“In a world of composability, where anybody can build on top of you, your app is a protocol, and your protocol is an app,” commented David Phelps, cofounder of jokerace, a governance contest platform for communities, during a recent X space hosted by Aragon. “We’re just very locked in these terms of app versus protocol, because that’s an old mental model that doesn’t really hold up in a world of composability.” Jokerace embraces the power of composability. While it may seem like just another user interface for onchain governance, the true power of jokerace lies not only in the actions you can take within the app itself, but also the actions you can take beyond the app onchain. Jokerace serves as a platform for communities to make, execute, and record decisions. It functions as a proto-app, as David describes it, encompassing both a consumer-facing frontend interface (the jokerace contest platform) and a developer-facing backend infrastructure or information (in this case, onchain data) that can be utilized by anyone. This is where DAOs (onchain organizations built on decentralized infrastructure) come into play. According to David, “You can actually have the results of a vote trigger an action onchain. And because we’re fully onchain, it’s fully composable. As long as you can read the data, you can have that trigger an action.” Onchain actions are core to the operations of DAOs. DAOs can leverage jokeraces by utilizing them as the decision-making layer, while relying on Aragon DAOs as the execution layer for their communities. For example, governance tokens could be airdropped to individuals who voted on a specific submission in a jokerace, a hackathon could be run to reward outstanding submissions with governance tokens, or a plugin could be built to connect jokerace results with an Aragon DAO onchain. Jokeraces are onchain contests that revolve around a specific topic and enable communities to make, execute, and record decisions. When creating a jokerace, you establish the contest, set the topic, and determine two allowlists: one for submissions and one for voting. These allowlists serve as levers that can be adjusted to change the type of decision-making process. For instance, in a hackathon scenario, the submission allowlist would be broad (allowing any wallet to submit) to encourage a variety of submissions, while the voting allowlist would be limited to a small group (such as jury members) responsible for selecting the winning submission. Similarly, for DAO budgeting proposals, the submission allowlist might be restricted to the core team, while the voting allowlist could encompass the entire DAO. Internal DAO elections might involve small submission and voting allowlists consisting of specific guild members. By utilizing allowlists, jokeraces simplify the process of aligning communities into smaller groups based on shared interests or goals. “Cell division is just a really good way to look at this,” explained David. “What we think of as multicellular is actually just a bunch of single cells choosing to coordinate with each other. They can break off into separate groups but still coordinate effectively. And so you can have coordination all the way down.” Tokenless governance is another advantage of jokeraces, as it expands the range of ideas and attracts new members. In jokeraces, governance tokens are not required to submit proposals or vote. Instead, allowlists determine participation eligibility. Algorithms or formulas can be utilized to determine voting power, and allowlists can be configured based on specific criteria such as onchain actions performed by wallet addresses. Tokenless governance enables a broader range of ideas by eliminating the need for individuals to possess governance tokens, allowing more participation and inviting potential DAO members to contribute their ideas and build reputation before fully joining the community. This approach also facilitates the onboarding of new members, bypassing the friction associated with acquiring governance tokens. In summary, jokeraces offer a powerful tool for communities to engage in decentralized governance, fostering collaboration, decision-making, and community-building within DAOs.