Areta Delegate Communication Thread

Delegates
1

Key Information

Introduction

Areta Governance specializes in supporting DAOs and foundations to establish and grow decentralized governance structures. We develop tailored solutions in governance inception and optimization, ecosystem growth, and service provider selection. Our connected investment bank with deep strategic expertise, enables us to serve our partners holistically, rather than working in isolated governance silos.

We have had the privilege to work for some of the leading companies and DAOs in the crypto space (Safe, Uniswap, Aave and dYdX). Examples of our work include managing a larger Aave delegation, setting up key contribution initiatives for SafeDAO, leading the first cross-ecosystem growth initiative for Uniswap and Arbitrum, and crypto-native transactions like the first acquisition of Coingecko or the sale of Solscan to Etherscan.

As DAOs emerge from their infancy, their structures have proven powerful tools for enabling decentralisation and autonomy. We view a well-designed governance system as a critical enabler for decentralized projects to allow them to leverage decentralization as a strategic advantage, rather than an inconvenient necessity (where most of the market is currently at).

However, DAOs often encounter challenges in maintaining organisation, highlighted by governance issues such as contributor onboarding and delegate overload. These scenarios highlight areas where DAOs can improve by establishing structured processes for better collaboration and being open to further strengthening against inefficiencies.

Recognising the need for evolution, we focus on excellent DAO participation with robust, defensible analysis of proposals through a structured voting process while simultaneously applying our deep institutional knowledge and strategic governance expertise to offer proactive DAO governance solutions aimed at nurturing the ecosystem for the long term.

Delegate Motivation

Core Tenets as Delegates

Areta’s core tenets as delegates are as follows:

  • 100% Voting Participation - we are deeply invested in the ecosystem and our goal is to meaningfully support its direction via thoughtful, educated governance decisions.
  • Independent and Impartial Voting - our voting is strictly informed by critical analysis and years of experience and is not based on bias or external influences.
  • Communication of Voting Rationale - we will communicate the rationale behind our votes through frequent updates to this thread, making us accountable to the community.

We will achieve these core tenets through our unique sources of value as follows:

a. Structured & Streamlined Voting Process

Our team lead adds new proposals to a shared tracker and assigns each incoming proposal to a specific member of the team.

  • For each proposal, we prepare a standard memo summarising the key issues, the black and white hat case (pros and cons), and a recommended decision with accompanying rationale.
  • Each proposal is then peer reviewed by another team member.
  • For complex proposals that require more discussion, we involve more members of the team as necessary to form a joint opinion.
  • We then publish our voting rationale externally on our public forum.

We always try to base our votes on sound, defensible rationale so that we are internally consistent and our voting track record stands up to external critique.

b. Ecosystem Growth and Expansion to Institutions

Leveraging the Areta network to promote and foster flourishing ecosystems across DAOs. Bringing unprecedented ties to a deep traditional network of corporates, strategics, and investors.

c. Governance Optimisation

Utilising our expertise to diagnose, analyse, correct, and enhance the effectiveness of DAO governance, ensuring streamlined operations and decision-making, while building up accountability structures.

Areas of Expertise

Having collaborated with industry leaders, Areta’s governance team offers a range of specialized services designed to support protocols and institutions in achieving their strategic goals, including:

  1. Governance Inception & Design: Set-up of key governance elements and structure, and build out tailored functions depending on ecosystem needs. Examples include: Contributor Program for Safe.
  2. Growth & Capital Allocation: Development of capital allocation and optimization strategy, along with innovative grant and contributor program design. Examples include: Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program, M&A Strategy for Arbitrum.
  3. DAO Strategic Operations: Design and operation of key executive functions, including leading key initiatives and filling gaps in DAO operations. Examples include: Service Provider Procurement for Arbitrum, RWA Strategy for multiple DAOs.
  4. Professional Delegation: Institutional-grade voting and decision-making, including creation of reporting material for key stakeholders. Examples include: Professional Delegation for Aave, Delegation for zkSync.

Selected Experiences

  • Contributor Efficiency System: Development of Safe DAO Contributor Efficiency System.
  • Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program: Launch of Cross-Ecosystem Growth Initiative for Uniswap and Arbitrum.
  • Operations Trustee: Trustee to dYdX’s Operations Trust.
  • Aave Delegate: Incentivized Delegates for the Aave DAO.
  • Wind-Down: Led the strategic wind-down of Gro DAO.

Conflicts of Interest / Waiver of Liability

Areta currently does not have any material conflicts of interest. We agree to keep the ZKsync community updated should any conflicts of interest arise. Our work in other DAOs is solely focused on supporting structural projects that are advancing the overall DAO space, are open-sourced across DAOs and will not influence any decision-making.

By delegating to Areta, you acknowledge and agree that Areta will participate on a best efforts basis and will not be liable for any form of damages related to participation in this DAO.

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