It is crucial to align and coordinate with value-aligned protocols and organizations to turn the Balancer Protocol into the primary liquidity engine for the Decentralized Web. These so-called DAO agreements will help improve knowledge and resource exchange between value-aligned groups, similar to trade agreements in geopolitics.

The Balancer DAO Agreement Process guides value-aligned organizations that want to solidify their relationship with the Balancer DAO and Ecosystem.

DAO Agreement Process (DAP)

The agreement process aims to optimize the pathway for ideating, structuring, improving, and executing DAO agreements between Balancer DAO and other DAOs. Please note that the DAO Agreement Process (DAP) is only here to provide guidance; although recommended, DAOs do not have to follow any of these steps if they want to engage the BalancerDAO.

Stage 1 - Ideation: The DAP starts with ideating the outline of the agreement. Ideation can take place in multiple formats, but we recommend for 1 to 4 representatives of a DAO to schedule an Ideation session with some of the Balancer Grants DAO members by filling in this simple form.

<aside> 💬 During the Ideation session, the group will walk through the 📄 DAO Agreement template to get a first draft ready to be shared with the wider Balancer DAO community.

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Stage 2 - Discussion: The second stage starts with submitting the draft DAO Agreement onto the Balancer Forum. Here the wider DAO communities can share their perspectives and suggestions on the agreement. The input from the Discussion phase will be used to improve and finalize the DAO Agreement Proposal. At the end of the discussion stage, a DAO Agreement Proposal will be submitted to the forum.

Stage 3 - Review: The review stage starts when the DAO Agreement Proposal is submitted to the Balancer Forum. During the Review stage, the main focus is around assessing whether the submitted Proposal is aligned with the interest of BalancerDAO. In the review stage, Stakeholders can share why they are pro or against the Proposal. Once the DAO representatives agree that good perspectives have been gathered, the representatives will finalize the Proposals and request submission to the respective DAOs governance process. In the case of Balancer, this will follow the official Balancer DAO Governance process where the Governance Leads agree on a submission date that is at least 24 hours after the moment the request was made.

Stage 4 - Voting: Once the proposals have been submitted to the respective DAOs, the Voting stage starts. During this stage, the DAO members vote whether they want to approve or not approve the DAO Agreement Proposal. If approved, the Proposal will move to Stage 5. If not approved by any of the two DAOs, the Proposal moves back to Stage 2.

Stage 5 - Execution: After being approved by both DAOs, the DAO Agreement will be executed. The DAO representatives are in charge of managing the agreement. For Financial Transactions, the Representatives of BalancerDAO will work with the Governance Leads to complete the transactions through the BalancerDAO Treasury. For non-financial transactions, the respective groups inside the BalancerDAO will be contacted to perform the agreement.

Post Agreement: The DAO Agreements do not have a specified ending date. Instead, any DAO can decide to step out of the agreement by passing a Governance Proposal in their DAO. The DAO representatives involved in the agreement will aim to coordinate to ensure that any potential conflicts are identified and resolved early on.