I thought I would try to do things a little bit differently with this post. I have tried to get a good picture of Tally Ho as I can. And I thought I would try and share that and some of the things we, and they, need to be aware of if this project is to become a success.

The problems with a DAO

I will not go into details on what a DAO is in this post, as I have covered it to some extent in previous posts. And there are plenty of other posts that do an excellent job teaching you what and how a DAO work. 

One of the biggest problems a DAO face is the creator or organization behind it. Sounds a bit strange right? Let me elaborate and explain what I mean. In a DAO the member usually votes on the thing they want the DAO to do. Anyone usually can put forth a proposition, that then gets put to a vote. In order for the proposition to be enacted. The first step that needs to happen is that the total number of votes cast needs to be at least a certain amount, this number is called a "quorum". The exact number can vary and does not really matter. If the total number of votes cast reach the quorum number then the result of the vote matter. Now for the opposition to be valid a majority of the votes need to be in favor. And only then will the proposition be enacted.

Now to the problem. What would happen if the creator or organization simply would keep the number of votes needed for a quorum + 1? Surely no one would be that devious that they would do that, right? Well if you want an example of this you only need to take a look at JustLend, a DAO created by Justin Sun. In order for a quorum to be reached, and the proposal to be valid. A total of 600M votes needs to be passed. Guess who has a wallet with 600,000,001 tokens in it. This basically makes the DAO into a dictatorship. It is a little bit like back in the day in Iraq when Sadam Husein used to run elections. 

Another really big problem for a DAO is its members. What I mean by this is that while a person might be very smart. As soon as you have a group of people you can start to see some pretty strange behaviors. People will do things they never in a million years would do alone. But surely cooler heads will always prevail, and people will always be able to be reasoned with, right?

Of course, there are some excellent examples of the opposite. What did you expect? =P My favorite one is the TheSpiceDAO that bought the Jodorowsky Dune Manuscript for close to $3M. While it s a rare book indeed, and as a fellow Dune fan it would be completely awesome to have that book in my collection. By the way, my collection would then be that book alone sadly. They bought the book thinking they could make an animated movie from it. 

This reasoning would be the same as buying any book thinking I could then make a movie based on the book. And I would argue that this would be something most people know is not the way movies based on books get made. See what I mean about groups of people not being the smartest?

Another problem DAOs face is vote buying. I recently read a post covering Ethereum Community Conference 5, in which Web3 adviser Hilary Kivitz talked about this problem. In short, this is when a person or group buys or rents enough tokens to take over the DAO. The bought or rented votes later get returned to their owners.

This can however have some really devastating effects on a DAO. They can basically take over the DAO, put forth a proposition to give all the DAOs assets to them. Vote yes, then take the assets completely legally. 

Tally Ho and how they plan to combat these issues

The first issue of a DAO dictatorship. This is sort of indirectly addressed by them in a post about the $DOGGO token. There they say the following:

Distribution

• Total fixed supply is 30,000,000,000
• More than a third of all tokens will be distributed in a community-wide merkledrop
• Tokens will also be distributed through Pool 1 and Pool 2 opportunities, plus a year of community-led growth incentives
• There is no pre-allocation to investors, advisors, or the devs that have been building the wallet

By them not allocating any of the tokens to investors, advisors, or the devs they basically have eliminated this problem.

What about the last two problems. "stupid" people and hostile takeovers? They again are not directly addressed but are done so in an indirect way. When we take a look at the proposition of the DAO structure we can see the following picture.

And the important part is the green circle, the Elder Doggos. The Elder Doggos is a 12-member council that is made up of elected representative members. They then give examples of people who this can be; prominent and trusted members such as Founders, Delegates, Advisors, and prominent community members.

Of we take a look at the proposed purpose of this council we find two points that are of interest to us:

• Conflict resolution & top level decision making
• Veto powers for proposals, except for council elections

The first point I assume is regarding the day-to-day decisions. And how the other packs are supposed to achieve the goals that get set out. But there is some wiggle rook here.

The second point however is what will stop the stupidity in its track and hopefully make a hostile takeover impossible to execute. And this is the veto they have on any decisions the DAO votes yes to. Everything except appointing new members to the council. 6 of the 12 spots get elected by nomination and public votes in the proposition put forth.

This can technically solve the problem. But again there is some wiggle room here. But as I see it, in order for you to be able to execute a hostile take over you would have to spend a lot of time doing so. And that is only if it is still possible, which it might not be depending on how the council is executed.

My thoughts on the problems and the solutions

I think that Tally Ho has some really grand ambitions and their way of going about it is looking very promising. I have not found any really big warning signs or any problems being left unaddressed. 

There is however some wiggle room in the proposition of how the Elder Doggos operate that can be potential problems. But this is only a potential problem depending on how the council is set to operate. And while I have some opinions on what I think would be a good way of doing this, I will leave that for another post. 

Overall, I am very positive about what Tally Ho is trying to do and how they are going about trying to achieve it. And hopefully, the issues I have raised will become nonissues moving forward.

Please share your thought on the issues I have raised and the way Tally Ho is going about trying to make them non-issues. And have I missed any big issues that DAOs are facing, if so please let me know about them as well in the comment section down below.

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Staking frustration - My Journey to Financial Freedom

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Picture provided by: TallyHo