Gov-Acc Pipeline.

user : User shared the following context: Name: Participant 50; Email: [email redacted]; ENS address: ; preferred_language: English assistant : ## gov/acc research - phase 1 Hey Participant 50! I'll be guiding our conversation today by asking you focused questions about Web3 governance challenges and solutions. We'll cover: - The most pressing governance challenges you're seeing in Web3 - Evidence and examples that demonstrate these problems - Potential solutions and approaches that could address them - Who's actively working on these solutions - Which problems are most urgent to solve This transcript and an AI-generated summary will be shared with the host. You can ask me to skip questions, move on to the next topic, or let me know if you want to end the session early. ### What are the most pressing governance challenges you see in Web3 right now? Please be as specific as possible about the problems you're observing. user : the main task of governance is voting, but voting partiication is low how what is a different way to get that information assistant : When you say "get that information" — what specific information are you referring to? Are you asking about understanding community preferences without relying on traditional voting, or something else? user : are there ways to deliberate or non-vote based ways of signaling preferences assistant : What examples have you seen or heard about where communities tried deliberation or non-voting signals? Even if they didn't work perfectly, what approaches are you aware of? user : I believe optimism and cosmos did deliberative pilots but weren't happy with the results from the limited attempt and stopped working on it. I believe there was a report as part of summer of protocols about what ethereum gov can learn from the IETF. scroll tried using negation game but to limited results I'm not sure of other exmaples. I think the work of preference aggregation could be a space to learn from but I'm not sure of specific experiments assistant : What specifically made Optimism and Cosmos unhappy with their deliberative pilots? Do you know what went wrong or what they were hoping to achieve that didn't happen? user : that I am not sure assistant : Going back to the broader challenge you mentioned — when you say voting participation is low, what level of participation are you seeing, and in what contexts? Are we talking about DAOs, protocol governance, specific chains, or across the board? user : it's across the board assistant : ### For the challenges you've mentioned, what evidence or examples demonstrate these are real problems? This could include failed proposals, low participation rates, specific incidents, or data you've observed. user : low votable supply relative to total supply, issues meeting quorum in some ecosystems. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673425000241 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929119925000021 assistant : What consequences have you seen from these low participation rates? For example, have proposals failed to pass that should have, or has governance become captured by small groups, or something else? user : a small group concentrates power and is able to capture the system. things like the compound governance attack happen. there are examples of proposals failing as well assistant : ### What approaches, tools, or mechanisms do you think could address these governance problems? What potential solutions are you aware of or have you considered? user : progressive decentralization + gating governance to a more core group of folks (idea of a proto-DAO before starting a formal DAO. I think deliberation and co-creation can also help. we also need to get away from one token, one vote systems assistant : When you mention getting away from one token, one vote — what alternative voting or decision-making systems do you think show promise? user : there are a handful of ecosystems with staked governance, which I think is one interesting area to observe. one of the failure modes of 1t1v is that this allows anyone to partake in governance, at a time when the product/community aren't clear. so I think gating governace early on can help assistant : You mentioned deliberation and co-creation as potential solutions. What would that look like in practice? How do you envision communities actually implementing deliberation or co-creation processes? user : it needs to start with a clear definition of the purpose of the DAO and mapping stakeholders. from there, there are various tools and approaches towards working with the core stakeholders to identify the strategy and roadmap, and to get at least majority consensus. it's also important to work on a healthy culture along side these to ensure that the DAO is attracting people who are willing to do the work (governance never has 100% participation rates but gating should lead the % to go up) assistant : ### Which teams, projects, or researchers do you know are actively working on these solutions or related governance innovations? user : mission public did the deliberation experiment with cosmos. at Scroll there were co-creation cycles, which are being adopted (in some way) in NEAR. also working on this directly with some orgs assistant : Are there other teams or researchers you're aware of working on alternative voting systems, staked governance, or the proto-DAO concept you mentioned earlier? user : not off the top of my head assistant : ### Of all the problems we've discussed, which do you see as most urgent or impactful to solve before Devcon 2026? user : clarifying the purpose of a DAO and setting realistic expectations, along with developing roadmaps of how to execute on the strategy assistant : Why is clarifying purpose and setting expectations more urgent than addressing the participation and power concentration issues we discussed earlier? user : because if we don't know what we're trying to accomplish, what is the point of voting? assistant : ## Thank you for sharing your governance insights Here's your points summarised: - **Core challenge**: Low voting participation across Web3 governance, leading to power concentration and governance attacks (like Compound). Evidence includes low votable supply relative to total supply and quorum issues. - **Root cause**: One token, one vote systems allow anyone to participate before product/community clarity exists, diluting meaningful engagement. - **Potential solutions**: Progressive decentralization with gated governance (proto-DAOs), staked governance models, deliberation and co-creation processes focused on core stakeholders. - **Implementation approach**: Start by clarifying DAO purpose and mapping stakeholders, then use tools to build strategy/roadmap consensus while cultivating healthy culture that attracts committed participants. - **Active work**: Mission Public (Cosmos deliberation), Scroll's co-creation cycles being adopted by NEAR, and your direct work with organizations. - **Most urgent priority**: Clarifying DAO purpose and setting realistic expectations before focusing on participation mechanisms — without knowing what we're trying to accomplish, voting itself becomes pointless. Your input will be synthesized with other participants' contributions to help build the gov/acc research roadmap. This will feed into the visualization and workshop at EthCC, where we'll work on coordinated solutions to these governance challenges.