Version 1.1 - Updated 4 June 2024
SCALES DAO
VISION OF SCALES
The next billion users can have fun on Solana with a peace of mind.
FOCUS OF SCALES DAO
- Find ways to onboard the next billion users onto Solana together with the team with the focus on having fun while staying safe.
- Ensure the $SCALES token’s utility of “claims after a wallet drain” functions well over time
- Collectively decide on which claims to approve, via a combination of voting and other mechanisms.
Just for contrast, this differs from the focus of the team, which is primarily to:
- Create great products and services to serve the community and grow SCALES (not just the token; the community and business).
- Scaffold processes for SCALES DAO at least initially and then progressively decentralise and improve transparency across all systems related to $SCALES and its claim process.
- Continue to navigate the unknowns in web3 and working together with SCALES DAO to put in place new systems to solve new problems.
Update (4 June)
One area that the team has identified as potentially having product-market-fit is the problem of onboarding of people we care about onto Solana. Web3, Crypto and Solana as a whole are still very predatory in nature, with a lot of bad actors everywhere and for a newbie coming in, it can be net-negative for them if they do not know what to do to protect themselves. When someone onboards another person whom they care about, there is a certain burden and responsibility to it that may feel heavy. SCALES can become the easiest and safest way to onboard your friends onto Solana.
It should become a burden-free and no-brainer experience for someone to just direct a person to SCALES and they will KNOW full-well that the individual onboarded will have a great (and safe) experience.
That’s the product vision at least for the near-term.
SCALES DAO Tokenomics
15% of the token supply is set aside for the initial DAO supply, of which:
- 10% will be locked for 6 months and vested linearly over 2 years to the DAO.
- 5% is unlocked immediately for DAO’s liquidity needs.
In order to protect the integrity of the DAO and its core purpose of helping users overcome wallet drains, at least 80% of all DAO funds will always be directed towards “claims” purposes associated with the core utility of $SCALES, and 20% will be made available for DAO spending on other purposes. The mechanism will be further explained in detail. Briefly:
- 20% watermark decided at the start of each quarter.
- Rest of funds will be for Claims, then at start of next quarter the SCALES DAO will set the new watermark.
This % cannot be changed by the SCALES DAO unilaterally. Both the team and DAO have to agree via a super-majority of at least 2/3s for any changes to this 80% figure.
$SCALES Token Info
- 0.5% Token Extensions Transfer Tax set initially. This can be adjusted between 0.01% and 1% by the SCALES DAO via a 2/3 super-majority vote.
- The heuristics used here is that fewer than 1% of wallets in use are compromised over a long enough time frame. It is a high-estimate formed based on available data on compromised wallets on Solana.
DAO Decision Making
Scope of DAO
- Claim related variables such as claim limits, minimum tokens to hold in order to qualify for a claim, criteria and guidelines for claim, be it explicit or otherwise.
- Funding of DAO Task Forces
- Funding for grants and other initiatives the SCALES DAO wants to support
- Approving $SCALES claims after a wallet drain
Depending on the type of decision, a different decision making mechanic may be utilised.
Types of Decisions
As discussed in: Supercharging DAOs - Distributed and Decentralised Decision Making based on Statistical Methods, decisions can be split into two categories broadly.
Type A decisions that will require the full DAO vote will include:
- Changes to claim related variables
- Ratification of new claim guidelines
- Funding of DAO Task Forces
- Any claims that fail to reach the needed majority from the sampling process and are hence undecided
- Extremely large claims
Type B decisions that can be based on statistical sampling include:
- Approval of $SCALES claims
- Funding of grants under a certain $ value (TBD)
Voting Process
For a start we will require decisions made via sampling (Type B decisions) to have a 99.9% confidence level. The exact numbers such as sample size and thresholds used will be published closer to launch with proper theoretical backing provided. Initially, if the DAO is not large enough, voting power will be equal for everyone, i.e. 1 person = 1 voting power, regardless of size of holding.
As for full-DAO votes (Type A decisions), this will be weighted based on tiers, i.e. holding more $SCALES will give a higher voting weight although not fully linear. The tiers used will be published closer to launch as well.
Claims Process
This image above summarises the current thinking around the claims process.
Essentially the DAO will adopt the Supercharged DAO model to concurrently vote on several claims as needed using a statistical sampling approach. That is the first level of filter/criteria. Only claims that pass this process will go towards the Fraud Fighter Taskforce.
What’s missing in this picture right now is the guidelines for claims to be approved or rejected. We have half a mind to keep this open at the start and let the DAO basically figure it out by themselves over time what sort of guidelines to come up with. Ultimately I think the DAO should want a system where people think about what’s best for themselves essentially. Put yourself into the shoes of the claimer and decide if you would want this claim to be approved, at the same time noting that any claims approved, especially false ones could also have a negative impact on the $SCALES price. We anticipate a lot of discussions around this especially when the first few claims come in. Over time the picture should get clearer and clearer.
Update 4th June:
The first step to a claim is to go to https://drained.scales.baby to fill up the form there. We will open the form in a few days’ time for this purpose once the DAO is fully updated on it.
The Fraud Fighter TF plays a crucial role here in providing objective data and highlighting anything that might be amiss even after a vote has passed. They will aim to make use of data analytics, AI and other technology to detect any abuse and flag them as needed. Certainly at the start this is not going to be a perfect system and lots of data and iterations are needed to improve it.
All in all, the claim process should take between 5 to 21 days to settle, from the point where an individual submits a claim.
Task Forces
This is heavily inspired by the Jupiter’s J.U.P Work Groups model. Granted, the SCALES DAO certainly does not have the same financial firepower that J.U.P has, and frankly no other DAO does too, there are still a lot of advantages to the model that they have created where we can learn from and adopt to our context.
The Task Force model will allow the SCALES DAO to operationalise the high-level decisions made, be it via internal recruitment or use of contractors to carry out the tasks required. It will be funded by the DAO, via a DAO vote and be fully accountable to the SCALES DAO and community.
Currently there are two Task Forces that are formed as a pre-cursor and to aid the launch process. They are the Winning Hearts Task Force (WHTF) and Fraud Fighter Task Force (FFTF).
WHTF is responsible for hyper-driving growth of the community, together with the team and the community. They also help to ensure the educational and marketing materials created by the team are as inclusive as possible.
FFTF is focused on minimising fraud in the claims process. The idea here is to start small and increase sophistication over time with use of technology i.e. AI.
If you are keen to contribute to any Task Forces or suggest your own, this forum will have a section for Task Force proposals and ideation soon.
Governance Power and Incentives
For a start this part will be bootstrapped by the team. We will release further info on how we plan to decentralise this within 6 months from launch. The broad idea here is that voting and participation in DAO discussions will be incentivised with rewards from the DAO treasury and/or project funds.
Dragon Council roles voting members of the DAO. To receive this role, hold at least 100M SCALES tokens. Without this amount, someone can still be part of the DAO as a non-voting member by holding 1M tokens.
Each member will have the same voting weight as another member. So 1 person 1 vote. Note, voting/governance rewards are not equal, and will depend on reward tiers as explained below.
Reward Tiers
Dragon Council - At least 100M tokens
@R6 - At least 1B tokens
@R14 - At least 5B tokens
@R30 - At least 10B tokens
@R70 - At least 20B tokens
@R150 - At least 50B tokens
@R300 - At least 100B tokens
@R700 - At least 200B tokens
@R1400 - At least 500B tokens
@R2800 - At least 1T tokens
The way the reward tiers work is additive. So if you hold 500B tokens, you will get 1 + 6 + 14 + 30 + 70 + 150 + 300 + 700 + 1400 = 2671 multiplier on rewards. Rewards here for now, mostly refers to governance rewards, which are tokens given out for voting.
The way the rewards work around a vote is as such, snapshots of reward roles are taken roughly every 15 minutes, and we will keep track of a rolling window of 10 days before and 10 days after every vote. Let’s say you held 500B tokens 10 days before a vote, and voted, then sold immediately afterwards or deposited into a LP and did not buy it back for next 10 days, then your reward weight will be (2671 * 10) + (2671 * 0)/ 2 = 1335.5, which is half of what you would get if you held the tokens continuously for the 20 days.
There will be more updates on voting as we go through the first vote.
More info on DAO financing will be detailed in the upcoming post/proposal.
SCALES DAO - The first Supercharged DAO in history
This is a huge experiment we are undertaking and we are very excited to be on this journey with the community. We truly believe that the Supercharged DAO model can unlock the power of large DAOs.
As we are still in the process of scaffolding the DAO processes and progressively decentralising, the team will reserve the ability to veto any DAO vote for up to the first year post-launch, provided a strong justification is provided to the community. This is put in place to prevent any unforeseen abuse of the mechanisms that are still being actively developed.
We are extremely grateful that the community has rallied around this idea and we look forward to serving and growing the Solana ecosystem with everyone.
Together, we can truly SCALESolana. 
Changelog
- Any modifications to this document over time will be noted in this section.
4 June:
- Added clarifications and details on current direction/product vision of team when explaining how it differs from DAO’s focus.
- Added info on claiming and website.
- Modified info on Task Force formation.
- Updates on Governance power and incentives.
