Areta Delegate Platform

Delegation Pitch
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Key Information

Please delegate to us on 0x8b37a5Af68D315cf5A64097D96621F64b5502a22

Introduction

Areta Governance specializes in supporting DAOs and foundations to establish and grow decentralized governance structures. We develop tailored solutions in governance inception and optimization, ecosystem growth, and service provider selection. Our connected investment bank with deep strategic expertise, enables us to serve our partners holistically, rather than working in isolated governance silos.

We have had the privilege to work for some of the leading companies and DAOs in the crypto space (Safe, Uniswap, Aave and dYdX). Examples of our work include managing a larger Aave delegation, setting up key contribution initiatives for SafeDAO, leading the first cross-ecosystem growth initiative for Uniswap and Arbitrum, and crypto-native transactions like the first acquisition of Coingecko or the sale of Solscan to Etherscan.

As DAOs emerge from their infancy, their structures have proven powerful tools for enabling decentralisation and autonomy. We view a well-designed governance system as a critical enabler for decentralized projects to allow them to leverage decentralization as a strategic advantage, rather than an inconvenient necessity (where most of the market is currently at).

However, DAOs often encounter challenges in maintaining organisation, highlighted by governance issues such as contributor onboarding and delegate overload. These scenarios highlight areas where DAOs can improve by establishing structured processes for better collaboration and being open to further strengthening against inefficiencies.

Recognising the need for evolution, we focus on excellent DAO participation with robust, defensible analysis of proposals through a structured voting process while simultaneously applying our deep institutional knowledge and strategic governance expertise to offer proactive DAO governance solutions aimed at nurturing the ecosystem for the long term.

Delegate Motivation

As long-term supporters and contributors to Uniswap DAO, we are well-versed with the Uniswap ecosystem, its stakeholders, and many of the larger delegates.

Over the course of our involvement in Uniswap DAO, we have led and supported key initiatives with dedicated teams:

  1. Uniswap-Arbitrum Grants Program (UAGP): We designed the first cross-ecosystem growth program between Uniswap and Arbitrum, leading the UAGP operationally, and seeking out and funding high-impact projects within the Uniswap and Arbitrum ecosystem.
  2. Uniswap-Arbitrum Delegate Program (UAGP): As part of our efforts to drive cross-ecosystem growth between Arbitrum and Uniswap, we led the design of the UAGP as a metagovernance initiative to protect Uniswap’s best interests in the Arbitrum ecosystem through participation in Arbitrum governance.

Core Tenets as Delegates

Areta’s core tenets as delegates are as follows:

  • 100% Voting Participation - we are deeply invested in the ecosystem and our goal is to meaningfully support its direction via thoughtful, educated governance decisions.
  • Independent and Impartial Voting - our voting is strictly informed by critical analysis and years of experience and is not based on bias or external influences.
  • Communication of Voting Rationale - we will communicate the rationale behind our votes through frequent updates to this thread, making us accountable to the community.

We will achieve these core tenets through our unique sources of value as follows:

a. Structured & Streamlined Voting Process

Our team lead adds new proposals to a shared tracker and assigns each incoming proposal to a specific member of the team.

  • For each proposal, we prepare a standard memo summarising the key issues, the black and white hat case (pros and cons), and a recommended decision with accompanying rationale.
  • Each proposal is then peer reviewed by another team member.
  • For complex proposals that require more discussion, we involve more members of the team as necessary to form a joint opinion.
  • We then publish our voting rationale externally on our public forum.

We always try to base our votes on sound, defensible rationale so that we are internally consistent and our voting track record stands up to external critique.

b. Ecosystem Growth and Expansion to Institutions

Leveraging the Areta network to promote and foster flourishing ecosystems across DAOs. Bringing unprecedented ties to a deep traditional network of corporates, strategics, and investors.

c. Governance Optimisation

Utilising our expertise to diagnose, analyse, correct, and enhance the effectiveness of DAO governance, ensuring streamlined operations and decision-making, while building up accountability structures.

Areas of Expertise

Having collaborated with industry leaders, Areta’s governance team offers a range of specialized services designed to support protocols and institutions in achieving their strategic goals, including:

  1. Governance Inception & Design: Set-up of key governance elements and structure, and build out tailored functions depending on ecosystem needs. Examples include: Contributor Program for Safe.
  2. Growth & Capital Allocation: Development of capital allocation and optimization strategy, along with innovative grant and contributor program design. Examples include: Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program, M&A Strategy for Arbitrum.
  3. DAO Strategic Operations: Design and operation of key executive functions, including leading key initiatives and filling gaps in DAO operations. Examples include: Service Provider Procurement for Arbitrum, RWA Strategy for multiple DAOs.
  4. Professional Delegation: Institutional-grade voting and decision-making, including creation of reporting material for key stakeholders. Examples include: Professional Delegation for Aave, Delegation for zkSync.

Selected Experiences

  • Contributor Efficiency System: Development of Safe DAO Contributor Efficiency System. Read more here.
  • Uniswap-Arbitrum Grant Program: Launch of Cross-Ecosystem Growth Initiative for Uniswap and Arbitrum. Read more here.
  • Operations Trustee: Trustee to dYdX’s Operations Trust. Read more here.
  • Aave Delegate: Incentivized Delegates for the Aave DAO. Read more here.
  • Wind-Down: Led the strategic wind-down of Gro DAO. Read more here.

Conflicts of Interest / Waiver of Liability

Areta currently does not have any material conflicts of interest. We agree to keep the Uniswap DAO community updated should any conflicts of interest arise. Our work in other DAOs is solely focused on supporting structural projects that are advancing the overall DAO space, are open-sourced across DAOs and will not influence any decision-making.

By delegating to Areta, you acknowledge and agree that Areta will participate on a best efforts basis and will not be liable for any form of damages related to participation in this DAO.

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Proposal: Proposal to active 2, 3, 4 bps fee-tiers on Base

Vote: FOR
Type: On-chain

Rationale: This proposal seeks to address Uniswap’s decreasing market share on Base by creating new fee tiers of 2, 3, and 4 bps for Uniswap v3 on Base. The analysis from the proposal shows that Uniswap competitors, specifically Aerodome has attracted higher transaction volumes due to its lower fee tier, and that by implementing lower fee tiers from its current 5bps, Uniswap can regain its lost market share. The proposed additional fee tiers can help Uniswap maintain its long-held competitive advantage, by allowing lower and/or flexible fees which increase efficiency and reduces losses for liquidity providers and users in general. Multiple fee tiers can also ensure flexibility to dynamic market conditions. We welcome the data-driven approach of this proposal, focused on analysis of market data and are interested in seeing more creative solutions from the DAO on how to help Uniswap to remain competitive especially from new market entrants who are ironically Uniswap forks. In this regard, we see this proposal as a step in the right direction, hence, we will be voting in support.

Proposal: Uniswap Accountability S3 Renewal and Rebalance

Vote: FOR
Type: On-chain

Rationale: The UAC has done a great job in Season 2 and it is clear that they have gone far and beyond their initially outlined scope. The precision with which the UAC has tracked its accounting and incentive programs, managed its multi-sigs, and provided a clear, granular level of transparency is an example of DAO programs and sets a new standard that other programs should strive to reach.

The ask for a 5-member committee taking on such a significant scope at a total of $210k for 7 months is more than reasonable - we would go so far as saying that there could either be an increase in rates or a bonus structure to further incentivise the UAC over this term, or both.

Rebalancing the accounts is also good practice; however, one question is around the total amount requested for rebalancing. The incentive package account is $276k in surplus while the rebalancing requested is $248k - would it not be possible to rebalance using the funds from the incentive package, unless this is to be used for other purposes.

All in all, it is a no-brainer for us to vote YES in favour of this proposal.

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Proposal: Uniswap Accountability Committee S3 Elections

Vote: Multichoice
Type: Off-chain

Rationale: This proposal seeks to elect two new members to the Uniswap Accountability Committee (UAC) out of 10 nominees. We distributed our votes in support of the following nominees as follows:

  • JoJo - 20%
  • Doo - 20%
  • Sov - 20%
  • Kevin Nielson - 20%
  • Alicecorsini - 10%
  • Alex Duckworth - 10%

Proposal: Forse Analytics for Uniswap Revitalization and Growth Program

Vote: FOR
Type: On-chain

Rationale: This proposal seeks to allocate 8700 UNI or $60k to onboard Forse by StableLab as a data service provider for the purpose of analysing the impact of the Uniswap Revitalisation and Growth Program on the Arbitrum, Base and Blast networks. As incentive programs and onboarding packages continue to proliferate within the DAO with the goal of increasing Uniswap deployments across different networks, we believe it is equally important to measure the effectiveness of these incentives in attracting and retaining users. This will be critical for designing future iterations of the program and improving outcomes. We also support the retroactive funding approach in the proposal, as it gives the DAO control by tying allocation of funds to completion of deliverables. We view StableLab as highly capable parties, having worked together with them across a number of initiatives. We will therefore be voting in support of this proposal.

Proposal: [TEMP CHECK] - Onboarding Package for Lisk

Vote: FOR
Type: Off-chain

Rationale: While it may seem as if the efficacy of the incentives does not seem guaranteed since Lisk is a small protocol where almost all its users already use Uniswap, there are several reasons to vote in favour:

  • Velodrome is going to launch on Lisk and will pose still competition to Uniswap. This program will help consolidate Uniswap’s position as the leading DEX on Lisk and the incentive matching by Lisk cannot be ignored.
  • From an economic perspective, @AbdullahUmar’s explanation of the ‘+$83k in costs’ is an interesting way to look at the incentive matching; while this may not definitely be the case, at the very least the costs are not significantly high and seem fair enough to ‘pay’ to cement Uniswap as the leading DEX on an up and coming Superchain focused on a use case with a high TAM.

Therefore, we will vote YES in favour of this proposal.

Proposal: Uniswap Growth Program Trial

Vote: FOR
Type: Off-chain

Rationale: The proposal is very well thought out and comprehensive, targeting areas in Uniswap’s growth funnel that are currently underserved. The scope is well-defined and clear, with outbound BD, marketing, and incentives being a strong 3-pronged approach. AlphaGrowth’s CRM product also looks to be very fit-for-purpose and should help scale Uniswap’s BD and marketing opportunities significantly. The budget of $420k for AlphaGrowth for the activities outlined seems fair, especially for a 15-person team, and given that the budget includes all expenses. The success fee reserve of $500k for the UEII is also a good sign since payments will only be made if the initiative achieves success and is non-dilutive.

All in all, we are strongly in favour of this proposal and will vote YES.

Proposal: Uniswap Growth Program Trial

Vote: FOR
Type: On-Chain

Rationale: This is the on-chain vote for this Snapshot TEMP CHECK that we voted in favour of according to our rationale here. It is extremely encouraging that AlphaGrowth has taken @eek637’s concerns around marketing the incentives and will institute a legal review process for all marketing efforts. This de-risks themselves significantly and we think this is the right step given market conditions.

Proposal: [Updated] Forse Analytics for Uniswap Revitalization and Growth Program

Vote: FOR
Type: On-Chain

Rationale: This is a re-vote of this Tally proposal that we voted in favour of according to our rationale here. We stand with our original rationale and view of StableLab as highly capable parties. Moreover, we think the feedback incorporated is very positive and makes this a good deal for Uniswap.

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Proposal: [TEMP CHECK] - Tally Uniswap Proposal

Vote: FOR
Type: Off-chain

Rationale: Tally has been a great platform to use for onchain voting and the budget outlined is very reasonable. $500k over two years to support what we see as a public good for the ecosystem is fair. We are also strongly in favour of the ‘rising tide raises all boats’ ideology - for this space, trying to restrict any upgrades or innovations Tally may make only to Uniswap would be net destructive for the ecosystem. The responses from Dennison have been very detailed and have alleviated any concerns about how the funds will be allocated.

We are looking forward to the development roadmap being implemented and while we trust Tally to meet their roadmap, we welcome the UAC working alongside Tally to ensure this. Lastly, we’re also in alignment with @Gauntlet about Tally becoming a decentralized operational hub and making governance on Uniswap (and other DAOs) as seamless as possible.

All in all, we are very much in favour of this proposal.

Proposal: Supporting Tally’s Development and Enhancements for Uniswap DAO Governance

Vote: FOR
Type: On-chain

Rationale: This is the onchain vote for this Snapshot TEMP CHECK that we voted in favour of according to our rationale here. Therefore, we will vote YES in favour of this proposal as well.

1 Like