What are Roles?

Roles on Decent give DAOs the power to create fully customizable positions and elect members through automated on-chain voting. You can set roles with a fixed term, triggering automatic re-election when the term expires, or keep them active until they’re reassigned or revoked via governance. It’s all about bringing structure and accountability to your contributors while keeping everything transparent and decentralized.

Why Roles Matter for DAOs

Roles are essential for defining responsibilities and creating accountability within an organization. But defining roles in DAOs can be tricky. Traditional, off-chain roles often feel too centralized for decentralized organizations, and they can create liability risks for both the DAO and the person in the role.

Decent Solution

Decent tackles these issues by letting token holders manage roles directly. This approach holds key contributors accountable while protecting individuals by enabling them to act as agents of the DAO entity, not just centralized leaders.

Fixing Payroll Issues with Automated Payment Streams

Managing payroll can also get messy in DAOs, with the need for multisigs or wading through endless proposals just to pay contributors.

Decent Solution

Decent fixes this by attaching payment streams directly to roles, automating stablecoin payments or token vesting for smooth and efficient compensation.

Roles on Decent are fully customizable.

You can set titles, responsibilities, authorizations, and payments, and assign them to specific addresses. Once the role is set up, it’s submitted as a proposal for the DAO to vote on, or it can be executed via multisig. Roles can even have term limits that automatically trigger re-elections or self-destruct after a set time.

The beauty of Decent is flexibility. All of these parameters can be adjusted or revoked through governance, keeping the DAO in control while giving teams the autonomy they need to move quickly. You can even make changes to multiple roles or payment streams in a single proposal, allowing DAOs to stay dynamic and responsive to their needs.

Powered by Hats Protocol and Sablier

The Roles feature is implemented with Hats Protocol and Sablier, enabling interoperability across the web3 ecosystem and leveraging tested, reliable smart contracts. Decentralized teams using Decent can create roles, assign compensation, and grant permissions all within the app, streamlining governance and automating elections.

Hats Protocol

We built Roles on the Hats Protocol, which encodes all the key elements of an organization—decision-makers, roles, accountability measures, permissions—into programmable graphs.

Each Hat is represented as an ERC-1155 token, grouping responsibilities, permissions, and compensation into one easily manageable package.

Sablier for Payment Automation

Payment automation is another major benefit of Roles. With our Sablier integration, DAOs can choose from several payment streaming models and attach them to any role. These streams can be in stablecoins or native tokens and are fully transferable when a role is reassigned to another contributor, keeping payroll smooth and flexible.

Built for subDAOs

One of Decent’s key functions is streamlining the creation of highly efficient subDAO structures through Parent and Child Safe smart contracts.

How Roles Integrate with SubDAOs

Whether you’re managing a parent DAO or several subDAOs, roles can be created, assigned, and managed at both levels, with the parent DAO keeping oversight through governance. It’s the perfect setup for decentralized teams that need organizational structure without sacrificing autonomy.

How Roles Work in Practice

Let’s walk through an example of how a DAO might use the Roles feature on Decent. Let’s say your DAO needs to hire a smart contract developer for a project:

1. Creating the Role: The project lead creates a "Developer" role and sets it to self-destruct once the project is complete.
2. Defining Compensation and Permissions: The proposal includes the developer’s payment schedule, permissions across DAO platforms, and details the subDAO they’ll be working under.
3. Voting and Implementation: Once finalized, the proposal goes up for an on-chain vote. If approved, the developer is assigned the role and receives an ERC-1155 token representing their role, compensation, and permissions.

Stay in Control with Decent

Through our Roles feature, powered by Hats Protocol and Sablier, Decent makes it easy for DAOs to create clear, accountable roles, manage compensation, and stay in control. Our platform keeps your DAO in the driver’s seat, ensuring that roles and payment streams remain transparent and flexible as your needs evolve.

Learn More

Want to learn more? Check out our documentation on Roles for all the details on how to set them up in the Decent app.

About Decent DAO

We’re Decent.

We are committed to proving that DAOs are the most effective vehicles for maximizing stakeholder alignment and envision a future where DAOs govern our most vital institutions.

We play long-term games with long-term people. Decent is built with partners like Safe, OpenZeppelin, Hats Protocol, and Sablier. Decent is audited by Halborn and backed by some of the most prolific investors in web3.

To learn more, visit our DAO on the Decent app and follow us on X, Warpcast, and Mirror.