MoonDAO

Project System

11 min read

MoonDAO Projects v8.0

MoonDAO Projects are the launch point for mission-aligned people to build on top of the foundation and network of MoonDAO.

MoonDAO Projects are goal-oriented teams working on mission-aligned objectives. This document provides the framework to fund the team, support their progress, align their interests with the DAO, and provide retroactive incentives for projects that get us one step closer to a permanent human presence on the Moon.

MoonDAO Projects consist of Project Contributors and a Project Lead.

Proposal Process

Step 1: Post in the “ideation” channel on Discord. You don’t need to have a fully formed idea for a project yet, and you can be pretty informal at this stage. There are two things to articulate in the ideation channel:  1.) Problem to be solved. 2.) Proposed solution. This is meant to help YOU get feedback from people on the idea, offer alternative solutions, and allow for informal coordination around ideas. Anyone can post about ideas regardless of their background in the DAO, even if they aren’t yet a part of our community.

Step 2: Proposal Submission. A Project Proposal (MoonDAO Project Proposal Template) must be filled out and submitted here by the second Thursday of the Quarter. Please read the Proposal Template for guidelines on proposal limits. Proposal budgets must be less than or equal to 1/5 of the total quarterly rewards. If you are looking for more budget than that, consider using our launchpad to help raise funds from the community.

Step 3: Senate Review and Approval. The Senate will convene and review incoming proposals and provide feedback the next day. Proposals may be edited up to 48 hours before the third Thursday of the Quarter. After the editing deadline is over, the Senate will approve or reject the proposals in accordance with the Constitution. If a proposal passes it will move on to the next step.

Step 4: Townhall Presentation and Member House Vote. Project contributors MUST be present during the townhall to pitch their project proposal to the community. Each voter will allocate their voting power, as defined in the Constitution, between proposals — spreading their voting power on a percentage basis between proposals as they would like. The top 50% of proposals will be funded (rounded up if an odd number of proposals are considered — e.g. 4 are approved if 7 are considered), ranked in order of voting power allocated to them. If less than six proposals are considered, the top three proposals will be funded. If the cumulative budget of accepted proposals surpasses 3/4 of the quarterly budget, then the lowest voted proposal will not be funded until the budget is less than 3/4 the quarterly budget, iteratively removed from lowest to highest until the budget constraint is satisfied. Project contributors must abstain from voting on their own project.

Start

Payment method setup: If a project member is receiving a fixed payment upfront for their work, the project multisig may stream the payment over the course of the project until the project’s deadline. Payment streaming may be turned off by the team’s multisig if a member is no longer fulfilling their responsibilities. Alternatively, the project may send half the payment at the beginning of the project, and the other half at the end.

Updates And Responsibilities

Throughout the lifetime of the Project the Project Lead must do the following:  

1. Provide monthly progress updates to the Senate. Every month the team must provide a written report and present it at the townhall meeting. This is intended to be a helpful meeting to give context to the DAO on progress and also have the DAO find ways to support the project. However, if the project is not meeting the expectations of their project or no progress has been made, then the Executive Branch Leads may shut the project down. If a project is shut down, all remaining funds must be returned to the DAO.

2. Attend weekly Townhalls. Project Leads must attend weekly townhalls. For each missed townhall, the team will be deducted 5% of their retroactive rewards. If a Project Lead misses more than three meetings, the project may be shut down. Special exceptions can be made for Project Leads on different time zones where attendance is infeasible.

Other members of the project with assigned tasks become Project Contributors. These members must:

1. Provide weekly written updates on progress. Post updates on work in the “What Did You Get Done This Week? (wdygdtw?)” channel in the Discord. If a Contributor doesn’t provide a weekly update to the DAO, then 5% of the Project Lead’s rewards will be deducted per missed update.

Completion

The Project Lead must make sure the following are complete:  

1. Complete a Final Report. Use the Final Report Template to collaborate on your final report with your team. Each project member must include their own contributions. Reports must be submitted to the DAO through the report editor on Discord before the end of the quarter to be included in that quarter’s reward cycle. These reports will be voted on by the DAO.

2. Return excess funds to the DAO treasury. Please attach a link to the DAO’s multisig in the final report.

3. Final allocations for project rewards distribution. Leads are required to include a reward distribution in the final report, allocating a percentage to each contributor, totaling 100%. They may recognize anyone they believe contributed to the project by noting their contributions in the report, regardless of formal team status. For small teams of four or more, we recommend using Coordinape to determine these distributions.

4. Create Documentation. If someone needs to maintain the work after it’s completed, or users need to know where things are, please include documentation for the people who come after you.  

5. Final Report Review and Approval. The Executive Branch Leads will review and grade the final report. If the project is deemed completed it will be included in that quarter’s retroactive rewards. Also, if the Project is successfully completed, the Project’s Lead has the option to become a member of the Senate as outlined in our DAO Constitution. Members of the Senate retain their position for six months. Senate members are required to attend Senate meetings and required to vote and review incoming proposals for the next quarter.

Quarterly Rewards

The DAO incentivizes people to start new projects with its quarterly rewards system.  

Each quarter, the projects that were completed will be eligible for Project Rewards if and only if they have submitted their Final Report to the DAO and it has been approved by the Executive Branch Leads. Final reports must be submitted by the end of the quarter.

Total Quarterly Reward Calculation

The total amount of rewards each quarter is calculated as follows:

1. ETH Reward: 5% of the liquid non-MOONEY assets (NMA) (e.g. ETH, DAI, and other stables), minus the sum total of all the project budgets for that quarter (not including the Executive Branch Budget). Paid in the form of ETH. Assets with fluctuating prices will be priced at midnight of the first day of the quarter,

2. vMOONEY Reward: A geometric series of MOONEY will be released as follows:

  1. Q4 2022: 15,000,000 MOONEY. 
  2. Q1 2023: 14,250,000 MOONEY.
  3. Q2 2023: 13,537,500 MOONEY.
  4. Q3 2023: 12,860,625 MOONEY.
  5. And so on, infinitely, following the forumula R[Q_n] = 0.95*R[Q_n-1], where R[Q_n] means the MOONEY reward for any given quarter “n”.

Of that total reward, 10% will automatically go to a Contributor Circle for the community, where anyone in the community can throughout the quarter post contributions that can be accepted by any of the Senators. The rewards to individuals will be decided via a Coordinape at the end of the quarter like all other projects.

Project Reward Calculation  

At the end of the quarter, the Citizens and Voting Members are presented with all the projects that were completed along with their Final Reports. Each Citizen and Voting Member allocates their voting power between what they think is a fair proportion of rewards (out of 100%) that should go to each project. Contributors may distribute their proportion of rewards to each project, but not their own.

After all the members have input their distribution, we publish the results and run this script to calculate the distribution for each project.

The retroactive reward to each project is calculated as follows:

We multiply by 0.9 because 10% of the total rewards always goes to the Contributor Circle.

Contributor Reward Calculation

Each Project will decide the amount of the project rewards that goes to each Contributor to the Project as described in the “Final allocations for project rewards distribution” section under Project Completion.

Reward Timing and Method

The ETH will be given as a lump-sum reward within a month of the end of the quarter, and sent to the project’s multisig.

The MOONEY will be locked for four years (received in the form of vMOONEY) and can be unlocked after it has vested.

Project Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise noted all projects use a creative commons license and all their work will be open-sourced to the world.

If the project team wants to create Intellectual Property, they will be represented through on-chain IP-NFTs representing the intellectual property, and the details will be attached up-front with the project proposal.

Dispute Resolution

Disputes between the project team and the DAO will be handled through arbitration as outlined in the MoonDAO Constitution.  

If Dispute Resolution through MoonDAO’s arbitration procedure is unsuccessful, the dispute will be resolved through binding arbitration, referring to the rules of established arbitration institutions, such as the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or JAMS, which will provide procedural guidelines for the arbitration process.

Miscellaneous FAQs

Can a project change Leads? 

Yes. If a Lead must step down for whatever reason but the project is not yet completed, an Astronaut may appoint a new Lead to the project.

How are payments to contributors on projects handled?

Any budget going to contributors must be streamed over the period of the project. We recommend using llamapay for setting this up.

How much can I ask for?

Proposal budgets must be less than or equal to 1/5 of the total quarterly budget. If you are looking for more budget than that, consider using our launchpad to help raise funds from the community.

Can Leads be external to MoonDAO, or must they be members?

Leads must be MoonDAO members before they start a project. If someone wants to join a project but is not yet a member, they should be on-boarded into the community and get vMOONEY before starting work.

What happens if the project misses its deadline?

If you are going over the originally intended timeline please notify the Senate in your monthly update. If the deadline extends into a new quarter the Executive Branch Leads will have to approve the project’s continuation. This is not unexpected, the project will still be eligible for retroactive rewards in the next quarter.

What if my project will take multiple quarters to complete?

That is okay, however we recommend to break up the project into quarterly milestones, with budgets scoped out for that quarter, and separate proposals created for each new milestone — especially if this is the first time you are submitting a proposal.

Who can be on the Project’s multisig?

Multisig signers should include the project Leads and other trusted members of our community.

Do I need to make a multisig?

No, we will make a multisig for your project with the addresses you have listed on the proposal.

What if a project requires a budget increase?

If a budget needs to be increased it must go through the full project proposal process with a justification for the budget increase.

How do we amend the project system?

The Executive Branch Leads can propose to amend this system by going through our DAO Governance as outlined in the Constitution.

Can the community change the project team’s decision about a project?  

Generally no. However, if concern about the direction of a project is raised by a community member they are free to message the Lead and ask them directly. If a major issue that goes against our rules is presented, then the Senate can vote to shut the project down (end payment streaming, receive treasury back, remove member’s roles, and exclude the project from quarterly rewards).

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