Delegate Statement Template

404 DAO and Blockchain at Georgia Tech Delegate Profile

Introduction:

Name: 404 DAO & Blockchain at Georgia Tech
Wallet Address or ENS: governance.404-dao.eth (0xE93D59CC0bcECFD4ac204827eF67c5266079E2b5)
Website: 404 DAO, Blockchain at GT
Twitter: @404DAO & @Blockchain_GT
Tally Profile

Overview:

Hello everyone! We are 404 DAO, a non-profit born out of Blockchain at Georgia Tech with the mission to provide web3 education and opportunities in Atlanta and Southeast. Blockchain at GT is a student-led blockchain organization at Georgia Tech and currently has over 40 active members.

Blockchain at GT has four main committees: Governance, Non-Technical (primarily research), Technical (primarily Solidity development), and Macro (Encourage discussion at meetings and inform members on crypto news). The club also leads a Crypto 101 course for new members, hosts multiple social and speaker events each semester, and is an official partner for Web3 ATL, the largest web3 conference and hackathon in Atlanta.

404 DAO is committed to transparency; everything involved in our governance decisions will be recorded and displayed on this notion page.

Areas Interested In:

  • Ecosystem Development (Defi, NFTs, Gaming)
  • Public Goods Funding

Overall goals for the DAO:

The goal of the Arbitrum DAO is to facilitate the success of the Arbitrum network as the leading Layer 2 scaling solution through rigorous analysis and discussion to enforce the principles of Web3 – namely: decentralization, censorship-resistance, trustless execution, and community ownership and participation. We believe the DAO should prioritize the following objectives in the support of the aforementioned goal:

  • Ensure the critical infrastructure and technical mechanisms are developed to enhance user experience, security, and decentralization.
  • Support the existing projects and protocols that contributed to Arbitrum’s initial success while also incentivizing new users to build on the protocol.
  • Take a conservative approach to incentivize activity. Compared to its competitors, Arbitrum waited to launch a token. 404 DAO believes that implementing thoughtful and well-detailed requirements for grants and incentive programs is crucial to ensuring Arbitrum doesn’t become reliant on subsidized activity.

Sample Voting Issue 1: Flipside & Uniswap

  1. Against

  2. Overall there is a major conflict of interest issue with Flipside being the main vendor, manager of funds, and a near majority on the allocation committee. Additionally, we believe that the oversight committee should remain entirely independent and Flipside, Dune, and Leshner should not have a seat. Additionally, given the pace of change in crypto, we feel that semi-annual check-ins are prudent for the DAO in order to reevaluate the engagement. These initiatives should be monitored closely in order to effectively support the mission of the DAO.

  3. We view the idea of decentralization to be of utmost importance, however, speed and diligence are also necessary for DAO operations. We believe that the Arbitrum DAO should outline what kinds of decisions should be brought to a DAO vote to minimize unnecessary governance activities. We envision elected representatives or trusted committees as a model that maximizes the DAO’s execution without requiring a significant tradeoff in terms of decentralization.

Sample Voting Issue 2: Rari

Given this specific example with Rari, we feel that full reimbursement would have been the correct decision. Based on the precedent set by the Rari team by reimbursing a similar reentrancy hack back in 2021, as long as the reimbursement did not impose a threat to the going concern of the protocol then a full reimbursement should be made. There is also ample evidence that showed the ability of the protocol to reimburse every hack victim, redeem FEI at peg, and still have PCV left over to continue operations.

However, the Rari hack and subsequent actions of the team make for one of the most complex governance cases in recent history, and we would not suggest full reimbursement as the solution for future hacks. In general, the 404 DAO team believes that partial reimbursement for hacks is the best way forward as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the future of the protocol. It is our view that users accept some level of smart contract risk and loss, and that the DAO must work in the best interest of the DAO/protocol and not individual users. We believe the DAO should set out best practices and courses of action in the event of a hack ahead of time in order to better prepare for such an event.

Languages I (we) speak and write:

English, members of Blockchain GT speak Spanish, Polish, & Vietnamese

Disclosure of Conflict(s) of Interest:

404 DAO is also a delegate for Optimism, which could be considered a conflict of interest. Currently, we hold voting power for 1M OP tokens. However, as a team, we believe in the future of Ethereum and the importance of scalability in achieving mass adoption. Both Optimism and Arbitrum are core pieces of infrastructure necessary to make this vision a reality. By being involved in governance discussions for both protocols, the 404 DAO team can aggregate best practices for growth and contribute in a more effective way. If there is a proposal where the 404 DAO team deems a conflict of interest exists, we will abstain from the vote.

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