We’re pleased to provide an update on the nomination process for what we previously called the CoW DAO Delegate Council. Based on our review process and community feedback, we’ve made some important changes and decisions.
Program Name Change
The grants committee has reviewed all applications. We’re pleased to announce that all applicants have met our criteria and will be welcomed as Recognized Delegates. This inclusive approach aligns with our goal of fostering diverse representation within our governance structure.
Application Update
We received 11 applications for the delegate program, demonstrating strong interest from our community in shaping the future of CoW DAO.
Grants Committee Insights
The grants committee has reviewed all applications. We’re pleased to announce that all applicants have met our criteria and will be welcomed as Recognized Delegates. This inclusive approach aligns with our goal of fostering diverse representation within our governance structure.
List of Recognized Delegates
We are excited to introduce our initial cohort of Recognized Delegates:
Bigpapa
Dean Eigenmann
Eylon
Joel
Curia Lab
kubesqrt
Chim9
Karpatkey
MasterMojo
Blockworks Research
middleway.eth
yvesfracari
Please note that submissions for Recognized Delegates will remain open after the launch, allowing for continued community participation and representation.
Governance Working Group
In addition to their delegate responsibilities, the initial cohort of Recognized Delegates will be invited to participate in a governance working group. The goal of this group is to continuously iterate and improve CoW DAO governance, ensuring our processes remain effective and aligned with community needs.
Next Steps
We invite each delegate to introduce themselves in the comments below, sharing their vision and approach to representation.
Each delegate will create their delegate profile on the Snapshot delegate dashboard, (Detailed instructions will be provided soon), and receive a dedicate “Recognized Delegate” badge.
Update to CoW DAO’s snapshot settings is being worked on in this repository, intended to introduce split delegation strategy, update CoW DAO’s snapshot space with the new branded icon, and update the oSnap plugin to the newest version adding tenderly simulations.
Once the update is ready, a proposal will be posted to implement the new changeds to CoW DAO’s Snapshot settings.
In parallel, a delegation campaign is being worked on to launch after the new registry is implemented and Recognized Delegates have introduced themselves.
Community Engagement
We encourage all community members to engage with our Recognized Delegates. Read their introductions in the comments, ask questions, and consider their perspectives as you make delegation decisions.
Thank you for your continued support and participation in shaping the future of our community.
Curia Lab is a team of seasoned DAO governance researchers, data analysts, blockchain engineers, and developers, dedicated to strengthening the DAO ecosystem through specialized tools, insights, and delegate services.
Delegate Motivation
We are excited about the prospect of joining CoW DAO and contributing to its mission of creating a fairer, more protective financial system. Curia Lab is committed to active governance participation within the CoW DAO community. Our engagement is centered on fostering meaningful involvement to support the growth and evolution of CoW DAO and its innovative trading products like CoW Swap, CoW Protocol, and MEV Blocker.
Areas of Expertise
Curia Lab seeks to support CoW DAO’s vision of a decentralized future where digital assets can be traded fairly, efficiently, and securely. We are committed to contributing our expertise in governance and data analysis by leveraging our hands-on experience in protocol governance to enhance decision-making processes, promoting transparency within CoW DAO, and providing data-driven insights to inform strategies and improve the user experience on CoW DAO.
Conflicts of Interest
As a team deeply involved in governance research and DAO operations, we collaborate with various projects and DAOs including Optimism, Safe, Arbitrum, Zksync, etc. to improve their governance. We pledge to maintain transparency and manage any potential conflicts of interest responsibly, ensuring our dealings with CoW DAO remain unbiased and in the best interest of the community.
Waiver of Liability
By delegating to Curia for CoW DAO governance, delegates acknowledge that Curia will participate on a best-effort basis and will not be liable for any damages related to this participation.
Point of contact: TG: @Che_gev, Discord: middleway.eth, Twitter: middleway_eth
Amount of COW Tokens intended for Self-Delegation: 10,000 COW tokens
Experience
Extensive experience in blockchain ecosystems, particularly in decentralized governance and community engagement. Expertise spans across DeFi protocols, token economics, and ecosystem development.
Involvement in the CoW ecosystem
Deeply involved in the CoW ecosystem since its launch in 2022, building on prior experiences with dxDAO and Gnosis DAO. As a core contributor to CoW Swap, played a key role in ecosystem development and partnerships. Notable contributions include:
Helping establish CoW DAO’s grants program
Contributing to ecosystem growth through partnerships and community initiatives
Active participation in governance discussions and proposal development
Delegate motivation
Long-standing commitment to the CoW ecosystem. Believes experience and deep understanding of the protocol’s goals can contribute significantly to informed decision-making and community representation. Passionate about fostering a vibrant, decentralized ecosystem. Aims to represent the core team working on CoW Protocol and CoW DAO.
Conflicts of interest
Currently part of the CoW grants committee, which is involved in evaluating Recognized Delegate applications. Commits to excluding self from the decision process regarding own application.
Additional information
To demonstrate commitment to decentralization and fair representation:
Will self-delegate 10,000 COW tokens bought from the open market
Will delegate any airdrop and team allocations to other delegates to help with delegate voting power distribution
Amount of COW Tokens intended for Self-Delegation: 603k vCOW
Expertise and Experience:
Relevant Expertise: karpatkey is a DeFi-native organisation specialising in professional DAO finance through industry-leading research and tooling since 2020. We’ve been working with GnosisDAO, Balancer, ENS, AAVE and Lido on financial planning, operations, and strategy, diversifying their treasuries into sustainable portfolios of DeFi investments designed to support DAOs in executing their missions.
Previous Involvement in the CoW Ecosystem: Under CIP-19 , karpatkey created, trained, supported, and audited a Core Treasury Team within CoW DAO that works jointly with us to develop CoW DAO’s treasury, allowing CowSwap to efficiently provide its own liquidity, fund its operations, development, and evolution while optimising yield for idle funds. Besides that, we are an active governance member within CoWDAO.
Motivation:
We’ve been advocates of delegated voting in DAO governance as a viable solution to improve the legitimacy, inclusivity, and effectiveness of decision-making processes. However, the efficacy of this system is highly dependent on having domain experts actively involved as delegates. It fosters a symbiotic relationship between all stakeholders, optimising the quality of collective decisions and reinforcing the democratic underpinnings of DAOs.karpatkey’s governance team taps our network of engineers, DeFi strategists, data/financial/quant analysts, and accountants for subject matter expertise.
As DAO treasury developers and contributors to some of the most reputable DeFi protocols in our industry, we believe that our team has the knowledge, trust, and alignment to meaningfully contribute to CoWDAO’s growth moving forward. Check out our values to understand a bit more about our guiding and decision-making principles. We differentiate ourselves by being a hands-on delegate, actively leveraging our unique position in assembling a DeFi block of DAOs with similar values.
Conflict of Interest:
We currently work with CoWDAO’s Core Treasury Team and, if any conflict of interest regarding this arises, we will communicate in advance.