DAO Moves: Threshold Network Wants to Save wBTC, GnosisDAO Rethinks xDAI Use, Safe Protocol Considers Monetization

After a quiet summer, governance activities on DAOs have begun to quicken. DAOs, or decentralised autonomous organisations, are digital collectives that administer

Major DAO Moves in the Last 24 Hours: Saving wBTC, Ditching DAI, and a $2.5M Revenue Stream

After a quiet summer, governance activities on DAOs have begun to quicken.

DAOs, or decentralised autonomous organisations, are digital collectives that administer crypto projects. These digital communities collectively control more than $22 billion in treasury funds across 2,400 crypto projects.

Delegates hold power on DAOs to recommend and vote on governance proposals that can have far-reaching consequences not only for their respective projects, but for DeFi as a whole.

DL News pulled together the major DAO moves from the last 24 hours.

Saving wBTC

Threshold Network wants to save wBTC, a form of Bitcoin issued by BitGo that can be used on DeFi apps on Ethereum.

Threshold is a BitGo competitor and mints its own variant of Bitcoin on Ethereum, tBTC, but its $200 million market size pales in comparison to wBTC’s $9 billion.

So, why is a minnow harbouring plans to take over its huge competitor?

That’s because BitGo controversially plans to transfer wBTC’s ownership to a joint venture that includes Tron founder Justin Sun, leading to centralisation concerns among major DeFi protocols that offer exposure to the popular token.

Threshold’s DAO is now considering a proposal from one of its delegates to dilute its own supply by 15% to fund a $36.4 million acquisition of BitGo's wBTC.

If approved, Threshold will approach BitGo with a merger offer between their respective Ethereum-based Bitcoin tokens.

Ditching the DAI

BitGo isn’t the only company causing ripples in DeFi. MakerDAO’s rebrand to Sky is triggering reactions from DeFi communities.

GnosisDAO, which controls Ethereum side chain Gnosis Chain, is rethinking its use of xDAI as its gas token — the token used to pay for transaction fees on the blockchain.

XDAI is a form of DAI, the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by MakerDAO.

As part of its rebrand to Sky, MakerDAO created a new version of its stablecoin called USDS.

The rebrand wasn’t simply a name change — the USDS smart contract includes code that allows Sky to freeze the token and impose geofencing restrictions, features not present in DAI.

For some GnosisDAO delegates, that runs afoul of Gnosis’ decentralisation ethos.

GnosisDAO can opt for other more decentralised alternatives, including LUSD and RAI.

Some delegates are pushing for the project’s own native token GNO to become the gas token on the blockchain, as is the norm in DeFi.

$2.5m revenue stream

Safe Protocol is a DeFi custodian that safeguards more than $100 billion in crypto funds.

Its DAO, SafeDAO, is mulling a plan to monetise its smart account platform.

DAO delegates are debating a proposal to establish specific revenue streams to fund the Safe Ecosystem Foundation’s activities.

The first proposed revenue stream involves a licensing fee for third-party apps that integrate the project’s Safe Wallet.

The proposal estimates an annualised revenue of $2.5 million from the licensing fee regime.

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.