SafeDAO is a decentralized collective, stewarding the thriving ecosystem around the Safe Smart Accounts on Ethereum and other blockchains. Safe is a Web3 ecosystem built with a composable and modular Smart Account “Safe{Core} Protocol” at its heart. A general-purpose smart account protocol that is extensible through plugins (modules, guards, fallback handlers) and is the basis for a wide range of different smart account implementations. SafeDAO is governed using the Safe Token.
Making every web3 user account a smart contract has been a long-lasting dream of Ethereum core developers. This effort is commonly known as “Account Abstraction (AA)” and is said to be a catalyst for making web3 more accessible and secure. However, there is a risk of Account Abstraction leading to fragmentation with different smart account implementations and a lack of portability between wallets and apps.
As the ecosystem continues to expand, seamless collaboration on common standards, interfaces, and fundamental elements will be crucial to ensure compatibility and modularity. This is where SafeDAO will play an indispensable role. SafeDAO is enabling governance mechanisms to ensure the underlying Smart Account infrastructure remains credibly neutral. Making sure all ecosystem participants are pulling in the same direction and have their interests balanced - a collective for everyone embracing Safe as a new account standard.
As stated in the SafeDAO Constitution, SafeDAO’s mission is to establish smart contract accounts as the default means for interacting with web3, also known as account abstraction (Smart Accounts). Current self-custodial wallets lack the security and convenience to be a viable alternative to custodial solutions for most people. In contrast to regular wallets (Externally Owned Accounts = EOAs), Smart Accounts provide characteristics such as recovery mechanisms, granular access control, upgradability, batching transactions as well as hybrid-custody setups. By building web3 around smart contract accounts, we reduce the reliance of users on custodial solutions, reducing counterparty risks, walled gardens and potential for censorship.
As SafeDAO, we aspire to work towards this mission by establishing standards for composable smart contract accounts. Through open source components and ecosystem initiatives we are nurturing the Safe Ecosystem, consisting of wallets, infrastructure, tooling and services. The Safe Ecosystem is building on a shared implementation of the Safe Protocol and is catering to the needs of various user-groups and use-cases in web3. SafeDAO promotes the common welfare, sustainable development, robustness and diversity of the Safe Ecosystem.
SafeDAO is guided by the following goals to work towards its mission:
SafeDAO benefits from a vibrant ecosystem built on shared components and standards. SafeDAO supports and empowers new and existing projects integrating with the Safe Protocol or initiatives supporting the usage of Safe Protocol.
The Safe Ecosystem shall be independent from any single entity. The Safe Ecosystem components, including governance, should be decentralized and permissionless.
SAFE should represent the value of the Safe Ecosystem. Mechanisms should be created to link the growth of the Safe Ecosystem to the growth in utility of SAFE.
As stated in the SafeDAO Constitution, all proposals passing the SafeDAO governance process shall adhere to the following principles: