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Since deploying Hats, Purple has decreased time spent on proposals across the DAO by 80% while holding security constant
Purple, a pioneering Nouns Builder DAO, is leveraging Hats Protocol to bring its organizational roles onchain, ensuring fair elections and transparent accountability for its Security Council and directly responsible individuals including a Grants Chair and Revenue Chair.
Purple was created as the first Nouns Builder DAO to advance the Farcaster ecosystem by distributing grants to people building on Farcaster and organizing events such as FarCon and FarHack. As the organization grew, and the Farcaster ecosystem started to take off, Purple members realized that to advance their mission most effectively, they needed to incorporate a bit more structure into their work, and define specific roles and responsibilities that were accountable to the DAO as a whole.
One of the most critical roles identified was the Security Council, which holds veto power over proposals to safeguard against governance attacks. In addition to the Security Council, other key roles identified included the Grants Chair, which is responsible for coordinating retroactive grant funding rounds, and the Revenue Chair, which is responsible for increasing awareness and auction revenue for Purple.
Purple needed a way to elect individuals to those roles, delegate real power to election winners, and compensate role-holders. For this, Purple turned to Hats Protocol, enabling the DAO to delegate powers and compensation to specific roles through fair and transparent onchain elections. This shift to delegated-decision making and accountability with Hats has decreased time spent on proposals across the DAO by 80% while holding security constant.
Using Hats, Purple ran elections for its Security Council as well as its Grants Chair and Revenue Chair roles through JokeRace in conjunction with the Hats JokeRace eligibility module. Purple token holders had submission and voting rights in the election, and role eligibility was handled by Hats to automatically grant designated powers to the election winners.
Here’s how it works: JokeRace enables communities to make, execute, and reward decisions onchain. Hats can read the results from a JokeRace contest and ensure that only the election winners can receive a given role and hold the powers associated with that role. Since it’s all onchain, eligibility is handled via the outcome directly. This means that no “middleman” is needed to be trusted to accurately administer the results of the election and assign the powers accordingly. The DAO itself is truly voting on and allocating these roles, as opposed to any designated individual.
Built into a Hats-powered election is a term limit function. Once the specified term ends, the hat and its associated powers are automatically revoked and a new election is triggered to fill the roles once more and seamlessly transfer the powers associated with those roles.
Purple tries to live the values of decentralization but before Hats there were still people who were appointed to multi-sigs who controlled certain funds and initiatives. Additionally some of those multi-sig members became inactive and it became more difficult to sign transactions. Now with Hats we vote as a DAO for who should be on the multi-sig, who gets replaced on it and who is entrusted with leading our various initiatives. - Chris Carella, founder of Purple
A critical mechanism in Purple’s governance is the Security Council, designed to protect the DAO from governance attacks. The elected Security Council members automatically receive signing authority on the Security Council multisig via their Hats. This multisig has veto power over DAO proposals, enabling the Security Council to reject any proposals that pose a threat to the DAO’s integrity.
By bringing the Security Council role onchain, Purple ensures that veto power is only granted to those elected by the community, maintaining transparency and accountability. This setup allows for seamless transitions of signing authority, reducing the risk of governance attacks during periods of change.
The Security Council's implementation can serve as a blueprint for other Nounish DAOs, showcasing a replicable model to enhance security and governance resilience. This approach ensures that power is linked to roles, not individuals, enabling efficient and secure management of the DAO’s operations.
Purple’s use of Hats Protocol not only ensures transparent elections but also facilitates experimenting with novel systems for role-based compensation. Initial compensation experiments include splitting proceeds from auction with the Revenue Chair and retro grants with milestones for the Grants Chair.
They expect in future terms compensation can be streamed directly to each role (as opposed to the individual), meaning that the financial resources allocated to these roles are only accessible by those currently holding the role and only as long as they are in good standing. This approach guarantees that compensation is directly tied to the responsibilities and performance of the directly responsible individuals holding key positions like the Purple Grants Chair and Revenue Chair.
If the Grants Chair or Revenue Chair were to lose their role, whether through revocation, renunciation, or the natural expiration of their election term, they would instantly lose access to both the role’s powers and the associated compensation stream. This ensures that compensation is always aligned with current responsibilities and contributions.
Looking ahead, Purple plans to expand its accountability structure with Hats, adding new roles such as Events Chair and new powers to existing roles, including Farcaster casting authority and editorial control over specific Charmverse pages. Additionally, PurpleDAO will seek to include delegated tokens in future JokeRace elections, further enhancing its governance framework.
With Hats, Purple is defining a repeatable operational structure for all Nouns Builder DAOs, building a more efficient, transparent, and capture-resistant organization to advance the Farcaster ecosystem.