For an Album governance overview, read our SZN-0 post.
SZNS provides communities a home for collective management of NFTs. The primary value proposition for these communities includes 1. Tokenized Ownership, and 2. Standardized Proposals. The benefits of tokenized ownership tie into the value and potential of Web3 offers the world, enabling a globally accessible means of fundraising, identity, management of assets, and decision making. These new structures facilitate an evolving experiment in governance that outpaces development in a traditional business environment.
In 2021 DAOs and decentralization became popular concepts, making multiple headlines in major publications. A DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is broadly used as a definition for digital native ownership systems that rely on smart contract structures to make decisions.
Most commonly DAOs use a multisig to administer actions voted on by tokenholders. This means that a few (4-5) execute the decisions of the many, which creates a more centralized approach to management.
At SZNS we aim to provide a fully decentralized and secure approach to management out of the box. Creating these decisions typically requires some degree of technical knowledge to correctly construct transactions with a desired result. We address this problem via Standard Proposals which make decentralized action accessible to everyone (technical and non-technical).
Album Lifecycle
After entering the app Album creators build their collective in a few steps. First they launch their Album. This comes with a robust toolkit to collectively manage their NFT assets. Next a distribution event occurs to give members an opportunity to receive governance tokens in exchange for ETH. From there the Album enters a “management phase”.
The management phase of Albums describes the period where Album members push forward the Album’s purpose. Each Album holds distinct missions. In just the first six Albums we see Art Collectives, PFP Projects, and Creative Agencies. The needs of each project varies. The common denominator being that they all collectively manage NFTs.
Album Governance as a Product
SZNS initial development strategy focuses on shipping, receiving feedback, and adjusting (see our previous post to understand the learnings we took from our initial Album launches). The Album framework is core to the product offered by SZNS, and we are focused on building the most robust and decentralized solution to making decisions within these frameworks as a first step.
Two areas of primary focus for product development include the Album Page and Standard Proposals. The Album page defines the information displayed to provide context for an Album. Which NFT assets do they collect? How valuable is the token economy? Who are the top Album members? What is the governance activity? How can I get involved? What is the mission? All of these questions are answered by the Album Page.
Standard Proposals provide the core governance feature offering. They give Album members intuitive interfaces to democratically perform common actions furthering their Album mission. Our first product objective focuses on shipping the essential proposals. These essential proposals define the most common actions needed for users to manage an Album in a decentralized way. After this, the team plans to follow on with more nimble decision making systems.
Voting processes on SZNS don't cost gas but cost time (see our docs for more info). Our job is to further optimize the product without sacrificing security. This tension between trustlessness (security) and efficiency fuels our product thinking.
What do Albums “do”?
In theory, Albums can do anything. An Album is a collection of NFTs managed as a DAO in the SZNS platform. Today we have Divine DAO building a creative studio around their NFTs, Meebits is building a path for proxy ownership, and Chingona supports a Web3 diversity initiative.
An Album bundles one or many NFTs in a collectively managed contract controlled by the Album governance tokens. SZNS Albums hold the same degree of function as a Gnosis multisig (which we use at the core). Transactions must be constructed using a transaction builder (see below) to create actionable decisions.
Transaction builders are really created for shadowy super coders and software engineers. As we reach a broader audience, most Album members wont hold sufficient knowledge of smart contracts to create these on their own. SZNS aims to solve this power disparity by bringing intuitive interfaces to automate the transaction processes.
Standard Proposals
In order to assist anyone to make decisions, SZNS offers Standard Proposals. They serve as a core value add for decentralized communities. Proposals on SZNS include an ever-expanding list of actions used to manage NFT assets. At launch we will offer foundational actions, giving anyone the chance to collect, sell, buy NFTs and distribute proceeds.
Essential Proposals (see tutorials for the following here):
- Bounty Board – offer $ALBUM tokens in exchange for select NFTs
- Add NFT – trade an NFT for a proposed amount of $ALBUM
- List NFT – list an NFT for sale on OpenSea
- Transfer NFT/ETH/ERC20 – transfer treasury assets to trusted autonomous parties
- Token Claim – distribute fungible tokens to all $ALBUM holders
This list functionally allows for Albums to perform the majority of their primary needs in trustless ways. As we continue to build out the product we will keep an eye on opportunities to 1. increase trustlessness, and 2. increase efficiency.
Trustlessness describes the way web3 facilitates this internet of value in a collective and secure way. Nobody in particular holds the power to control the underlying value, but the community makes decisions together using the smart contracts they control. In contrast, traditional finance and management systems require a single trusted party to custody and make decisions on assets.
Efficiency of decisions offers the other side of the spectrum. Making decisions trustlessly requires a significant amount of input by the stakeholders in order to do so in an integral way. If Albums are to make decisions in a nimble and fast way, they will need to give some centralized decision-making authority to a trusted actor.
The balance of trustlessness and efficiency provides the core tension for features we will continue to incorporate in the SZNS Albums product.
Public Album Creation Access!
As we tighten up the core toolkit for NFT Albums we will open the platform to offer full public access this summer. Thus far we still work with a specific access list for Album creation, and each of which has given valuable feedback to shape our product.
Albums at public launch will include all the features above. We will continue building to quickly offer other high value features as community needs arise (see and contribute to our public feature list here).
Thanks to our partners, investors, advisors, and creatives who’ve brought us here. We are stoked to keep building!
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