We believe that the advent of blockchain technology is a human advancement that rivals the printing press and double-entry accounting in its magnitude. The internet allowed individuals to send information cheaply, freely, transparently, globally, and instantly. Crypto allows individuals to send value cheaply, freely, transparently, globally, and instantly. However, building and launching new digital assets remains a very difficult challenge. Minimizing technical trust assumptions and maximizing shared values across decentralized communities is hard. Additionally, compliance with complex and opaque government regulations is often harder. The Soft DAO can act as a solution to these technical and value-based needs.
The Soft DAO is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) with the mission of supporting the development of high-integrity protocols. In pursuit of this mission, the Soft DAO will aim to:
Stewards On-Chain Smart Contracts & Libraries – Soft DAO supports battle-tested, open-source smart contracts and libraries across multiple blockchains. The aim of supporting these contracts is to push forward the values of Soft DAO more broadly in the ecosystem. See Appendix A: Primitives for details.
Supports Core Teams – Soft DAO engages approved parties (Core Teams) to build and operate crypto tools. Soft DAO issues requests for proposals (RFPs), selects qualified Core Team proposals, and funds such Core Teams from its treasury. Core Team proposals must demonstrate long-term incentive alignment with Soft DAO.
Manages the Treasury – Soft DAO believes capital is required for sustainability. Therefore, SoftDAO aims to manage its treasury for conservative, long-term growth. To this end, Soft DAO may receive fees from its smart contracts and fund aligned projects. SOFT holders may also vote on additional uses for SoftDAO treasury.
The Soft DAO defines high-integrity protocols and crypto assets as those which embody the following values:
Rebel Reasonably – legacy systems are often deeply flawed. Soft DAO wants to replace them with fair and open crypto; while also recognizing legacy guardrails often exist for good reasons. As reasonable rebels we understand that high ethical standards help regulators see the immense benefits of blockchain and cryptography.
Trust Code – crypto exists to build more trustworthy assets, networks, and rules through impartial code. Therefore, Soft DAO supports projects that prefer trusting code over vulnerable and subjective processes. As Nick Szabo says, “trusted third parties are security holes.”
Build – Web3 will win. Finance is moving on-chain. Soft DAO helps make that happen, not by speculating or over-financializing, but by building and supporting builders. No suits or moonboys.
Do It Right – Community and fairness first for the long term. Play positive-sum games that can last for years and brighten the future.
Soft DAO will go further toward our mission together.
Soft DAO is governed through a proposal and voting process. Community members are encouraged to make proposals and participate in the adoption of these proposals with the goal of moving Soft DAO values forward.
Governance discussions and proposals are viewable at https://forum.thesoftdao.com
Proposals are limited to the following scope:
Meta-Governance and Mechanics – Soft DAO may ratify a code of conduct, update governance smart contracts, and alter its own governance mechanisms.Steward
On-Chain Primitives – Soft DAO manages a portfolio of smart contracts. This means curating libraries, updating key parameters, and coordinating with other industry participants to build primitives that help to build and launch.
Support Core Teams – Soft DAO may engage Core Teams to build crypto infrastructure and applications. Each engagement is governed by a Core Team Agreement. Soft DAO’s involvement may include, without limitation:
• Creating RFPs for specific tools
• Approving Core Team applications
• Disbursing grants to approved Core Teams
• Circulating Core Team tools to the SOFT ecosystem
Treasury Management – Soft DAO may grow and manage its treasury for long-term sustainability.
The future of crypto is multi-chain, multi-application, and multi-player. The Soft DAO’s mission is to launch and fund high-integrity protocols and crypto assets that advance this future. But Soft DAO cannot do this alone. If you share the values and vision of The Soft DAO, we invite you to join us.
Appendix A: Primitives
At genesis, Soft DAO’s launch primitives include but are not limited to the following:
Sales:
Configurable in-grouping
Access – public or private, determined by blockchain addresses included in a Merkle root
Fair Surge Protection – order of access to on-chain activities determined by fair and random ordering to maintain low network fees
Transparency – group information and configurable attributes are visible on-chain Non-custodial: tokens held directly in the smart contracts with configurable directions
Distribution:
Configurable escrow accounts
• Time-based lockups & vesting
• Tranche-based vesting (unlock schedule)
• Continuous vesting (start, cliff, end)
• Price-based vesting (unlock schedule based on reference asset prices)
Governance:
Governor contract for DAO tooling
• Enables votes by token holders while tokens are vesting
• Increased voting weights for tokens locked in genesis vesting contract
Appendix B: Community Proposals & Milestones
30 Aug, 2022 – Soft DAO forum launched and A SOFT Community Pledge
01 Sept, 2022 – SOFT Enhancement Proposal (SEP) standards published on Github
06 Sept, 2022 – Multi-Sig signers & Creation
06 Sept, 2022 – Soft DAO Approval/Instantiation & Soft DAO Constitution signed
08 Sept, 2022 – Community publishes first RFP Soft DAO seeks SOFT Core Teams
12 Sept, 2022 – Soft DAO Governance Update - for posting and approving proposals
20 Sept, 2022 – SOFT token proposal & parameters discussed
21 Sept, 2022 – 8,000 new users on day 1 of Soft DAO forum roll-out
24 Sept, 2022 – $SOFT token created & sent to Soft DAO multi-sig
08 Oct, 2022 – Approval of Tokensoft as a Core Team for setup
10 Oct, 2022 – Approval to officially adopt SOFT token
11 Oct, 2022 – Whitepaper proposed
11 Oct, 2022 – RFP announced for Soft DAO Website
