About Us

Welcome to Blockchain@Columbia, Columbia’s student-run Blockchain club. We are a registered non-profit and aim to facilitate an environment where students can engage with ideas in blockchain, developing into the leading minds of web3, and making some friends along the way. We are governed by Lion DAO, the first student DAO launched last summer.

On a high level, we:

• Hold social and educational events
• Host weekly speakers
• Participate in governance of protocols like Uniswap, dYdX and Compound
• Host large events like Ledgerfest (conference) and LionHack (hackathon)

Feel free to explore the links below, get involved, and start contributing! We are open to technical, non-technical, beginner, and expert alike. If you’re new you probably want to have a look at the Getting Started page.

The best way to stay in touch with the club and events is the Discord channel.

Research & Reading Group

Blockchain@Columbia has a number of research initiatives, designed to train curious and talented undergraduates to become leading scientists in the field of blockchain research. We are advised chiefly by Professor Tim Roughgarden, who teaches a rigorous theoretical introduction to blockchains at Columbia.

Every week, we host a reading group where we discuss the bleeding-edge in recent blockchain research, including protocol design. It’s a primarily technical group, with some assumed prior understanding of the theoretical aspects of blockchain, but feel free to come by even if you have no prior exposure. Check out our calendar for more!

Constitution

In July 2021, Blockchain at Columbia, the student-run digital asset and blockchain technology organization at Columbia University, decided to restructure itself into a DAO to expand the scope of the organization’s opportunities for members and allow for members and alumni to engage with the club in a crypto-native way. Blockchain@Columbia is a subset of Lion DAO, composed of current students of any of Columbia University’s 20 schools. Lion DAO is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in the state of New York as Blockchain at Columbia Inc and is soon to be a federally recognized non-profit. Any LION token holders who supported our 32 ETH and any past or current members of Blockchain@Columbia are a part of Lion DAO, subject to expansion as decided by governance.

As the first student blockchain organization DAO, it’s imperative that we set an example for the future of blockchain student organizations through our productive and ethical operations, compelling events, and contributions to the broad blockchain space through original protocol-level research, application development, educational resource creation and curation, etc. Lion DAO is a community of researchers, engineers, investors, artists, students, and operators who are interested in every facet of the blockchain/crypto/web3 space. For the students in the DAO, this is an unparalleled opportunity to get privileged access to a nascent industry through connecting with Columbia alumni and community members in the DAO, the speakers we host, and directly participating in the cutting edge of the space as a DAO member. Lion DAO’s objective is to make the broader crypto space as accessible and open as it initially set out to be, regardless of students’ backgrounds, majors, or particular interests..

Purpose

1. To deeply analyze and research distributed systems, base-layer protocols, and applications in an academic setting.
2. To provide an environment for students to communicate and build relationships with others interested in blockchain technology, crypto, and web3.
3. To foster education and discussion of decentralized organizations and digital assets through speaker events, our annual LedgerFest conference, and our annual LionHack hackathon.
4. To provide support for students to build in the crypto space from NFTs to educational content to DeFi protocols.

Governance

Creating Proposals and Voting

1. Any member of Lion DAO can create Snapshot proposals, and we especially encourage current members to do so.
2. Proposal discussion should primarily be held on our Commonwealth page, which offers numerous benefits like being able to upvote discussions, see a list of Lion DAO members, etc.
3. There should be at least 1 community call per proposal organized on Twitter Spaces or in our discord.
4. Voting periods should last at least a week to give the proposer adequate time to advertise the proposal, and discuss and engage with other members of the DAO.
5. Proposals should be for important decisions like treasury expenditure/diversification, grant allocation, etc.
6. Ideally, most proposals should include multiple alternatives to what is being proposed (i.e., not single choice voting) to make governance as productive as possible: i.e., not just purely yes or no votes.
7. A minimum of 20% of all LION holders need to vote for the vote to be considered valid and a majority of the voting holders is required for any proposal to pass. One exception is if there is a vote to dissolve the DAO. This would require ⅔ majority to pass.
8. To help correct the voting imbalance between students and crowdfund contributors, all current students will be added by the current president to a whitelist to give them 100x the voting power. This whitelist will be updated every semester.

Creating Proposals and Voting

1. Assets in the Lion DAO treasury and delegated voting rights for various protocols will be held by a Gnosis Safe multisig (0xdD24e3EBbB0c326D95c8e4Af31Df3cB9022537e5) with the following signatories: current President Caleb Kauppien, former President Noel Turlington, Vice President Jamin Feng, Treasurer Ji-hoon (Ryu), and Vice President Rutvik Rau. This list is subject to expansion, with a cap of 7 people. New multisig signatories will be nominated by the existing signatories and confirmed by Lion DAO members.
2. While our treasury will be primarily denominated in ETH (and stETH), we will allocate a portion (as determined by governance on a semester basis) to be diversified into other crypto assets and keep at least 10% in stablecoins.

Leadership

1. The board of Lion DAO is composed of a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Director of Education, Director of Marketing, and Director of Events. There is also a possibility for two Co-Presidents and no Vice President subject to their relative commitments.
2. Lion DAO Board Responsibilities
   1. Act as the public face of Lion DAO, responsible for creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with other student organizations/DAOs, other DAOs, crypto projects, non-profits, etc.
   2. Lead bi-weekly board meetings, focusing on our main event for the semester, smaller weekly speaker events, and the responsibilities of other board members described below and officers.
   3. Lead weekly community calls on Discord or Twitter Spaces, open to DAO members and anyone interested in learning more about Lion DAO.
   4. Lead our annual fall Ledgerfest conference and spring LionHack hackathon through appropriate handling and delegation of tasks, including but not limited to: securing speakers, sponsorships, website development, physical/online spaces, amenities, catering, etc.
   5. Lead Lion DAO’s participation in other DAOs governance.
   6. Lead Lion DAO governance with the vice-president.

3. There should be at least 1 community call per proposal organized on Twitter Spaces or in our discord.
4. Voting periods should last at least a week to give the proposer adequate time to advertise the proposal, and discuss and engage with other members of the DAO.
5. Proposals should be for important decisions like treasury expenditure/diversification, grant allocation, etc.
6. Ideally, most proposals should include multiple alternatives to what is being proposed (i.e., not single choice voting) to make governance as productive as possible: i.e., not just purely yes or no votes.
7. A minimum of 20% of all LION holders need to vote for the vote to be considered valid and a majority of the voting holders is required for any proposal to pass. One exception is if there is a vote to dissolve the DAO. This would require ⅔ majority to pass.
8. To help correct the voting imbalance between students and crowdfund contributors, all current students will be added by the current president to a whitelist to give them 100x the voting power. This whitelist will be updated every semester.

Blockchain At Columbia INC 990 Annual Reports