“DAOs thrive where participation meets purpose and the Lisk DAO Quest was a step in that direction.”

Season 1 of the Lisk DAO Quest has officially wrapped, leaving behind new DAO contributors, deepened governance knowledge, and a few important lessons for the future.

As one of the 159 participants, I had a front-row seat to the experience and this article aims to honestly reflect on what worked, what could improve, and why this Quest mattered.

At its core, the Lisk DAO Quest was an experimental, gamified onboarding campaign designed to educate, activate, and reward contributors. Hosted primarily on Zealy, it offered tasks that taught users about the DAO while awarding XP (experience points) for each completed challenge.

• Joining the Lisk DAO Forum

• Reading and understanding Lisk DAO documentation

• Staking LSK and delegating voting power

• Proposing improvements through governance case studies

• Recommending DAO tools for smoother operations

• Identifying top delegates within the ecosystem

• Inviting others into the DAO journey

Each of these quests wasn’t just click-to-complete they required thought, engagement, and, in many cases, onchain action.

In a space where onboarding is often fragmented or overly technical, this Quest stood out for its structure, progression, and sense of direction.

With 159 participants many of whom were new to Lisk the Quest succeeded in growing the DAO’s contributor base, and introducing them to governance mechanics through action, not just theory.

By actions like staking and delegation, the Quest helped more users become active stakeholders, not just spectators. That’s a win for decentralization.

The tasks weren’t just about doing they were about thinking with quizzes after some tasks ensuring that participants actually understood every step of the way. Challenges like governance case studies and tooling suggestions encouraged contributors to examine the DAO’s systems and make real suggestions.

38 winners were selected through a mix of:

• Milestone completions (e.g., first to reach 5 XP, 50 XP, etc.)

• Top 5 leaderboard rankings

• Special contributor selections

• Transparent raffle entries based on XP

DAO Drops included NFTs, tokens, merch, and other community perks, a nice incentive layer that made participation feel recognized.

Despite the many wins, there were critical inconsistencies that surfaced after the drop announcement:

Participants who were the first to reach specific XP milestones were promised DAO Drops. But in some cases:

• Users who should have qualified (like BigCrypto at 555 XP and Whi at 175 XP) were not selected.

• Instead, users below them on the XP leaderboard were announced as winners.

This indicated possible misalignment in data tracking or selection execution.

Although Top 5 contributors was announced to be selected, research into selected winners showed the top 12 contributors were selected to receive DAO Drops, there were unexplained omissions:

• Maziofweb3, who ranked #6, was missing from the winner’s list sparking concerns about accuracy.

The Quest team later clarified:

“Snapshot was taken the same day the other tasks disappeared. We didn’t anticipate that the Zealy leaderboard would continue to change based on the last two tasks.”

This suggests that a snapshot was taken before final XP changes which were simply drop claim tasks were locked meaning the published leaderboard on Zealy may have differed from the internal one used for selection.

While raffle winners were chosen “randomly,” the actual raffle tool or logic was not disclosed. No on-chain proof, no public seed, no audit trail.

This lack of transparency leaves participants unable to verify fairness especially when some low-XP participants won, while highly active contributors didn’t.

Find Lisk Dao Drop Winners Lisk here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UsLUqf38VyaXBjJkPc4fUfCwUDplOg095zAWH8oV-zY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

If the Lisk DAO continues to run seasonal quests (which it absolutely should), here are some ways to strengthen the integrity of the process:

Give participants a clear end-date and time when XP will be frozen then publish the snapshot so it’s fully auditable.

For raffle winners, use tools like Chainlink VRF or open-source scripts that allow anyone to verify how winners were chosen.

Show how each winner was selected whether through a milestone, leaderboard, or raffle to eliminate ambiguity.

Participants who completed a few tasks early without continuation were sometimes rewarded over those who contributed more consistently. A weighted system could solve this, one that rewards both early effort and long-term engagement.

The Lisk DAO Quest was a bold and meaningful experiment and like all experiments, it came with both value and variance.

But let’s be clear: it worked. It activated contributors. It deepened understanding. It brought people in. And it started conversations that matter.

Now, the DAO has the opportunity to iterate, improve, and turn these learnings into even more inclusive, transparent systems that empower the next 500 contributors, not just 159.

Kudos to the Lisk DAO team and community stewards who made Season 1 possible. And to the participants, this was just the beginning.

Want to get involved in shaping Season 2? Join the Lisk DAO Forum, stake your LSK, and let your ideas ripple into reality.

“DAOs thrive where participation meets purpose and the Lisk DAO Quest was a step in that direction.”

Season 1 of the Lisk DAO Quest has officially wrapped, leaving behind new DAO contributors, deepened governance knowledge, and a few important lessons for the future.

As one of the 159 participants, I had a front-row seat to the experience and this article aims to honestly reflect on what worked, what could improve, and why this Quest mattered.

At its core, the Lisk DAO Quest was an experimental, gamified onboarding campaign designed to educate, activate, and reward contributors. Hosted primarily on Zealy, it offered tasks that taught users about the DAO while awarding XP (experience points) for each completed challenge.

• Joining the Lisk DAO Forum

• Reading and understanding Lisk DAO documentation

• Staking LSK and delegating voting power

• Proposing improvements through governance case studies

• Recommending DAO tools for smoother operations

• Identifying top delegates within the ecosystem

• Inviting others into the DAO journey

Each of these quests wasn’t just click-to-complete they required thought, engagement, and, in many cases, onchain action.

In a space where onboarding is often fragmented or overly technical, this Quest stood out for its structure, progression, and sense of direction.

With 159 participants many of whom were new to Lisk the Quest succeeded in growing the DAO’s contributor base, and introducing them to governance mechanics through action, not just theory.

By actions like staking and delegation, the Quest helped more users become active stakeholders, not just spectators. That’s a win for decentralization.

The tasks weren’t just about doing they were about thinking with quizzes after some tasks ensuring that participants actually understood every step of the way. Challenges like governance case studies and tooling suggestions encouraged contributors to examine the DAO’s systems and make real suggestions.

38 winners were selected through a mix of:

• Milestone completions (e.g., first to reach 5 XP, 50 XP, etc.)

• Top 5 leaderboard rankings

• Special contributor selections

• Transparent raffle entries based on XP

DAO Drops included NFTs, tokens, merch, and other community perks, a nice incentive layer that made participation feel recognized.

Despite the many wins, there were critical inconsistencies that surfaced after the drop announcement:

Participants who were the first to reach specific XP milestones were promised DAO Drops. But in some cases:

• Users who should have qualified (like BigCrypto at 555 XP and Whi at 175 XP) were not selected.

• Instead, users below them on the XP leaderboard were announced as winners.

This indicated possible misalignment in data tracking or selection execution.

Although Top 5 contributors was announced to be selected, research into selected winners showed the top 12 contributors were selected to receive DAO Drops, there were unexplained omissions:

• Maziofweb3, who ranked #6, was missing from the winner’s list sparking concerns about accuracy.

The Quest team later clarified:

“Snapshot was taken the same day the other tasks disappeared. We didn’t anticipate that the Zealy leaderboard would continue to change based on the last two tasks.”

This suggests that a snapshot was taken before final XP changes which were simply drop claim tasks were locked meaning the published leaderboard on Zealy may have differed from the internal one used for selection.

While raffle winners were chosen “randomly,” the actual raffle tool or logic was not disclosed. No on-chain proof, no public seed, no audit trail.

This lack of transparency leaves participants unable to verify fairness especially when some low-XP participants won, while highly active contributors didn’t.

Find Lisk Dao Drop Winners Lisk here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UsLUqf38VyaXBjJkPc4fUfCwUDplOg095zAWH8oV-zY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

If the Lisk DAO continues to run seasonal quests (which it absolutely should), here are some ways to strengthen the integrity of the process:

Give participants a clear end-date and time when XP will be frozen then publish the snapshot so it’s fully auditable.

For raffle winners, use tools like Chainlink VRF or open-source scripts that allow anyone to verify how winners were chosen.

Show how each winner was selected whether through a milestone, leaderboard, or raffle to eliminate ambiguity.

Participants who completed a few tasks early without continuation were sometimes rewarded over those who contributed more consistently. A weighted system could solve this, one that rewards both early effort and long-term engagement.

The Lisk DAO Quest was a bold and meaningful experiment and like all experiments, it came with both value and variance.

But let’s be clear: it worked. It activated contributors. It deepened understanding. It brought people in. And it started conversations that matter.

Now, the DAO has the opportunity to iterate, improve, and turn these learnings into even more inclusive, transparent systems that empower the next 500 contributors, not just 159.

Kudos to the Lisk DAO team and community stewards who made Season 1 possible. And to the participants, this was just the beginning.

Want to get involved in shaping Season 2? Join the Lisk DAO Forum, stake your LSK, and let your ideas ripple into reality.