Representatives

What representatives can do

Each representative holds one or more of five permissions, chosen separately for each person:

The bits matter only to people who read the contracts: a representative's permissions are their sum, so 30 means everything but the operator permission, which is what the creation wizard gives by default. Bit 1, the rename permission of COLLAB 2.1, no longer exists: a DAO's name and web address are set when it is created and never change, and the contract refuses a list that grants bit 1. Every representative needs at least one permission.

What representatives cannot do matters as much. Beyond the calls governance pre-approved, they cannot spend from the treasury, change the rules, amend the constitution or rename the DAO. They vote only with their own shares and those delegated to them, like any member; a representative does not need to hold shares at all. Every change they make is recorded on chain with their address.

The operator permission needs the critical rules. A Representatives & profile proposal whose new list gives anyone the operator permission uses the critical rules, even for someone who already holds it, because an operator can trigger every call granted to the profile. Granting the profile a module permission is a Governance rules proposal, which is critical too; see Module permissions.

Terms, electing and removing

The founders choose the first representatives when they create the DAO; see Create a DAO. After that, a Representatives & profile proposal changes them. It is a standard proposal unless it involves the operator permission or the DAO made the type critical.

• Representatives sets the complete list: who they are, what each may do and when their term ends. Anyone left out of the list stops being a representative. Press Add representative for each person, tick their permissions and set Term ends, or leave it empty for no fixed term. The list holds up to 21 representatives. The composer shows a table of what changes for each person: plus gains, minus loses, a tick keeps.
• Remove a representative removes one person and every power they hold, and leaves the others unchanged.

A term must end after the proposal executes: if it executes after a term's end date, execution fails. The composer refuses a term that ends before the earliest possible execution and warns when it ends before the latest. Once a term ends, the powers end with it; a new proposal can appoint the same person again.

Powers also stop:

• the moment a representative is frozen; they return if the member is unfrozen while the term lasts;
• when the representative steps down, which they can do at any time without a vote (Resign as representative, below);
• when governance removes or replaces them.

The treasury cannot be its own representative, and an account can appear on the list only once.

Editing the logo and description directly

A representative with Change the logo or Edit the description edits from the DAO's Settings, in one transaction, without a vote. The formats and limits are the same as for an edit by proposal; see The logo and The description.

• Edit the description: write Markdown, up to 256 KB, with a live byte counter. Control characters other than tabs and line breaks are left out, because the contract stores only those. Save the description writes it; saving an empty text clears it.
• Change the logo: choose an image (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, AVIF or SVG of any size). Your browser turns it into a 128 × 128 PNG, and you drag and zoom to choose the square to keep. Save the logo writes it, and Remove the logo clears it, after which the DAO shows its molecule glyph.

Replaced in place. Saving overwrites the logo or description stored in the DAO's profile contract, so its state on chain does not grow with each edit. Earlier versions remain in the chain's transaction history, so published content cannot be truly withdrawn.

Fees. Storing a new 32-byte word costs about 22,100 gas and rewriting one about 5,000, so the fee depends on how much is new. Before you save, the tool shows "Network fee: about … at most, for the gas this write uses." Measured examples, charged at a 50 gwei base fee:

A real 128 × 128 logo is usually 5 to 30 KB, far less than these examples.

The failure cost. Nodes stop estimating gas at their json-rpc gas cap, 25 million by default, so your wallet cannot estimate a write of more than about 33 KB of new words. COLLAB then sends the transaction with a gas limit of its own, computed from measured figures with a margin, and adds a line saying what a failure would cost: "If it fails, … GenesisL1 still charges at least half its gas limit: about …". The rule holds for every transaction on GenesisL1; see Costs and gas.

Why large edits belong to representatives. Changed by proposal, a new logo or description enters the chain's history three times: in the submission, its event and the execution. A representative's direct edit puts it there once and costs less.

Posting announcements

A representative with Post announcements publishes from the Post an announcement tool in Settings:

1. Enter the Announcement title, a short headline of up to 80 bytes.
2. Write the Announcement text in Markdown, up to 128 KB (131,072 bytes).
3. Press Post announcement. Your wallet sends two transactions: the text is stored first, on chain in the text store, then announced with your address.

The announcement appears on the DAO's overview for every visitor. A Representatives & profile proposal can also post one in the DAO's name (Post an announcement). How announcements are stored and shown is in Announcements.

The representative tools in Settings

When your connected wallet is an active representative, the DAO's Settings section starts with Your representative tools. Its header shows when your term ends, or "No fixed term", and it lists the powers governance gave you: "Changes take effect immediately, without a vote, and are recorded on-chain with your address." It holds one tool per permission:

• Edit the description and Change the logo, described above;
• Edit links: Website, X, GitHub, Forum and Email. Empty fields are removed, and all links together must fit in 2 KiB. Save links writes them;
• Post an announcement, described above;
• Run calls governance pre-approved: one entry per function governance granted to the profile, with fields for its arguments. Run this call shows what the call does and asks "Run this call for the DAO?"; Run it sends it. The treasury makes the call at once, without a vote and without L1, and it is recorded with your address. When governance has granted nothing, the tool says so and offers Propose a pre-approved call;
• Step down: Resign as representative gives up every representative power in this DAO at once. Only a new proposal can appoint you again. Your shares and your vote are not affected.

If you are a representative but your membership is frozen, the card is replaced by a notice that a frozen member has no representative powers until unfrozen. If your term has ended, a notice says so; a profile proposal can appoint you again.

For everyone, the Representatives card further down Settings lists each representative with their permissions, since when they serve and when their term ends, and offers Propose a change of representatives. The Role column of the Members table marks representatives too, inactive ones included.

Related

• Name, web address, logo and description
• The constitution and announcements
• The treasury
• Members and shares
• Costs and gas
• The 13 proposal types