Nouns DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization empowering Nouns NFT owners to shape and govern the project by voting on proposals funded by the Treasury. Nouns DAO utilizes a fork of Compound Governance and is the main governing body of the Nouns ecosystem.

Overview

On Jan 1, 2022, the @nounsdao Twitter handle announced the formation of the Nouns Foundation, a fully decentralized and autonomous business on Web 3.0 based on the Nouns NFT project.

The Nouns DAO treasury receives 100% of ETH proceeds from daily Noun auctions. Each Noun is an irrevocable member of Nouns DAO and entitled to one vote in all governance matters. Noun votes are non-transferable (if you sell your Noun the vote goes with it) but delegatable, which means you can assign your vote to someone else as long as you own your Noun.

Nouns DAO oversees all the operations at the Nouns Foundation. It has a treasury from which the Nouns DAO finances roadmap projects like:

• Xanadu & Nouns: a mega episode with real-time Nouns World Toolkit
• Nounify New York Fashion Week
• Integrate 8/8 Anniversary Art
• NounsDAO Brazil
• Nouns Esports and Dota Experimentation for July – October 2022
• Nouns Brand (Clothing Brand)
• NounsDAO investment in Verse
• Free Glasses For Kids
• Marketplace Pod Proposal
• Send a 3D Noun sculpture to the International Space Station
• Support Ecominga, Rainforest Trust, etc.

In a nutshell, The Nouns DAO is the forum of Noun owners where a member (holding 2+ Nouns) can present a proposal for a vote. The ultimate objective is to promote the Nouns project, keep the publicity active, and attract high-value members/investors. Although there's no cap on the number of Nouns a single entity or person can own, a minimum of two Nouns are required to submit proposals. And the founding members receive rewards in the form of Nouns (10% of the supply, or every tenth Noun, for the first five years).

Nouns DAO also supervises independent projects on its platform. Currently, the Nouns Projects portal hosts more than 150 creative projects.  These projects increase the real-life value and utility of the Nouns NFT collection. For example, some merch projects earn handsomely by selling Noun printed products.^[2]

This treasury exists for Nouns DAO participants to allocate resources for the long-term growth and prosperity of the Nouns project.

Notable Proposals

NOUNS x Fitz Frames

NOUNS × Fitz Frames Prescription Subscription partners with screening and testing partners to provide glasses for kids if they lose them, break them, grow out of them, or just desire a new pair to compliment their style. So Far, Nouns DAO has funded over 3,000 prescription glasses for kids and a specialized examination van delivered in December 2022.^[3]

Bud Light Superbowl commercial

In January 2022, the beer giant acquired Noun #179 for 127 ETH. After submitting and receiving approval for a proposal, Bud Light featured the iconic glasses from the Nouns ecosystem (known as “Noggles”) in a commercial that aired during Super Bowl LVI. This demonstrated the growing mainstream appeal of NFTs and the Nouns ecosystem, as major corporations are beginning to recognize the unique value of these digital assets.
In addition, the brand also temporarily changed its Twitter avatar to feature Noun glasses. The proposal states that Bud Light “intends to allow holders of the brand’s own NFT to collectively vote with their Noun on future governance proposals.” ^[3]

Prop House

Prop House is a public infrastructure funded by Nouns DAO. It is an experimental approach for communities to deploy capital. The process of the funding proposal starts with a funding round which is put up by a community in their community houses. Community houses are the places where communities host their funding rounds. Inside a house, one can view all active and inactive funding rounds. Each funding round has a fixed amount of capital to be won (e.g. 1 ETH for 5 winners each) and is composed of a proposal and a voting period.^[4]