Introduction

PrimeDAO is a decentralized coordination engine for systemic advancement in Open Finance, also known as Decentralized Finance (or "DeFi"). DeFi is a new type of finance that is transparent and accessible to anybody around the world with access to the internet. DeFi Pulse summarizes it well:

Decentralized finance aims to create a financial system that’s open to everyone and minimizes one’s need to trust and rely on central authorities. Technologies like the internet, cryptography, and blockchain give us the tools to collectively build and control a financial system without the need for central authorities.

We believe that there's a missing piece to most DeFi projects: governance by a democratized collective of co-contributors. Governance is a complex and fascinating topic, but think of it simply as "The way a group of people choose to do things." Governance answers questions like:

• How do you become a member of the group?

• How does value get distributed to members of the group?

• How can the group change its rules or structure?

• ... and many other questions!

In the old world — today's world — businesses are the main means of governance in industry. In businesses you often are not considered a member of the group even if you work for the business. That is: employees rarely co-own the businesses they work for. Value often exclusively flows to the entrepreneurs or investors who own the business, creating a centralized distribution of wealth. The rules of the business and how it's structured are usually determined by those same centralized owners — employees can't change their working hours or salary without the permission of the business' owner or management staff.

With the rise of blockchain, we can imagine new structures that are more horizontal and less hierarchical, where co-creators are co-owners of a value-creating collective. We can programmatically embed democratic governance rules into the blockchain so that no centralized authority is responsible for taking decisions for everyone. PrimeDAO is a decentralized collective that co-creates value while governing itself as a collaborative network. Collaborative networks that exist on the blockchain are referred to as "DAOs," or "Decentralized Autonomous Organizations."

The DAO industry is currently exploding in size — people are beginning to realize the awesome power of digital-first organizations! We believe that a well-structured DAO collective has the power to change DeFi for the better, by collectively establishing norms that make DeFi safer, more reliable, transparent, and accessible to the masses. PrimeDAO's mission is to:

Facilitate wide adoption of open finance by coordinating and cultivating projects that promote safety, reliability, liquidity, and open access, while avoiding centralized appropriation of critical financial infrastructure through decentralized governance.

While PrimeDAO's first iteration revolves around its first products — the Prime Aggregator and Prime LP Manager — its product horizon is near-endless for its formative builder collective. We need you to move Open Finance forward in a safe and inclusive fashion.

If you share this vision, and want to join our budding collective, read on!