TL;DR: see if you are eligible to become a founding member of the mainnet Gyroscope DAO @ test.gyro.finance/claim
Overview
Gyroscope has undergone an extensive testnet process, including bootstrapping the Gyroscope DAO on testnet. The next step in launching Gyroscope on mainnet is the migration of founding members from the Testnet Game to Ethereum mainnet.
The Testnet Game had two parts: Part I introduced various components of the protocol, while Part II safe-guarded the protocol against Sybil attacks. During Part II, nineteen Sybil challenges were launched over the course of six months. These Sybil challenges were a crucial pillar in forming an equitable and long-term-oriented DAO to govern the Gyroscope protocol.
Having multiple Sybil challenges is comparable to layering pieces of paper on top of each other and then trying to rip them apart. Shredding them may work well for a single layer, or two or three, but it gets harder the more layers are added. In this analogy, passing a single Sybil challenge may not be sufficient, but passing multiple challenges drastically increases the probability that a respective address is controlled by a distinct person.
However, each Sybil challenge yielded different levels of certainty about the Sybil resistance of an address. For example, having attended a specific event (i.e., owning a POAP) does not grant the same assurance as having passed a KYC check or having an active track record of contributions to the DAO on Discord. Metaphorically speaking, every piece of paper that is layered on top of each other has a different thickness. Hence the need to assign appropriate weights to each Sybil challenge.
See the below graphic for a conceptual, stylized summary of the Sybil challenge stack.
To summarize the Sybil challenges:
- 19 challenges were launched during a timespan of 6 months
- A weight was assigned to each challenge based on the Sybil resistance properties of that challenge
- Testnet activity & aggregated Sybil scores were calculated to identify eligible addresses corresponding to unique community members
The process for determining Sybil challenge weights
Proposed Sybil challenge weights were shared with ‘Veteran Gyronauts’ on Discord and finalized after a ‘rough consensus’ was reached. All reasonable and strongly-held concerns were addressed. A list of final weights with their respective reasoning can be accessed here.
Core Community members proposed to use multiple thresholds to define different levels of criteria for passing the Sybil challenges. We believe this makes a lot of sense for interpreting the different information coming out of the Sybil challenges. Above a certain Sybil score threshold, the community can be very certain that an address corresponds to a unique community member. A higher Sybil score also indicates a high level of involvement from a community member, as it requires engagement for a continued period of time to join various Sybil challenges (although Sybil score is an imperfect indication of this, and there are other ways to be highly involved, which should be accounted for). Below such a threshold, community members could still be involved, but it is prudent to account for reduced certainty about Sybil resistance in forming a robust DAO.
This tiered approach to Sybil resistance information will be integrated both in the migration from the Testnet Game to mainnet and in the following mainnet voting mechanism.
Passing the Sybil challenges and migration to mainnet
In migrating Testnet Game results to mainnet, we take a tiered approach that balances each address’s level of Sybil points and level of past involvement during the early stages of the Testnet Game. This keeps involvement open to newcomers who can obtain a high Sybil score while acknowledging the commitment of long-term community members. Addresses are defined to pass the game by meeting one of the following conditions:
- Condition 1: Pass at least one part of the Testnet Game and obtain a weighted Sybil score of 5 or higher
- Condition 2: Pass all testnet levels and obtain a weighted Sybil score of 1 or higher
Each eligible address will be able to mint a Gyroscope DAO founding member NFT on Ethereum. For the foreseeable future, while DAO governance matures, these NFTs will be non-transferable.
NFT addresses are further grouped by Sybil score, with higher Sybil scores corresponding to rarer NFTs. We believe these groupings provide meaningful distinctions in the level of Sybil resistance, which we aim to preserve for future use in the DAO.
While the NFT rarity levels may thus inform future voting power modifiers, they are fundamentally distinct to allow for more flexibility and a merit-based distribution of voting power boosts.
The requirements to obtain a rare NFT increase quadratically. The number of addresses that qualify for the different rarity levels are displayed below.
| NFT rarity | Required Sybil score | Qualifying addresses |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 1 | 1901 |
| Rare | 4 | 932 |
| Epic | 9 | 345 |
| Legendary | 16 | 159 |
The list of eligible addresses is available here. A script for generating this list is available here. Check if you are included and eligible to join the Gyroscope DAO: https://test.gyro.finance/claim
In total, 3333 addresses are eligible. Most eligible addresses passed every level of the Testnet Game. The overall distribution of Sybil points (after weightings) is as follows:
Distribution of Testnet Game checkmarks from eligible users
Distribution of passed Sybil challenge counts
Voting structure in the DAO
Holding a founding member NFT will be one way to express an on-chain voice in the Gyroscope DAO. Following the tiered approach proposed by the Core Community, the voting power of a given NFT will be tiered according to the level of Sybil resistance as well as the level of contribution to the DAO. Details on these tiers, as well as more details on the overall governance structure, will be shared closer to launch.
The community can expect NFT voting power to reflect the following characteristics:
- Holding an NFT will represent a baseline tier. Higher tiers will benefit from a voting power boost.
- Mid-level tiers will incorporate Sybil score information.
- Higher tiers may also incorporate metrics for DAO contribution.
Overall, knowing that someone is most definitely a unique person should not automatically qualify someone to be a community steward. However, a high Sybil score can be a contributing factor to promote an address into a higher voting tier.
Going forward
For now, you can see here if you are eligible to become a founding member of the Gyroscope DAO: link.
Confirming your eligibility as above is not required for joining the Gyroscope DAO as a Founding Member. It only informs you about your eligibility status. A separate interface to claim the underlying NFT will be shared on Wednesday 15th June.
Generally, the conclusion of the Testnet Game and the issuance of the founding member NFT is the next step in the migration of the DAO from testnet to mainnet. These NFTs will be an important piece of the first mainnet voting mechanism with further pieces to come.
For the foreseeable future, while the DAO is in an early state, the founding member NFTs will remain non-transferable. As the DAO evolves, the option remains open to make them transferable as a novelty at a later stage.
With the public debate about web3 identity gaining traction (see, for example, ‘Soulbound-tokens’), we believe this Sybil resistant and contribution-focused approach will help shape DAO bootstrapping beyond the Gyroscope project.
Edit: Two manual changes were made that deviate from the results/ methodology of the analysis scripts.
In both cases the owner requested a change of their testnet address, which was granted after the owner could (a) proof their control over the respective address and (b) provided an exceptionally good explanation for the need to transfer sybil points to a new address.
The contracts are deployed now, as such no further exceptions can be made in any case.
