The most common form of DAO governance is a simple flat structure, where all decisions are voted on by all token holders, with limited delineation of responsibilities, budget, resources, etc. into functional groups. This structure is already falling out of favor, especially for larger DAOs, as it scales poorly and leads to stagnation.
In response to this, many DAOs have proposed forming Meta/Sub-DAOs, which allow functional groups to operate independently and autonomously, while continuing to advance the goals of the parent DAO.
The Tokemak DAO is small enough that true Meta/Sub-DAOs (with independent gov tokens and an additional layer of multisig signers) are an unnecessary complexity. Instead, a hybrid approach (e.g. Illuvium Council + Yearn yTeam) is the most efficient approach that allows for autonomy while also delegating most decisions to a core set of active contributors/team members.
Here, we will introduce the concept of “Squadrons” and “Marshals”, a Tokemak-themed working name for an implementation of these structure.
Squadrons are small, autonomous groups of Tokemak contributors with a clear set of designated responsibilities.
Marshals are a small group of decision makers (i.e. Council Members) that bear the responsibility of being delegates, facilitating DAO operations, and managing Squadrons.
A Squadron can have 1 or multiple Marshals, though it may be expected that each Squadron has a primary Marshal that takes point on their respective Squadron’s operations.
Examples of Squadrons:
Marshals may be nominated by forum discussions, and each epoch [X months] a governance proposals may be held to vote in/out Marshals.
Incorporating a permissionless delegation system is also possible, where “simple” delegates only have voting power and are not responsible for managing any Squadrons. This may be an extra layer of unneeded complexity — delegating votes to a limited set of Marshals is likely sufficient until we grow larger and the community desires the ability to delegate to non-managing parties.