Main Character DAO

Overview

Main Character is a Solana DAO focused on bridging the gap between the metaverse and the universe. We want to be a place for people to learn and hang. Members can attend talks, learn from each other and find a friendly home to on ramp into the world of DAOs and Solana. To join the DAO, members will need to hold Main Character tokens, or $CHARs. A minimum of 10 $CHARs is required to join, with an additional membership level at 20 $CHARs. Members will be able to participate in events, both virtual and IRL, as well as weigh in on governance.

Main Character members will be able to submit and vote on proposals that impact the community. Some examples of community governance topics are prospective speakers, or cities to host IRL events. We are especially committed to an inclusive governance process, so we’ve structured it such that voting weight is capped after a certain threshold. (In other words, people who own a ton of tokens don’t have all the power, which makes things more fair and more fun.)

How we built it

We built a website with a focus on design that we believe will attract a wide range of users, both crypto native and mainstream. We created SPL tokens called $CHARS (submitted to the Solana token list registry here: https://github.com/solana-labs/token-list).

There is a two-tiered token-gated discord server where announcements will be made and votes held. In order to access the discord, users will need to have a balance of either > 10 $CHARS to be part of the "crew" tier or 20 $CHARS to be part of the "director" tier. We built a python discord bot to query a Solana RPC for wallet balances.

An overview of how the DAO works along with instructions on how to sign up, are all hosted on our website (themaincharacter.xyz). We designed the website in Figma, channeling a late-night-Tumblr-kid aesthetic (we've been feeling nostalgic during our late nights hacking on this).

Challenges we ran into

We initially planned to rely on Grape Protocol to token-gate our discord server, however they have a backlog of requests and were not able to service Main Character DAO in time. Therefore we built this bot ourselves using python which is far more lightweight. We will open source this for free so it can be used by anyone.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are particularly proud of the design of our website and the thought we have given to our initial lineup. In addition to this, we happy that we were able to overcome a lack of DAO tooling on Solana and build a solution for ourselves.

What we learned

We learned how to query Solana RPCs and create and register SLP tokens.

What's next for Main Character

We will be focused on building out the most enticing lineup of educational content for our users. We are focused on efficient learning via quick workshops where members can learn about an interesting subjects in small doses. We will be focusing on 20 minute learning sessions with members and experts ranging across topics from getting started with Solana and DAOs to hobbies like ballet and cooking. We also plan to expand to IRL events, in consultation with our members on locations and types of events.