Technical Documentation

This section provides a deep dive into the technical foundation of Builder DAOs, including smart contract architecture, developer tools, and supported infrastructure. Whether you’re customizing your DAO, integrating it with other applications, or simply learning how it works under the hood, this guide will help you get started.

🔗 Smart Contract Reference

Core Contracts and Interfaces

The Nouns Builder Protocol is made up of modular, upgradeable contracts designed to work together to create and manage fully onchain DAOs.

Key contracts:

Auction: Handles token auctions, bidding logic, and minting of new governance tokens.
Token: ERC-721 (NFT) or ERC-20 (fungible) token contract representing DAO membership and voting power.
Governor: Manages proposals, voting logic, and execution of onchain actions.
Treasury: Holds ETH or other native tokens for the DAO and executes approved spending.
Metadata Renderer: Controls how token metadata is rendered (e.g., static art, generative logic).

Standard interfaces include:

IAuction
IGovernor
IToken
IMetadataRenderer

These follow common patterns established by Nouns DAO and OpenZeppelin standards for interoperability.

Upgrade Paths and Governance Hooks

The protocol is upgradeable using proxy contracts (via OpenZeppelin’s UUPS or Transparent proxies), allowing Builder DAOs to evolve over time.

Upgrade mechanics:

Proposals can include contract upgrades by specifying new implementation addresses.
DAOs must hold sufficient voting power and pass the proposal onchain.
Upgrades affect logic contracts but preserve storage and state via the proxy.

Governance hooks are extension points for advanced functionality:

Proposal execution hooks
Auction settlement hooks
Metadata customization and trait updates

These allow power users to inject custom logic or bridge to external contracts.

📊 Subgraph and APIs

Using the Builder Subgraph

The protocol provides a GraphQL subgraph that indexes onchain events such as:

New auctions
Proposal lifecycle events
Treasury transfers
Token mints

Example query: Fetch latest auctions

graphql
CopyEdit
{
  auctions(first: 5, orderBy: startTime, orderDirection: desc) {
    id
    startTime
    endTime
    highestBid
  }
}

REST and GraphQL APIs Available

While the subgraph is the primary source of indexed data, DAOs and developers can also use:

Builder REST API (coming soon): Useful for integration with low-code platforms and mobile apps.
GraphQL API: Preferred for web interfaces and data dashboards.
Onchain reads: For real-time, trustless data via JSON-RPC (e.g., eth_call).

🚀 Deployment Details

Supported Chains

Builder DAOs can be deployed on any EVM-compatible chain. Official support currently includes:

Ethereum Mainnet
Optimism
Base
Arbitrum One
Zora Network

Testnets:

Optimism Goerli
Base Sepolia

Chain selection affects gas costs, UX, and community reach. Most DAOs currently launch on low-cost L2s like Base or Optimism.

[INSERT IMAGE: Table showing chain names, explorer links, and deployment stats]

Gas and Cost Considerations

Key cost components:

DAO Deployment: ~0.1–0.2 ETH (varies by chain)
Auction Bids: Transaction fees per bid and settlement
Proposal Actions: Voting and execution transactions
Metadata Rendering: If using generative or dynamic logic

Tips to save gas:

Launch on a Layer 2 like Base
Use static metadata rendering
Minimize external calls in proposals