Next: the mission vote (AIP-18). Five options, discussion in t/994

General
1

AIP-20 has been carried out. The next vote is the DAO’s mission (AIP-18), and AIP-20 depends on it: staking rewards stay in the Perpetual Fund until holders have voted on an updated mission.

The discussion is in the AIP-18 thread: [Proposal] AIP-18: Update AssangeDAO Mission Statement

Please read them and reply there rather than here, so the whole discussion stays in one place. The mission will shape what the DAO does from here on, and every holder’s view counts.

A suggested timeline: three days of discussion, as AIP-16 had, until 23:59 UTC on Sunday 18 October; Snapshot upload on Monday 19 October; voting from Tuesday 20 to Thursday 22 October (UTC). Please give your view before the 18th.

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中文

AIP-20 已执行完毕。下一次投票是 DAO 的使命（AIP-18）。这也是 AIP-20 本身的要求：质押收益要等持币人就更新后的使命投票之后，才能从永续基金中动用。

讨论在 AIP-18 讨论帖里： [Proposal] AIP-18: Update AssangeDAO Mission Statement

请大家前往阅读，并在那里回复，而不是在本帖，让讨论集中在一处。使命将决定 DAO 今后做什么，每一位持币人的意见都很重要。

建议的时间表：像 AIP-16 那样论坛讨论三天，截至 10 月 18 日（周日）UTC 23:59；10 月 19 日（周一）上传 Snapshot；10 月 20 日（周二）至 22 日（周四）投票（均为 UTC 时间）。请在 18 日之前发表意见。

2

Sounds good. Thank you Innocent!

Snapshot upload will be Monday 19 October.

Please continue to discuss this here.

How Other DAOs Typically Word Missions

Strong DAO mission/purpose statements are usually:

  • Short (1–3 sentences), concrete, and action-oriented (“what we do / how”).
  • Paired with a separate Vision (the desired world) and sometimes Values or Essential Intents.
  • Timeless enough to guide years of proposals but specific enough to filter what the treasury funds.
  • Rooted in the community’s identity (protocol, cypherpunk, public goods, etc.).

Examples:

  • Gitcoin: Purpose — “To empower communities to fund their shared needs.” Mission (later) — “Gitcoin creates technologies and opportunities that enable communities to build, fund and protect what matters.” Vision — “Gitcoin inspires a world shaped by community-led positive change.”
  • Lido: Purpose — “To keep Ethereum decentralized, accessible to all, and resistant to censorship.” Mission — “To make staking simple, secure, and decentralized.”
  • MoonDAO: “MoonDAO’s mission is to accelerate the creation of a self-sustaining, self-governing settlement on the Moon by 2030…” (paired with values around equality, freedom, decentralization, transparency).
  • Decentraland DAO: “Ensure the sustainability of the Decentraland Ecosystem through representative governance, efficient management of collective resources, and technical innovation.”
  • ShapeShift: “We shall be the pathway into this borderless financial system; an open-source, multi-chain, self-custody crypto platform enabling billions to achieve financial sovereignty.”

New AssangeDAO Mission (5 ideas)

  1. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to inspire a powerful solidarity network and fight for Julian Assange’s full vindication, and for the principle that publishing true information is not a crime. We will campaign to keep that case, and that principle, in public view.
  2. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to inspire a powerful solidarity network and fight for Julian Assange’s pardon. We will campaign until a publisher is no longer punished for telling the truth.
  3. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to inspire a powerful solidarity network around Julian Assange’s claim that one of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice. We will campaign for his full vindication, and for the publishers and sources who stand where he stood.
  4. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to inspire a powerful solidarity network and carry forward the fight that freed Julian Assange: that a publisher must not be punished for telling the truth. We will campaign to keep his case, and that principle, alive.
  5. AssangeDAO holds to Julian Assange’s belief: “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”
    Our mission is peace: to support work that resolves conflict and builds understanding, and to sustain the worldwide solidarity that helped win Assange his freedom, so that no one who speaks up for peace has to stand alone.
    Our principle: we neither support nor oppose any political party, government, or candidate.

Personally I would reword number 5 as something like:
AssangeDAO holds to Julian Assange’s words: “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”

Our mission is peace through truth: to back those who expose injustice and to keep the solidarity that freed Assange alive, so no publisher or source who tells the truth has to stand alone.

Or: (3 new ideas)

  1. The mission of AssangeDAO is to inspire a powerful solidarity network and advance the causes Julian Assange stands for: truth, transparency, freedom of information, free speech, and the protection of whistleblowers. We, the cypherpunks, continue to rally for justice through decentralized action.
  2. AssangeDAO’s mission is to build and fund a decentralized engine for truth and freedom: supporting projects, tools, and voices that advance transparency, censorship resistance, free expression, and the protection of those who expose injustice.
  3. The mission of AssangeDAO is to maintain a perpetual, community-governed fund and network that supports whistleblowers, privacy tools, and initiatives advancing freedom of information and speech — carrying forward the cypherpunk fight that helped free Julian Assange.

Or (4 shorter options):

  1. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to be Julian Assange’s digital army.
  2. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to defend Julian Assange and the values he stands for.
  3. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to stand with Julian Assange and carry his fight.**
  4. The mission of the AssangeDAO is to inspire a solidarity network for Julian Assange and his cause.
3

Thanks Zylo, and thanks innocent and the Chinese-speaking community for option 5. This is my view as one holder. I’m not speaking for Julian.

I support the timeline: discussion to Sunday, Snapshot on Monday, voting from the 20th.

On the ballot: there are now a dozen wordings, and our Snapshot space only allows single-choice, so the vote will split. That’s the problem Zylo raised last year. Holders rejected ranked choice and quadratic voting in AIP-5, but AIP-5 does allow approval voting. Each holder ticks every option they can accept, and the option with the most support wins.

It needs a settings change signed by the Safe, so I’ve raised it with the other signers and asked Zylo to set it up before Monday’s upload. I’ll sign it. The plan is approval for this vote, then back to single-choice for normal yes/no proposals. If we can’t get three signatures in time, we keep the date and stay single-choice. In that case we should cut it to three clearly different options, with option 5 on the ballot once, so its two versions don’t split each other. Either way, Zylo and innocent are best placed to pick the shortlist.

On the wording, I’d back option 5 as innocent wrote it. It starts with Julian’s own words, and exposing how wars are started and fought was at the heart of WikiLeaks’ work. Peace is also something holders everywhere can stand behind, and the principle line keeps the DAO out of party politics. Zylo’s rewording is close, and I’d be happy with it too.

AIP-20 keeps the staking yield in the Perpetual Fund until this vote. A broad mission is fine, because under AIP-15 any spending still needs a Snapshot vote, so holders will decide case by case what fits.

If another option wins, I’d still add innocent’s principle underneath it: we neither support nor oppose any political party, government or candidate.

感谢 Zylo，也感谢 innocent 和中文社区提出的选项 5。以下是我作为一名持币人的个人看法，并不代表 Julian。

我支持这个时间表：讨论到周日，周一上传 Snapshot，20 日开始投票。

关于投票方式：现在已有十几个版本，而我们的 Snapshot 空间只允许单选，票数一定会被分散。这正是 Zylo 去年提出的问题。持币人在 AIP-5 中否决了排序投票和二次方投票，但 AIP-5 允许认可投票（approval voting）：每位持币人可以勾选所有自己能接受的选项，获得支持最多的选项胜出。

这需要由多签 Safe 签署一次设置更改。我已经和其他签名人提出此事，并请 Zylo 在周一上传之前完成设置，我会签署。计划是本次投票使用认可投票，之后改回单选，用于平常的赞成/反对提案。如果来不及凑齐三个签名，就保持日期不变、继续用单选。那样的话，应把选项缩减到三个明显不同的版本，选项 5 只列一次，以免两个版本互相分票。无论哪种方式，由 Zylo 和 innocent 来确定最终名单最合适。

关于措辞，我支持 innocent 提出的选项 5 原文。它以 Julian 本人的话开篇，而揭露战争如何被发动、如何进行，正是维基解密工作的核心。和平也是各地持币人都能认同的目标，而那句原则让 DAO 远离党派政治。Zylo 的改写版也很接近，我同样可以接受。

AIP-20 规定，质押收益在本次投票之前留在永续基金中。使命宽一些没有问题，因为根据 AIP-15，任何支出仍需经过 Snapshot 投票，由持币人逐项决定什么符合使命。

如果最终是其他选项胜出，我仍建议在下面加上 innocent 提出的原则：我们不支持、也不反对任何政党、政府或候选人。

4

Thank you, Gabriel, and thank you, zylo, for confirming Monday’s upload.

Approval voting: agreed. You’re right that AIP-5 ruled out ranked choice; I should have checked that before suggesting it. Approval voting solves the same problem, and AIP-5 allows it.

On the wording of option 5: I’d ask that it go on the ballot as written. It took several days of discussion in the Chinese-speaking community to arrive at it, and one point was deliberate: it is framed around peace, and leaves out language about exposing or disclosing, which a number of holders were uneasy about. zylo, your rewording reads well, but it brings that language back (“those who expose injustice”, “publisher or source”), so I’d keep the original for the vote.

On the shortlist: twelve options would be a lot to read even with approval voting. I’d suggest one option per direction, so each is clearly different:

  • Julian’s case and the principle behind it, for example zylo’s #4 (“carry forward the fight that freed Julian Assange…”) or #1.
  • The wider cause, tools and funding, for example #7 or #8.
  • Peace: option 5 as written.

zylo, you know your versions best, so you’re better placed than me to pick which of yours stands for the first two. If we end up on single-choice, those three are the ballot. With approval voting we could add one more if people feel strongly about it.

I’d also support Gabriel’s suggestion that the principle apply whichever option wins: we neither support nor oppose any political party, government or candidate.

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中文

感谢 Gabriel，也感谢 zylo 确认周一上传。

投票方式：同意采用认可投票。你说得对，AIP-5 已经否决了排序投票，我在建议之前应该先查一下。认可投票能解决同样的问题，而且是 AIP-5 允许的。

关于选项 5 的措辞：希望能按原文列入投票。这个版本是中文社区经过好几天讨论才定下来的，其中有一点是刻意的：它以和平为中心，没有使用"揭露"”披露"这类措辞，因为不少持币人对此有顾虑。zylo，你的改写读起来很好，但它把这类措辞又加了回来（“those who expose injustice”、“publisher or source”），所以投票时我希望保留原文。

关于候选名单：十二个选项，即使用认可投票，读起来也太多了。建议每个方向只保留一个版本，让各个选项之间区别明确：

  • 阿桑奇的案件及其背后的原则，例如 zylo 的第 4 条（“carry forward the fight that freed Julian Assange…”）或第 1 条；
  • 更广泛的理念、工具和资助，例如第 7 或第 8 条；
  • 和平：选项 5 原文。

zylo，你最了解自己的版本，前两个方向选哪一条，由你来定更合适。如果最终只能单选，这三条就是投票选项；如果用认可投票，大家觉得有必要的话，可以再加一条。

我也支持 Gabriel 的建议：无论哪个选项胜出，都附上这条原则：我们不支持、也不反对任何政党、政府或候选人。