Implementable Tools to Extend DAO Interaction Patterns in D2D Research Phase 2
This piece is the first output of the 2nd DAO2DAO research workcycle between Token Kitchen, BlockScience and Curve Labs, funded by PrimeDAO. While our previous research digest and associated literature review and community report focused on an early exploration of DAO conceptual models and real-world precedents in foreign relations, this workcycle focused more on exploring recurring systems patterns, then selecting a few for further detailed review and potential implementation. Article by Cem F Dagdelen, Jeff Emmett, Max hampshire, Shermin Voshmgir, and Michael Zargham.
Introduction
Our aim in this research cycle was to dive deeper into a few promising mechanisms for further…
Applying Control Theory to Cryptocurrency Monetary Policy
This piece is a deep dive exploration of the engineering design work carried out by the team at BlockScience, in collaboration with Reflexer Labs, focusing on parameterization of the RAI system prior to the mainnet launch which took place on Feb 17, 2021. Concepts covered include PID controllers, Governance Surfaces, parameter selection under uncertainty, controller stress testing, and safe system rollouts.
Preface
The web3 space has served as the foundation for rapid financial experimentation in many directions. Many of these projects seek price stability for their tokens (as any useful currency should), and often go about it in different ways. From…
Configuring Complex Systems to Handle the Real World
This article aims to educate the reader on the concept of parameter selection under uncertainty — in other words, how we configure complex ecosystems in situations when we don’t have perfect information. This methodology is a workflow for scientifically iterating multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder systems with the goal of making actionable recommendations in regards to parameter selection. Through the clear definition system goals and parameters, we perform a variety of tests that can inform the most important aspects of the system under different circumstances, ensuring more robust and reliable system design.
Introduction, Motivation and Context
In any dynamical complex system, values of system parameters play a…
Ethics as Mission and Motivation for the Token Engineering Commons
BY MICHAEL ZARGHAM orginally published on the Token Engineering Commons Medium publication
Our community is a technology-abled social organization committed to the application of web3 technologies to achieve human-centric outcomes. Much like traditional engineering societies we engage in research, education, and standard setting in addition to designing, building and maintaining technological solutions.
As with any emerging technology there is still a lot of uncertainty around the practice of engineering web3 enabled systems but it is already clear that these systems are deeply entangled with social and economic systems, and thus have the potential for a deep and long standing impact…
Using Systems Engineering and cadCAD to Manage Difficult Trade-Offs
This is a short piece to walk the reader through the theoretical design of a complex, multi-stakeholder system — in this case, a bridge over protected wetlands. Through this hypothetical engineering feat, we look at some common challenges faced by systems designers and offer a glimpse into strategies and considerations in a high level introduction to computer-aided design of complex systems.
Measuring the Utility of Multi-Stakeholder Systems
Imagine building a bridge between two existing roads, currently separated by ecologically-diverse wetlands. The raison d’être for the bridge is to create a stable, safe traffic connection between the two roads, but there is a community ‘common good’ desire…
A Dialogue Between the Metagovernance Project and the Commons Stack
DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are technical tools written in code and run on blockchains, but they are also a new kind of social institution. Early explorations of DAOs focused more on their technical development and less on their social implications, leading to a series of failures that exposed the limitations of a rigid, “code is law” approach to the design of DAOs. In this article, we explore a more holistic approach to DAOs, one that integrates technical engineering with social design. We call this approach the institutional view.
Defining the Terminology
We have the language of cryptoeconomics for talking about the technical…
An open database of projects and tools in online governance
By Joshua Tan and Michael Zargham
How do we run online communities? The growing field of online governance answers this question using a range of tools: voting algorithms, social media platforms, community management software, (crypto)economic designs, and even real-world laws. But just what tools are out there, who’s building them, and who’s using them? In this article, we introduce Govbase, an open, crowdsourced database of projects and tools in online governance, and discuss how we’re using it to foster more interoperability between the many tools and platforms available to online communities.
Govbase is a database of projects and tools in…
How can algorithm design be reconceptualized as policy-making to create safer digital infrastructures?
Michael Zargham & Kelsie Nabben
December 2020
In a digitised society, algorithms are fulfilling the function of policies as they constitute the rules of governance in online platforms, yet, they are not being designed with the adequate considerations for those being governed.
Software ‘code’ is the rules for a computer to follow. Yet, it is increasingly common to also refer to “rules as code”- in the sense that code is defining rules through which humans interact with each other. …
Kelsie Nabben & Michael Zargham
14 November 2020
“Wisdom is knowledge about certain principles and causes.” — Aristotle, 350 B.C.
The origins of infrastructure matters in relation to the social outcomes it supports, enables or undermines. Yet, as emerging technologies become more enmeshed in everyday life — and more powerful: it is rarely highlighted how crucial it is for technology developers to be aware of the values in which they imbue into their creations.
The Beginning of Infrastructures
Digital infrastructures are the material objects constructed by people, and the complex ecology of their relationships with other social and technical objects…
A Research Digest from PrimeDAO Workcycle 1
This piece is an output of a DAO2DAO research collaboration between Token Kitchen, BlockScience and Curve Labs, funded by PrimeDAO. While most DAO research focuses on intra-DAO capabilities, such as how agents interact with each other within a DAO, the aim of this research is to understand the complexities of inter-DAO relations. In this digest, we identify background concepts and areas of applied research which are relevant to the dynamics that will be prevalent in a nascent ecosystem where DAOs have to interact or collaborate with each other. …
