ZooDAO: NFT-driven Decentralized Autonomous Organization

What is ZooDAO

Friends, imagine you own a very rare card, like a limited edition sports card or a unique piece of art. You love it, but apart from collecting and displaying it, what practical benefits can it bring you? The ZooDAO (ZOO for short) project is like a magical “zoo arena” created to solve this very problem. It brings your digital collectibles—what we commonly call NFTs (non-fungible tokens, which you can think of as unique digital assets on the blockchain)—into a fun game, allowing them to “earn money” for you!

Simply put, ZooDAO is a platform that combines DeFi (decentralized finance, which you can think of as financial services without banks) and NFTs. Its core feature is “no-loss NFT battles.” This means you can put your precious NFTs into this arena to participate in a special competition, without worrying about losing your NFT itself.

In this arena, your NFT will “battle” against other people’s NFTs. But it’s not a real fight—it’s a competition about “returns.” Community members use cryptocurrency (such as DAI, a stablecoin) to vote for the NFT they support, and these voting funds are put into other DeFi protocols by ZooDAO’s smart contracts (think of these as automatically executed blockchain programs) to earn yield. After the battle ends, the winning NFT not only gets the yield it generated, but also a share of the opponent’s yield. Even the “losing” NFT doesn’t lose its principal—just the chance to win extra returns.

So, ZooDAO’s target users are those who own NFTs and want to generate extra value from them in a fun and low-risk way, as well as users interested in DeFi who want to participate in the NFT ecosystem.

Project Vision and Value Proposition

ZooDAO’s vision is to give NFTs deeper meaning and utility. It aims to break the limitation of NFTs as mere collectibles, allowing them to become tools for generating passive income.

The core problem it wants to solve is: how can NFT holders earn returns from their beloved collectibles without selling them? At the same time, it hopes to lower the barrier to DeFi, making it easy for people without technical backgrounds to participate and enjoy the benefits of DeFi.

ZooDAO’s value proposition lies in its “no-loss” feature and “gamified” experience. It’s like a “playground for digital assets,” where you can have fun while letting your digital assets work for you, without worrying about losing your principal.

Compared to similar projects, ZooDAO’s uniqueness is in integrating the social attributes of NFTs and the power of the community into DeFi yield generation. Instead of simply offering NFT staking for returns, it adds interactivity and fun through community voting and “battles,” making the whole process more like a game.

Technical Features

ZooDAO integrates several mature blockchain tools and protocols to ensure the project’s security, fairness, and efficiency:

• Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO): ZooDAO is a community-driven project that uses the Aragon platform to build its DAO. You can think of a DAO as a company managed collectively by community members, who vote to decide the project’s future. Aragon provides tools to make this decentralized governance more transparent and fair.
• Fairness Assurance: In NFT battles, to ensure randomness and fairness of results, ZooDAO integrates Chainlink’s VRF (Verifiable Random Function). It’s like inviting an impartial referee to ensure every match’s randomness is real and verifiable, so no one can cheat.
• Yield Generation: ZooDAO doesn’t generate yield itself, but invests users’ voting funds into other mature DeFi protocols to earn returns. Currently, it integrates Yearn.Finance, Abracadabra, and GMX—well-known yield aggregators or trading platforms in DeFi that can provide organic returns for users.
• Multi-chain Support: ZooDAO’s token ZOO was initially issued on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, but it also supports other blockchain networks like Arbitrum, Fantom, and Moonbeam. This means it can operate and interact across different blockchain ecosystems.

Tokenomics

The core of the ZooDAO project is its native utility token—$ZOO.

• Token Symbol and Issuance Chain: $ZOO, an ERC-20 token, mainly runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Total Supply and Issuance Mechanism: $ZOO has a fixed total supply of 100 million tokens. This means no new $ZOO tokens will be minted arbitrarily unless approved by a community governance vote of $ZOO holders. This mechanism helps prevent token value dilution.
• Inflation/Burn Mechanism: $ZOO is a deflationary token. In NFT battles, there is a 0.5% burn mechanism, meaning a small portion of $ZOO tokens is destroyed in each battle, making $ZOO increasingly scarce.
• Token Utility:
  • Governance: Holding $ZOO tokens is key to participating in ZooDAO community governance. You can use them to vote on the project’s future direction and major decisions.
  • Rewards: $ZOO tokens are also used to reward users who participate in ZooDAO NFT battles, incentivizing active participation in the ecosystem.
  • Enhanced User Experience: While holding $ZOO is not mandatory for participating in NFT battles (you can vote with DAI), it enhances the user experience and may bring additional rewards.
• Token Allocation and Unlock Information:
  • Over 50% of the 100 million $ZOO tokens are allocated to the community.
  • Early backers purchased 9 million $ZOO (9% of total supply) at $0.028 in Q4 2021, with a 10-month lockup after TGE (Token Generation Event).
  • IDO (Initial DEX Offering) took place in Q1 2022, selling 2 million $ZOO (2% of total supply) at $0.2, with a 20-day lockup.
  • LBP (Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool) was held on February 25, 2022, selling 859,000 $ZOO (0.86% of total supply) at $0.22, with no lockup.
  • TGE was completed on March 18, 2022.

Team, Governance, and Funding

ZooDAO is a project that emphasizes community-driven and decentralized governance.

• Team Features: While specific team member information is not commonly found in public sources, the project emphasizes the team’s commitment to building an ecosystem where NFT holders can earn passive income from their NFTs through project-agnostic solutions.
• Governance Mechanism: The project is governed via DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), meaning $ZOO token holders can vote to influence project decisions and development direction.
• Treasury and Funding: The project raised funds through early whitelist sales, IDO, and LBP. For example, the IDO raised $400,000 in DAI, used to support team HR costs, security audits, and marketing. Whitelist sale funds were also deposited into the ZooDAO treasury for team expansion, security audits, and marketing.

Roadmap

Based on available information, ZooDAO’s development history and future plans can be summarized as follows:

• Q4 2021: Early backer private round, raised $250,000.
• December 2021: Whitelist event to reward early community contributors and prepare for IDO.
• Q1 2022: IDO (Initial DEX Offering), raised $400,000.
• February 25, 2022: Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP), raised $191,000.
• March 18, 2022: TGE (Token Generation Event) successfully completed.
• August 2023: Released V1 version and improved V0 version.
• March 2024: Launched ZooDAO V2, aiming to “make DeFi simple again.”
• April 22024: Held weekly trading competitions with 200,000 $ZOO rewards.

For specific future plans, refer to the latest official announcements. The release of V2 shows the project is still iterating and optimizing its platform, committed to simplifying the DeFi experience.

Common Risk Reminders

Investing in any cryptocurrency project comes with risks, and ZooDAO is no exception. Here are some common risk reminders:

• Technical and Security Risks:
  • Smart Contract Vulnerabilities: Although the project mentions security audits, smart contracts may still have undiscovered vulnerabilities that could lead to loss of funds.
  • Platform Stability: As a DeFi platform, its operation depends on the stability of underlying blockchains and integrated protocols. Any technical failure could affect user experience and asset security.
• Economic Risks:
  • Token Price Volatility: $ZOO token price is affected by market supply and demand, overall crypto market sentiment, project development, and other factors. Volatility can be high, with risk of principal loss.
  • Liquidity Risk: According to CoinCarp and Coinbase, $ZOO token currently has limited trading data on major crypto exchanges and may not be listed yet, which could lead to insufficient liquidity and difficulty buying or selling.
  • Yield Uncertainty: NFT battle yields depend on actual returns from DeFi protocols and battle outcomes. Returns are not fixed and are uncertain.
• Compliance and Operational Risks:
  • Regulatory Uncertainty: Global regulatory policies for cryptocurrencies and DeFi are still evolving. Future policy changes may impact project operations.
  • Community Governance Risk: While DAO governance aims for decentralization, low community participation or malicious proposals could negatively affect project development.

Please note: The above information does not constitute investment advice. Always conduct thorough due diligence and consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Verification Checklist

To further understand the ZooDAO project, you can verify and research through the following methods:

• Block Explorer Contract Addresses:
  • Ethereum (ERC-20):
    0x09F098B155D561Fc9F7BcCc97038b7e3d20bAF74
  • Arbitrum:
    0x1689A6E1f09658FF37d0bB131514E701045876dA
  • Fantom:
    0x1ac0c9592E2480649e9471c1548F60564b37a46B
  • Moonbeam:
    0x7cd3...0ec5
    (partial address)

  You can copy these addresses into Etherscan, Arbiscan, etc. to view token holder distribution, transaction history, and more.

• GitHub Activity:

  Although search results mention GitHub, direct information about ZooDAO’s active code repositories is unclear. It’s recommended to visit its official website or links provided in Medium articles to find its official GitHub repository, and check code update frequency, number of contributors, etc., to assess development activity. Be sure to distinguish “ZooDAO” from similarly named but possibly unrelated projects like “ZeroDAO” or “Zuodao.”

• Official Website and Social Media:

  Visit ZooDAO’s official website (zoodao.com), and its official accounts on Medium, Twitter, Discord, Telegram, etc., for the latest announcements, project updates, and community discussions.

• Audit Reports:

  The project mentioned three audits (two internal, one external). Look for and read these audit reports to understand the security status of the smart contracts.

Project Summary

ZooDAO is a blockchain project dedicated to bringing more practical value to NFTs. Through its innovative “no-loss NFT battle” model, it combines NFTs with DeFi yield generation, providing users with a gamified and risk-controlled platform that allows NFT holders to earn potential returns without giving up their collectibles. The project uses Aragon for decentralized governance, Chainlink VRF for fairness, and partners with mature DeFi protocols like Yearn.Finance for yield generation. Its native token $ZOO has a fixed supply and deflationary mechanism, used for governance and rewards. Despite its technical integration and innovative model, as an emerging crypto project, it faces challenges such as token price volatility, insufficient liquidity, and potential technical security risks. Interested friends are advised to study its whitepaper, audit reports, and community updates in depth before deciding if it matches your risk appetite. Remember, this is not investment advice—the cryptocurrency market is highly risky, so please be cautious.