Project Name: Metaforo - Web3 Native Forum for Web 3 Governance
Team Name: Metaforo
Project Overview
Youtube: Case Study - Shapeshift Migrating to Metaforo from Discourse
Overview
The forum is a critical piece of infrastructure for any DAO. It’s where community members come together to brainstorm ideas, draft proposals, give feedback on each other’s ideas, and generally coordinate to get things done. It’s critically important for DAOs that their forums are decentralized and owned by community members. Many crypto projects and DAOs have their communities on Discourse. However, because Discourse is a web2 tool with centralized data ownership and other limitations, some projects are looking for Web3 forum tooling alternatives.
Metaforo is a Web3 native forum that has many of the same features as a traditional forum system, such as creating topics, commenting, liking, and polling. But it is web3 native. All content is stored on Arweave, and all governance processes are token-gated and token-weighted.
Problems:
Discourse is a web2 tool with centralized data ownership and other limitations, including:
Sybil attacks: These occur when multiple fake email addresses are used to abuse the governance process.
Lack of on-chain proof of work: This can make it difficult to verify the authenticity of proposals and votes.
Lack of motivation for contributors, including low participation rates in voting.
No Web 3 access control to discussions and voting: This means that the platform is not as secure or decentralized.
No token-weighted voting: Without this, voting power is not distributed fairly among stakeholders.
No display of snapshot strategies: This can make it hard for users to understand how proposals are being evaluated and selected.
Lack of DAO ownership: This means that the community does not have full control over the platform and its decision-making processes.
Centralized data storage.
Monthly subscription fee.
Solutions:
Metaforo is Web3 native with decentralized data ownership
Wallet connections are used to reinforce identity validation and prevent Sybil attacks on voting.
The DAO Admin can issue SBT (Staked Based Token) to members as proof of work, increasing the authenticity of proposals and votes.
Wallet integration makes it easy to reward contributors with tokens, NFTs, and POAPs.
A mobile app with push notifications is available to encourage higher voting participation rates.
Token gated pools are supported, and voting power is calculated using snapshot strategies to ensure fair distribution of voting power.
Voting delegation is supported.
Snapshot strategies are displayed to keep the forum and governance processes in one place and make it easy to understand how proposals are being evaluated and selected.
Gnosis safe is supported to ensure that the DAO community has full ownership over the platform.
Decentralized data storage on Arweave.
Best of all, there is no monthly payment required to use Metaforo - it’s completely free to use!
What to Expect after Migrating to Metaforo from Discourse:
All members and content from your previous forum will be transferred to Metaforo.
Users can log in to their new Metaforo account using their Discourse account, and then connect their wallets to their email address.
Your forum URL will stay the same, and all existing thread URLs will be automatically updated to the new platform.
Metaforo offers an NFT and token-based permission system, which allows for a specific token or NFT holders to join, view, vote, and more.
Multiple voting permission controls are available, including erc20, erc721, erc1155, and snapshot strategies.
Gnosis Safe login is supported so the DAO’s treasury can be appointed as the admin of the forum.
The best part is that all of these features are available at no cost to you and your team.
Some Crypto Projects that have made Metaforo their new home recently
ShapeShift
BuilderDao
Contact
Contact Name: Howdy
Discord: Bue | Metaforo#5801
Contact Howdy for an obligation free demo and feel free to create a group on Metaforo to get a feel of its feasibility. We are open to any custom feature requests.
Vote
For: Set up a test group on Metaforo to see if it’s a good fit for optimism.
Against: The current Discourse Community is good as it is, no need to look elsewhere.
Congrats on your project. An all-in-one web3 community discourse platfrom is a heavy lift!
We support the long-term vision of moving towards a Web 3 platform for the reasons given
there should be no single point of failure
all-in-one solution of gov talk & voting can offer better governance accessibility & user experience
So far, we’ve mainly used Commonwealth as Discourse alternative and I just checked Metaforo. In our opinion, Discourse has more to offer today for projects, readers, writers & 3rd party providers as there are so many modules and it’s easy to also gather data, for example through RSS feeds. Consequently, we see more in-depth discussions happening on Discourse whereas other projects move larger parts of the discussions back to short-term chats such as Discord and Telegram for good reasons.
Overall, we value good discourse today more than a small tech/decentralization improvement and will only vote for a switch to a Web3 product when it comes with a practical improvement as well - which we do not see yet.
I’m glad you mentioned Sybil attacks as one of the current problems. Indeed, there is a lot of noise in this forum which could be reduced with provable stake but likely also with a simple, small banner saying “No Airdrop for (low-quality) forum engagements!” - without raising the barrier of gov entrance exponentially.
Thank you for all the good feedback! Our primary focus lies not only on incremental technological advancements and decentralization but also on providing a robust voting system with integrated governance discussions. Our team has developed a forum mobile app that has amassed over 30 million downloads and is still available on the App Store today. Our passion lies in building engaging and interactive and governance strong forums.
Allow me to highlight a few key features of Metaforo that align with our core focus:
Token/NFT gated permissions for forum activities and voting.
Integration of snapshot strategies for accurate voting power calculations.
Quorum settings to ensure effective decision-making.
All votes are securely stored on Arweave, ensuring permanent storage of discussion content and voting results.
While a small banner may deter low-quality engagement contributors, it doesn’t address the need for a robust voting system that considers factors such as voting eligibility, voting powers, quorum settings, and the permanent storage of discussion content and voting results.
We sincerely appreciate your response and understand that you are a supporter of projects involving proactive governance contribution and value-adding tools. We would like to request a brief 30-minute call with you to showcase the capabilities of Metaforo. We value your insights on how we can further enhance Metaforo to better meet the market’s needs.
I have this same thoughts about web3 initiatives on this discourse platform. These concerns come from interacting with other communities (web3 and non-web3). I am an active contributor at ENS DAO and the points that you have brought up – I couldn’t agree anymore.The points translate equivocally.
Discourse isn’t organized for the functions that web3 DAOs require. I’m not sure how you (OP) have all of your tooling here, but having multiple platforms on various domains is insufficient for effective work. All tooling should be centralized within an organization to remain effective, present transparency and ease of use. I believe centralized tooling in a decentralized system will aid the entire ecosystem to become an even more efficient and friction less decentralized solution as a product or service.On top of that continue to retain the interest of new contributors. I look forward to watching this evolve.
