JokeRace is approaching 700 events, with revenue exceeding $130,000.

Author: OurNetwork

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

From the editorial team:

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are both an exciting and frustrating part of the crypto space.

This concept is very appealing—cryptography technology enables entrepreneurs to break free from traditional corporate structures like C Corporations and LLCs, allowing them to create a new organization on-chain with minimal cost by just a few clicks.

However, on-chain data indicates that true product-market fit has not yet been fully realized. DAOs still face issues of low participation rates and poor usability. In fact, a report from Coinbase last week noted that usually, less than 0.1% of governance token holders regularly participate in votes for large protocols. Clearly, we have a long way to go before achieving widespread adoption of this new technology.

Nevertheless, as demonstrated by the projects below, the DAO space remains vibrant and innovative. Especially with the emergence of new tools that make engagement, voting, and interaction with decentralized organizations more convenient. For example, the DAO tool project Realms on Solana saw a surge in active addresses in November.

Artemis

Here are some early signs of product-market fit. As Spencer said, for DAOs, we have the raw materials, now we need to find the right formula.

DAOs

Snapshot | Realms | JokeRace

David Truong | Website | Dashboard

Arbitrum's activity and contributor engagement is nearly twice that of Optimism.

  • In the competition among top Layer 2 (L2) solutions, Arbitrum leads in annual forum activity with 1,497 independent topics discussed, while the Optimism community had 833 topics. This marks a significant contrast to 2022 when the Optimism community was dominant. However, in the last few months of 2024, these two leading L2s seem to be finding balance, each developing unique communities. For comparisons of 30 different communities, you can check the dashboard at x23.ai.

x23.ai

  • In DeFi protocols, Sky (MakerDAO) and Aave dominate public discussions. Although the discussion volume for Sky has dropped to one-fifth of its peak in June 2022, Aave's discussion volume has grown 2.5 times in the same period. In contrast, Compound and Uniswap's discussion volumes have consistently lagged behind their competitors.

x23.ai

  • In the comparison of independent topic authors, only Arbitrum grew by 81% and Compound grew by 12% in 2024, adding contributors. In contrast, Balancer and Sky/MakerDAO decreased by 44% and 37%, while Uniswap's author count remained relatively stable in 2023 and 2024.

x23.ai

  • Trading focus: As DAO treasuries continue to expand, the potential risks of governance attacks become more apparent. For instance, Compound faced an attack in June, and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) proposed forming a security committee in July to protect its DAO. These developments highlight the need for tools to facilitate broader participation and achieve a more balanced distribution of voting rights within DAOs.

Snapshot

Mouse | Website

85% of governance proposals are completed on Snapshot.

  • Snapshot is a leading voting platform in the governance space. Of the 817 proposals tracked in October, 707 were completed on Snapshot, accounting for about 86% of the market share. November's situation is similar. However, since the beginning of the year, the total number of proposals has halved, and Snapshot's dominance has declined as the proposal counts for dedicated DAO governance platforms like Nouns and Compound have remained relatively stagnant.

DAOBase

  • In the past two weeks, the weekly voter count on Snapshot has increased by over 50% compared to the average levels of previous weeks. The peak in voter numbers, particularly in May 2024, was primarily driven by stgdao (Stargate DAO).

Dune - mouse trap

  • Snapshot has attracted approximately 96% of tracked DAOs to join. In October, 166 proposals were launched, and as of now, there are about 120 proposals in November. This shows a slight downward trend since the beginning of the year, consistent with the overall decline in market governance statistics.

Dune - @pandajackson

Realms

Takisoul | Website | Dashboard

Realms' hosted assets surpassed $1.2 billion.

  • Realms is a project on Solana that provides treasury management, voting, and other tools for DAOs. Over the past year, Realms' total locked value (TVL) has soared to $1.2 billion, and the value of assets locked in Realms/SPL Governance has quadrupled over the past year, indicating that Realms is one of the top platforms for asset custody on Solana. DAOs on Solana continue to grow steadily, and Realms has become their primary platform on Solana.

DeFiLlama

  • In November of this year, there was a significant increase in the number of active addresses on Realms, particularly notable for the rise in new wallets.

Artemis

  • The daily trading volume using Realms hit a historic high of 2,500 on November 9. Although the trading volume has since declined, it remains above pre-peak levels.

Artemis

  • Trading highlights: In a successful Bonk DAO vote executed on Realms, the BONK community voted to burn 5 million $BONK. This proposal was programmatically added and executed through Realms' SPL governance contract.

JokeRace

David | Website | Dashboard

JokeRace is approaching 700 events, with revenue exceeding $130,000.

  • JokeRace is a platform for creating and voting on on-chain competitions. The project has two revenue sources: participants must pay a fee to submit their entries; voters must pay a fee to vote for entries. Since monetization was launched in early 2024, JokeRace has hosted 666 competitions, generating $121,000 in revenue, which is split between the protocol and competition creators.

Dune - @socialgraphvc

  • One of the core metrics for JokeRace is the number of votes and voters. Last week, there were 360 independent voters and 493 votes, down from the peak of 11,000 voters and 12,000 votes during the early October ZKsync vs. Movement L2 competition.

Dune - @socialgraphvc

  • JokeRace's development strategy is to convert voters into creators and keep them engaged. Currently, there are 278 creators, of which 37 transitioned from being voters to creators. The retention rate of creators is low, averaging about 10% in the first month post-launch, dropping to less than 10% by the third month, with some groups having a retention rate of 0%. How to improve creator retention is a question worth pondering.

  • Trading highlights: "Where are all the apps?" is a competition aimed at finding the best crypto applications, with high activity among participants and voters. A total of 65 crypto applications participated in the competition, with over 1,000 people voting to select the best application. The competition generated $11,000 in revenue. The first place was a sustainability project called Aquari, which received a reward of 1.375 ETH. The second and third places received 0.687 ETH and 0.229 ETH respectively.