2 ♥ · Incentive · Draft
Compensation
Regular payment in tokens or stablecoins to members who do defined work, so contributors can commit their time.
How it works
The DAO defines a role or a piece of work and the pay attached to it. A member applies, or a working group nominates one. Token holders or a delegated committee approve the budget in a proposal. The member does the work and reports on it at set intervals. Pay goes out from the treasury on a schedule, often part in a stablecoin and part in the governance token. The DAO reviews the role when the budget period ends and renews, changes, or ends it.
Use it when
- You need people to commit real hours, not just volunteer when they feel like it.
- Fill an ongoing role such as development, operations, or community management.
- You want to retain contributors that other projects would otherwise hire away.
Watch out for
- Pay in a volatile token can double or halve in a month, which makes budgets and morale unstable.
- Paid roles can turn into a permanent payroll that token holders find hard to cut.
Example
MakerDAO Core Units. MakerDAO funded Core Units from 2021, each on a budget proposal that paid facilitators and staff in DAI plus vested MKR, until the Endgame plan replaced them.