HOM DAO Governance

Who runs the HOM DAO?

No one. And everyone with a HOM governance token.

HOM DAO has functioned as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) since the initial creators started discussing the project.This whitepaper is a product of DAO input from many of the original DAO members and can be amended at any time by the DAO to more accurately describe the progress of the project and the evolution of its goals and protocol features.

This fourth edition of the White Paper (January 2024) reflects a significant evolution from the original concept as progress and operational details have become more clear. Further, the DAO has had an opportunity to build and test different products, some of which worked and most of which did not.

This progression has led to the DAO has evolved towards being an idea lab for the creation of various blockchain-based Service As A Software (SAAS) inventions versus its original idea which was a protocol that was developed for staking asset-backed crypto currencies.

Sections of this White Paper have been authored by different DAO members, often anonymously, and then subjected to ongoing peer review. (You can view active project submittals and voting at the DAO Snapshot by clicking on this link https://snapshot.org/#/homdaoofficial.eth.)

How do DOA members submit ideas?

A member, or collection of DAO members, outlines a project that would benefit the DAO and protocol. The project is outlined and presented to the DAO members through a series of video calls, presentations, preparation of technical specs, and other project content. The proposed project is then open to peer review by members of the DAO who can comment and make suggestions. The project advocates can take any comment into consideration and modify the project as the DAO directs. The final project is put forth on Snapshot for a vote. If the vote passes, then the project is approved and moves forward and funds from the DAO treasury can be allocated to finance the project costs and the project's successful work product is integrated into the blockchain for the HOM Protocol. If the project is rejected, then it does not move forward.

DAO participation in theory vs. reality

Central to the DAO governance is the concept of participation. As noted previously HOM DAO has pioneered the concept of “Vote-to-Earn” staking awards which are based on voting and other beneficial community actions. HOM coin owners are automatically members of the DAO.

A reality of decentralized governance is that not everyone participates. In the three years of HOM DAO’s development, we have observed that around 10% of DAO members actively participate in voting, another 20-30% participating occasionally, while the majority - around 70% - do not participate at all. We have also observed that in public DOA communications boards, over 90% of the content is generated by bots and people that do not even hold governance tokens, which was a reason the DAO voted to shut down the Discord server and move towards more announcement driven platforms, like Twitter and X, for DAO communications. When it comes to development and voting, the DAO has moved operations to Snapshot where only HOM token holders can participate.

Another finding of HOM DAO decentralized governance has been that it may presents dramatic and unknown legal risks for members, is not actually suited to commercializing ideas, and is a potentially problematic legal structure for asserting and defending inventions and IP.

Safeguarding the DAO

The DAO has several roles within the community to help ensure that governance functions properly. All DAO members have complete visibility into operations, and all community members have a chance to provide their input and vote on significant decisions..

To help ensure that the DAO community doesn’t go “off the rails”, the DAO has created a five-member DAO counsel that is selected from the DAO community which reviews governance processes on an annual basis to ensure that DAO standards are upheld. This counsel also holds the key to the multi-signature wallets for the DAO. Both our Ethereum and Polygon treasury wallets are guarded by a 2/6 multi-sig Gnosis Safe, preventing a circumstance in which any one DAO member has direct control of funds in the DAO treasury.

The DAO also retains the services of professional law firms, accounting firms, and real estate professional services teams. It may also retain the expertise of other advisory services firms to help the DAO establish optimal treasury composition, asset acquisition, fundraising, and other services.