Context: https://snapshot.org/#/atxdao.eth/proposal/0x227ef7b3339267f30f1dadf9ed9b42b131b284ebd43463501419d8e0c82a6702
For those who are unaware - we included an airdrop clause in the Bluebonnet Membership Round that made DAO members who participated in governance since February 2022 eligible to claim a Bluebonnet round NFT in addition to the NFT they currently own.
After weeks of recruiting potential new members and evangelizing our organization, I believe I made a mistake by writing and including that idea. Today, I downloaded spreadsheets of each Snapshot vote since February 2022 and identified that approximately 80 unique wallets (minus departed members) would be eligible for the airdrop. That would be 80 people with at least 2x the voting power of a new member.
We had approximately 150 new member applications (157 but some applications were duplicates and some were tests). These are 150 people who are passionate enough about ATX DAO that they are willing to contribute 1 ETH during an economic recession. Throughout the many 1:1 conversations I had during the recruitment period, I espoused the way that our organization empowers people to bring their ideas to life and contribute in the future of Austin. This is made possible by our 1 NFT = 1 vote process.
In the past, we have had a 50% mint rate from accepted members. For the sake of this illustration, let’s assume a 100% acceptance rate. That would mean we are getting 75 members and giving 80 existing members an extra vote, effectively negating the vote of all new members. Considering one of the most valuable parts of being an ATX DAO member is being able to influence the use of the treasury, and considering the fee can be seen as a contribution to the treasury rather than spent money, the most cynical view of this decision would be a Ponzi for existing members.
As an organization, ATX DAO thrives on bottom-up contribution and this type of action could cause irreversible damage to that culture. Not only would it be disingenuous to how we present our organization to the outside world—decentralized, democratic, inclusive—it would stifle the impact of new members.
In a time when the world sees crypto as a space full of greed and pyramid schemes, what type of organization do we want to be? Do we want people to see existing members enrich themselves and muzzle our future leaders?
What type of DAO would cancel an airdrop? ATX DAO would.
Two concerns to address up front:
- Due to the large number of new voters and the relatively small number of high-frequency contributors, new members could outweigh the influence of those who have done the most work building the organization.
- The Bluebonnet Round NFT is highly desirable and current DAO members want one.
Responses to these concerns:
- ATX DAO distinguishes itself from many other DAOs because of its human-to-human focus and IRL operations. Considering the people we are letting into the organization are both application-vetted and primarily in the Austin community, it would be unlikely that something destructive could occur. In fact, if current members are concerned about losing influence due to new voters in the pool, they would actually be incentivized to go make friends which would be a net benefit for the organization as a whole. Additionally, current members still have the advantage of understanding the inner workings of the organization and many preexisting relationships they can leverage if something were to go awry.
- We will be able to implement a burn mechanism into the minting process so members interested in holding a Bluebonnet NFT rather than a Zilker NFT can do so.
