Crypto Sapiens - Managing Crypto Assets with Smart Contract Wallets | Lukas Schor, Co-Founder Safe
Primer: Safe empowers groups and DAOs to manage their funds. In this episode of Crypto Sapiens, host Humpty Calderon speaks with Lukar Schor, the Co-Founder of Safe to learn how their product has changed the entirety of the DAO landscape. Learn why their token is not transferable and Safe DAO’s place in the ecosystem.
Background
Co-Founder of Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe)
First heard about crypto from a video of Vitalik in 2016
In 2017, he joined the Argon Group as a researcher
Came across Gnosis during his research
Joined Gnosis as their product manager. Became responsible for Gnosis Safe
When the team decided to double down on Gnosis Chain and spin off the other 2 projects, he took over the Co-Founder role of the spin-off (Safe) with 3 other colleagues
The Accessibility Of The Space
His Thoughts
Has the same trajectory as any other tech
Starts off being hard to use, technical, and expensive
Over time, the technology will become more accessible
How Does Gnosis Safe Make The Space More Accessible?
There’s a difference between private key accounts and smart contract accounts
Private key is needed for access to private key accounts
Smart contract accounts are controlled by multiple private keys, preventing a single point of failure
Most projects start off with a group of people managing the Treasury together
At some point, they will turn into a DAO, with token holders voting on transactions
Once a certain quorum is reached, the transaction is executed
Smart contract accounts are also useful for retail users. If they lose access to their private keys, they could have various recovery mechanisms implemented like having a trusted party to help them regain access to their account
How Safe Changed The DAO Landscape
When Gnosis started in 2017, they had to custody their own funds
They built the multisig as an internal tool for themselves
Over time, Gnosis developed into Gnosis DAO, a collective of GNO token holders
“We saw the need of Safe, not just being used by centralized teams, but by DAOs and bigger groups.”
- Lukas Schor
Makes it easy for people to come together for a shared mission and to pool their assets
Factors Enabling Safe To Grow Further
Contract accounts provide many benefits for different user groups and use cases:
From retail accounts to institutional accounts
Ways to control other smart contracts
Shifting from a product-focused project to an ecosystem project:
Foster different teams to build on Safe
Extend what’s already out there
Add other smart contract components
People contributing to the protocol, infrastructure, and frontend have proper standards, proper interfaces, and a joint vision of where Safe is going
Transition From Gnosis Safe To Safe DAO
It’s a way to make sure that the protocol stays credibly neutral
Many Safe users are DAOs themselves
Did a token distribution, with many DAOs receiving the airdrop
Stewards Of Safe DAO
Called them Safe Guardians
Safe Guardians are people that have provable record of contributions to Safe in the past
Did this to prevent people with a large Twitter following to get the most say in Safe DAO
Had 200 people applying as Safe Guardians
Interesting Conversations Inspired From DAO Governance
Has been only 1 month since they have kicked off the governance process
Took an interesting approach where they gave clarity to DAO participants on a legal perspective
The proposal went through the process and has now been signed off by the DAO
Currently having discussions about the operating model of the DAO
Another important discussion is about the Constitution for the DAO
There’s controversial discussions about the token — their token is non-transferable
Decision To Make The Token Non-Transferable
Have put a lot of thought into it
Had the committee participating in the discussions before the token was distributed
Their token distribution has a mix of people and a relatively fair distribution of voting rights
If they had launched the token in a transferable way, the ownership structure would have been fluid and governance power could be bought
Leaving it the community to decide if, when, and how the token will be transferable
Thoughts On The Ecosystem And Safe DAO’s Place In It
At a critical point right now as regulators are looking at crypto
Danger of regulators bringing the ecosystem towards a custodial world
There’s a spectrum between the user having full control and having no control
Would like to see internally hybrid custody built — having some level of control/private keys and also having the option to select any third party that you trust
Something That’s Been Influential To Him
Crypto Twitter — for him to stay updated
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