Project Updates: gov/acc (Accelerating Governance Innovation in Web3) - January 2026
Research Director Eugene Leventhal is leading a new project mapping active governance problems and potential solutions (theoretical or experiments) in Web 3 and beyond.
gov/acc kickoff call!
Last Tuesday, Jan 27th was the official kickoff of the gov/acc (Accelerating Governance Innovation in Web3) project led by Metagov Research Director Eugene Leventhal. If you missed the kickoff call, you can watch it back here!
This livestream provided an overview of the initial activities for the gov/acc research program.
Eugene from Octant and Metagov outlined the general roadmap for gov/acc between now and EthCC (The Ethereum Community Conference on March 30th-April 2nd, 2026).
Artem Zhiganov from Harmonica introduced their tool and the specific session to start capturing data for this research program.
Martin Karlsson from Coordination.Network discussed the mapping infrastructure that will lead to the project’s leaderboard.
Spencer Saar Cavanaugh from OpenCivics presented the initial website they are building for the project.
The next discussion will be a Twitter/X Space on Fri, Feb 6th at 11a EST.
Special thanks to Metagov and Octant for their funding support in getting gov/acc off the ground!
What is gov/acc exactly?
You can read the full blog post introduction but the tldr is that gov/acc (governance acceleration) is a time-bound research program that showcases how and where decentralized governance can help achieve a community’s goals. It is a focused effort to coordinate research, experimentation, implementation, and knowledge-building around decentralized governance between now and Devcon 2026.
The name is a spinoff of a philosophy coined by Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, called d/acc or “Defensive (or decentralization, or differential) acceleration.” The quick summary is that d/acc is a balanced approach to technological development between panic-driven technological stagnation and unrestrained, elitist accelerationism.
In his own blog post, Eugene writes on the relationship between Buterin’s d/acc and the project of gov/acc:
"I see gov/acc as a subset of the d/acc movement. To achieve the vision Vitalik articulates — where defensive, decentralized, and democratic technologies help humanity flourish — we need to accelerate the tools and processes that improve governance, as well as the culture and desire to engage in the communities we care about most actively.”
The gov/acc project is planning to host workshops around major ecosystem gatherings, as well as some academic conferences, include, but are not limited to:
ETHcc (March 30-April 2, 2026)
DAWO (July 6–7, 2026)
Stanford’s Science of Blockchain Conference (July 27–29, 2026)
Devcon Mumbai (November 2026)
So if you’re going to be at any of these events, be sure to connect with Eugene!
How to get involved
There is a “Gov Geeks” Telegram channel where web 3 governance folks are connecting and coordinating around these research projects. We recommend jumping in there and catching yourself up on some of the latest messages before introducing yourself and then asking where and how you can get involved. You can also reach Eugene by direct messaging him on the Metagov Slack, which you can access by filling out our community Typeform.
If you’re a decision-maker on a web 3 project that wants to:
Run governance experiments
Commit to progressive decentralization
Improve your existing governance systems
→ Reach out to coordinate experimentation and share learnings!
If you’re looking for governance talent:
Let Eugene know, and he can connect you with excellent researchers and practitioner (he’s building a network of people who want to work on these problems full-time) 💪🏽💥
If you’re a researcher or practitioner interested in:
Collaborating on governance research
Consulting with communities on governance design
Coordinating experiments across multiple ecosystems
→ Join the “Gov Geeks” Telegram channel and/or Metagov community
If you’re building governance tools:
Let’s coordinate to ensure we’re solving real problems
Help us map the tooling landscape
Connect with communities ready to experiment
For the Meme: Spread the Culture
Create and share gov/acc memes that make governance feel exciting, not boring
Learn and teach about governance mechanisms and why they matter
Make art that visualizes coordination challenges and solutions
Build tools that support experimentation and implementation of impactful tools
Signal your support by adopting gov/acc in your bio, posts, or projects
If this resonates with you in any way — whether you have general thoughts, see specific collaboration opportunities, or want to chat — please reach out. The only way we make progress is by working together.
Some More Research Updates from Eugene
Eugene also leads Metagov’s Grants Innovation Lab (GIL), which is a collective dedicated to advancing the effectiveness of grant programs (in Web 3 and beyond), exploring topics such as operations, mechanisms, decentralization, transparency, and impact measurement, amongst others.
Last summer, senior Researcher at Metagov Mike Cooper published & distributed The Web3 Grant Impact Handbook, designed to standardize and professionalize how Web3 ecosystems plan, implement, and evaluate grant programs. It emphasizes evidence-based, transparent, and decentralized approaches to funding aimed at building resilient and public-good-oriented blockchain communities.
And lastly, if you haven’t yet listened to Eugene’s new Governance Futures Podcast… you mustttt 🔥🔥🔥 The podcast is co-hosted with Jamilya Kamalova (PhD Researcher on all things Blockchain, Governance & Dispute Resolution) and it explores how governance works (and fails) in Web3 and beyond.
“From DAOs to ancient constitutions, Wikipedia mods to protocol politics, we talk with builders, researchers, organizers, and rebels who are shaping how power is distributed - and who gets to decide.”
If you need a starting point, I recommend the episode with Amber Case, another Metagov Research Director and Founder of the Calm Tech Institute (about which we wrote our last project updates newsletter 👀 … icymi).
Eugene and Jamilya are currently working on Season 2, which will include 6 episodes focused on deliberation and democratic technology—including an interview with Metagov’s very own Executive Director, leader of the Interoperable Deliberative Tools project, and expert in international deliberative technology, Liz Barry. We can’t wait to learn more from these deeply insightful conversations. Thank you Eugene and Jamilya for this gift to the governance research world!! 🌐
Brilliant framework connecting d/acc principles to governance mechanics. The time-bound approachuntil Devcon is smart because it creates natural urgency around experimentation. I've seen too many governance research projects drift into endless theorizing, but mapping specific problems against real-world DAOs at upcoming conferences keeps this grounded. The leaderboard idea is particualrly interesting for showing what actually works.