Managing your colony just got easier. We’re thrilled to announce a major UI overhaul that simplifies navigation, centralises critical information, and enhances collaborative financial management. With these updates, you’ll spend less time on admin tasks and more time focusing on what matters most: growing your organisation.

A Redesigned Dashboard

At the heart of this update is a completely reimagined dashboard designed to provide a crystal-clear picture of your organisation’s financial health. By consolidating team balances into a single, easy-to-read hub, you gain immediate insight into your resources and cash flow.

Here’s what’s new:

• Real-time payment tracking: Monitor incoming and outgoing transactions as they happen, with colour-coded notifications for pending approvals and overdue actions.
• One-click actions: Make payments, approve transactions, or adjust team settings directly from the dashboard, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple menus.
• Visual summaries: Intuitive charts and graphs provide an at-a-glance overview of financial activity, helping you spot trends and make informed decisions faster.

This streamlined design ensures that essential information is always at your fingertips, empowering you to manage your organisation with confidence and efficiency.

Streamlined Navigation

We’ve restructured the navigation to make your workflow smoother and more intuitive. The updated menu hierarchy is designed to get you where you need to go with minimal effort.

Key improvements include:

• Quick access to tools: Your most-used features are now front and centre, saving you clicks and time.
• Dedicated sections for admin tasks: Managing permissions, payments, and settings is now faster, thanks to clearly defined areas for these functions.
• Consistent experience: The interface adapts seamlessly whether you’re using a desktop or mobile device, so you can work efficiently from anywhere.

With these enhancements, you’ll spend less time searching for tools and more time getting things done.

Enhanced Team Management

Managing multiple teams has never been easier. The updated interface gives you a comprehensive view of your organisation’s structure while allowing you to dive into the details of each team.

What’s new:

• At-a-glance summaries: Instantly see the status of all your teams, including financial balances and recent activity.
• Effortless context switching: Move between team spaces seamlessly to manage permissions, approve payments, and collaborate effectively.
• Specialised team spaces: Each team now has its own dedicated area, making team-specific actions straightforward while keeping you connected to the broader organisational picture.

These updates ensure that whether you’re overseeing one team or ten, you have the tools you need to stay organised and in control.

Looking Ahead

This UI refresh isn’t just about improving your current experience; it’s about building a foundation for the future. The redesigned interface has been developed with upcoming features in mind, ensuring seamless integration as we continue to evolve and expand our platform.

Ready to experience the new Colony interface? Join our early access waiting list to be among the first to try it out. Discover how our all-in-one payment suite and streamlined management tools can transform the way you work.

—> Join the Waiting List

We’re excited to hear your feedback as we continue to make Colony the most intuitive and powerful way to manage your organisation. Together, we’re building the future of collaborative financial management.

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of onchain organisations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• X: Follow us on X
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Managing project payments requires both transparency and control. Contributors need to verify that funds are available, while organizations need flexibility in releasing payments based on delivered work. Today, we're introducing Staged Payments - a feature that lets organizations manage milestone-based payments with complete control while giving contributors confidence in available funding.

How It Works

Staged Payments combines upfront funding visibility with colony-controlled releases through four key elements:

1. Verified Funding: The total payment amount is secured in your colony's smart contracts at the start, letting contributors verify the allocated funds
2. Colony Control: Your colony maintains full control over the funds throughout the process, releasing each stage payment when you're satisfied with delivered work
3. Onchain Transparency: Both parties can verify the allocated funds and payment status in real-time
4. Flexible Staging: Your colony can structure payments into stages that align with project milestones

This creates a straightforward system where contributors can confidently verify allocated funds while organizations retain complete control over when payments are released.

Real-World Applications

1) Project-Based Payments

AuditShield's recent security audit for Nautilus Protocol shows how Staged Payments builds trust while maintaining colony control. The Nautilus Protocol colony structured the $80,000 audit as:

• Initial Review ($25,000): Released by the colony after satisfactory preliminary findings
• Deep Analysis ($35,000): Released following approved vulnerability assessment
• Final Review ($20,000): Released upon acceptance of implementation verification

Nautilus Protocol's colony allocated the full amount upfront for verification, while maintaining complete control over releasing payments as work was delivered.

2) Community Growth Initiatives

The Mustard Network colony used Staged Payments to drive regional community development. Their APAC hub program structured 100,000 USDC across growth milestones:

• 20,000 USDC: Released by the colony upon reaching 5,000 community members
• 30,000 USDC: Released when 10,000 members and regional meetups were achieved
• 50,000 USDC: Released after verifying 20,000 members and developer workshop completion

This structure allowed hub leaders to verify the committed funding while the Mustard Network colony maintained control over validating and releasing payments at each stage.

Beyond Basic Milestones

Staged Payments transform how teams manage milestone-based payments. Contributors gain confidence through verified funding allocation, while organizations maintain complete control over payment releases based on their satisfaction with delivered work.

Whether you're coordinating complex projects or incentivizing community growth, Staged Payments provides the transparency contributors need with the control organizations require.

Ready to explore how Staged Payments can work for your organization?

→ Join Waiting List

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this new feature. Join the conversation in our Discord community or reach out to us on X.

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of onchain organizations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• X: Follow us on X
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Together, let's build the future of decentralized collaboration.

Since launching the new Colony app on Arbitrum One, early-access users needing a better way to manage their team's finances have highlighted its speed, cost-effectiveness, and reliability. 

As we transition to the next phase of Colony’s rollout, our focus is on optimizing operations by migrating liquidity to Arbitrum One and deprecating support for the legacy app on Gnosis Chain. 

This article provides the actionable information you need to ensure a seamless transition.

1) CLNY Liquidity Migration to Arbitrum One

On 19th December 2024, we will:

1. Withdraw CLNY liquidity from Gnosis Chain.
2. Establish a new Uniswap V3 pool on Arbitrum One.

This migration aims to improve trading efficiency by relocating CLNY liquidity to Arbitrum One. By focusing liquidity in a single ecosystem, we intend to simplify access for traders and benefit from Arbitrum’s active user base and growing ecosystem. This change supports a more effective trading environment for CLNY.

Steps to Migrate CLNY

If you hold CLNY on Gnosis Chain, we recommend migrating your tokens to Arbitrum One to prepare for the upcoming Reputation Mining rollout.

1. Use the Gnosis Chain Bridge to move your CLNY tokens from Gnosis Chain to Ethereum.
2. Use the Arbitrum Bridge to transfer CLNY from Ethereum to Arbitrum One.

CLNY Contract Addresses:

Gnosis Chain: 0xc9B6218AffE8Aba68a13899Cbf7cF7f14DDd304C

Ethereum: 0x3E828ac5C480069D4765654Fb4b8733b910b13b2

Arbitrum One: 0xD611b29dc327723269Bd1e53Fe987Ee71A24B234

2) Deprecating support for Gnosis Chain

The majority of users have already transitioned from the legacy Colony app on Gnosis Chain to the new version on Arbitrum One. This widespread adoption makes it the right time to phase out support for the legacy Colony UI on Gnosis Chain.

Key Dates and Impact

• Until 31st December 2024: Existing colonies on Gnosis Chain will continue to be accessible via the legacy Colony UI.
• After 31st December 2024: The Colony UI and Reputation Mining on Gnosis Chain will be officially discontinued. Users will still be able to interact with their colonies directly via smart contracts.

Next Steps for Gnosis Chain Users

To ensure a smooth transition, we strongly recommend taking the following actions while the Colony UI for Gnosis Chain is still available:

1. Claim All Stakes: Users should claim all unclaimed stakes in their colonies as soon as possible. To help with this, we have created a dedicated page to check unclaimed colony stakes: Check Unclaimed Colony Stakes. A guide on using MyCrypto to interact with your colony will be provided closer to the deprecation date.
   
2. Deactivate tokens: Active tokens are stored in the token-locking contract rather than in the user’s wallet. To ensure the tokens are returned to your MetaMask wallet, you’ll need to deactivate them. This step is vital for regaining full control over your tokens. For detailed guidance, refer to this article: Migrating from Colony V2 to Colony V3.
   
3. Transfer Funds: Ensure all funds are withdrawn from colonies on Gnosis Chain before the UI is deprecated. Once the UI is no longer accessible, users will need to interact directly with smart contracts using tools such as MyCrypto.

Additionally, if you have vested CLNY, follow the instructions in this guide to claim your vested tokens: Claiming Vested CLNY.

Finally, we encourage transitioning your colony to Arbitrum One as soon as possible. Our team is ready to assist with:

• Recreating your colony on Arbitrum One.
• Transferring funds and assets.
• Migrating members and reputation.

For guidance, please contact us via email or open a support ticket on our Discord server.

Looking Forward

This consolidation marks the end of the beginning for delivering new Colony. With the final stage of migration complete, we’re poised to realise Colony’s multi-chain vision in Q1, 2025. Stay tuned for updates as we prepare for an exciting new chapter in team financial management.

Thank you for being part of this journey. We’re excited about what lies ahead and look forward to continuing to support your success.

Join our community

For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• X: Follow us on X
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Managing funds in Web3 organizations has always been a challenge. Distributing resources fairly and efficiently across multiple teams and contributors can be time-consuming and prone to errors. That's where our new Split Payments feature comes in, designed to streamline how Web3 teams handle on-chain fund distribution.

Split Payments isn't just a convenient tool—it's a crucial component for smooth operations in decentralized organizations. Whether you're distributing project bounties, sharing investment returns, or rewarding community contributions, Split Payments offers a more efficient and equitable way to manage your organization's finances. It's time to say goodbye to complicated spreadsheets and hello to simplified fund management.

Split The Pot However You Like

Our new feature is designed to make fund distribution as easy as pie. Here's what it offers:

1. Equal Distribution: Split funds evenly among team members with a single click.
2. Custom Allocation: Distribute funds unequally based on contribution or any other factor you choose.
3. Reputation-Based Splitting: Automatically divide funds based on each recipient's reputation in the organization.

But don't take our word for it. Let's look at how Split Payments can transform various scenarios:

1) Equal Splits: Fairness Made Simple

Team Project Bonus: A software development team of 8 members just crushed their deadline. Their $40,000 bonus? Equally split in seconds, $5,000 each. No calculators needed.

Startup Token Allocation: Four co-founders launching a DeFi protocol can now distribute their 20 million token founder's pool with a single click. 5 million tokens each, 25% ownership, no smart contract headaches.

2) Unequal Splits: Flexibility When You Need It

Project Compensation: A freelance team completed a $10,000 project. Splitting it unevenly is a breeze: 20% to the project manager, 40% to the lead developer, and 20% each to two junior developers. Done in minutes, not hours.

Token Allocations: A DAO with a 20 million token supply needs to distribute tokens to key stakeholders based on their impact and roles. Using Split Payments, they effortlessly allocate:

• 10% to the core team
• 10% to part-time contributors
• 10% to advisors
• 30% to partners
• 40% to the community

This unequal split accurately reflects the varying levels of contribution and responsibility within the DAO ecosystem, ensuring fair and transparent token distribution.

Reputation-Based Splits: Rewarding Impact

Open Source Contributions: Imagine donating $5,000 to an open-source project and having it automatically distributed based on each contributor's commit history, code quality, and overall impact. That's the power of reputation-based splitting.

Community Rewards: DAOs can now allocate rewards based on member participation in governance, content creation, and community support. $50,000 distributed fairly and automatically? That's a reality with Split Payments.

Sales Team Bonus: A $80,000 sales team bonus split not just by numbers, but by a reputation score considering client satisfaction, teamwork, and consistency. Fair, motivating, and effortless.

The Future of Work is Fair

At Colony, we believe that the future of work isn't just about being decentralized - it's about being fair, transparent, and efficient. Split Payments is a significant step towards realizing that vision.

Whether you're running a DAO, managing a remote web3 team, or looking for more flexible ways to reward contributions, we invite you to experience the future of fund distribution with our Split Payments.

Ready to slice your financial pie with surgical precision? Here's how to get started:

→ Join Waiting List

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this new feature. How do you see it impacting your organization? What other challenges in web3 work would you like us to tackle next? Join the conversation in our Discord community or reach out to us @joincolony on Twitter.

At Colony, we're not just building features – we're carving out the future of work. And we want you to be part of it.

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of onchain organizations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• Twitter: Follow us on Twitter
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Together, let's build the future of decentralized collaboration.

In the world of collective decision-making, organizations often face a trade-off between swift, high-trust operations and slower, low-trust processes. On the one hand, traditional permission systems can leave organizations vulnerable to single points of failure or abuse of power, while limiting flexibility. Conversely, decentralized organizations frequently suffer from excessive coordination costs, potentially missing opportunities due to lengthy proposal and voting processes.

At Colony, we recognize that every organization is unique, and the choice shouldn't be binary. That's why we've always offered our users both primary decision methods to suit different organizational needs.

Our first decision method, Individual Control, is ideal for day-to-day operations where trust in specific team members is high. This method offers the fastest decision-making but with lower security, making it perfect for routine tasks that require quick execution.

The second decision method is Lazy Voting, our innovative consensus approach that allows for efficient, decentralized decision-making. In this system, a user proposes an action backed by a security bond. If no objections arise within a set time, the proposal passes automatically. However, if opposed, it triggers a vote among those with relevant team reputation. While it's the slowest method, Lazy Voting offers the highest security and decentralization.

Introducing Multi-sig Permissions

We're excited to introduce Multi-sig Permissions, a powerful new decision method that enhances security, decentralization, and adaptability in organizations built on Colony.

The Multi-sig decision method adds a balanced approach for decisions requiring more oversight than Individual Permissions. This classic multi-sig setup requires a set number (M) of signers out of a total group (N) to approve actions. It offers moderate speed and enhanced security compared to Individual Control, but faster execution and more focused participation compared to Lazy Voting.

The table below compares the key features and trade-offs of each decision method:

By offering this spectrum of decision-making approaches, including the new Multi-sig Permissions, Colony provides organizations with flexible options to balance speed, security, and decentralization.

Whether an organization prioritizes swift action or collective decision-making, Colony's diverse governance solutions adapt to specific needs and contexts, meeting a wide range of organizational requirements.

Get Started Today

Experience the future of decentralized governance with Colony's Multi-sig Permissions. Request early access by joining our waiting list below!

→ Join the Waiting List

Cryptocurrency adoption is growing, but most people still prefer receiving payments in traditional currencies. They need fiat money in their bank accounts to cover daily expenses and financial obligations.

To address this need, we're proud to introduce Crypto to Fiat Payments, a transformative feature for organizations and individuals using Colony.

This innovative solution offers two key capabilities:

• For Organizations: Pay contributors directly in USD or EUR from your USDC balance.
• For Individuals: Convert your USDC to fiat and transfer it directly to your bank account.

By bridging the gap between cryptocurrency and traditional banking, Crypto to Fiat Payments simplifies financial operations for decentralized organizations and provides flexibility for individual users.

Whether you're managing payroll for a global team or need to access your crypto earnings in fiat currency, our new feature streamlines the process, saving you time and reducing complexity.

Let's explore how Crypto to Fiat Payments can revolutionize your financial management on Colony.

Use Case 1: Nautilus DAO

Nautilus, an unincorporated DAO with contributors across three continents, faced significant challenges in managing payments:

Before Colony:

• Couldn't obtain a bank account or centralized exchange account due to lack of incorporation
• Limited to paying contributors in stablecoins
• Restricted talent pool to crypto-savvy individuals
• Struggled to attract diverse talent due to payment limitations

After Implementing Colony's Crypto to Fiat:

• Maintained full control of funds within the DAO structure
• Enabled direct fiat payments to contributors
• Significantly expanded available talent pool
• Attracted contributors who prefer traditional currency payments

Key Benefit: Increased access to global talent while maintaining decentralized operations.

Use Case 2: Mustard Ltd

Mustard Ltd, a UK-based software development consultancy specializing in web3, encountered several obstacles in managing crypto and fiat transactions:

Before Colony:

• Struggled with UK regulations on business accounts for centralized exchanges
• Couldn't meet high asset requirements for most exchange accounts
• Faced high fees and poor liquidity when converting USDC to EUR
• Risked mainstream bank account closure due to crypto transactions
• Incurred hefty fees with specialist crypto-friendly banks
• Spent significant time and resources managing complex payment processes
• Relied on trusting individuals to handle centralized exchange and banking transactions

After Implementing Colony's Crypto to Fiat:

• Streamlined payroll process to a single advanced payment through Colony
• Employees receive EUR directly in their personal bank accounts
• Reduced payroll management from a monthly headache to a two-minute task
• Minimized trust requirements and simplified financial operations

Key Benefit: Dramatically simplified payroll management while reducing costs and risks associated with crypto-to-fiat conversions.

Looking Ahead

We're committed to continually improving our Crypto to Fiat Payments feature. In the coming months, we plan to:

• KYB: If the colony is incorporated, it can complete compliance so recipients worldwide can receive payments without completing KYC.
• KYC Free: US users off-ramping less than $10k per transaction, and $100k per month won’t require KYC.
• Expand Currency Options to include GBP.

Get Started Today

Experience the future of payroll management with Colony’s Crypto to Fiat.

Request early access by joining our waiting list below!

→ Join the Waitlist | → View Documentation

We are excited to introduce Advanced Payments; a powerful upgrade to Colony’s payment capabilities.

Advanced Payments simplifies and streamlines your organisation’s payments by enabling you to execute many payments in a single action.

With Advanced Payments, you can:

• Easily make bulk payments to a few, tens, hundreds, or thousands of recipients by uploading a CSV file.
• Add and edit multiple recipients and tokens via the intuitive UI.
• Schedule payments to arrive at different times.
• Choose to pay recipients from either the organisation’s general treasury or a specific team’s funds.

Advanced Payments in Action

Marcos manages payroll for his team using USDC and also makes monthly allocations in their native token, NAUT.

He needs to pay the four contributors in the Software Development team.

Previously, this required eight individual transactions each month. Now, with Advanced Payments, Marcos can simply upload a CSV file with all the payment details and complete the process in one go.

How to Use Advanced Payments: A Step-by-Step Guide

Making a payment to multiple recipients in multiple tokens takes less than a minute. Just follow these easy steps:

Want to make your own Advanced Payments?

Join our Waiting List below and we'll invite you as soon as we start onboarding new colonies.

→ Join the Waiting List

For technical reasons, Colony has been exclusive to Gnosis Chain. Finally, we have resolved those technical challenges, and are excited to deploy across all compatible chains with sufficient demand for Colony’s collaborative finance tools for teams, projects, and organizations.

Why Arbitrum?

• Liquidity: Ample exchange options and deep liquidity.
• Bridging: Many options for making transactions between Arbitrum and other chains. 
• Ecosystem: A broad range of protocols and services are live on Arbitrum.
• Low fees: Since Ethereum’s Dencun fork, gas costs on Arbitrum are among the lowest.

Does This Affect Current Colony Users?

Unfortunately, yes. 

As we go multi-chain, Colony’s Reputation mining service must compute Reputation updates for users across all chains. The infrastructure required to bridge these Reputation updates to Gnosis Chain doesn’t exist. Consequently, we cannot currently support Gnosis Chain within our multi-chain deployment.

Existing colonies on Gnosis Chain will continue to be supported via Colony’s v2 UI until December 31st 2024. After that, both the UI and Reputation mining will be deprecated on Gnosis Chain. Users may still interact with their colonies via the contracts directly. 

What Should I Do Next?

No immediate action is required.

While it’s impossible to migrate colonies from Gnosis Chain to Arbitrum directly, in the coming weeks, we'll share a detailed Transition Guide, offering a step-by-step process on how to recreate your colony on Arbitrum.

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of on-chain organizations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• Twitter: Follow us on Twitter
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Together, let's build the future of decentralized collaboration.

You can also listen to this blog in audio version:

What is a DUNA

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On March 7, 2024, SF50, the Wyoming Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act was signed into law. The latest act is the most recent in Wyoming’s effort to become the US’s most friendly toward crypto companies. SF50 was cheered by many in the decentralized community, with a16zcrypto claiming the DUNA has created “An Oasis For DAOs”. 

But what does the DUNA actually mean for on-chain organizations, and how likely is it that a DUNA is the right legal entity for your DAO? Here we explore a few ins and outs of the new legislation, and unpack what it might mean for blockchain businesses everywhere. 

What is a DUNA?

The law establishes a legal framework for “DUNAs”, unincorporated nonprofit associations which leverage blockchain and distributed ledger technology. It was modeled on the state’s existing Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act, with added adaptations for decentralized organizations. 

DUNAs are defined by their technology, membership, and activities. 

Technology

First, DUNAs must operate as entirely decentralized organizations, and their operation must depend on blockchain technologies. The legislation emphasizes how smart contracts, digital assets and distributed ledgers must serve as the foundation of the association’s governance, including how operations, member rights and administrative roles are managed. 

Membership

These collectives must have 100 or more members, who are joined by mutual consent for a common non-profit purpose. The legislation does not define how those 100 members are identified or counted, and there is no requirement for KYC procedures. It is not clear how courts will define the membership threshold in practice. 

Activities

The law defines that DUNAs must have a “charitable purpose” behind their activities, specifically those that may be considered exempt under the International Revenue Code’s 501(c)(3) legislation (which is limited to religious organizations, educational, scientific, sports organizations or the prevention of animal and child cruelty), or upon dissolution may disperse their funds to a charitable purpose. For many for-profit blockchain businesses, at first appearance a non-profit designation might already appear as a barrier. However, under this legislation, DUNAs can engage in for-profit activities and reasonably compensate members for their contributions, as long as those profits continue to support the growth and sustainability of the DAO and its underlying blockchain network. Dividends and profits can be distributed to its members, but not to those outside. 

Furthermore, to be eligible as a DUNA, organizations must be unincorporated, and not formed under any other preexisting law or legal structure. Organizations that have another type of legal wrapper cannot apply to become a DUNA association. This feature brings us to the aspect of the law that has received the most attention.

A true legal entity for DAOs? 

One of the most discussed aspects of the DUNA legislation is the basis for legal recognition and protection for DAOs. What this means in practice is that DUNAs are recognized under the law. DUNAs should function as any other business, they may work with third parties, open bank accounts and work with contractors. DUNAs may acquire property, and be the beneficiary of a trust or contract. This legal recognition gives DUNAs a tax structure similar to a corporation, which may simplify tax obligations and make it easier for decentralized organizations to work with regulatory authorities. 

Most importantly, it also suggests that a DUNA’s members, managers or administrators may not be held liable for a breach of a DUNA’s contract because of their association with the DUNA. This is notable as founders and contributors of DAOs, including Wyoming based DAOs, have been found personally liable for securities violations and other types of infractions enacted by DAOs.

Should all DAOs become DUNAs? 

According to a16zcrypto and others, DAOs should embrace and adopt the DUNA. Without a legal entity, they cite that “DAO membership and participation is currently fraught with peril”, and that the new legislation prevents the onslaught of class action lawsuits and regulatory actions that DAO members may be subject to without a proper legal structure. They also argue that it simplifies the tax implications for decentralized organizations and helps to empower DAO members to further contribute.

However, there are a number of reasons on-chain organizations should be cautious before wholeheartedly embracing the DUNA. As a new legislation, it remains untested. Earlier DAO legislation passed in Wyoming meant to legally recognize DAOs so they could comply with securities laws famously was unable to do so, and had significant consequences for some DAOs that enthusiastically supported the new legislation. 

There are several areas where the DUNA legislation appears unclear and may be tested in court. These include:

Fair compensation

DUNAs can compensate members for their contributions, however compensation must be deemed “reasonable”. It is unclear how courts will consider what type of compensation is reasonable, which might limit the amount that DUNAs can extract from users and distribute to their members. It might mean that DUNAs will have to adapt their compensation models and vesting schedules to comply with expectations of reasonable compensation. It is likely that there will be a ceiling of what type of compensation is considered reasonable. According to the Wyoming Nonprofit Network’s latest Impact Report, $640 million was paid in wages to 16,856 nonprofit sector employees across Wyoming in 2021. This suggests the average compensation for employees in the nonprofit sector is quite low, with many participating in a voluntary capacity. 

Nonprofit designation

DUNAs can operate in a for-profit capacity, but they must be designed in a way to facilitate overall ambitions that advance non-profit objectives. This might mean that grant programs and more open access opportunities may become more prominent in a DUNA’s operations. The requirement for a charitable purpose might have other consequences that are yet untested by the courts. 

Legal and regulatory uncertainty

The DUNA was designed to address the shortcomings of previous legislation that was unable to shield DAOs from regulatory oversight. However the regulatory landscape is continuing to change and there are aspects of the legislation that do not clearly outline how DUNA will interact with other US regulations. Due to the principle of supremacy in US law, federal laws, such as SEC regulations supersede that of state laws, such as Wyoming’s DUNA. This might be complicated if DUNAs engage in activities that fall under regulatory scrutiny. For example, should the DUNA issue tokens that are considered securities or operate in the financial sector, they may need to implement KYC procedures to comply with relevant laws and regulations, whereas the Wyoming law has no such requirement. Organizations that become DUNAs, will be subject to all SEC and federal requirements, as even though they may be decentralized, as legal Wyoming companies they are considered US based entities.

Further Considerations

Despite it’s potential limitations, Wyoming’s new DUNA legislation is a promising step for DAOs and on-chain organizations. Its passage suggests a greater openness of legal authorities to take decentralized businesses more seriously, and gives other localities a reference for how to work more meaningfully with decentralized organizations. The DUNA joins developments by more and more jurisdictions that have developed legislation to create alternative avenues for DAOs and other on-chain businesses to pursue legal recognition. It’s important to remember that many of these are new and still remain untested. It is up to DAO builders and members to do their own research about what type of legal entity is right for their organization, and to be aware of the changing regulatory landscape. We look forward to following the developments of DUNA, and seeing how DAOs utilize this new law.

We will continue to follow the efforts by other jurisdictions to adopt alternative legislation for DAOs and to see how the regulatory landscape evolves in response. If you’ve pursued a DUNA for your on-chain organization and would like to tell us about your experience, please get in touch, we’d be happy to share your experience for other DAO builders. Let us know!

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Colony makes no recommendation as to a specific jurisdictional setup for your DAO or on-chain entity, besides to encourage all DAOs to seek a legal setup that is appropriate. Please do your own research on what arrangement is most suitable. Consult appropriate legal advice before pursuing any legal arrangement.

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of on-chain organizations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• Twitter: Follow us on Twitter
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Together, let's build the future of decentralized collaboration.

From "Automated Market Makers" to "Wrapped Bitcoin," we've got you covered with bite-sized explanations and deep dives on all the key terms. Our index is your starting point to explore, understand, and get involved in the exciting, decentralized future.

A

Automated Market Maker (AMM)

B

Benefits of a DAO?
Blobs

C

Core Contributor
Challenges in DAO Governance

D

DAO Design
DAO Design Phases
DAO Documentation
DAO Incorporation
DAO Real World Use Cases
DAO Voting Mechanisms: A Focus on Colony
DAO Tools
dApp
Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Decentralized Identifiers
Decentralized Identity (DID)
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
Delegated Voting
Difference between a DAO and a Company
DUNA
Dust Transaction

E

EIP-4844
Effective Strategies For Funding Your DAO

F

Farming Pools
Flash Loans

G

Governance Framework
Governance Token

H

How To Create a DAO - A Step-by-Step Guide
How Does a DAO Make Money?
Hybrid Organization Model

I

Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
Interoperability
Investment DAOs

L

Layer 1 Solutions
Layer 2 Solutions
Legal Personality
Liquid Democracy
Liquidity Pools

M

Multi-Sig Wallets

N

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

O

Off-Chain Assets
On-Chain Organizations
Open Organizations
Oracles
Ostrom’s Principles

P

Plasma Chains
POAP
Privacy Coins
Private Key
Proof of Stake

Q

Quadratic Founding/ Voting
Quorum

R

Reputation-Based Governance in DAOs
Rollups
Rug Pull

S

SEC
Sharding
Sidechains
Signature Voting (Snapshot)
Slasher
Soft Fork
Smart Contract
Smart Contract Audits
Soulbound Tokens
Staking
Sybil Attack

T

Temperature Check (Proposals)
Token Burning
Token Locking
Token Standard (e.g., ERC-20, ERC-721)
Token Vesting
Token-Curated Registries (TCRs)
Tokenomics
Top 9 DAO Tools in 2024
Treasury
True DAO
Trustless
TVL (Total Value Locked)

V

Voting Mechanisms

W

Wallets (Cryptocurrency Wallets)
WETH
Whales
What Is the Difference Between a DAO and a Company?
What is Reputation-Based Governance?
Whitelist
Wrapped Bitcoin

Y

Yield Farming

Z

Zero Knowledge Proofs

We're thrilled to be part of ETHDenver this year and can't wait to dive into the world of Web3 with innovative thinkers and developers from all over the world.

It's a fantastic opportunity to explore cutting-edge developments and foster new connections with the builder community.

If you're going to ETHDenver, we'd love to meet you!

Here's who we are and what we would love to talk to you about:

Daniel (Network) – Reputation, mechanisms, Solidity

Chris (Frontend Dev) – Web3 APIs, integrations, developer relations

Arren (Product) – Product, features, roadmap

Mel (Design) – Scalable design, user experience, design systems, women in Web3, design x AI

Etienne (Community) - Launching a DAO, contributing, marketing

Here's where you'll find us throughout the week:

Wednesday, February 28th

DAO Castle: How to DAO

DAO Castle is set to be a groundbreaking event with over 500 attendees, offering a unique blend of educational content and networking opportunities. It will feature inspiring keynotes from industry leaders, interactive panel discussions on DAO governance and tokenomics, and social events to foster connections in the Web3 community.

Colony's very own OG dev, Chris Maniewski, will feature on the panel 'How do you build reputation in DAOs and Web3' at 12pm.

We have a limited number of complimentary tickets to the "How to DAO" conference. For a chance to win one of these full day passes to the DAO Castle, simply retweet this tweet and we'll choose the winners at random.

Thursday, February 29th

Colony x kombucha
11am - 2pm at Blind Tiger by Hooch Booch

Join us for a unique gathering with the Colony team, featuring endless kombucha on tap! You're invited to a special community event where we can connect in person and share our latest developments (we also want to show you something new 🤫).

​What's in Store for You:

• ​Meet the Team: Connect face-to-face with the people behind Colony. 🙋‍♀️
• ​Behind the Scenes: Dive into what drives us and where we're headed. 🛣️
• ​V3 Sneak Peek: Be among the first to see the next version of Colony. 👀
• ​Early Access to V3 Beta: Get exclusive early access to the V3 private beta and help shape the future of Colony. 🎟️

​This event will be small and intimate, so spaces are limited to just 30 spots!

Friday to Sunday, March 1st-3rd

Spork Castle & various side events

From Friday to Sunday we'll mostly be attending the Main Event to connect with DAO builders, partners and developers.

We'll also be dropping into numerous side events, so follow us on X to see where we are! Any side events we cannot miss? Let us know via DM.

If you're heading to ETHDenver, please reach out to us to meet up or attend our community event on 29th February.

We can't wait to see you there!

Join the Colony Community

Stay connected and dive deeper into the world of on-chain organizations with Colony. For the latest updates, insights, and discussions, follow us on our community channels:

• Website: Visit our website
• Twitter: Follow us on Twitter
• Discord: Join our Discord community
• Github: Find Colony on Github

Together, let's build the future of decentralized collaboration.

For the last two years, Colony has been quietly building the future of Internet Native Organisations. We haven’t talked about it because we’re here to ship product, not hype good intentions. We speak when there’s something to say.

Since 2014, Colony has had an ambitious vision: to make it easy for people all over the world to build organisation together, online. Our whitepaper was universally lauded. Our application however, despite finding committed users in companies like Telefonica and Shapeshift, didn’t live up to our expectations.

There were two main issues:

Performance

Our dapp was fully decentralised. That’s a big deal. People don’t build dapps like that. We built it that way to ensure that Colony was guaranteed to always be available to our users, forever.

However, that relies on Web3 services that struggle with an application of Colony's complexity. Colony smashes into the limits of this infrastructure, resulting in a slow and unreliable user experience. It also makes the application difficult to build.

That’s not acceptable. So, we devised a new hybrid architecture. This provides a fast and stable technical foundation for Colony. It also makes the dapp quicker and easier to build going forwards. At the same time, a feature limited but fully decentralised option remains as a security backstop.

UX & UI

Our dapp’s UX & UI were hangovers from an earlier time. With Colony V2 we tried to save time by reusing this earlier work, but the decision caught up with us. It repeatedly forced us into design compromises that made an intuitive UX impossible as the application scaled. With V3 we took the decision to start again, and have built something completely new based on everything we've learned.

We’ve already soft launched Colony V3 into private beta. The feedback so far is excellent:

"I'm loving the new App. I love these new tags on contributors. My team really likes how you can clearly see how much Governance Power (RP) someone has and the rate at which their own RP decays..It really centralizes all of our onchain activity in a decentralized way." Deed3Labs

"The new app is great - it so easy to get in and get started. A big win for us is the ability to focus on teams. The reputation points are transparent and shown by teams, which allows the organisation to function with semi-autonomous power." Robo51

Here’s a sneak peek:

We’re interested in speaking to, and/or onboarding teams who:

• Have a core team focused on delivering product.
• Are building or operating a protocol or application on Ethereum, Gnosis Chain, or other EVM chains.
• Want to decentralise their operations eventually, but are sceptical of DAOs as they understand them.

If that sounds like you, please reach out to the team on Discord, or submit your details at the link below.

This is the end of our silence. Big things are coming in 2024.

Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss out:

• Discord
• Twitter
• GitHub
  

Managing Finances in On-Chain Organizations

No matter what kind of organization you’re building, when work gets done, someone needs to get paid. For many businesses, finances are centrally managed. Payments are handled with business banking accounts, and overseen by a finance officer or accounting department.

Traditional finance can be a constraint for many DAOs and on-chain organizations. Funneling financial authority through a centralized authority goes against the principles of decentralization and Web3. Internet native organizations require financial tools that provide more ownership for their members than traditional accounting departments. That’s why many internet native organizations turn to on-chain treasuries as a way to manage their finances.

Treasuries have become a central component of the functionality and sustainability of decentralized organizations. But what exactly is a treasury in the context of DAOs, and why is it so important?

In this piece, we will explore what is a treasury, how they are managed, and what they are used for.

Understanding DAO Treasuries

A treasury refers to the collective pool of funds or assets managed by the organization's members. A DAO’s treasury is most often managed through smart contracts and decentralized governance protocols, however this is not always the case. This treasury serves as the financial backbone of the DAO, supporting its operations, initiatives, and long-term objectives.

Where are assets stored?

The core assets of a DAO's treasury are most often stored on the blockchain in the form of cryptocurrencies and tokens. Treasury holdings on public chains can be explored using blockchain explorer tools, such as DeepDAO. You can consider a treasury as the DAO’s “wallet”. You can see the size and distribution of the DAO’s treasury holdings, and the tokens within. If you're using Colony to manage your DAO's treasury, you can see your DAO's assets and manage it directly in the interface.

DAO treasuries can also include off-chain assets. These may include fiat currencies and other non-crypto investments, managed through traditional financial systems as well as other investments, including property, non-NFT art, and commodities.

How to read a DAO treasury

Treasuries can provide considerable insight into a DAO’s operations and financial wellness. From their wallet address, anyone should be able to see the different types of tokens held in the treasury and their respective value. You can also see the changes in the treasury over time, which can provide a great depth of insight into understanding a DAO’s operations.

Taking a closer look at the wallet addresses associated with a treasury, you can identify the different types of activities the DAO has been participating or investing in. Watchers can analyze the financial transactions in a treasury to better understand how the DAO or organization spends, or earns money. By following certain wallet transactions, you can see how individual wallets may participate in different projects for the DAO.

It's important to remember that not all of a DAO's treasury assets may be held on chain, or will be visible to public explorers. Be sure to do your own due diligence and research to verify the addresses you are using to analyze treasury holdings, especially when using third party explorers.

Managing a DAO treasury

On-chain organizations use smart contracts to automate the management and operation of their treasuries. These contracts define the rules for fund allocation, voting thresholds, and other governance mechanisms, ensuring transparency and security over the organizations finances.

Effective treasury management often involves diversifying assets to manage risk. DAOs might hold a mix of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and potentially even non-crypto assets to safeguard against market volatility. This diversification strategy can extend to include fiat currencies, enabling a more robust approach to treasury management that accommodates a wider range of financial activities and goals.

One of the defining features of DAO treasuries is their transparency. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain, allowing members to track how funds are being used, fostering a culture of accountability. For assets held off the blockchain, DAOs may implement additional reporting and auditing mechanisms to maintain this level of transparency and trust.

What a Treasury is used for

The visibility and openness of a DAO’s treasury helps to align members and coordinate action around how financial resources are deployed.

Funding Projects and Operations

The primary use of a DAO's treasury is to finance projects, operations, and activities that align with the organization's goals. This could range from development work, marketing efforts, community events, to grants and bounties for contributors.

Governance and Decision-Making

DAO treasuries are governed democratically, with token holders typically having a say in how funds are allocated. Voting mechanisms are employed to decide on budget allocations, investments, and other financial decisions, ensuring that members have a direct impact on the DAO's financial direction. Collectively manage organizational finances: Treasuries also allow members with appropriate permissions to manage payments independently of a central authority, letting the organization make decisions efficiently

Incentivization and Risk Management

Treasuries also play a crucial role in incentivizing participation and contribution within the DAO. Rewards, grants, and other financial incentives are distributed from the treasury to active community members, developers, and other contributors, fostering a vibrant and engaged ecosystem. Diversified token holdings in a treasury can be used to grow cash reserves for the DAO, and insulate them from risk due to fluctuating token prices.

Recruitment and Trust Building

The transparency of treasuries helps to align objectives in a decentralized organization, building trust amongst members. This openness can also serve as a recruitment tool for new contributors. Contributors can easily see how the DAO has managed contributor payments in the past, helping to earn trust for those who may be wary to join a Web3 project.

Challenges and Considerations

While DAO treasuries offer a revolutionary approach to organizational finance, they are not without challenges. Regulatory uncertainty, security risks associated with smart contracts, and the complexities of managing a decentralized fund are significant considerations. Moreover, the democratic process of decision-making, while empowering, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies or disagreements within the community.

Conclusion

The treasury of a DAO is much more than just a pool of funds; it is the financial heart of the organization, supporting its activities, enabling growth, and ensuring sustainability. As DAOs continue to evolve and mature, the strategies for managing treasuries will undoubtedly become more sophisticated, reflecting the dynamic and innovative spirit of the blockchain and crypto world. The success of a DAO often hinges on the effective management of its treasury, highlighting the importance of strategic financial planning and community engagement in the decentralized ecosystem.

Multisig wallets are beautiful things, but too many DAOs rely on 2-3 multisig holders having keys to the castle.

Now, it’s possible for your DAO on Colony to directly control the contents of a Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) through your DAO governance processes.

This means more decentralization, transparency, and fairness in treasury management.

What can it do?

Your DAO can now initiate Motions to trigger transactions from a Safe, including:

• Transferring funds
• Transferring NFTs
• Interacting with smart contracts
• Creating raw transactions

Essentially, anything your treasury Safe can do, your DAO can initiate.

Once initiated, Safe Control Motions proceed through the Colony governance process as any other Motion would, via the Lazy Consensus model.

How does it work?

Your Safe connects to your colony via a Safe module. Once connected, you can initiate Safe actions from the Colony action list, just as you would create a payment or manage a team. This bypasses the multi-sig requirement and uses the more decentralized governance mechanisms of the DAO instead.

These Safe actions need to be staked with native tokens, just like any other Motion. If there are no objections, the Motion will pass and the Safe action will be carried out automatically (note: there is currently an extra step required to finalize the transaction. See this doc for more info). If there is an objection, a reputation-based voting period will begin.

This process gives DAO contributors more direct control over how a Safe is managed. Gone are the days of trusting The Founders™ to carry out treasury management tasks in good faith.

View the full guide to adding and controlling a Safe with your colony.

See Safe Control in action

Read on to find insights from this quarter, leading up to Colony’s most impactful era yet

Can't stop (won't stop) building

A tumultuous industry landscape saw a wild ride for crypto this year. Despite the bear market blues and crazy news, Colony has continued development without skipping a beat.

After all, this isn’t Colony’s first ride on the market merry-go-round. Since time immemorial (2014), we’ve kept our eyes on the prize throughout some historic crashes. The mission of supporting more equitable, transparent, and efficient organizations is as relevant today as it ever was, regardless of market conditions.

Coin Machine: taking off soon

Coin Machine—the Colony system for easy and fair token launches—is set to launch early next year. Once live, Coin Machine will address the all-too common challenges of price manipulation, volatility, and front-running, while simplifying the process for all involved. Unlike traditional liquidity bootstrapping pools, Coin Machine will not require projects to provide stablecoins as collateral, removing one of the key barriers to entry for permissionless token launches.

Interested in running one of the first token sales on Coin Machine? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.

Welcome to DAO Club

The Colony DAO Club concluded its maiden voyage in Q3, connecting DAO builders from all over the world with each other to share project ideas and learn the best practices of DAO building. The freshly-launched second cohort has brought on another wave of fascinating orgs, spanning a wide range of project goals and visions, yet united in the commitment to more equitable ways of working. Applications for Cohort 3 open in Q1 2023!

Want to witness the colony-building journey in action? You can hear from a community member launching a colony from scratch and sharing lessons learned along the way in the first season of Builder’s Spotlight, featuring PictureBookDAO. The second season, featuring ELI5 DAO, is also one you don't want to miss!

DAO Jones also launched in Q3, with several established projects joining the program to explore decentralizing and optimizing their governance. Moving into next year, the parameters around this program will be finessed based on feedback from the initial cohort, paving the way for the next generation of online organizations.

New video: Colony Key Features

Looking for an overview of some of the most powerful Colony features? This five-minute video will get you started in the right direction:

Metacolony blast-off

One primary objective of Q3 was to get the Metacolony off the ground. The Metacolony is the “Colony colony”—the DAO that supports the development and growth of the Colony protocol. This launch was achieved, and Metacolony contributors now use the dapp to create expenditures and decide on governance decisions.

Building Colony with Colony—how cool is that?

New Colony App features and upgrades

This quarter will see the release of a totally new backend to the Colony App, providing major performance and usability improvements. The new architecture will also make building Colony much easier, laying the groundwork for a slew of new features that you can expect to roll out thick and fast over 2023. In addition, an improved UI/UX and onboarding experience will make it easier than ever to go from zero-to-DAO.

The new Simple Decisions feature was recently rolled out, making it easy for contributors to put forward “yes” or “no” proposals which don’t need to be executed automatically. That means you can use Simple Decisions to decide on choices such as:

• Should our colony’s mascot be a pharaoh ant?
• Should we let Jane run the Twitter account?
• Should we elect Jimmy as our ambassador to ETH Denver?

If you’ve used Motions on Colony before, the process of launching a Simple Decision will already be familiar to you. Simply navigate to the new Decisions tab on your colony, create a new Decision, and back it by staking native tokens, just as you would a Motion.

As new upgrades are deployed—such as the forthcoming Gnosis Safe Control feature—we’ll be providing regular updates to the community: in Discord, on Twitter, and streaming on Twitch.

Enter the Knowledge Realm

The Colony user docs are being restructured to guide users through the full process of starting or joining a DAO on Colony. The Knowledge Realm, set to launch in Q4, is where you can learn everything from the fundamentals of DAO building to advanced Colony features. As you level up your DAO-fu, you can put your knowledge to the test and earn NFT completion badges. Gotta mint 'em all!

More Colony events!

Did we see you at Devcon Bogotá? If not, you missed chess grandmasters, escape rooms, and some of the most innovative minds in organizational design at our booth. It’s always great to connect human faces with ENSs and we left as bullish as ever on the future of DAO building. We’ll see you at ETH Denver 2023!

Happy building through the New Year!

— Will and the Metacolony team

***

Colony makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.

Join the conversation on Discord, follow us on Twitter, sign up for (occasional and awesome) email updates, or if you’re feeling old-skool, drop us an email.