Less than two weeks remain before voting closes for the first Council of the DAO. This election is more than a routine governance update—it signals a fundamental shift in how we organize, plan, and execute as a community.
Since I’ve been directly involved in pushing for this restructuring, including the organization of the Regenesis Summit alongside other fellow DAO members, and as a result, I faced some criticism suggesting I’m trying to centralize the DAO, I thought it would be a good idea to share my vision for the future of the DAO’s operations.
Let’s clarify how a Council of elected representatives and an Executive Arm[1] can transform the DAO from a patchwork of squads and disconnected grants into a streamlined, strategy-driven organization. My aim is straightforward: to demonstrate why this approach can both unify our resources and empower more voices in Decentraland, rather than silencing them.
Decentraland at a Critical Crossroads
Decentraland stands at a critical juncture. Over the past year, the Foundation has invested heavily—most notably in the Decentraland Client 2.0—to enhance the user experience of the platform. While the updated client offers tangible benefits for casual visitors, the transition has been tougher on creators. Many have seen their scenes and workflows disrupted by new tools that, despite certain improvements, haven’t yet reached feature parity with what they were used to. Although these efforts are significant, active usage still hasn’t reached the community’s expectations. The Foundation has done its part by presenting an ambitious plan to boost user engagement in 2025, but from the DAO’s perspective, we need to do more to utilize our resources, empower and reward our creators and secure Decentraland’s future.
Meanwhile, other metaverse projects are innovating rapidly, fueled by the buzz around AI-driven experiences and agents. They’re drawing in new and returning users, developers, and partners who see an opportunity for immersive social and gaming experiences. As early pioneers of the open metaverse, we can’t afford to appear stagnant.
Adding to the sense of urgency, the broader crypto market looks increasingly favorable. Political and economic shifts have renewed confidence in digital assets, and mainstream audiences are once again taking notice. This momentum could be a springboard for Decentraland—like the 2020/21 cycle.
On the DAO side, we’ve recently voted to adopt a shared mission, signaling a commitment to unified, long-term goals. Yet, paradoxically, our treasury remains largely underutilized. With the Grants program deprecated, and recent proposals aimed at diversifying the treasury failed in late-stage governance processes, we are missing opportunities every day.
It’s not that our community lacks passion or skill. We have artists, developers, and community builders ready to push Decentraland forward. But we lack the coordinated, operational framework to put these resources to use.
In short: We are pioneers of the open metaverse, but we risk being perceived as stale. We have the funding, the ideas, and favorable market conditions at our backs. What we need now is better execution.
The Problem with “Everyone Votes on Everything”
Right now, Decentraland’s governance expects every VP holder to vote on proposals—no matter how relevant or not. While this aligns with the spirit of decentralized decision-making, it has unintended consequences:
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Voter Fatigue: People lose interest when they have to vote on multiple proposals each month. Over time, many simply stop participating.
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Expertise Gaps: Certain proposals require specialized knowledge—finance, marketing, software architecture—that most casual voters don’t possess.
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Slow Processes: Votes can drag on for weeks, delaying critical funding, new features, or treasury actions.
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Diffused Accountability: With everyone voting, it becomes unclear who’s responsible if something goes wrong. No single person or team has a clear mandate to ensure long-term success.
This governance structure was meant to be open. Yet it often leads to stagnation and confusion, especially when large, multi-step initiatives need consistent oversight. Every project or structural change ends up being debated from scratch, even if the people voting haven’t followed the entire conversation or lack context.
Moreover, while “everyone votes on everything” suggests radical inclusivity, the reality is that Voting Power (VP) is highly concentrated. Many proposals remain in limbo until someone with sufficient VP decides their fate. Paradoxically, we end up with a governance model that appears very decentralized in the process but lacks real accountability for the few individuals who actually cast decisive votes (frequently with burner or non-identifiable wallets). Without any checks or responsibilities attached to those holding most of the VP, their ultimate power over the DAO’s direction goes largely unchecked. This is precisely why we need a Council: to bring accountability, clarity of mandate, and more balanced decision-making to our governance process.
The Case for a Council
To address these issues, we proposed forming a Council—a small group of elected representatives with:
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A direct mandate from the community (through an open VP-based election).
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Defined responsibilities to plan, oversee, and coordinate the DAO’s strategic direction.
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Regular compensation that acknowledges the real work of long-term governance.
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Clear accountability: The community can veto major Council decisions if they appear misaligned with Decentraland’s objectives.
In many organizations—whether they’re DAOs or traditional nonprofits—a council or board helps reduce noise while maintaining transparency. Community members don’t need to weigh in on every line item of a budget. Instead, they elect or remove council members based on overall performance and shared vision. This structure doesn’t remove power from the community. It organizes that power by placing it in the hands of people who commit to understanding the finer details, weighing trade-offs, and guiding the DAO toward collective goals.
Think of it as high-frequency delegated governance. Rather than repeatedly pushing large proposals that might fail in the late stages of voting, we empower a small, specialized team to craft robust strategies and action plans. The community can veto these at critical junctures or even remove a Council member whenever needed, ensuring accountability remains firmly in the DAO’s hands.
What the Council Should Do
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Hire and Oversee the Executive Director of the Executive Arm: Ensuring that day-to-day operations align with the DAO’s broader objectives and the vision for the Decentraland project.
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Approve Annual Strategy and Budget Proposals: The Council reviews a yearly roadmap for the DAO, focusing on areas such as content, protocol and tooling improvements, treasury management, ecosystem growth, and operations.
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Act on Treasury Diversification Plans: The Council can establish a framework of pre-approved market operations. Either the Council itself or a dedicated Treasury Management team can then act swiftly when conditions are favorable, ensuring the DAO doesn’t miss critical opportunities to extend the runway of the project.
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Facilitate Communication with the Decentraland Foundation: The Council can bridge the gap between the DAO and the Foundation, aligning technical roadmaps, marketing strategies, and in-world experiences more efficiently.
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Perform Formal Oversight: The Council will hold regular formal meetings with the Executive Director to review progress, and members must be available for individual meetings with the Director as needed.
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Publish Reports: The Council will publish regular reports on the status of operations and the treasury, outlining the suggestions and decisions made by each member.
The Executive Arm: A DAO-adjacent Operations Team
You might ask, “If we have a Council, why do we also need an Executive Arm?” A Council alone can’t implement wide-ranging initiatives or hire full-time specialists, because it isn’t structured as an operational body. That’s where the **Executive Arm ** enters the picture.
This model, which has gained significant traction across various decentralized ecosystems, is simply a legally structured, DAO-adjacent entity. It can hire employees, sign partnerships, hold IP and basically do most of the things a traditional organization can do. Community members and other stakeholders can leverage it to pursue clear objectives designed to enhance the Decentraland ecosystem and empower its creators, citizens, and developers.
The Executive Arm will function as an efficient resource allocator. This means that most of the operations will be outsourced to other entities or parts of the ecosystem. It will be organized into four key areas, each with distinct responsibilities:
A. Operations
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Responsibility: The Operations team will manage the internal structures, processes, and day-to-day activities of the Executive Arm. This includes resource allocation, performance monitoring, and ensuring operational efficiency.
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Key Activities and Areas:
- Operations: Coordination of cross-departmental activities, and optimization of operational workflows.
- Finance & Admin: Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Payments. Accounting.
- HR: Talent acquisition and retention, defining initiatives to build a strong team.
B. DAO Services
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Responsibility: This area will provide services to the Decentraland DAO, facilitating operations and supporting its strategic objectives.
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Key Activities and Areas:
- DAO Treasury Management: Manage the DAO’s financial assets to ensure sustainable and strategic allocation with the explicit approval of the DAO Council.
- Community Engagement: Foster active participation and communication within the Decentraland community to ensure inclusivity and responsiveness.
- Governance Enablement: Provide tools, resources, and assistance to support the DAO’s governance processes and ensure effective decision-making.
- Grants Management: Administer and monitor grants provided by the DAO to support community initiatives and projects aligned with Decentraland’s goals.
C. Ecosystem Growth
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Responsibility: The Ecosystem Growth team will focus on expanding the Decentraland ecosystem by developing partnerships, creating immersive in-world content, and driving marketing initiatives.
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Key Activities and Areas:
- Partnerships: Establish and maintain strategic partnerships with external entities to enhance the ecosystem’s reach and capabilities.
- Content/Experience Creation: Develop and curate high-quality in-world content and experiences to engage users and attract new participants.
- Marketing: Promote the Decentraland ecosystem through targeted marketing campaigns, brand building, and public relations efforts.
D. Research and Development (R&D)
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Responsibility: The R&D department will ensure the Decentraland protocol remains open, decentralized, and at the forefront of innovation.
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Key Activities and Areas:
- Protocol Innovation: Continuously develop and refine the Decentraland protocol to maintain its competitiveness and adaptability.
- Client Management: Oversee the development and integration of new clients to enhance user experience and expand the platform’s capabilities.
- Technology Research: Investigate and implement modern technologies to ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the Decentraland ecosystem.
Key areas of the organization may not necessarily execute all initiatives directly. Instead, they will ensure their execution through various mechanisms, such as hiring employees, contracting vendors, or engaging community members and projects through transparent funding mechanisms.
The Executive Arm should also put in place accountability mechanism to inform the community and be transparent about their work such as:
Operational Transparency
The Executive Arm will show how it spends money through live dashboards and reports. Anyone in the community will be able to check these. This builds on the current TransparencyOS system.
Community Feedback and Participation
We’ll create a system for community feedback, building on the work made for the DAO Strategic Framework. This will let people share ideas about Executive Arm work and plans. The community will have clear ways to voice their thoughts. The Executive Arm Executive Director must respond to these ideas, explaining why they’re used or not.
Community Reporting
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Quarterly All Hands Meetings: To report progress with the DAO community.
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Yearly Transparency Report: To provide a comprehensive overview of the Executive Arm operations.
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Biannual Performance Reports: The DAO Council will publish reports twice a year assessing the Executive Arm performance and providing commentary on highlights and suggestions for improvement.
Answering the Critics: Centralization vs. Empowerment
One common question is whether creating a Council and an Executive Arm risks “centralizing” Decentraland. Admittedly, it does establish more defined roles and structures. But let’s be clear: decentralization is never about everyone doing everything all the time. It’s about distributing authority in a way that remains transparent, efficient, and adaptable.
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Council Elections Are Decentralized: VP holders still decide who sits on the Council.
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Executive Arm Funding Is Approved by the Council: The community can always pull the plug if the Executive Arm underperforms.
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Veto Power Remains: If the Council or the Executive Arm proposes something fundamentally against the DAO’s ethos, the community can reject it via a governance process.
Sometimes, a fully “flat” organization can paralyze itself. Essential treasury actions, creator support, or major business partnerships get bogged down in never-ending votes. Eventually, many active participants burn out, creating even bigger efficiency gaps. By contrast, a Council plus an Executive Arm can promote a sense of forward motion, attracting more creators and partners who see that Decentraland has a clear and unified direction.
What if it goes wrong?
No organizational shift comes without risk. Here are a few common pitfalls:
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Misalignment with the Foundation: The Executive Arm and the Council must keep lines of communication open with the Decentraland Foundation. Otherwise, we risk duplicating efforts or sending conflicting messages.
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Overreach by the Executive Arm: If the Executive Arm becomes overly independent, it might diverge from the community’s goals. The solution? Clear funding milestones, mandatory quarterly reports, and a strong Council with the power to freeze funding.
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Lack of Communication with the Community: Regular town halls, dashboards, and forum posts can prevent the feeling that decisions happen “behind closed doors.”
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Council Capture: If Council members fail to represent the community, they can be dismissed. Setting term limits or re-election procedures gives power back to VP holders.
By openly acknowledging these risks, we can plan solutions from day one. The DAO structure isn’t static; it evolves with each new insight or challenge.
Your Role: Voting and Participation
I urge everyone to vote in the upcoming Council election. Evaluate candidates by looking at their track record, their stance on the Executive Arm, and their vision for Decentraland. Ask questions. Demand clarity. This process matters—each candidate’s approach to open metaverse ideals will shape what we achieve next year (and beyond).
If the Council is elected and the Executive Arm is eventually formed, the community won’t just vanish into the background. You’ll always have opportunities to voice your ideas, propose new directions, or even challenge the Council’s agenda. The difference is that we’ll have a stable, professional structure ready to take action on well-researched proposals.
A Council offers deliberate leadership. An Executive Arm offers professional execution. Together, they transform the DAO from an often goodwill but chaotic collection of efforts into a nuanced, dynamic, and focused system. That system still honors decentralization—the community can veto, elect, and remove key players—but also harnesses a consistent team to realize our collective vision.
Let’s be honest: we’re losing valuable time. Other virtual worlds and metaverse protocols are advancing quickly. We can’t afford endless trial-and-error. The Council and Executive Arm proposal is our best chance to fully utilize the DAO’s treasury, unify our efforts with the Foundation’s developments, and deliver a robust, open, and truly creator-friendly open metaverse experience.
Thank you for staying with me until this point—I hope this has helped clarify any doubts you may have. Please keep in mind that this is just my vision; the community will ultimately have the final say during the last Governance stage vote on the formation of the Executive Arm. From there, the Council will determine the path forward for all of this.
Notes
In other spaces, the term OpCo, or Operational Company is used. TBH I hate both of them and we should come up with a more creative name for this structure. ↩︎