arXiv subjects

Thomas Lloyd

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Lloyd.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Mapping Partisan Fault Lines Within DAOs

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAO) can fragment when partisan communities emerge within their governance structures, leading to organisational splits known as "forks". We present a method to detect these emerging communities by analysing on-chain voting behaviour before fragmentation occurs. Our approach extracts voting events from governance smart contracts, constructs voter matrices encoding participation patterns, and applies pairwise dissimilarity analysis to quantify ideological divergence between addresses. We visualise these relationships using multidimensional scaling and identify partisan communities through k-means clustering with silhouette score optimisation. Using Nouns DAO as a case study, a protocol that has experienced multiple documented forks, we demonstrate that addresses destined to fork cluster together months before actual fragmentation events. Our analysis of 330 proposals spanning from contract deployment to the first major fork shows that 90% of fork addresses cluster together in the final 44 proposals, compared to only 47% in randomised data. These results indicate that partisan communities can be detected and visualised through on-chain governance analysis, offering early warnings of emerging divisions before they cause organisational fragmentation.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

The On-Chain and Off-Chain Mechanisms of DAO-to-DAO Voting

Voting is the primary mechanism through which Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) reach decisions. Although transparent, the voting process can be opaque: it can involve many interacting smart contracts. The nexus of the decision-making process can be relocated and the true voter demographic obfuscated. DAOs can also govern other DAOs, a process known as metagovernance. We present a method for identifying DAO-to-DAO metagovernance on the Ethereum blockchain. We focus on the links between DAOs and token contracts. We use a signature-matching algorithm to handle a variety of DAO frameworks and voting schemes. Once we establish token-to-DAO relationships, we gather and process voting data to produce a list of metagovernance relationships. We apply this algorithm to an initial set of sixteen DAOs and we extend the dataset as more DAOs are identified. We produce a metagovernance network with 61 DAOs and 72 metagovernance relationships. We examine three case studies that show metagovernance of various forms: strategic, decisive, and nexus, where a DAO becomes a governance hub for multiple other DAOs. We demonstrate that metagovernance obscures voting context and introduces entities driven by self-interest that can significantly influence governance. We highlight instances of metagovernance between DAOs operating on the Ethereum blockchain where current governance tools fail to reveal such dynamics. Better tools are needed to preserve the transparency-centric ethos of DAOs and mitigate risks associated with metagovernance.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

Do Distributional Concerns Justify Lower Environmental Taxes?

How should taxes on externality-generating activities be adjusted if they are regressive? In our model, the government raises revenue using distortionary income and commodity taxes. If more or less productive people have identical tastes for externality-generating consumption, the government optimally imposes a Pigouvian tax equal to the marginal damage from the externality. This is true regardless of whether the tax is regressive. But, if regressivity reflects different preferences of people with different incomes rather than solely income effects, the optimal tax differs from the Pigouvian benchmark. We derive sufficient statistics for optimal policy, and use them to study carbon taxation in the United States. Our empirical results suggest an optimal carbon tax that is remarkably close to the Pigouvian level, but with higher carbon taxes for very high-income households if this is feasible. When we allow for heterogeneity in preferences at each income level as well as across the income distribution, our optimal tax schedules are further attenuated toward the Pigouvian benchmark.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2024

Token Composition: A Graph Based on EVM Logs

Tokens have proliferated across blockchains in terms of number, market capitalisation, and utility. Some tokens are tokenised versions of existing tokens, known variously as wrapped tokens, fractional tokens or shares. The repeated application of this process creates tokens with arbitrarily many layers of composition. We perform an empirical analysis of token composition on the Ethereum blockchain. We introduce a graph that represents the tokenisation of tokens by other tokens, and we show that the graph contains non-trivial topological structure. We relate properties of the graph, for example, connected components and cyclic structure, to the tokenisation process. For example, we identify the longest directed path and its corresponding sequence of tokens, and we visualise the connected components relating to a stablecoin and a non-fungible token protocol. Our goal is to explore and visualise what has been built with tokens, rather than propose new constructions.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2023

Emergent Outcomes of the veToken Model

Decentralised organisations use blockchains for governance: on-chain transactions allocate voting weight, publish proposals, cast votes, and enact the results. A key challenge is aligning the short-term outlook of pseudonymous voters with the long-term success of the organisation. The Vote-Escrowed Token (veToken) model attempts to resolve this tension by requiring voters to lock tokens of value for an extended period in exchange for voting weight. In this paper we describe the veToken model and analyse its emergent outcomes. We describe its implementation by Curve, a popular automated market maker for stablecoins, and the ecosystem of protocols built on top. We show that voting outcomes are strongly associated with the bribes set by higher-level protocols, and that the cost per vote varies depending on how it is acquired. The outcomes of the fortnightly votes held by Convex Finance closely track the distribution of bribes through voting markets such as Votium. Frax Finance, a stablecoin issuer, plays a central role even though it directly locks relatively few tokens with Curve; instead, it indirectly locks tokens through yield aggregators and purchases voting weight through voting markets. Although the veToken model in isolation is straightforward, it leads to complex and emergent outcomes. Decentralised organisations should consider these outcomes before adopting the model.

cs.GT↗

arXiv2014

The complete worldsheet S matrix of superstrings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 with mixed three-form flux

We determine the off-shell symmetry algebra and representations of Type IIB superstring theory on $AdS_3\times S^3 \times T^4$ with mixed R-R and NS-NS three-form flux. We use these to derive the non-perturbative worldsheet S matrix of fundamental excitations of the superstring theory. Our analysis includes both massive and massless modes and shows how turning on mixed three-form flux results in an integrable deformation of the S matrix of the pure R-R theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

$AdS_3/CFT_2$, finite-gap equations and massless modes

It is known that string theory on $AdS_3\times M_7$ backgrounds preserving 16 supercharges is classically integrable. This integrability has been previously used to write down a set of integral equations, known as the finite-gap equations. These equations can be solved for the closed string spectrum of the theory. However, it has been known for some time that the $AdS_3\times M_7$ finite-gap equations do not capture the dynamics of the massless modes of the closed string theory. In this paper we re-examine the derivation of the $AdS_3\times M_7$ finite-gap system. We find that the conditions that had previously been imposed on these integral equations in order to implement the Virasoro constraints are too strict, and are in fact not required. We identify the correct implementation of the Virasoro constraints on finite-gap equations and show that this new, less restrictive condition captures the complete closed string spectrum on $AdS_3\times M_7$.

hep-th↗