GTF first quarterly report - State of the VeloraDAO

Research and Discussion
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Post 2/2

8.- DAO Activity

Regarding the actual activity developed within the DAO, we can highlight the following:

Between November 2024 and March 2025:

  • Three AMA / Community Calls over six month were held—a practice that did not exist before this period—on October 24, 2024, December 12, 2024, and February 27, 2025, all with strong attendance and held on Velora’s Official Discord.
  • PIP-56 was introduced and approved to implement the Project Miro roadmap — one of the most important and ambitious initiatives in the protocol’s history.
  • As part of the Project Miró upgrades of PIP-56, PEP-08 was discussed and approved, aimed to facilitate the migration for stakers from the soon-to-be-deprecated sePSP1 module to the sePSP2 module, without having to wait for the standard unstaking period.
  • PIP-59 was presented by Bybit, requesting the return of the fees collected by the protocol as a result of swaps executed by a hacker. It became one of the most heated and thoroughly debated proposals in the DAO’s history, sparking opposing views and a highly productive, respectful discussion. The vote concluded with an exceptionally narrow approval margin: 49.56% in favor and 49.54% against.
  • The Delegate Trial Program was launched and executed, institutionalizing the delegate role and onboarding 13 active delegates.
  • PIP-55 was introduced, discussed and approved, aiming to develop a mechanism to automate the calculation and distribution of fees and gas refunds — processes that, until then, had been carried out manually.
  • PIP-57 was discussed and approved, improving the PIP Lifecycle framework and the DAO’s overall decision-making process.
  • The PGWG was created and became operational.
  • The DIP was introduced and began its first 6-month cycle, which initially included 9 delegates.
  • PIP-60 was submitted and approved to expand the new token and its staking mechanism to the Base network, as part of the protocol’s multichain growth strategy.

Between April and June 2025:

  • Two more AMA / Community Calls were held: one on April 17, 2025 on Velora’s Discord, and one on June 13, 2025 via X Spaces on Velora’s official account.
  • The first proposals to automate the calculation and distribution of fees and gas refunds for Epoch 29 were successfully submitted, approved, and executed — marking a key milestone in the DAO’s automation and decentralization process.
  • The PGWG delivered its final work.
  • As a result of the above, the creation of the VGC was proposed and approved. We successfully led the candidate application process, the election of its members, and the onboarding of the selected members, who are now actively working.
  • Quorum was increased, enhancing DAO resilience by raising the threshold against potential capture attempts.
  • The Governance Task Force role was created, and we have the honor of serving in it for the first 12 months. Its primary mission is to facilitate governance operations, coordinate efforts across stakeholders, and strengthen the DAO, its structures, and decision-making processes. It also aims to enhance both the quantity and quality of debate — all with the goal of turning the DAO into a key driver of the protocol’s success.
  • Formalization of Laita as a DAO service provider to carry out marketing facilitation, infrastructure support, and developer assistance tasks, along with the presentation of regular activity updates in the forum to enhance transparency and accountability within the DAO.
  • In our role as DIP Program Manager, we introduced improvements to the program
  • As planned, reopened the application process after the first half of DIP-Cycle 1 concluded. This resulted in the onboarding of 5 new delegates during this period.
  • All delegate activity is measured and tracked, and all related payments are transparently reported on the forum with regular monthly updates for full visibility by the community.
  • GovCo was deprecated, saving the DAO $60,000 annually. Control over the multisig and the approval process for proposals under the PEP framework was decentralized.
  • A proposal to introduce a system of scheduled voting was thoroughly debated. Although it was not approved, the open discussion and final outcome clearly expressed the DAO’s current will on the matter, which is a healthy sign of governance maturity.

As a final point in our analysis of DAO activity, when reviewing the “Users” section of the forum and filtering by all-time history, we observe that when sorted by topics created and posts published, long-standing members who have been part of the DAO for years are now joined by newer participants who, despite their recent incorporation, are already among the most active users.

This includes our own team, which began contributing in May 2024 and became fully active around October/November. Despite the short time, we’ve already ranked among the top users. Scrolling further down, one can also see several other currently active delegates who joined the DAO from November 2024 onwards.

This clearly demonstrates the high level of current DAO engagement, with new contributors quickly rising to prominence among the most active members in the forum’s history.

9.- GTF Activity

Regarding the work specifically carried out or promoted by us since April 2025 in our role as Governance Task Force (GTF), we detail below the key activities:

  • DIP Program Manager: As Program Manager of the DIP —a function now integrated into the GTF role— we have tracked and assessed all delegate activity. We published monthly reports for March (early April), April, and May (presented on the first day of each following month), with the June report coming soon. All data has been compiled into public spreadsheets for full community oversight. We also created the necessary batches in the Main DAO Multisig to execute DIP payments. This transparency allows delegators to evaluate their delegate’s performance and decide whether to continue delegating to them. It also allows delegates to reflect on their activity and improve if needed. The goal is to promote more impactful and accountable participation.
  • DIP Parameter Refinement: Based on our experience, we refined the DIP parameters starting in June to better incentivize high-quality participation.
  • Reopening of DIP’s applications: As planned, we reopened DIP applications in June. As a result, 5 new delegates joined the program, and 2 others introduced themselves in the forum recently.
  • Velora Growth Committee (VGC): As active members of the VGC, we have coordinated with other committee members and taken on specific initiatives. We believe the committee is on the right path and expect to share updates with the community soon.
  • Proposals Promoted by SEEDGov:
    • We prepared the initial draft of the final work and proposal from the PGWG that established the VGC, finalized it with the group, and posted it to the forum and Snapshot for DAO approval.
    • We led the application, election and selection process for VGC members.
    • We held meetings and provided feedback to Laita for the preparation of PIP-64, which was approved by the DAO.
    • We co-authored PIP-66 with Laita, which deprecated the GovCo and decentralized its remaining functions. We are now leading the onboarding of new multisig signers as per the proposal.
  • Community Calls: We organised 2 community calls during the April–June quarter, already described above.
  • Expense Dashboard: We developed a public dashboard (to view it you must open an AirTable account and request access) tracking DAO spending —including delegates, service providers, etc.— as a transparency and accountability tool. The intention is to make it a living doc that evolves with the iteration and feedback from the community. A formal announcement will follow.
  • Governance Dashboard: We developed a governance dashboard that tracks metrics such as VP per proposal, unique voters, VP concentration, and more. It will also be formally presented in the coming days.
  • Support to Curia: We supported Curia in preparing, drafting and submitting PIP-65, ensuring full compliance with PIP-57 for proposals lifecycle requirements, including forum publication and Snapshot submission, thus complying with our responsibility in the support and curation of the proposals posted and submitted to vote so that complies with the corresponding requirements.
  • New Delegate Onboarding: We supported Beni in his onboarding as a Velora delegate. After expressing interest, we guided him through the process, assisted with documentation, answered questions, and ensured a smooth entry. He has since introduces himself in the forum as a delegate, created his snapshot profile, received VP and participated in his first Snapshot vote in PIP-66.
  • Activity Monitoring: Last but not least, we have conducted detailed monitoring of both the DAO’s and delegates’ activities. This has not only enabled the production of this report, but also allowed us to inform the community about the DAO’s history, evolution, and current state—an essential foundation for planning and developing future strategies.

10.- DAO Expenses

This section outlines the DAO’s expenses, broken down by category and amount, supported by publicly verifiable on-chain data that has been systematically organised to facilitate community oversight.

10.- a) Delegate Incentive Program (DIP)

As a preliminary note, it’s important to clarify that, as outlined in the program, payments to delegates are calculated retroactively: At the end of each month, delegate activity is assessed, the compensation in USD is determined, converted into PSP, and a 30-day vesting period is applied. As such, although the DIP began in March, first calculations were made in April, and first payments were executed in May.

Details below:

  • Month 1 – March 2025:

    Out of 9 participating delegates, 8 received incentives.

  • Month 2 – April 2025:

    All 9 delegates received compensation.

  • Month 3 – May 2025:

    8 out of 9 delegates received incentives.

    • Total monthly amount: $16,500
    • PSP equivalent: 911,600
    • Execution: First days of July
    • While outside of the GTF Q1 date (April–June), we include it here for transparency.
    • See performance results | See transactions *made in July 4 after the end of the quarter
    • Cumulative (Month 1 to 3): $55,000 | 3,287,560 PSP
    • This amount is 18.5% below the $67,500 budgeted for the first three months, representing $12,500 cost savings for the DAO.

  • Month 4 – June 2025:

    Following the reopening of applications, 14 delegates are now participating, of which 12 will receive incentives.

    • Total monthly amount: $22,500
    • PSP equivalent: 1,146,209
    • Execution: First days of August
    • See performance results | The transfer will be executed during the first days of August, complying with the 30-day vesting period.
    • Cumulative (Month 1 to 4): $77,500 | 4,433,769 PSP

Total DIP expenses executed in the April/June period

Here you can see the total amount of PSP paid to each delegate until June 30. By clicking on each bar, a menu appears showing the details of every individual payment, including the amount, year, month, the wallet from which the payment was made, and a link to the transaction hash.

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And here is a pie chart showing the percentage of each delegate’s income received. Expanding it gives more details of each tx and filter by delegate.. Please login and request access to see it in detail.

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These charts will be constantly updated as new payments are made.

*Note that this charts has now been updated to reflect the May DIP payments transferred in July, i.e. after the end of the April/June quarter

10.- b) Service Providers

This section outlines the payments made to the DAO’s four current service providers: Laita, Mimic, SEEDGov, and WakeUp Labs:

Laita

Laita was onboarded as a service provider through PIP-64, approved on May 19, 2025.

The proposal defined a $300,000 USD budget in ETH, to be invoiced after proposal execution, and per-epoch payments of $60,000 USD.

Payments made during the April–June period:

  • May 21: 125 WETH (equivalent to $300,000 USD)

  • June 9: 23.611 WETH (equivalent to $60,000 USD)

    Total for April–June: 148.611 WETH

  • July 9 (after the end of the quarter): 23.4138 WETH (equivalent to $60,000 USD)

Mimic

Mimic was initially engaged via PSP-IPΔ23, approved in December 2022.

Its current relationship with the DAO is governed by PIP-34, approved in June 2023, which provides for compensation equal to 2% of assets processed per epoch, with a cap of $5,000 USD.

Payments made during the April–June period:

  • April 14: 3 WETH

  • May 12: 1.23 WETH

  • June 9: 1.177 WETH

    Total for April–June: 6.407 WETH

  • July 9 (after the end of the quarter): 1.2839 WETH (equivalent to $3,263 USD)

SEEDGov - Governance Task Force

SEEDGov was incorporated as a service provider through PIP-62, approved in April 2025.

The proposal includes a budget consisting of:

  • A fixed payment of $10,000 USD per epoch, payable in ETH.
  • A quarterly performance amount equal to 1.5% of protocol revenue, with a cap of $15,000 USD per quarter, payable in PSP.

The following payments were made during the April–June period:

  • May 12: 3.897 WETH (equivalent to $10,000 USD)

  • June 9: 3.935 WETH (equivalent to $10,000 USD)

    Total accumulated for the April–June period: 7.832 WETH

  • July 4 (after the end of the quarter): 419,427 PSP 20 as performance amount for the first quarter period.

  • July 9 (after the end of the quarter): 3.9023 WETH (equivalent to $10,000 USD)

Wakeup Labs

Wakeup Labs was onboarded as a service provider through PIP-55, approved in December 2024.

The approved budget includes a fixed development cost of $25,400 USD, split into two parts (50% paid in ETH at kickoff and 50% paid in PSP upon final delivery) and a 0.75% fee on processed transactions per epoch, with a cap of $1,500 USD, which is included in each Snapshot proposal for epoch reward distribution and executed together with the rest of the distribution.

The following payments have been executed:

  • December 27, 2024: 3.8 WETH (50% upfront development payment).

  • May 9, 2025: 0.895 WETH (retroactive fee from the first reward automation epoch).

  • May 19, 2025: 0.338 WETH (epoch fee).

  • June 6, 2025: 654,639 PSP (final 50% of the final development payment).

  • June 16, 2025: 0.181 WETH (epoch fee).

    Total accumulated: 5.216 WETH and 654,639 PSP

Total service providers expenses executed until June 30

Here you can see the total amount of WETH and PSP paid to each service provider until June 30. By clicking on each bar, a menu appears showing the details of every individual payment, including the amount, year, month, the wallet from which the payment was made, and a link to the transaction hash.

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And here is a pie chart showing the percentage of each service provider’s ETH received. Expanding it gives more details of each tx and filter by service provider.

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These charts will be constantly updated as new payments are made.

*Note that this charts has now been updated to reflect the July payments transferred, i.e. after the end of the April/June quarter

10.- c) ParaSwap Growth Working Group (PGWG)

This temporary structure submitted its final outcome on April 10, 2025, which was approved by the DAO through PIP-63 on April 28. The proposal includes a retroactive payment to compensate its members for the work performed, with the exception of us, which expressly declined to receive such compensation.

This was a one-time payment, as the PGWG was dissolved after fulfilling its intended purpose:

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10.- d) Velora Growth Committee (VGC)

This structure was created through PIP-63, approved on April 28, 2025, and provides for retroactive compensation to its members every three months. Following the conclusion of the member selection process on May 13, the structure became operational from that date and accordingly, the first payment will be calculated and processed in mid-August.

10.- e) GovCo

GovCo was deprecated through PIP-66, approved on June 28, resulting in an annual savings of $60,000 for the DAO—equivalent to $5,000 per month in total compensation, with $1,000 allocated to each of its five members.

PIP-66 includes a final payment to its members in recognition of the services provided up to Epoch 30, at which point the automation of reward calculation and distribution rendered the structure obsolete. This last and final payment will be executed in the coming days.

11.- Conclusion

We believe the DAO is showing very encouraging signs of participation, discussion quality, and overall governance maturity.

That said, we don’t see this as a final destination or the ideal state — quite the opposite. We are proud of the progress made in recent months, which is backed by consistently strong metrics and trends.

Our focus now is to reinforce and build upon this positive trajectory, so the DAO continues evolving toward greater maturity, structure, and efficiency — and ultimately fulfills its potential to become a key driver of protocol growth.

Accordingly, we hope this report serves not only as a formal deliverable, as committed in our role as the Governance Task Force, but also as a valuable resource for the entire Velora community. Our goal is for delegates, service providers, tokenholders, and all active stakeholders in the DAO to gain a clear understanding of where the DAO started, how it has evolved, and its current state. eflecting on its journey, identifying both strengths and weaknesses, and recognizing ongoing trends are essential to shaping future strategies. We aim for this analysis to help strengthen what works, address areas for improvement, and continue building a DAO that is increasingly robust, mature, and efficient. Because we believe that well-structured, transparent, and participatory governance is not an end in itself, but rather a means to a greater goal: to make the DAO a key driver in the success and growth of the Velora protocol.

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