May has been EVENT-ful. Quite literally, we’ve been shooting across the globe attending conferences and networking events meeting some of the leaders and brilliant minds in Synthetic Biology. In this edition of our newsletter, we’ll be covering:
- Highlights from the SynBioBeta conference.
- An Introduction to the governance process, including the passing of our first governance proposal.
- Insights from ETHBoston.
- ValleyDAO on the DAO Deep Dives Podcast.
- Community spotlight featuring Abhijeet Patra.
SynBioBeta 2023
(Credit Patrick T. Power)
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Proud DAO moment! We were blessed to have Albert present what ValleyDAO is building at the DeSci side-event, as well as host a lightning talk on the main stage at the conference! If that wasn’t enough, Morgan also hosted a panel with David Lang (Experiment.com), Evan Miyazono (Protocol Labs), Alejandra Borda (Fifty Years) and Laura Minquini (AthenaDAO) exploring ‘Alternative Funding Models for Science with Web3’.
(Credit Patrick T. Power)
We also witnessed community members Paul Kohlhaas (below) and Geoffrey Otim (above) receive the Rising Star Award for their contributions to the space. With so many wins, it’s easy to see why we support our tribe.
(Credit Patrick T. Power)
We even hosted a hacker house while in the bay which had 11 ValleyDAO community members out in Pacifica with a Hot Tub and Pool Table. We used a pay-what-you-can model to make sure everybody got equal opportunity to join us, including giving everyone a 25% discount from their stated budget. It might seem small but it’s initiatives like these that demonstrate the power of community. Not only can we do things better, but cheaper too!
We were thrilled to meet so many talented and driven individuals driving the field forward and continue to build long-lasting relationships with stakeholders across the SynBio ecosystem. If you were at SynBioBeta this year and didn’t get a chance to catch us then feel free to reach out via ‘people@valleydao.bio’.
Talks were recorded and will be available soon so stay on the lookout on our socials for the release.
Governance has officially kicked off!
(ValleyDAO Tokenomics Distribution)
This month, we kickstarted our governance process with the recent passing of VIP-1 (The ValleyDAO Tokenomics Proposal) on Snapshot with unanimous approval! If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, we recommend checking it out here.
We also recently hosted an Introduction to Governance call where we answered your burning questions on our governance process and ensured everybody is up to date. Nonetheless, we thought it’d be useful to give a quick overview of the governance process here:
Governance proposals are collective decisions we make together as a community. Before any large changes or spending takes place, we must gain the support of the community which they can express through voting in support of governance proposals. Proposals go through 3 phases of voting before a decision is made final, they are:
- Discord-based voting and discussion (informal).
- Discourse voting and discussion (voting open for 7 days).
- Snapshot voting using the GROW Token (voting open for 7 days).
For efficiency, not all proposals need to go through all 3 phases. The smaller stuff will often be handled by smaller subsets of the community (e.g. the Dealflow and Incubation Growth Group) or go through phases 1 and/or 2 but not 3.
If you have any questions about the governance process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of the core team!
ETHBoston 2023
Photo taken by The BostonDAO/ETHBoston.
It was great to see DeSci get some stage time at the recent ETHBoston conference at the end of April. With a plethora of talks covering topics across the entire ecosystem, its obvious that something big is on the horizon. Here’s what we learned:
- Regulation is catching up (slowly). We all know that regulatory hurdles are the biggest killer in web3 and the lack of clarity has led to many failures but also unethical successes. Whilst regulators are slow to move, they are listening. Engagement with regulators across the space and across jurisdictions is going to be essential for long-term sustainability.
- Science needs metascience. An inspiring talk from Jon Starr (DeSci Labs) showed us why we need to make science open, accessible and composable so that our precious tree of knowledge can withstand the test of time (and geopolitics).
- On-ramping to web3 is hard. Obvious, but it was great to meet with some of the folks at Privy to find out about their wallet abstraction platform and how it could be used to smoothen the setup process for ValleyDAO contributors.
Albert and Morgan on DAO Deep Dives Podcast
As always, the core team have been making appearances and spreading the good word of SynBio but this is one we were especially excited about. Earlier in the year we were invited to speak about ValleyDAO on the DAO Deep Dives podcast which, until very recently, didn’t even exist! We’re now proud to announce that the episode is live on YouTube and there are now 6 full episodes on their channel. If you want an inside peek into DAOs and DAO tooling then look no further.
Hosted by the amazing Sven Hermann and Solve Maxwell, this podcast really gets into the grit of what makes DAOs special and how we can improve them even further.
Community Spotlight
Abhijeet is another recent addition that has gone above and beyond our expectations. Whilst his time in the DAO may have been limited, his contributions have not and we’re eternally grateful for community members like him.
He’s had a pretty stellar career outside of ValleyDAO too. Cofounder and investor at Susa Fellows Fund, Program Director in Deep Tech and Operating Partner at On Deck, Ginkgo’s Ferment, the list goes on…
“It’s difficult to spend time with the ValleyDAO community and not feel inspired. Folks from all over the world with varied life experiences, different kinds of expertise and a shared optimism are congregating to accelerate the commercialisation of technologies that will power the synbio transformation. As a scientist, I love experiments and it is great to be part of one at ValleyDAO!”
Abhijeet brings with him a keen eye for detail and an insider’s perspective on Deep Tech investment. We look forward to consolidating his position in the Dealflow and Incubation Growth Group as we ramp up our search for the next breakthrough in SynBio.
And that’s a wrap!
-The ValleyDAO Community
