Fractal Governance Architecture

EF 117: Fractal Governance Architecture

How can fractal democracy transform capital allocation? This episode explores the tripartite governance architecture of Optimism Fractal, examining how the Respect Game, Sages Council, and ORDAO integrate to create truly democratic fund distribution and decentralized coordination at scale 🔺⚖️

Date: March 13th, 2025

Table of Contents

Episode Summary
Timestamps
Resources
Tweet thread
Related Posts
EF 116: Exploring AI and Dialectics in DAOs with Dialexity
EF 115: Coordination Games
EF 114: Growing the Fractal Ecosystem
Attributions

Episode Summary

The 117th Eden Fractal event explored the tripartite governance architecture of Optimism Fractal and how it creates truly democratic fund distribution through the Respect Game. Dan Singjoy presented his second deliverable from an Optimism Grants mission examining democratic fund distribution, explaining how the governance integration strategy combines judicial, legislative, and executive functions to enable democratic coordination at scale. The presentation highlighted how the Respect Game serves as a judicial foundation, the Optimism Fractal Council as legislative branch, and ORDAO as executive implementation. Find out the full process and Optimism Fractal Intents described here.

Tadas, the lead architect behind many of these governance systems, shared valuable insights on the evolution of this governance structure. He explained how the council process was created during Optimism Fractal's bootstrapping phase when they couldn't reach consensus on an onchain governance process, and how ORDAO (Optimistic Reputation-based Governance) was later developed to automate proposal execution and respect distribution. Tadas emphasized the complementary nature of offchain and onchain processes, noting how communities can use offchain processes to decide on changes for onchain smart contracts and vice versa. Explore Tadas’ article called “Universality of tripartite governance model” for more details on the initial idea: https://www.notion.so/Universality-of-tripartite-governance-model-44eaa9551e4b453289ca8b3757e9da55

The discussion delved into the philosophical underpinnings of this governance model, with Tadas drawing parallels to the "system one" and "system two" thinking from Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow." He explained how the legislative branch deals with more abstract human-level language and slower deliberation (system two), while the executive branch handles technical implementation and faster execution (system one). Will contributed insights about how this governance model effectively addresses challenges in the current landscape where human attention spans are limited, suggesting the structure helps inspire greater community involvement. The event concluded with group discussions about implementing similar governance systems at other fractal communities like ZAO Fractal and potentially at Eden Fractal, as well as exploring ways to make these governance processes more accessible through tools like Guild.xyz.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome everyone to Eden Fractal

00:30 An overview of Eden Fractal. Dan shares tripartite governance info

6:35 Dan shares community news, several community members attended ETH Denver, todays agenda exploring Tripartite governance, ORDAO as executive implementation.

8:07 Dan gives overview of mission proposal for governance integration strategy, Optimism Fractal Respect game that had been approved and Dan comments on deliverables he's given, gives additional details.

18:57 Tadas suggest covering how these systems came about. Tadas shares how process started, how thoughts were on ways for improvement. Tadas does a run through on steps to get us where we are now with the creation of ORDAO. How you can use on and off chain processes.

24:16 Rosmari asks Tadas to expand on on and off chain processes

24:21 Tadas responds to Rosmari, legislative branch is more off chain, it uses on chain respect distribution but voting is off chain. It's more user friendly either way this process.

25:22 Will comments that he thinks it's a highly intelligent model, shares his thoughts about this comment on community inspiration.

26:46 Tadas comments on snapshot usage for counsellors and proposals.

27:38 Dan adds that a lot has been inspired past experiences, ie msig. Eden fractal has helped form an output.

29:56 Rosmari asks if counselor participation is described anywhere, are processes connecting ORDAO, respect game and councilors connected somewhere.

32:11 Dan responds Rosmari , sharing the article that answers the question posed explaining core intents. At some point it might be useful to create a simple version.

37:24 Rosmari comments on having an external version more targeted version.

39:04 Will comments on Guild.xyz, to Rosmari's point that a guild page could be created in a digestible format, possibly adding Hats tree, this could be an elegant solution to highlight areas fir new users.

40:16 Group conversation continues on Guild

43:44 Will highlights the fact that he put resources in chat for anyone considering and participating in Gitcoin grants 23 cycle. Primary focuses are open source software builders and developers, three main categories: dev tooling, web3 infrastructure, and dApps and apps

44:20 Dan thanks Will for Gitcoin info, shares screen info about Gitcoin. Dan shares article that Tadas shared. Dan adds that not all people need to know about governance, sometimes they just want to join and have fun, but information is always there should they desire to learn more.

48:53 Tadas goes in names in tripartite governance system, they are just names we've chosen. Tadas talks more about differences between legislative and executive branches. Executive branch is more technical. Gives additional details.

54:05 Dan comments on older article Tadas wrote comparing fractals to biological organism, Dan compares it to what we're doing now. Also encourages everyone to read article thinking fast and slow. Dan comments on Respect game as judicial branch.

56:34 Dan mentions that Eden Fractal is planning to implement ORDAO soon. 3 year anniversary coming up, season will also be ending soon. Comments on upcoming ideas in new season.

59:42 Tadas responded to Rosmari question on ORDAO process for another community, gives examples and details. It will need a front end, he's not currently working on it.

1:05:14 Dan comments on ideally putting resources in an app, shares screens and comments on Vlad's app and Tadas OrClient. Would be nice to put in an intuitive user guide.

1:08:35 Tadas agrees, wanted to note on an intent document, will always be necessary. Tool is created to reflex needs. We will always be fractals that try something new.

1:11:49 Tadas adds concluding thoughts, great meeting long time coming about creating a unified system as a whole. Didn't see how it related to tripartite system, comments Dan did this work to create a unified model.

1:12:31 Dan thanks Tadas, talks about tripartite governance mission. this will be a useful framework. Thanks Zaal and shares Zaal's screen. Zaal jumps in to thank everyone for support of his fractal.

1:17:20 Dan shares closing presentation , reminds everyone to check out our forum post to keep up with our mission on optimism fractal for tripartite governance. Quickly shares some of resources on site. Encourages to attend next optimism fractal and town hall, and watch videos on Eden creators.

Go Tripartite Governance!

Resources

A link to the Governance Integration Strategy document written by Dan Singjoy
Tadas’ Tripartite Governance article called “Universality of tripartite governance model”: https://www.notion.so/Universality-of-tripartite-governance-model-44eaa9551e4b453289ca8b3757e9da55
The whole governance system is described here: https://optimismfractal.com/details
Tadas shared this wiki page including Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow”.

Resources for Gitcoin 23

Shared by Will T: To get everyone who is considering participating in GG23 here are your go-to resources

Tweet thread

EF 116: Exploring AI and Dialectics in DAOs with Dialexity

How can AI enhance decentralized wisdom in the fractal ecosystem? Eden Fractal explores Dialexity's app integration of dialectical methods with AI to transform complex governance challenges into balanced, win-win outcomes for decentralized communities 🌳✨

EF 115: Coordination Games

What happens when Eden Fractal creates bridges across fractal governance gardens? Leaders pioneer innovative reputation system designs that measure community contributions in new ways, while imagining how the Respect Game could transform into interconnected educational board games that help teach collaborative decision-making 🏡✨

EF 114: Growing the Fractal Ecosystem

How is Eden Fractal catalyzing transformative growth for fractal communities? Experience technical evolution through ORDAO deployment on Base, explore strategic proposals for enhancing ecosystem-wide collaboration, and Respect Game use cases for artists at the ZAO Fractal and WaveWarZ 🌊🔉

Attributions

Music by Kjartan Abel. More details at EdenCreators.com/attributions