DAO Typologies

Classifying and Structuring Specialized DAOs for Verifiable Governance in NSF

6.1 DAO Typologies (ClauseDAO, SimDAO, CredentialDAO, AppealsDAO)

Classifying and Structuring Specialized DAOs for Verifiable Governance in NSF

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6.1.1 Rationale for Typed DAOs in NSF

Not all governance functions require the same quorum design, operational logic, or data scope. To ensure role-specific authority, NSF introduces a system of typed DAOs, each managing a discrete segment of the protocol's execution and trust infrastructure.

Typed DAOs enable:

• Scoped decision-making

• Modular governance upgradeability

• Cross-DAO communication with integrity

• Composable policy enforcement by domain

• Legal and treaty-aligned compartmentalization

These DAOs operate autonomously but bind their actions to clause hashes, simulation validity, and credential structures.

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6.1.2 DAO Taxonomy

DAO Type	Scope	Key Responsibilities
ClauseDAO	Governance over individual clauses or clause families	Clause creation, upgrade approval, policy anchoring, trigger evaluation
SimDAO	Oversight of simulation models and execution parameters	Approving models, verifying forecasts, managing simulation VCs
CredentialDAO	Credential issuance and revocation governance	Defining credential schemas, controlling registries, auditing oracles
AppealsDAO	Dispute resolution, override review, cross-jurisdictional conflict resolution	Evaluating revocations, credential conflicts, clause misfires

Each DAO can instantiate sub-DAOs or federated quorums based on regional, institutional, or treaty-based scopes.

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6.1.3 ClauseDAO

Responsible for:

• Reviewing and publishing clause definitions

• Voting on upgrades or deprecations

• Enforcing domain- or jurisdiction-specific usage conditions

• Anchoring clause hashes to policy contracts

• Managing clause-based governance workflows (e.g., rollout after successful simulation)

ClauseDAOs hold the sovereign logic of executable governance.

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6.1.4 SimDAO

Responsible for:

• Whitelisting or revoking simulation models (e.g., [email protected])

• Verifying simulation outputs using predefined oracles

• Defining acceptable uncertainty thresholds and risk classes

• Maintaining forecast audit logs

• Enabling clause simulation triggers only upon quorum approval

SimDAOs serve as trusted foresight authorities, ensuring computational legitimacy of predictive policy.

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6.1.5 CredentialDAO

Responsible for:

• Authorizing issuers of specific credential types

• Managing credential registries, revocation lists, and issuance hooks

• Approving credential bundling policies and dependency logic

• Controlling ZK circuits for credential disclosure and usage

• Issuing override credentials (e.g., emergency roles)

CredentialDAOs represent the institutional memory of NSF’s trust fabric.

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6.1.6 AppealsDAO

Responsible for:

• Resolving disputes involving multiple DAOs or jurisdictions

• Reinstating revoked credentials under exceptional conditions

• Overriding clause execution freezes

• Mediating conflicts between simulation-triggered policy and legal governance

• Providing a protocol-level adjudication layer for cross-domain errors

AppealsDAOs enforce institutional redundancy and trust correction mechanisms within the NSF ecosystem.

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6.1.7 Interactions and Cross-DAO Coordination

DAOs interact via:

• Shared governance logs (e.g., execution history, quorum records)

• Joint clause anchoring (e.g., SimDAO and ClauseDAO co-approve trigger logic)

• Federated vote synchronization (e.g., multilateral policy approval)

• Credential-recognition registries (e.g., CredentialDAO trusts issuer from UNDAO)

This inter-DAO mesh ensures composability without centralization—each DAO upholds its domain while interoperating through verifiable state.

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6.1.8 DAO Anchoring to Clause Hashes and CACs

All DAOs are cryptographically bound to:

• The clause hashes they govern

• The CACs (Clause-Attested Computes) that result from execution

• The credentials they issue or recognize

• The audit trails from any overridden, revoked, or simulated action

This provides non-repudiable traceability from DAO governance to real-world decision enforcement.

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6.1.9 DAO Lifecycle Management

DAOs are governed by their own metadata:

{
  "dao_id": "UNFCCC-SimDAO",
  "jurisdiction": "INTL",
  "dao_type": "SimDAO",
  "created_at": "2025-01-01",
  "clause_scope": ["EmissionForecasting", "ClimateTriggerPolicies"],
  "governance_model": "WeightedQuadratic+TimeDecay",
  "audit_oracle": "oracle-sim-0xabc...",
  "revocable_by": "UNFCCC-TreatyCouncilDAO"
}

DAOs may:

• Fork

• Expire

• Merge

• Revoke their own jurisdictional scope

• Be escalated to AppealsDAO if behavior violates clause or treaty parameters

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6.1.10 Typed DAOs as the Institutional Fabric of NSF

Typed DAOs convert the NSF protocol from a raw execution engine into a programmable multilateral governance substrate. Each DAO type holds:

• Explicit trust boundaries

• Self-contained audit trails

• Clause-linked authority

• Upgradable governance logic

Together, they form a decentralized operating system for machine-legible policy, simulation-backed forecasting, and digitally enforceable institutional behavior.

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