Introducing Paideia — a DAO Toolkit
We’re thrilled to introduce Paideia and share some information about the DAO toolkit. Paideia is an organization whose purpose is to create a functional, secure, and well-documented DAO software suite that supports DAOs as they form and develop.
About Paideia
A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a new type of cooperative. DAOs use the Internet to enable groups of any size to organize to fulfill a common purpose. Using technology, DAOs can pool and democratically manage resources in ways that were previously not possible.
With disparate groups, where individual members may not know one another, there must be a way to establish trust between group members. In a DAO, trust is established through software, called smart contracts. Smart contracts provide a consistent and transparent framework for making decisions, and in some cases, the smart contract can act on behalf of the DAO, such as by spending money out of a DAO treasury.
A DAO in Action
“You can’t just have a DAO to be a DAO. You need a DAO to do something.” -Vitalik Buterin
DAOs exist in order to channel the resources and talent of its members to accomplish a goal. Initially, it might be a simple task, such as to collectively purchase an item. However, what happens next? Who gets to use the item and when? Who maintains it? Who makes these decisions, and how are they made?
In short, you need a governance model that addresses important questions, such as:
- Membership: Who can be a member of the DAO? How is membership determined?
- Tokens: How does a DAO raise money? Where is it kept? How is it spent?
- Proposals: Who can submit proposals for the DAO to do something? What kind of proposals can be submitted and approved for consideration? How are edits and amendments to proposals made?
- Voting: Who votes and in what circumstances? Are there different committees with different ways of making decisions? Are decisions made by a majority, a consensus or some other model?
Each of these considerations, and others, needs to be implemented and explicitly outlined in trusted, secure software.
The Problem: Functionality, Security and Support
In early 2022, off-the-shelf, trusted, secure DAO software does not exist in a robust format. There are some simple products out there, but to the degree that a DAO has software, it is created by DAOs themselves. This needs to change.
People do not join DAOs to create software. They join them to accomplish something in the real world that benefits them or their communities. But, a DAO needs software to enable it to function as a decentralized, autonomous organization. DAOs need an off-the-shelf DAO toolkit, one that provides:
Functionallity, Security and Support:
With affordable, functional and secure DAO software, DAOs will be able to focus on doing something important and not on the software required to do it.
- Standard Functionality and Governance Options: A software suite that offers a selection of pre-defined governance options and capabilities that simplifies the whole process of creating and participating in a DAO, with clear documentation that eliminates the need to read the DAO smart contracts and open source code for those with the desire and ability to review the code themselves.
- Security: All code is reviewed by independent security experts to make sure it conforms to the best security practices. Further, the programming languages, blockchains and other components of the DAO toolkit use Ergo and Ergoscript, which are a proof of work blockchain and a statically typed implementation of the Scala programming language that provides better security.
- Support: DAOs are a new type of organization. The concept will evolve. Individual groups will grow and change. DAOs are going to need membership support and developers that can implement new features to meet the needs of the DAO.
The Solution: Paideia
Paideia is a DAO management software suite. It is designed to make it easy for anyone to create, manage and be involved in a DAO, as well as facilitate the distribution of governance tokens and allow the ability to raise funds. The technical goal is to provide a secure DAO tool set that is open, easy to use, inexpensive, and allows for use in any environment. With Paideia in the hands of anyone that wishes to use it, this software suite can open new ways for people to work together, to change their lives and the world for the better.
Paideia token sale on Ergopad
We’re pleased to announce that Paideia will be the first project that will be launched through Ergopad. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements for the sale details and requirements!
Special thanks to @cafebedouin for helping us with the writing and the engagement!
- The Ergopad Team