Q&A: Working Group Zero's DAO Governance Proposal Is On The Ballot. Here's What You Need To Know:

The ApeCoin DAO is currently voting on Working Group Zero’s working group governance proposal that aims to decentralize the DAO and put many of the day-to-day $Ape operations into the hands of community members.

As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, the ApeCoin DAO rejected the Cartan Group’s proposal to extend its administrative contract with the DAO in December 2022. Following that vote, the community approved of the creation of Working Group Zero.

Part of Working Group Zero’s mandate was to further decentralize the DAO where possible and suggest changes to the ApeCoin DAO’s AIP process.

Four months after the group's creation, Working Group Zero Steward Amplify put AIP-239 on the ballot for a community vote.

AIP-239 titled “Working Group Guidelines & The Governance Working Group Charter,” is an ecosystem allocation fund proposal written by Working Group Zero Steward Amplify and the Working Group Zero team.

“The goal of this AIP is to operationalize the ApeCoin DAO through autonomous Working Groups, beginning with the Governance Working Group which will allow our community to continue the DAO approved governance process which allows for the suggestion, discussion, voting and implementation of proposals,” Amplify wrote. “This will empower members of the DAO to make meaningful contributions and participate in facilitating governance operations, in order to further decentralize key functions of the DAO.”

In simple terms, the ApeCoin DAO’s previous administrator, The Cartan Group, used to run the AIP process without community input. If AIP-239 is passed, the Working Groups (which are made up of ApeCoin DAO Contributors) will oversee the proposal process going forward, according to Amplify’s proposal.

“The Working Group structure proposed within will engage a wider range of community members in the governance process, promote stability, and encourage long-term planning of DAO operations,” Amplify wrote. “ In addition, the creation of a Governance Working group including core Initiatives: the Ape Assembly; and the DAO Secretary; will enable a governing body to facilitate Working Group operations, conduct Steward & Special Council elections, and provide increased transparency for all inter-DAO operations. Taking these actions will further enable our collective responsibility.”

In total, Amplify is asking the ApeCoin DAO to allocate $180,000 USD to fund this new governance structure.

Check out the budget below:

To find out more about AIP-239 and the idea of working group governance, the Bored Ape Gazette reached out to Amplify for an interview.

Take a look at the conversation below:

Tell me a bit about you, how you got involved with $Ape, and tell me about the state of the DAO. What’s up with ApeCoin governance?

“I’ve been in crypto for seven years now and I started with DAOs, specifically with Maker DAO in 2019. So, I have a lot of contexts here in terms of the pain points that we’ve faced now that have already been squashed in other DAOs. And what was alarming to me about the ApeCoin Dao was that the DAO was seemingly launched without a core team; so, it’s unlike any other token launch I’ve ever seen. They just kind of dumped it on our laps and said here you go. So we have a huge community but no core team to do anything. So, we (ApeCoin) kind of did it backwards. We started with the foundation and now we are looking for a core team, or people who can do the work, because the administrators that were placed in there to begin with had no consensus. So now we have the WebSlinger team so hopefully there’s more accountability on their end and responsibly to cater to the DAO and not as the God king of it, And that’s the motivation for this AIP. We have a foundation out of necessity, simply to meet the regulatory requirements of being able to launch a token that is not a security. But the foundation is unnecessary in terms of operational tasks. The foundation is just the issuer of the token. The only reason the foundation exists is to issue Ape token. It doesn’t want to do anything else. The whole overarching goal here with working groups is replace the project management team that is administrating the ApeCoin DAO. So what we are proposing here in the working groups is the structure that’s needed to remove total reliance on the foundation.”

What are the pros and cons of AIP-239?

“One of the major pros is this empowers certain people from the community to do certain tasks. And because these people are from our community, they should have high context. One of the cons here is constant turn over. Another con to this AIP is not having that very fast-moving start up f core team that has no oversight, which has benefits. But with AIP-239 we’ve tried to propose a balance here between where there is turnover and term limits but theirs also fairly stable governance structures like the Ape Assembly.”

What happens if AIP-239 passes?

“If AIP-239 passes, then the governance Working Group Steward elections would go up on Discourse with the Special Council election announcement in early May. This post will be asking for people to nominate themselves for stewards of the governance working group and I would be seated in seat #1; which has term that goes until November 2023. Over the course of May to June, the Special Council election and the working group steward elections will happen. At the same time, the Ape Assembly will be ratified and set up with its $10,000 USD a month budget for community led initiatives or public goods.”

What does AIP-239 and all this governance talk mean for the average $Apr holder who occasionally votes at the DAO and is not actively involved with the DAO's day to day?

“It won’t. There’s no change to the voting process. There’s no change to the AIP process. The only thing that this AIP does change is that there’s more opportunity to get involved. If you’re a marketing expert and you think you should run the Twitter, run for steward. If you’re a defi expert run for steward. If you’re a governance lover join the Ape Assembly and attend those meetings. As it stands without working groups is to run for Special Council or submit an AIP. "

So just to reiterate, nothing at the DAO will change from the perspective of the passively involved $Ape holder if AIP-239 is passed?

“Yes, it will all be the same. They’ll just have more people to vote on. They’ll have Special Council and working group stewards."

What happens if AIP-239 fails?

“So, the only thing the ApeCoin DAO has is governance, Discourse, and the AIP Process. So, if AIP-239 fails then nothing changes. There’s still Discourse; that’s all we’d have. We still wouldn’t have someone doing Twitter. We still wouldn’t have somebody doing treasury, or Discord or anything else. And if AIP-240 were to fail as well then this becomes a Special Council issue. They’d have to use the oversight discretion they have to essentially continue the operations of Discourse. And I can’t say for certain but I'd image that would look like continuing Lost Vulkan and myself running it. But that move by the Special Council wouldn’t be an end to the problem. We’ve taken these duties on as part of working group zero, which mandated us to identify duties that don’t need to be done in the Cayman Islands and transition those duties into the DAO. So for now, we’ve taken these duties on, but we need to hand them off to somebody. And if it’s not AIP-239 then it’ll be AIP-240. And if it’s not AIP-240 then someone needs to come up with another AIP. And I don’t want to float any narrative or possibility of any kind of constitutional crisis if these AIPs do not pass. That’s not true. The DAO will continue to function no matter what.”

What’s your final pitch to the community on AIP-239? Why should $Ape holders vote yes?

“Our DAO doesn't want to spend money on anything because we're worried about sustainability of the treasury and how to bring value back into the DAO. Working Groups solve for this by allowing the community to stand up structures to meaningfully sustain the operations of our DAO through liquidity initiatives and thoughtful asset allocation.”

The window to vote on AIP-239 is currently open and $Ape holders have until tonight at 9 P.M. EST to cast their coins on this proposal.

$Ape holders can read Amplify’s full AIP here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-239-working-group-guidelines-the-governance-working-group-charter/11462

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow AIP-239 and will let you know how the DAO votes later tonight. Stay tuned for updates!