Our experts assessed whether decentralized autonomous organizations can be recognized as an official form of business governance. After the Arbitrum blockchain project token voting scandal

The issue with the multi-million dollar funding of the Arbitrum project developers’ fund has resulted in a conflict with the owners of its tokens. And it set a precedent in the field of decentralized management of blockchain services.

A DAO is a decentralized, autonomous organization that is governed by the voting of the owners of the blockchain project’s management tokens using smart contracts. Any token owner can independently put forward a proposal for the development of the project. Or vote for other proposals. Most often, they concern the distribution of specially reserved funds – the project treasury .

Before the release of their own token and Arbitrum’s sensational Airdrop, the developers often stressed the need for a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). In which ARB token holders will be able to choose by voting the directions of the project’s development, including the distribution of budget funds. The only function of ARB tokens is to be able to vote and put forward their own proposals for consideration by the DAO. This is because their owner receives no other technical benefits when interacting with any project in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Scandal at Arbitrum

Last week, the Arbitrum Foundation. which includes project developers and cronies, put forward a proposal to allocate 750 million ARB (about $1 billion in U.S. dollar equivalent) to the foundation’s own controlled purse for future grants. As well as to cover its administrative and operating expenses. The amount seemed to be too high to the participants. Therefore, about 80% of ARB token holders voted against the proposal.

As it turned out later, even before the voting was completed and without the approval of the participants of the DAO. These funds had already been transferred from the project’s coffers. And some of them were converted into dollars on exchanges or issued as a loan to large market makers. Arbitrum Foundation managers were quick to release a statement saying that the vote was only meant to “ratify a decision that had already been made.” And that further angered both the participating token holders and the cryptocurrency community at large.

The project team’s behavior shows a lack of thought into the financial strategy. Of course, any project needs funds for operating expenses. But they need to be reported on in advance, not post-facto. This is a decentralized organization. Therefore, the opinion of the community must be taken into account. This will be a lesson for the team for the future, our experts say.

Under pressure from FAO members and faced with a wave of negative responses on external resources. Arbitrum Foundation was forced to accept the community’s terms and refuse the offer. And subsequently splitting it into several separate ones and changing the terms in favor of greater transparency. In official publications, the developers acknowledged “communication problems.”

Our experts believe that this event clearly shows how a decentralized autonomous organization can identify problems. Such as corporate abuse, financial manipulation and ineffective financial planning.

Positive and negative aspects of DAO

The Arbitrum Foundation situation has set a precedent and provoked a wave of discussion about the effectiveness of the DAO as such. Despite the lack of a legally recognized form, decentralized organizations are created around many large blockchain projects. And votes from their token owners tend to matter a lot indeed. The process is similar to the decision-making process of shareholders of companies in traditional businesses.

The incident highlights some of the vulnerability of the voting process within a DAO. As well as the mechanism for governing DAOs through voting in general. Due to the lack of conditions enshrined in legally binding documents, questions inevitably arise. For example, is it possible to oblige developers to execute the decision of voting token owners. And on what, apart from the credibility of the project alone, the voting mechanism holds in principle.

Our experts believe that such situations undoubtedly attract the attention of public and government authorities. It can be assumed that they can contribute to the development of a proper legal regulation in the DAO sphere. They can also encourage community and, in particular, investors in such projects to verify the information in more detail. At the same time requiring guarantees of execution of decisions made by a general vote in the DAO.

Opinions of our lawyers

According to our lawyers, the DAO model itself still looks “too utopian for our world”. However, transparency and speed of decision-making are important advantages of DAO. This is due to voting on the blockchain. However, our experts list serious disadvantages. And the main ones are the almost complete lack of legal regulation.

Because in the case of problems, fraud and abuse, the affected persons simply have nowhere to turn. And it is not clear how to get their money back. Decentralization and autonomy from the law are good exactly until they violate the rights of the individual. And then he will seek protection and restoration of his rights through traditional legal mechanisms.

Prospects for DAO development in the ordinary world

Our experts believe that DAO is unlikely to become a recognized legal form of organization in the coming years. This is despite the fact that crypto-assets are already in the legal field in many places. This governance structure makes it difficult to distribute responsibility.

So far, it is just a kind of community, a club of interest. But the potential of this form is very large. Because DAO takes into account the interests of all community members and helps choose the development path for any project.

Of course, progressive company owners will appreciate these advantages and use DAO mechanism. If such a mechanism will be in the legal field. Therefore, our experts believe the co-existence of DAO along with the usual forms of organization is possible. But if it will be properly regulated.

Our experts Crypto-Upvotes tell us how blockchain startups plan to raise funding. And also which Launchpads are trustworthy and what new projects will soon be fundraising.

Launchpads or startup platforms for crypto projects allow startups to raise initial funding for development. And investors can choose an attractive instrument for investing their funds.

Fundraisers are mostly held in Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO) formats – initial exchange offerings. And also Initial DEX Offering (IDO) – crowdfunding on decentralized platforms.

With these methods, it’s not the project creators who are looking for investors. Launchpad selects promising startups and promotes them. Startup platforms carefully check the project and its creators before launching a token sale – a token sale. Often after fundraising is completed, the exchange opens trading in this cryptocurrency.

The IEO and IDO have several advantages over the outdated fundraising model, ICO (Initial Coin Offering), analogous to an IPO in the traditional market. In launchpads, many more people can get early access to assets. And it’s easier for developers to promote a project and list tokens.

Despite the general downturn in the cryptocurrency industry, new projects continue to emerge and attract funding. In this article, we’ll talk about some of the platforms that are raising funds for startups.

Binance Launchpad

Binance Launchpad is one of the most well-known, easy to use and convenient platforms. To work with it, you need to pass a basic identity verification.

Before launching the tokensale, the Binance team conducts a rigorous vetting of the project and publishes a report. It takes startups at a relatively mature stage of development, with a strong and committed team.

This Binance incubator has launched well-known crypto projects such as Stepn, Axie Infinity, BitTorrent, SafePal, metaverse The SandBox, soccer clubs Lazio Fan Token and FC Porto Fan Token.

A total of 64 projects were launched on the site, raising a total of $ 109.7 million. The last of them was STEPN, which completed fundraising in March of this year. Binance Launchpad has not announced another IEO at this time.

Polkastarter

Polkastarter is a DEX platform developed on the Polkadot blockchain. It is also compatible with Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana and other networks. Launchpad allows startups to raise funds by selling tokens or NFTs in a decentralized environment. The platform has launched 108 projects and raised a total of $48.5 million in funds for them.

This summer, the platform held fundraisers for 3 projects: Metaverse Planet Mojo sold $364k worth of NFT, and blockchain games WOMBAT and DEFY raised $600k and $200k respectively.

There are plans to have a token sale of a game project from developers Gameloft, Blizzard and Ubisoft. Their game metaverse CryptoCitizen plans to raise $650k.

Duckstarter

Duckstarter is an IDO blockchain startup and fundraising platform managed by the DuckDAO community. The platform launches in early 2021. It adheres to KYC principles and accepts USDC stablecoins.

A total of 66 projects have been launched on the platform, raising $3.47 million. The most recently completed tokenseals were fundraisers for gaming startups Bot Planet for $23.7k. As well as Sugar Kingdom for $100k in March of this year.

The IDO of the GEMS project will begin in early October. Its name is made up of the initial letters of the words GameFi, ESport, Metaverse and Social Fi. Project developers are positioning it as an ecosystem GameFi. Which allows eSports gamers to learn and immerse themselves in different Metaverse and GameFi worlds.

BSCPad

BSCPad was launched in March 2021. It hosted IDOs of such projects as Revomon, GameZone, Qmall.exchange, PureFi and many others.
The platform uses a token distribution system of 6 levels for users. It is based on the number of coins they contributed: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and blue diamond. In order to participate in tokenseals, users must pass KYC. As well as to deposit a certain amount of BSCPad platform’s native tokens for stacking.

The platform has conducted more than 100 fundraising rounds. Currently there are plans to launch a fundraiser for Taunt Battleworld. It’s an NFT fighting game simulator with the ability to earn money from developers at Amazon. The description of the project says that the game is set in a post-apocalyptic world. In which the gods have turned Earth into their own personal playground called Battleworld

DAO Maker

DAO Maker conducts token sales and sales of NFT crypto projects on its DAO Pad platform. This platform supports Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and other blockchains. Initial token offerings are in SHO (Strong Holder Offering) format. In it, each user gets a level corresponding to their funds. The more funds are in the wallet, the higher the chances of getting new tokens.

The platform has raised funds for a large number of popular projects, such as Infinity Pad, My Neighbor Alice and Seascape Network.

The SHO of the DeRace NFT project is currently being finalized. It’s a Metaverse in which players breed horses to race, have races, complete missions and earn rewards. According to the developers, blockchain technology provides transparent race results.

DAO Maker plans to tokenize the Muon Network project. This is a supercomputer in the form of a decentralized cloud computing network. It will be able to run any application and software and connect to all publicly available blockchains.

Another project launching on the platform soon will be Engines of Fury. This is a fighting game with rich 3D graphics and single-player and multiplayer modes.

GameFi

GameFi is a launchpad for blockchain game projects. It hosts fundraisers in the format of Initial Game Offering (IGO) or Initial Game Offering. Its only difference from IDO is that tokensales are conducted by gaming startups. In addition to initial token offerings, Launchpad conducts Initial NFT Offering (INO).

The platform features two pools for fundraising: the IGO pool, which requires tokenization. And also Community pool, which does not involve stacking. GameFi complies with KYC requirements, and users need to be verified to participate in IGO and INO.

More than 60 projects have been launched on the platform, including X-Metaverse, GameStation, Metawars, and many others. Currently there is an initial NFT offering from the DVISION WORLD project. This is a Metaverse where users can create and sell their own NFTs.

Tokensales for three more game projects have also been announced on GameFi. This is a platform project for developing and controlling characters in the Codyfight universe. As well as fighting games Evermoon and Engine of Fury (the same project that will hold a tokensale on Maker DAO). Start dates for these IGO have not yet been determined.

Poolz

Poolz is a decentralized launchpad that supports multiple blockchains. More than 90 IDOs have been held on this platform. The biggest recent fundraisers were for the NFT spaceship game Space Sip ($1 million) and the RPG Kryptomon ($450,000).

Users need to own at least 250 POOLZ tokens ($345) to participate in tokenseals. Top 100 native coin owners get priority access to IDO.

There are 9 crypto projects scheduled to IDO on the platform in the near future. These include a token sale to raise $500k from Moverse, a Web3 fitness project from move-to-earn. Also IDO for $250k from MeMusic, a service for earning audio content producers. In addition, Launchpad will launch tokensales for several gaming projects, the cryptocurrency Tofycoin. As well as the decentralized television platform Script Network.

TrustPad

TrustPad is a decentralized launchpad. It gives priority access to the most promising projects to TPAD native token holders. TrustPad supports most of leading blockchains. Verification of users is not required for all IDOs held on the platform, but only for part of them.

There have been 116 projects token seals held on this platform. They raised a total of $21.6 million. Among them were fundraisers such startups as QANplatform, BitHotel and Blocktopia.

TrustPad will hold several tokenseals in the near future. Among them is Animalia. It’s an online NFT game with collectibles on the theme of cryptomems. And also Metaverse Lifetise, where users can plan and build their lives. From owning a home, starting a business and getting married, to retirement.

The site also plans to raise funds to develop the Mizar trading platform with a wide range of tools. Here, traders can choose different strategies to allocate their capital. Upcoming is the IDO of the game project Medieval Empires. This is a complex multiplayer online strategy game. And the action of which unfolds in the modern territory of Turkey in late 13th century.

Red Kite

Red Kite is a launchpad that has raised more than $9.3 million for 70 cryptoprojects. Tokensales are open to holders of the PKF platform’s native cryptocurrency. Just like GameFi, IDOs on this platform take place in two pools. One is available to everyone. The other is only available to members of the Red Kite community.

MetaBeat, an NFT music platform, was the last to hold fundraisers on this platform. As well as the game universe of farmers Monsterra Community and the project category move-to-earn PULMx.

In the near future, the platform will host the IDO of the blockchain game The Unfettered. It is an upcoming action role-playing video game. It is about a mysterious and warlike woman, chosen by Gods, who fights subterranean monsters.