G’day everyone, and welcome to my 2nd article about another innovative and optimistic ecosystem project that's in Aleph Zero's EFP. Today, I’ll be covering Syncra (formally known as LiberumDAO), a next-generation DAO-as-a-service platform building on Aleph Zero that allows anyone to build their company with a world-leading, no-code solution on the platform. In this article, I’ll be going over the current problems with DAOs today, the unique solution that Syncra is bringing to the table, the team behind the project, and so on.
This article will divided into 6 parts: The Problem, The Solution, The Team, The Integrations, Partnerships & Roadmap, Wen Token, and The Conclusion, so make sure to begin from the start (The Problem) before moving on to the other parts.
The Problem:
The problem with today's DAOs is that many blockchain-based projects require a DAO for effective community management and decision-making. However, the technical requirements and complexity of producing a DAO can be seen as a significant barrier to entry for normal users with limited technical and coding expertise. On top of this, the lack of no-code solutions for creating a DAO means that only developers with blockchain expertise can create them.
There are also other challenges that DAOs face now and need to solve:
Cost barrier and technical complexity: It’s widely known in crypto that developing a DAO can be technically complex, and because of this, it can deter any new user who has limited technical expertise from creating a DAO that can help with community decision-making and management. This also poses a challenge for teams developing protocols & Dapps, as it requires time, money, and brain power to be invested into it, whereas all of that could be used on making the main platform itself instead of wasting it on making a DAO.
Lack of education on the benefits and use cases: We all know that DAOs are still in their infancy and are a relatively new concept to the modern world. As a result, the education around DAO is very limited and there’s a huge gap that needs to be filled to show off its advantages, potential apps, and its adoption.
Governance protocol standards: Good practices and standards for governance protocol are still in development and are evolving at a rapid pace, and this is seen in most Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based blockchains that have already established good practices and smart contracts for creating & governing a DAO.
Legal & regulatory frameworks: Challenges such as appropriate legal & regulatory frameworks are still a thing that most DAOs suffer from these days. Jurisdictions without clear guidelines for blockchain-based organizations may struggle to define the legal status of DAOs and provide regulatory oversight. Due to this, it can hinder the broader acceptance and integration of DAOs within existing legal systems.
Security risks: Since DAOs operate on decentralized networks, it can make them susceptible to security risks such as hacking, fraud, and cyber-attacks if not created securely. Ensuring the security, safety, and confidence of any DAO is a priority and requires deep technical knowledge and experience, which is something most non-technical users might not have.
In summary, all of these problems/challenges emphasize the need for continued development, education, and collaboration to overcome these technical, governance, legal, and security hurdles associated with DAOs. With the progression of the adoption and use cases of blockchain technology, it’s expected that better solutions will emerge to address these challenges effectively, one project aims to stand out from the crowd and it proposes a solution to solve these issues with its innovative platform…
Syncra provides the tools for any user to take control of their own DAO.
The Solution:
To put it simply, Syncra is described as a disruptive platform that offers a no-code solution for the creation & management of DAOs, and their primary goal is to make DAOs accessible to anyone with limited technical skills/expertise and ensure that anyone can participate in the decentralized governance revolution.
Syncra places security as of paramount importance, and because of this, they're building on Aleph Zero which utilizes Substrate technology. Substrate is a robust and widely recognized framework for building blockchain-based apps, providing a solid foundation for the secure operation of DAOs on the Syncra platform.
All users can expect privacy in their DAO for community management & decision-making.
At Syncra, you can create a unique DAO that is suited to all your needs and eases the pain of developing your own by scratch. Below is a list of key features of using the platform:
DAO management: Easily create and manage your DAO, where no coding skills are required and users can just use the tools that are provided and hand-crafted by Syncra themselves.
Undisclosed voting: Users can ensure privacy and confidentiality during any voting process, and since Syncra will be utilizing Aleph Zero’s Liminal technology, it makes sure that no one knows how particular participants vote and relies only on the vote was made.
On & off-chain voting: Anyone can participate in voting processes securely and transparently (on-chain voting), while not all decision-making needs to be done on the blockchain (off-chain voting).
Treasury management: Every organization will require funds, but DAOs also need a treasury to operate and keep afloat. Syncra allows anyone to effectively manage their organization’s financial resources with the tools available in the palm of their hands.
Prepared & custom strategies: Every organization has its own rules, but even though many of them are similar across different DAOs, users might need something more special. At Syncra, users can expect to choose from a range of predefined strategies, or they can either create their own.
Modular approach: Users can tailor the platform to suit the needs of their community, and can choose only the features that their DAO needs and can benefit from.
Software Development Kit (SDK): In principle, Syncra is a no-code solution, however, if someone is a developer and wants to create a DAO using their code, they can do so. At Syncra, they will provide an SDK for creating custom UIs for any DAOs based on the platform.
And it is not too hard at all to start a DAO on Syncra as well! Below is a step-by-step process as to how any user can create a DAO on the Syncra platform:
Open the app,
Connect your wallet,
Set basic DAO info,
Set governance rules,
Distribute voting power, and
Let your community create proposals and vote.
Syncra allows you to easily set up your own DAO in 6 simple steps.
The Team:
Syncra is being developed by a team of engineers, dreamers, and leaders. Here are 4 of the most prominent members & co-founders of Syncra, along with their unique nicknames:
Przemysław Paczoski (CEO / The Visionary):
Przemysław is a leader with 6+ years of experience in the IT industry and is known for efficiently developing, growing, and leading high-performing teams across many projects. He has also actively engaged in various blockchain efforts with a hands-on approach, gaining valuable skills in project development from start to finish.
At Syncra, he has always encouraged his colleagues to push the envelope of what a project can become and brings a great list of ideas for possible improvements and development directions that Syncra can take.
Krzysztof (Chris) Kuczma (COO / An Integrator):
Krzysztof is a software engineer with more than 5 years of hands-on experience under his belt. Daily, he has managed to work on projects for large financial institutions, where he has gained a unique knowledge of business operations. He is also a web3 explorer and has been involved in many activities across space and is well-oriented on business growth and modeling the best experiences.
At Syncra, he stands as a layer between the discoveries of many incredible ideas and making them possible to implement, and makes the business operations on various levels.
If you want to know more about Krzysztof's work, here's his LinkedIn profile.
Paweł Kowalewski (CTO / The Mechanic):
Paweł is also a software engineer with experience in several blockchain technologies, including projects based on the Bitcoin Lightning network. Before his software engineering career, he was better known as an academician and an automotive technician. He is also the co-host of the YouTube channel “Devs in Chains” (https://www.youtube.com/@devsinchains) that he operates along with Krzysztof Kuczma and focuses on topics related to web3, web development, and blockchain technology. He’s known to have attended numerous hackathons and has successfully won awards in various categories. In his spare time, he is an amateur guitar player and passionate about cars & motorcycles.
At Syncra, he’s the guy who shapes the technology behind the platform and finds solutions for the most challenging aspects, such as the integration of ZK-Proofs and privacy.
If you want to know more about Paweł's work, here's his LinkedIn profile.
Jan Kuczma (Core Developer / The Wizard):
Jan is an alumnus of the University of Sussex and has graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Sciences that focuses on AI and computer Architecture. In the academic space, he has participated in several hacking events and developed various software projects, including a 3D game built in Unity and designing and implementing Machine Learning models in Python. In the final year of his bachelor's, he became interested in blockchain technology and started learning smart contract development and quickly became proficient at this matter.
At Syncra, he’s the person responsible for designing a modular approach to DAO creation and the development of smart contracts for the platform. He always brings a spark of ingenuity when it comes to the implementation and creation of well-designed smart contract solutions.
If you want to know more about Jan's work, here's his LinkedIn profile.
The Integrations, Partnerships & Roadmap:
Aleph Zero’s successful win of a slot auction for a Parachain, allows it and its ecosystem projects to have cross-chain compatibility with Polkadot and its ecosystem to benefit from increased liquidity, further funding rounds, more collaboration, and more users entering the AZERO ecosystem. For Syncra, this can allow them to position themselves to leverage further capabilities and resources from the Polkadot network, as well as more project collaboration, interoperability, and even the development of new cross-chain solutions that can benefit the entire Polkadot ecosystem.
Syncra also announced back in May 2023 that it is officially part of Aleph Zero’s EFP (Ecosystem Funding Program), which can allow them to get supplied with everything that they’ll need to make this project the best it can be, like getting advice from the Aleph Zero team themselves, having efficient audits of their smart contracts, further funding and partnerships, and so on.
Syncra is currently in its 3rd Phase of development (see image below), with it already completing its 1st and 2nd Phases, which covered the initial development of smart contracts, the first governance strategies, its litepaper release, and so on. In its 3rd phase, they are now focusing on the private beta launch of their platform on a test net as well as undisclosed voting integration. For its last 3 phases of development (4th, 5th, and 6th), it wants to release the public beta and the official public launch of its platform on a testnet for everyone to test and give feedback on, release their tokenomics and whitepaper, implement off-chain voting, etc.
The current roadmap for Syncra (As of writing this article, 2 phases are done and there are 4 left to go)
Wen Token:
Now, you might be wondering to yourself after reading most of this article ‘Wen token?’ Well, luckily for you reader, the team has addressed this and confirmed that there will be a token associated with the ecosystem and are rigorously planning out the tokenomics for it (and this article will be updated when it is released). Their focus is on the modeling of their token that grants access to distinctive features such as anonymous voting, exclusive voting strategies, and participation in a DAO for governance. They’re also evaluating various token metrics, as well as exploring different mechanisms to enhance the token’s value and stability.
The Conclusion:
In conclusion, Syncra is the first ink!-based DAO-as-a-service platform that is positioning itself in the DAO space to bring something innovative to the room to enhance the user experience, security, and usability of creating and managing a DAO on Aleph Zero and soon on Polkadot and its ecosystem. If you want to learn more about Syncra, visit their website and documentation (found in the References list) and join their socials if you haven’t as well!
References:
Twitter / X - https://twitter.com/syncra_xyz
Website - https://syncra.xyz/
Documentation - https://docs.syncra.xyz/
Discord - https://discord.com/invite/bhVFa3BxbG
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