Cabin Governance
Cabin is a global community working together to build a network of neighborhoods. It’s run by its members, who collectively make decisions about how the organization operates and grows.
Cabin members earn ₡ABIN tokens by contributing to the community. These tokens give them the right to vote on important decisions. The more you contribute, the more influence you can have.
Here’s how governance at Cabin works:
- People create proposals
- We vote on them
- Contributor pods are formed
- Treasury money is distributed
- We build our network city
1. People create proposals
Cabin members can propose, deliberate, and vote on initiatives that influence Cabin’s operations, finances, and future development. Any member holding or delegated at least 1000 ₡ABIN tokens can create a proposal. You can learn more about how proposals work here: How to Draft a Proposal
Proposals are shared through this forum (⚙️ DAO Proposals - Cabin), where they are discussed by the community before moving to a formal vote. Proposals must be live on the forum for at least 7 days before being moved to a vote. This deliberation period allows members to raise questions, suggest changes, or express support or concerns.
2. We vote on them
Once a proposal has been adequately discussed and refined, it is moved to Snapshot, our voting platform, where ₡ABIN token holders can cast their votes. Voting runs for 7 days, allowing all eligible participants time to vote.
Ownership of ₡ABIN tokens grants members voting rights, enabling them to have a say in proposals. You can learn more about the token here: ₡abin
Voting at Cabin is a bit different than most voting you’ve probably participated in:
- Voting at Cabin is non-binary; voters can allocate their vote in any ratio they’d like to “Yes” or “No”. This allows more nuance than binary voting.
- You can either vote with your tokens or delegate them to someone else who you trust to represent you in votes.
- We vote using Quadratic Voting, a system designed to balance the influence of large and small token holders. In other words, the amount of votes you have is the square root of the number of tokens you have. DAO members can only vote from one wallet address on any single proposal. You can see your voting power on the top of your Cabin Census profile.
For example:
1 token = 1 vote
50 tokens = 7 votes
100 tokens = 10 votes
500 tokens = 22 votes
1,000 tokens = 32 votes
10,000 tokens = 100 votes
3. Contributor pods are formed
Most proposals result in distributing funds to a contributor pod—a working group that executes on a specific mission autonomously.
Stewards act as leaders of each pod, driving specific initiatives forward and reporting back to the broader community. They often work with token holders to craft proposals and ensure that key priorities are addressed.
Contributor pods are responsible for managing their budget, providing regular updates on the progress of their initiatives, and delivering results to Cabin. Generally, new contributor pods are funded for 3 months or less, while established pods are often renewed on 1 year cycles.
4. Treasury money is distributed
Cabin keeps its money in a treasury, held on a blockchain called Ethereum. This allows us to use the money in a transparent way. All proposals, proposal discussions, votes, and treasury distributions are transparent to the community. This fosters accountability, as token holders can track how funds are being spent and whether projects are delivering on their promises.
Anyone in the world can see the money in our treasury here: cabindao.eth. As you’ll see if you click the link, Cabin’s treasury contains ₡ABIN tokens, stablecoins, and other cryptocurrencies. It is used to support projects, pay contributors, and fund the development of Cabin’s network city.
Allocating money from the treasury to contributor pods requires a vote, as described above. When a vote passes, it is executed by Cabin’s multi-sig, a group of people who verify and execute transactions. The multi-sig is responsible for verifying that the DAO’s quadratic votes are legitimate and haven’t been subject to sybil attacks or other malicious attempts to take money from the treasury.
Because we collectively govern a treasury on a blockchain, we are known as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). Legally, we are a Wyoming Unincorporated Nonprofit Association. You can read our charter here.
5. We build our network city
Contributor pods funded by Cabin complete missions to grow our network city of neighborhoods and earn money, which goes back into the treasury so that we can reallocate it to new pods and projects. Cabin needs to be financially sustainable in order to accomplish our longer term mission of building a network city.
While Cabin’s governance structure is robust, it is not without challenges. Like other DAOs and governments, it must balance efficiency with decentralization. Cabin is continuously evolving its governance model to address these tensions.
If we can reach financial sustainability and continue to self-govern effectively, we will have a robust, long-term base on which to grow our network city.
