Leaderboard
The resources gathered here, as well as the results from Harmonica, have been combined into a single leaderboard. You can explore it below.
Phase 1 Preliminary Harmonica Findings
Preliminary results from our Harmonica structured interviews — 52 conversations mapping 11 governance problems, 41 proposed solutions, and 59 actors across the ecosystem. Phase 1 research is ongoing with additional data sources.
Preliminary Research Findings
Phase 1 research is ongoing. The findings below are preliminary results from the Harmonica structured interview track — one of several data-gathering efforts underway. These will be expanded and refined as additional research streams contribute their findings.
- Agentic Allocation Workshop Recap — Research output from the third gov/acc workshop
- Phase 1 Results — Methodology, preliminary findings, and early insights
- Governance Problems — 11 problems ranked by urgency, from Critical to Medium
- Governance Solutions — 41 proposed solutions organized by category and maturity stage
- Agora Citizens Network Conversation - 33 people interacted with this conversation at the start of the gov/acc workshop on Apr 1st at EthCC
Early patterns: Token Voting Failure is the #1 concern (raised by 58% of interview participants), the execution layer is more evolved than deliberation, and knowledge infrastructure represents the largest gap between problem urgency and solution maturity.
Overview
gov/acc is a research program focused on accelerating governance innovation and experimentation in web3 communities. As part of the broader https://vitalik.eth.link/general/2025/01/05/dacc2.html, we believe that better governance infrastructure is essential for building coordination mechanisms that can solve critical problems in novel ways.
This program is conducted in public, with the hope of encouraging more data sharing, collaborative learning, and open research beyond what any single organization could achieve alone. We’re building in the open to make governance innovation more accessible, participatory, and impactful.
Read the introduction: gov/acc: Accelerating Governance Innovation in Web3, see our Research Program Plan, and contribute to our research through this survey.
Our work begins with:
- Producing an initial web3 governance research roadmap, which will be presented at the first gov/acc workshop around https://ethcc.io/
- Writing a revised Open Problems in DAOs centered around industry problems
- Experimenting with and documenting the use of relevant deliberative, governance, and other relevant tooling
- Building a community of practioners and researchers who are looking to collaborate in 2026
- Seeing what emerges as we go
Projects & Working Groups
Research Roadmap
A systematic effort to map the landscape of governance challenges in web3 and identify potential solution pathways. Through structured activities in January and February 2025, we’re working to:
- Source and categorize key governance problems from practitioners and researchers
- Develop a tech tree roadmap showing problem dependencies and solution approaches
- Document who is working on what, identifying gaps and collaboration opportunities
- Create a shared resource for the community to understand the governance innovation landscape
Methodology
We’re using a combination of interviews, surveys, and collaborative mapping sessions to gather input from diverse stakeholders. The methodology is being developed in parallel with the research itself.
Resources
- Working Methodology Document (in development)
- Public mapping sessions and workshops (scheduled for Jan-Feb 2025)
Open Problems in DAOs - Industry Focus Edition
Building on the original Open Problems in DAOs paper, this revision will shift focus toward practical industry challenges facing governance practitioners today.
While the original paper provided an academic foundation for understanding DAO research questions, this version will center on the operational, technical, and coordination problems that organizations actually face when implementing decentralized governance. The goal is to bridge academic research with practitioner needs.
Collaboration
This project involves several authors from the original paper and will incorporate findings from the governance problem mapping exercise.
Status
Active research phase. Phase 1 data gathering is underway, with structured interviews producing preliminary findings. The revised paper will incorporate these findings alongside additional research streams.
Get Involved
This research program benefits from diverse perspectives and lived experience with governance challenges. Whether you’re a DAO operator, protocol governance participant, researcher, or builder of governance infrastructure, there are ways to contribute.
Join the conversation: Connect with us in the Governance Geeks telegram group
Ways to participate:
- Share governance challenges you’ve observed or experienced
- Contribute to the problem mapping exercise
- Review and provide feedback on research findings
- Connect us with others working on related problems
- Collaborate on specific research questions
For research collaborations or specific inquiries, reach out through the Metagov Slack or the telegram group.
gov/acc is a research program of Metagov, a laboratory for self-governance on the internet.
This site and all research outputs are works in progress, conducted in public for collaborative learning.