity DEX: Q1 2022
Initial Gravity Grants proposal deadlines: March 24th, 2022
First Gravity Groups/Growth Call: Week of March 31st
Formation of Gravity Growth: Early April 2022
This post should be seen as a living proposal, not a static plan. Gravity Growth will evolve and grow in dynamic ways, shaped by the needs of the community. The foundational ethos of checks and balances combined with collaborative working groups can be implemented alongside the projects it exists to support—making corrections for improved efficiencies and stewardship along the journey.
Stable coins and liquidity flowing into the Cosmos ecosystem will pour fuel on the fire of Cosmos Defi. As the growth accelerates, Gravity Bridge will need supportive elements such as development resources, an insurance pool, talent acquisition, marketing and community outreach. This council’s express purpose is to tend all things growth related, ensuring that important components of recruitment and outreach are not neglected and that nothing stands in the way of Gravity and Cosmos Growth. The era of Cosmos Defi is upon us!
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