How to Onboard a DAO to use Q Governance Services

What are Q Governance Services?

Q‘s Governance Services allow to enhance the security and transparency of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) by leveraging the existing infrastructure of the Q Protocol as an external governance anchor and enforcing DAO rules. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of what these services entail and a step-by-step process to start your DAO or integrate Q’s Governance Services into an existing one.

Currently, the following services are available, with more being added in the future. The full definition of the Governance Services can be read in the Q Constitution:

Insufficient Evidence in Support of Decision: This service ensures that decisions within the DAO are made transparently and are supported by sufficient evidence, reducing the risk of arbitrary actions and bypassing community judgement.
Prohibited Code: Oversees updates to dedicated smart contracts, allowing for efficient development, without compromising decentralized legitimization of the DAO.
Insufficient justification for use of Integrated Application funds: Provides mechanisms to oversee and audit treasury operations of the DAO, ensuring that funds are managed and allocated properly.
Enforcement of ICC Decisions (Coming Soon): Will provide mechanisms to enforce decisions on disputes made by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), ensuring compliance with external legal rulings without compromising decentralization of the DAO and reliance of trusted parties. These services are designed with the Q DAO framework in mind, but can be adapted for use with any DAO that sets up the necessary technical and procedural prerequisites. Furthermore, Q is an open and permissionless protocol. Everyone is invited to contribute to its development, including the design and implementation of new Governance Services, or the expansion of existing ones.

How to Onboard to a Q Governance Service

Integrating Q Governance Services into your DAO involves a structured process. Follow these five steps to go from initial setup to full integration. The steps are targeted for someone starting with just an Idea. If you already completed one of the steps, feel free to immediately proceed to the next:

1. Get Started!

Every journey starts with a single step. Don’t worry about having everything perfect from the outset, the most crucial step is to start. Iterations and improvements can be made as your DAO evolves.

Gather a Community: Start by bringing together a group of like-minded individuals who share a common goal.
Deploy a DAO: An easy way to set up a first DAO is the Q DAO Factory. This platform simplifies the creation and deployment of DAOs for anyone - even for those with limited technical expertise. It provides templates to set up a fully operational DAO in in just a few minutes.
Onboarding Members: Once your DAO is deployed, onboard your members and initiate your governance processes. Test and explore the tool, engaging with your community and setting the direction for your DAO.

2. Adapt Your Governance Structure

At this point, you have the chance to review your first learnings and modify the DAO as needed. Even if changes are not necessary at this point, let this be a reminder to adapt a growth mindset regarding your DAO. Your DAO is a living organism, and as every organism, it will grow over time with its members and challenges. You can (and should) come back periodically in your DAO journey to reflect on the status-quo.

Gather Feedback and Identify Changes: As your DAO begins to operate, collect feedback from your community. Use this input to identify areas where your governance structure should be adapted to better meet your DAO’s goals.
Implementing Changes: Make necessary adjustments to your governance framework based on the feedback and the evolving needs of your DAO. This could involve changing voting mechanisms, updating roles and responsibilities, or modifying decision-making processes.

3. Lay the Foundation for Using Q Governance Services

To integrate Q Governance Services, your DAO needs to establish three certain foundational elements. The Q Community will be happy to assist you on these steps:

Smart Contracts: Make sure that the DAO smart contracts enable interaction with the Q Governance Services. If you deployed your DAO through the Q DAO Factory, or with the Q GDK, this is quite trivial. If you use another DAO stack you will have to implement the necessary interfaces.
DAO Constitution: Create a DAO constitution that outlines the rules, processes, and governance principles of your organization. This document will serve as a guiding framework for your DAO's operations and interactions with Q Governance Services. Templates are available.
Ratify the Onboarding Process: Ensure that your DAO approves and ratifies the decision to use Q Governance Services. This may involve a community vote or acting through an authorized DAO representative as defined in your DAO’s constitution.

4. Onboard to the Governance Service

Once all prerequisites are fulfilled, the Governance Services can be used. To bind the Q Protocol, including the Q Root Nodes to perform the Governance Services, the QGOV token holders need to approve your DAO:

Creating a Proposal: To utilize Q Governance Services, submit an onboarding proposal to QGOV token holders. This proposal should include all relevant information about your DAO, the specific services you wish to use and all information that is required to perform the respective services.
Requirements from the Q Constitution: The Q Constitution defines all requirements for submitting a proposal. But you can also refer to the Coineasy DAO proposal for a practical example of a successful onboarding proposal. This can serve as a template or guide for your own submission.
Support from the Q Community: Beyond checking the requirements yourself, the Expert Panel for Integrated Applications (EPIA) and the wider Q community are available to help you refine your proposal and navigate the onboarding process. Don’t hesitate to reach out for guidance and support.
Proposal Acceptance: Once your proposal is submitted, it will be reviewed and voted on by QGOV token holders. Ensure that your proposal is clear, compelling, and meets all the specified requirements to be accepted.

5. Use the DAO and Continuously Grow

You did it! Now all you and your community have to do is to use your DAO structures to pursue your goals.

Once you or your DAO paid the governance fees to the allocation proxy according to your proposal, the DAO can claim performance of governance services upon demand - boosting its Governance Security and protecting its members. Governance Fees will be distributed to the Q Stakeholders: Root Nodes, Validators and Token Holders and thereby are a vital element of ensuring the security of the Q blockchain, while enabling low transaction fees. Read more about Q’s economic model on q.org, or in the Whitepaper.

Some parting thoughts on DAO operations:

Involve your Community: Regularly review and refine your DAO’s operations and governance mechanisms. Encourage feedback from your community and be proactive in implementing changes that enhance the efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness of your DAO.
Dynamic and Adaptive Governance: Your DAO is a living, evolving entity. As it grows, so too should your governance processes and structures. Be open to adapting and improving your technology and constitution as needed.
Leverage Q Governance Services: Fully utilize the Q Governance Services to support your DAO’s operations. These services are designed to provide robust security and transparency, helping your DAO to thrive and succeed.