Progressive Decentralization, SIPs, and The Sandbox DAO

The world of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) is rapidly evolving, and launching The Sandbox DAO has been a careful process. We’ve studied the journeys of other DAOs, learning not only from their successes but also from their failures.

One common mistake we’ve seen is the rush to full decentralization, which can result in a lack of strategic direction, inefficient resource use, and governance deadlock. To avoid these pitfalls, we’ve adopted a strategy of progressive decentralization — a gradual transition that ensures we fully empower our community without sacrificing stability or focus.

TL;DR

• Gradual transition and a phased approach help avoid governance deadlocks and inefficiencies experienced by other DAOs. Patience and coordinated, constructive communication are key to success.
• Strategic guidance comes from a Special Council, while the community is represented by an Advisory Board.
• The focus is creating Sandbox Improvement Proposals (SIPs) that benefit the ecosystem, not just internal governance.
• Delegation allows voters to pool voting power and amplify their voices through trusted delegates.
• The aim is to build a sustainable, inclusive DAO that maximizes community engagement and impact.

Learning From the Experiences of Other DAOs

Many DAOs have faced significant challenges by decentralizing too quickly. For instance, The DAO, one of the earliest and most famous examples, struggled with governance issues and divergence among community members. The DAO ultimately suffered a catastrophic hack that led to its downfall. Other DAOs have encountered problems such as poor allocation of funds, with promised vague returns (often for selfish endeavors), lack of coherent strategic direction, and decision-making gridlock. Too many voices without a unifying strategy led to stalled progress.

By studying these examples, we have recognized the importance of a gradual process that ensures stability while increasingly involving our community in governance.

Setting the Foundation: Constitution, Special Council, and Advisory Board

Our goal was — and remains — to give The Sandbox DAO the strongest foundation possible. We designed the Constitution, established a budget, and identified top-level administrative teams and technical solutions to maximize its chances for success.

That included selecting a Special Council to help build the community and provide early strategic guidance. This group brings existing networks, connections, and knowledge (making introductions, learning from prior DAOs, advising on community assets such as NFTs, etc.) while we navigate uncharted territory. The Council also plays a limited role in ensuring compliance and alignment with the DAO’s principles.

That said, we’ve heard the community’s feedback and understand the concerns that the current Council members are not necessarily from the “SandFam” (creators or players of The Sandbox game) but reflect more institutional players.

These concerns are why we also established an Advisory Board — a group intended to reflect the many voices in The Sandbox community. The Advisory Board members come from areas — art, music, creators — that are core to the platform and make it vibrant. Four of them either own studios or have made games for The Sandbox. We expect the Board to be instrumental in ensuring the community is represented and heard.

Our Community is Broader Than Many Realize

The Sandbox community has a lot of contributors, many of whom are not the most vocal advocates publicly but contribute to growth behind closed doors. If you look at any community, even the one just outside your front door, most people remain silent observers who contribute only when they can in the ways they feel comfortable.

As the DAO matures, it is the role of everyone involved to not just work together to craft the best SIPs, but also create a space that acknowledges all aspects of our diverse community, including those who may not be active on Discord or affiliate with the #SandFam on X. Let’s create a space where all of the peripheral players, including the millions of followers of the brands in The Sandbox, can proudly consider themselves part of the fam!

Progressive Decentralization

Progressive decentralization is designed to balance the sometimes competing demands of democracy, efficiency, and effectiveness.

The Sandbox may occasionally work to ensure the stability of this approach. For now, that could include taking a stance on or using its Voting Power in favor of or against particular SIPs that it believes are misaligned with the DAO’s mission or threaten its long-term viability.

In our ongoing mission to progressively decentralize power and ensure balanced representation, we are excited to introduce Delegation. This feature allows members of the SandFam and the wider community to pool their voting power and choose a delegate who aligns with their values and vision for the future of our DAO.

By selecting a trusted delegate, even those who may not have the time or expertise to vote on every proposal can still have their voices heard through someone who represents their interests. It’s a great way to strengthen community involvement, giving everyone — from the most active participants to more casual members — a chance to influence the direction of our ecosystem.

Ready to make an impact? Apply now to become a delegate and help guide our future, or join forces with others to elevate a leader who speaks for you. Let’s shape the future of the DAO, together!

SIPs: Strategy and Types

In The Sandbox DAO’s current configuration, the Council and admin team can curate the proposals received. This is meant to clarify the ideal structure of SIPs, such as how they should be written. This will serve as a model for future SIPs.

This moderation process exists to ensure the quantity of proposals is reasonable for the community to review and in line with the DAO’s budget. We also want to ensure the quality of those proposals is high, in the service of the broader community, and aligned with the DAO’s mission.

Now that we are three months in, we feel the need to reinforce the type of SIPs in line with that approach. Recently there has been a significant influx of SIP ideas geared toward changing the governance, the visibility/reach, the technical stack, or the operations of the DAO. These SIPs are “DAO-centric” in the sense that they focus more on management matters and less on substantive value adds to The Sandbox ecosystem.

“The Sandbox-centric SIPs”, Not “DAO-Centric SIPs”

Here are examples of ideal SIPs:

Game Content

SIP focused on enhancing the content and experiences available in The Sandbox by involving the community in curation.

• Develop an exclusive experience
• Past SIP: Game Jam Prize
• Success metrics expected: Active users / Retention / Events created / number of recurring players

Sandbox for Good

SIP promoting charitable and socially responsible initiatives that use the platform and its resources for positive impact.

• Past SIP: Supporting Red Cross for 2024; Carbon Capture
• Success metrics expected: Community engagement, funds raised, social impact outcomes

NFT

SIP leveraging NFTs to drive engagement, revenue, and partnerships within The Sandbox.

• Buying an NFT collection
• Organize an NFT event to showcase The Sandbox DAO TSB collection
• Success metrics expected: Attendance, Media exposure, NFT Sales, NFT Holders, ROI

Platform

SIP improving the platform’s functionality, security, players, and creators’ experience.

• Feature request; product to improve creator efficiency
• Past SIP: Magic Palette
• Success metrics expected: Publishing product or new features in production, providing usage metrics, time efficiency, retention rate

The DAO Admin Team

The DAO admin team ensures that the DAO functions and remains transparent, accountable, and effective in its execution by:

• Communicating about the DAO through events, AMA, podcasts, tweets, etc.
• Moderating the forum and operating our communication channels (Twitter/X and Linkedin)
• Managing workflow of the SIPs (help ensure alignment with the budget, timeline, objectives, milestones, and the mission of the Sandbox…)
• Administering voting
• Upgrading and maintaining the DAO tech stack
• Handling payment, reporting, and compliance
• Maintaining relationships with suppliers and partners

The community is welcome to propose improvements in the DAO’s day-to-day activities, like modifying the website, improving the financial and voting reporting, and connecting the DAO to a third-party system.

The good news is: There is no need to do a SIP for that!

Community members can simply make a suggestion, through the dedicated discourse channel to the DAO admin team, which has full authority to use the operation budget to implement the request, if deemed appropriate.

To safeguard community resources and ensure SIPs are aligned with the established guidelines, the admin team will reject any proposals that do not meet these criteria and explain their reasoning if that happens. Authors may be offered suggestions for revision and resubmission if appropriate.

To help the community succeed during the curation process, here is a list of tips one can follow.

SIP Guidelines

After reviewing the SIP to confirm it complies with the required guidelines and avoids any prohibited elements, we will notify the authors accordingly.

Conclusion

Progressive decentralization is a considered strategy designed to avoid the pitfalls experienced by other DAOs that rushed into full decentralization. At The Sandbox, we believe our approach, underpinned by SIP curation, allows us to establish a strong strategic long-term direction. By learning from past experiences and carefully structuring our decentralization process, we aim to build a sustainable, inclusive, and successful DAO.

As we mature, we will keep on communicating and bringing the community into the process, ensuring that it is informed and engaged as the DAO matures. We invite all members to actively participate in this journey, knowing that their voice will increasingly shape the future of The Sandbox.