DAO & Labs Relationship
Clear separation of power between governance and execution.
Monstro DAO decides and owns. Monstro Labs builds and operates. Labs works under the direction of the DAO and never holds DAO funds.
Who does what
| Monstro DAO | Monstro Labs | |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Governing body of the ecosystem | Technical and operational arm |
| Decides through | Member votes and the 5-of-7 Council multisigs | Day-to-day work within what the DAO has approved |
| Owns | The treasury, the reserves and ownership of protocol contracts | Nothing that holds DAO funds |
| Does | Approves proposals, signs DAO transactions, publishes every DAO transaction | Builds products, runs websites and tools, prepares DAO transactions for the Council to review and sign |
Labs builds and maintains Monstro products, including mUSDC, xMONSTRO, staking, the DAO voting and verification tools, and Based Loans, its first revenue product.
Contract deployment
Labs deploys new contracts from a dedicated deployer wallet, then hands control to the DAO:
- Contracts with an owner are transferred to the DAO's Contract Owner multisig. This includes $MONSTRO staking and the Based Loans contracts.
- Contracts designed to have no owner, such as the $MONSTRO token and xMONSTRO, are left with no owner at all.
The deployer wallet is used only for deployments and never holds treasury funds. Addresses are listed on the Wallets page.
The Labs operator role
On Based Loans, the Labs multisig (2-of-2) holds an operator role so routine changes don't wait for five Council signatures. The operator can:
- Pause and unpause Based Loans in an emergency
- Manage collateral settings: price sources, loan-to-value, limits, and turning assets on or off
- Manage growth incentive recipients
Everything else stays with the DAO's Contract Owner multisig, including fee settings and contract ownership. The DAO can remove or replace the operator at any time.
How Labs is paid
The original arrangement. The DAO engaged Labs on a monthly retainer of $20,000 for development, business development, marketing and social media. The arrangement ran for 12 months, after which the DAO was free to renew it, agree new terms or use other providers. The DAO could also hire other providers at any time, as long as the Labs retainer was paid first.
Today. The DAO paid the retainer for the first few months, then a reduced amount, until the funds set aside for it ran out. Since then Labs has had no retainer and continues to build and run Monstro without one.
Working together
- The DAO sets direction through votes. Labs turns passed proposals into tested transactions, and the Council reviews and signs them. See Submitting a Proposal.
- Every DAO transaction is posted publicly in #treasury-transparency on Discord.
Operating agreement
The rules above will be written into a formal DAO and Labs operating agreement under Monstro DAO LLC. This page will be updated when it is signed.