Separated Powers

A role restricted governance protocol for DAOs
Solidity protocol · Proof of Concept (Arbiscan) · Proof of Concept (dApp)

For an introduction into the protocol, see

the 2 minute project pitch or the 15 minute explanation.

Table of Contents

1. About
2. Advantages
3. Protocol Architecture
4. Important files and folders
5. Built With
6. Contact

About

Separated Powers restricts governance processes along access roles.

Advantages

In comparison to existing governance protocols, Separated Powers improves the scalability, security and decentralisation of on-chain governance.

• Scalability. Separated Powers creates a governance process where DAO members only vote on proposals that concern their roles. Role specification is a battle tested approach to enable the seamless scaling of small DAOs into larger ones.
• Security. Separated Powers allows for the creation of checks and balances between roles. The more checks and balances a DAO implements in its governance structure, the better it will be protected against hostile governance take overs.
• Decentralisation. Separated Powers enables DAOs to divide their community in groups (such as builders, token holders, users) and give each groups different, restricted, governance powers. Using roles to separate powers in governance is a tried and true approach to safeguarding decentralisation of (social, political and economic) assets in light of their tendency to centralise around informal elites.
• Multipliers. Above all else, Separated Powers creates multipliers between decentralisation, efficiency and security. In Separated Powers, increased decentralisation leads to more efficiency and more security. A focus on security will also increase decentralisation of DAO governance, etc.

Protocol Architecture

For now, the protocol does not have extensive documentation. Instead, you can do the following

• Watch the 15 minute explanation.
• Read /solidity/README.md.
• Then read through the code of solidity/src/SeparatedPowers.sol, solidity/src/ISeparatedPowers.sol and solidity/src/Law.sol and read through their code and natspecs.

More extensive documentation will be created asap.

Important files and folders

.
├── frontend          # App workspace
|    ├── README.md    # All information needed to run the dApp locally. 
│    └── ...
│
├── public            # Images
|
├── solidity          # Contains all the contracts, interfaces and tests. 
│    ├── README.md    # All information needed to run contracts locally, test and deploy contracts. It also gives more detailed information on the protocol itself. 
│    └── ...                     
| 
├── LICENSE
└── README.md         # This file

(back to top)

Built With

• Solidity 0.8.26
• Foundry 0.2.0
• OpenZeppelin 5.0.2
• React 18
• NextJS 14
• Tailwind css
• Wagmi / viem
• Privy.io

(back to top)

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

(back to top)

Contact

Seven Cedars - Github profile - [email protected]

Niy42 - Github profile

(back to top)