Grant Application: CowDAO Governance Analytics Services

CoW Grants Program
1

Grant Title:

CowDAO Governance Analytics Services

Author:

  • Name: v3naru
  • Email: varit@curialab.xyz
  • Discord: v3naru.eth

About Us:

Curia Lab is a dynamic team of DAO governance researchers, data analysts, blockchain engineers, and developers. Our mission is to empower DAOs with robust, data-driven tools, ensuring transparency and accountability in governance processes. We have extensive experience in developing governance analytics dashboards, having worked on projects for notable DAOs such as Optimism Collective and SafeDAO. Our team combines a deep understanding of decentralized governance with advanced data analysis techniques to deliver valuable insights and tools for DAOs.

Additional Links:

Grant Category: Decentralization - Encouraging wider participation in the network’s governance and exploring opportunities to distribute decision-making power among community members.

Grant Description:

The CoW DAO Governance Analytics Dashboard aims to support ongoing governance initiatives, enhance transparency, and provide comprehensive insights into governance data. The dashboard will track voting behavior, safeguard against potential governance attacks, and measure the success of initiatives like the current CoW DAO Delegation Program. By developing this analytic dashboard, we aim to simplify the understanding of complex governance dynamics, track the effectiveness of initiatives, and ensure transparency and accountability within the CoW DAO ecosystem. Additionally, we will provide monthly governance analytics reports to keep the community informed and engaged with up-to-date insights and trends.

Grant Goals and Impact:

The primary goals of the CowDAO Governance Analytics Dashboard are:

  • Encouraging Wider Participation: To provide detailed metrics on CowDAO’s participation trends and engagement among delegates and token holders, thereby encouraging more community members to assess their delegate performance and participate more actively in governance.
  • Distributing Decision-Making Power: To analyze and present insights into proposal activities, distribution of voting power, and voting dynamics, identifying and addressing potential power capture, thus promoting a more equitable distribution of decision-making power among community members.
  • Enhancing Transparency: To offer clear and accessible insights into governance activities, making it easier for all community members to understand and engage with the governance process.
  • Safeguarding Governance: To monitor unusual delegation behavior and safeguard against potential governance attacks, ensuring a secure and robust governance framework.
  • Continuous Community Engagement: To produce monthly governance analytics reports, keeping the community continuously informed and engaged with ongoing governance activities and trends.

The successful execution of this grant will benefit the CowDAO ecosystem by fostering inclusive, data-driven decision-making, enhancing community governance effectiveness, ensuring a secure and transparent governance framework, and encouraging wider participation in the network’s governance.

Milestones:

Milestone Due Date Payment
Milestone 1: Initial design mockups & metrics 3 Weeks after grant approval -
Milestone 2: Dashboard Development 11 Weeks after grant approval (2 month period) 8000 xDAI
Milestone 3: Monthly Report 1 & Dashboard Maintenance End of first month after dashboard launch 4000 xDAI
Milestone 4: Monthly Report 2 & Dashboard Maintenance End of 2nd month after dashboard launch 4000 xDAI
Milestone 5: Monthly Report 3 & Dashboard Maintenance End of 3rd month after dashboard launch 4000 xDAI

Milestone 1: Initial design mockups & metrics

Tasks and Deliverables:

  • Research & Ideation: Identify key metrics and gather community feedback.
  • Design & Mockups: Create initial design mockups focusing on user experience and presentation of key metrics. Share with the community for feedback.

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • A clear understanding of community needs and expectations.
  • Initial feedback on design and functionality to guide further development.

Milestone 2: Dashboard Development

Tasks and Deliverables:

  • Development Phase: Develop a MVP featuring basic holder metrics and concentration of voting power metrics.
  • Integration of Additional Metrics: Based on community feedback, integrate detailed proposal and participation metrics for comprehensive insights.
  • Testing & Iteration: Conduct multiple rounds of testing for functionality, usability, and data accuracy. Make iterative improvements based on ongoing community feedback.
  • Launch the Dashboard to the Public

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • A functional user-friendly governance analytics dashboard
  • Officially launch the dashboard. Commit to maintaining it, including daily updates and feature iterations based on community needs.

Milestone 3: Monthly Report 1 & Dashboard Maintenance

Tasks and Deliverables:

  • Monthly Reports: Produce and distribute the first monthly governance analytics report to keep the community informed and engaged.

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • Regular updates and maintenance to ensure the dashboard remains relevant and valuable.
  • Monthly reports providing continuous insights into governance trends and metrics.

Milestone 4: Monthly Report 2 & Dashboard Maintenance

Tasks and Deliverables:

  • Monthly Reports: Produce and distribute the second monthly governance analytics report to keep the community informed and engaged.

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • Regular updates and maintenance to ensure the dashboard remains relevant and valuable.
  • Monthly reports providing continuous insights into governance trends and metrics.

Milestone 5: Monthly Report 3 & Dashboard Maintenance

Tasks and Deliverables:

  • Monthly Reports: Produce and distribute the third monthly governance analytics report to keep the community informed and engaged.

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • Regular updates and maintenance to ensure the dashboard remains relevant and valuable.
  • Monthly reports providing continuous insights into governance trends and metrics.

Budget Breakdown:

Governance Dashboard (20,000 xDAI)

  • Infrastructure Costs: This includes all the foundational services needed to support the dashboard’s operation.
  • Maintenance and Operational Costs: These are ongoing costs required to keep the service up-to-date and running smoothly.
  • Data Management Costs: Expenses related to handling and storing the data used by the dashboard.
  • Third-Party Services: Costs for services provided by external entities that enhance the functionality of the dashboard.
  • Overhead Costs: General administrative and operational expenses not directly tied to specific technical resources.

Monthly Report*

  • Data Interpretation and Analysis: Simplify complex metrics into clear insights and identify trends, patterns, and anomalies.
  • Focus on Key Governance Metrics: Voting patterns, voter performance, proposal outcomes, and voting power shifts.
  • Actionable Insights: Provide recommendations for increased participation and governance improvements.
  • Customized Content: Tailor reports to community interests and feedback.

*Complimentary Trail

Gnosis Chain Address (to receive the grant): 0x17296956b4E07Ff8931E4ff4eA06709FaB70b879

Other Information:
We have actively served as delegates in multiple DAOs, deeply engaging in governance, data analysis, and operational activities. We have built governance data-driven tools for notable projects like the Optimism Collective (Optimism Dashboard) and SafeDAO (SafeDAO Dashboard) and are keen on developing similar tools for Cow DAO as well.

Referral: @middleway.eth referred us to this grant program

1 Like
2

I support this initiative. It will be particularly beneficial to the DAO to measure and report on how decentralized it is, which may inform future activities.

1 Like
3

Thanks Varit and Curia for the comprehensive grant proposal.

Personally I’m not convinced that, at the moment, funding this type of dashboard (solely governance analytics) and the amount requested ($20k) can be justified given they aren’t directly able to contribute towards moving the needle on any core protocol metrics.

4

Hi Curia team - I support the need of a dashboard and have plenty of ideas for metrics.

Creating visibility is such an important part to drive us towards wider participation and a distributed decision-making process.

I have some of questions:

  • Would KPIs include general voting behaviour (e.g. number of unique voting addresses, participation over time, thresholds reached etc.)
  • Would KPIs include delegates’ behaviour (active / inactive / number of delegators / voting power & their voting behaviour)
  • Would you be able to include a “delegation page” to recognised delegates? (I see that you included a “delegate us” feature on both the safe and optimism pages). I would propose to make this more general. What would it cost to add this feature?

My main concern is actually the creation cost vs. the maintenance/reporting costs. In my mind, it should be clearer what to expect from the dashboard so you can gauge the upfront costs properly.

Once the right format is found, the reports could then ideally be automated and running cost kept to a minimum. What would happen after the third month? 4k / month obligation is quite high. What if the grant is not continued after the third month, would you shut down the service?

What are alternative low costs dashboard services (Dune?).

5

Hey @sohkai and @c3rnst,
Thank you both for taking the time to review our grant proposal and for your thoughtful feedback. We appreciate your insights and understand your concerns regarding the immediate impact and value of a governance analytics dashboard for CoW DAO.

@sohkai, we believe that enhancing governance transparency and participation can have a significant, albeit indirect, impact on the overall health and growth of CoW DAO. Here’s how our proposal contributes to the DAO’s objectives:

  1. Indirect Contribution to Core Protocol Metrics:
    • Enhanced Community Engagement: By providing accessible and insightful governance data, we aim to increase community involvement in decision-making processes. An engaged community can lead to higher user retention and attract new participants, positively affecting growth metrics.
    • Informed Decision-Making: Detailed analytics can help identify trends and areas for improvement within the DAO’s operations, leading to more effective strategies that drive protocol adoption and efficiency.
  2. Supporting Decentralization Efforts:
    • Distribution of Decision-Making Power: Our dashboard will highlight voting behaviors and power concentrations, encouraging a more equitable distribution of influence, aligning with the DAO’s goal of enhancing decentralization.
    • Safeguarding Against Governance Attacks: Monitoring unusual delegation patterns helps protect the DAO from potential threats, ensuring the stability and reliability of protocol governance.

We believe this is an ideal time to build a governance analytics tool, especially with the upcoming launch of the Recognized Delegate Program. It could significantly enhance this initiative by providing valuable insights into delegate activities, fostering transparency, and encouraging greater engagement among delegates.

We’re open to adjusting our proposal to better meet CoW DAO’s needs. If there are specific areas where you feel our efforts could be more impactful, please let us know!

@c3rnst, we’re excited that you see the importance of a governance dashboard and have ideas for metrics. Let me address your questions:

  1. KPIs on General Voting Behavior:

    • Yes, we’ll include metrics like the number of unique voting addresses, participation over time, and an overview of proposal thresholds to visualize overall community engagement.

  2. KPIs on Delegates’ Behavior:

    • Absolutely. We’ll track active vs. inactive delegates, number of delegators per delegate, voting power distribution, and delegates’ voting behavior to provide insights into each delegate’s performance. We plan to include a tab for “Recognized Delegates” along with other voters/delegates, similar to features we’ve built before. We’re also open to making the dashboard more general without the “Delegate Us” button to align with community preferences. These features will be included at no additional cost.

  3. Our goal and Post-Grant Period:

    • Our goal goes beyond creating another dashboard. We aim to build a long-term governance insights infrastructure offering transparency through detailed visualizations and metrics. This infrastructure is designed to identify areas for improvement within the DAO, increase participation, improve voting power distribution, and facilitate monitoring of initiatives like the Recognized Delegate Program.
    • To address cost concerns and demonstrate value, we’re proposing the initial three months as a trial period. During this time, the community can evaluate the dashboard’s impact and usefulness without a long-term commitment.
    • After three months, if the community finds the dashboard valuable, we can discuss continuing the service and explore options for long-term sustainability, such as ongoing support, additional features, or integration into CoW DAO’s infrastructure. If the grant isn’t continued, we’ll keep the dashboard operational for an additional three months at no extra cost. This provides time for the community to transition or consider alternatives without abrupt discontinuation. We’re open to collaborating on sustainable solutions for long-term maintenance, such as open-sourcing parts of the project or providing insights in API format for others to build similar tools at a reduced cost.

  4. Why we preferred a customized dashboard over generic solutions:

    • While platforms like Dune Analytics offer valuable tools, our dashboard provides a customized solution tailored to CoW DAO’s governance needs. Advantages include:

      • Flexible Customization: Allow more flexible metrics and KPIs that reflect CoW DAO’s unique governance priorities.
      • Better UX: A dedicated interface designed for ease of use by all community members.
      • Dedicated Team Support: Ongoing governance reports, maintenance, updates, and quick implementation of community feedback.

    • By offering these tailored services, we aim to deliver a solution that exceeds the community’s needs, providing greater value than generic dashboards.

    • Our Track Record: For example, with Optimism, our dashboard helped identify inconsistencies in governance participation rewards, leading to corrections since the tool’s inception (reference). Similarly, for SafeDAO, our dashboard assisted in addressing issues related to proposals and voter participation, leading to new governance structures (reference).

We appreciate your questions and are committed to delivering insights that provide maximum value to the CoW DAO community. We’re open to adjusting the scope based on further feedback and are eager to collaborate to ensure it aligns perfectly with community needs.

Thank you both again for your thoughtful feedback. We look forward to the possibility of contributing to the CoW DAO community.

6

Hi Curia team -

First of all thank you for your thorough reply to points raised in this thread! Apologies for only getting back at this point.

I’ve started to coordinate a bit around the proposal process with the committee members. Though this hasn’t “officially” been rejected, the general sentiment was that it’s not in the spirit of being open source & sustainable vs. quite pricey. If you need absolute certainty on this, you are always free to post it in snapshot for the committee members to take an official vote.

The committe members asked me to come up with an analytics RFP to see what option we’d have as alternatives and to more concretely define a minimal need of governance KPIs. This might take a few days, but I’d suggest for you to comment there as well.

Thanks again!

2 Likes
7

Heya Curia team - took a little bit, but here is an RFP, if you want to take a look? RFP: CoW DAO Governance Analytics

thaaanks and happy friday

1 Like