One of the major use cases of a blockchain is the ability to form an organized community around a particular cause.
A popular example that you may be familiar with is the ConstitutionDAO, a now defunct decentralized organization that tried to buy the original copy of the United States Constitution with a total of $47million USD backing the DAO.
Although they lost the bid to another person during the auction, they were the first DAO to go mainstream outside of the crypto niche. As laughable as the idea seemed, ConstitutionDAO showed the world that decentralized organizations are more than just a meme.
Gilder on Solana: A Hackathon Submission
If you've been in crypto long enough, you're probably well aware that the Solana Foundation attracts developers by running hackathons.
A hackathon is simply an event where developers can build projects and submit them to a voting panel, with the winners getting some sort of prize/grant money.
With several rewards for different categories of use cases, those who can build applications on Solana that advances the progress of blockchain technologies, reduces the complexity of building on Solana are awarded.
Built by Noah, Gilder came up as 3rd place winner of the DAO track and the Grape category winner during the Solana Riptide Hackathon.
Beginners Guide to Gilder on Solana
Gilder is a mobile application built to manage the processes and operations of a DAO in a more interactive and effective way. By using the Glider application, you can easily choose your DAO (called Realms inside the app)and access all kinds of features, such as:
- Partake in governance votes
- Keep track of DAO activities
- Monitor treasury balance
(Since Gilder is built for mobile devices, the images used will be screenshots taken while testing the app)
The first thing that Gilder does when you download it is ask you for permission to send notifications. Make sure you click allow so you don't miss any activities in the DAO that you are joining:
Realms
A Realm is used to represent a DAO in the Gilder app.
Any DAO / Realm on the Solana blockchain can be searched for using their name or their public key on the Solana blockchain.
Once you select a DAO, a yellow border will appear indicating that it has been selected. You can select multiple Realms, as shown below:
MonkeDAO on Gilder
This OG NFT squad really needs no introduction. Monke DAO is one of the most popular NFT collections on Solana and one of the projects with the most $SOL traded. (If you see multiple DAOs with similar names, just opt for the public address. With time, verification of DAOs might roll in to make it easier for people to select the right DAO since they will be differentiated from others).
After selecting the DAO of your choice click on the “x” button to navigate from the page showing Realms. You will see a new page as shown below. All the DAO you have ever selected are aligned at the left-hand side of the page.
Treasury
The treasury of a DAO shows the total funds available for the organization. It is a transparent way for all to see their financial capacity and to be able to know and participate in the decisions that help shape how their finances are being managed. (For reasons I don’t know, the Treasury section of MonkeDAO shows nothing-$0 to be precise). So, I will be showing the Treasury of MangoDAO.
From the image above, the total balance in the Treasury of the DAO is $276,322,185 across all their wallets and from all their SPL tokens. (USDC, MNGO, Solprize)
Members
This shows the number of members that have participated in the vote for a proposal and the number of times a matter has been voted on.
Proposals
Proposals are the decision-making mechanisms used to govern a DAO. A member of a DAO can make a proposal on anything that ranges from how funds should be allocated or distributed, addition and removal of members.
As seen below, “Merch Committee Operational Funds Move”, was a proposal that was used to transfer the funds allocated for the Merchandise of the NFT collection.
Activity
The Activity section shows you the recent activities that have taken place in the DAO. Mostly, this shows you the votes of people in the DAO. (It should also show whenever a proposal is made.)
Notifications
After I had left the Gilder application, I got a notification some hours later from one of the DAOs I am in. Someone from the MonkeDAO had just made a proposal on a “Barcelona Event Prepayment” from the marketing section.
Final Thoughts
We loved using Gilder during our time testing the app, and we think that it shows great promise as a staple app for decentralized communities. For still being in beta, the UX was an absolute delight and the experience was very smooth.
Keep your eye on this project! We suspect Gilder will be a huge success within the Solana community.