19 min read • Published on 25 May 2024

Governance Review #18

Avatar of Anastassis Oikonomopoulos

Anastassis Oikonomopoulos

Governance Representative

The theme of the week is on-chain governance! Multiple proposals from several protocols are going through the on-chain vote phase of their respective governance process.

Governance Review #18 publication thumbnail

Optimism

Optimism is moving full-steam ahead towards Season 6, with 8 on-chain votes currently active. Most notable of them all is Protocol Upgrade #7 which will introduce a permissionless fault proof system. That, combined with Protocol Upgrade #8 proposal that seeks to increase the Security Council threshold from 4/13 to 10/13, are the first steps towards Optimism being a Stage 1 rollup according to our (L2BEAT’s) Stages framework.

Vote - Protocol Upgrade #7: Fault Proofs

Adrian, a protocol engineer at OP Labs submitted a proposal for a protocol upgrade that reduces the trust assumptions for users of OP Mainnet by enabling permissionless output proposals and a permissionless fault-proof system. Withdrawals will no longer rely on a privileged proposer, allowing the process to be completed without any privileged actions.

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 7:05 pm UTC.

Vote - Protocol Upgrade #8: Changes for Stage 1 Decentralization

Maurelian, a protocol security engineer at OP Labs submitted a proposal for a protocol upgrade that enhances security and decentralization by increasing the Security Council Safe’s signing threshold from 4 to 10 out of 13, reassigning the Guardian role to a new Guardian Safe controlled by the Security Council Safe, and appointing the Foundation as DeputyGuardian.

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 7:05 pm UTC.

Vote - Governor Update Proposal #2: Improvements to advanced delegation allowance calculations

Kent, the CEO of Agora, submitted a proposal for a Governor upgrade that introduces improvements to the Alligator allowance storage system that enabled partial delegation and sub-delegation for OP voters. This update ensures accurate voting power calculation, addressing issues found in advanced delegation.

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 7:05 pm UTC.

Vote - Season 6: Code of Conduct (CoC) Council Renewal

Before reading the proposal for the CoC Council Renewal, it’s advised to read the CoC Rescoping for Season 6. The Token House experimented with a Code of Conduct Council in Season 5. It is now time for delegates to assess whether the Council should be renewed. Delegates may choose to approve an operating budget for the Code of Conduct Council to oversee the Rules of Engagement in Season 6, effectively electing the proposal author as Council Lead. If delegates do not believe an elected Council is necessary to enforce the Rules of Engagement, they should not approve any operating budget for a Code of Conduct Council.

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 7:05 pm UTC.

Vote - Season 6: Intents Ratification

Optimism Foundation published a post to announce the Intents (high-level strategic goals) for Season 6. Contrary to Seasons 4 and 5 where one of the Intents was set by the community, in Season 6, all Intents will be set by the Foundation, which believes has the best insight into the strategic priorities of the broader ecosystem, given the growth of the Superchain.

The Intents proposed by the Foundation and seeking the ratification of the Token House are:

  1. Progress Towards Decentralization
  2. Bring Chains to the Superchain
  3. Grow Application Developers on the Superchain

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 7:05 pm UTC.

Vote - Season 6: Intent Budgets

Following the vote to ratify the Intents set forward by the Foundation, delegates will also have to ratify the respective budget for each Intent in a separate vote. The proposed budget is as follows:

  1. 500,000 OP towards ‘Progress Towards Decentralization’
  2. 18,000,000 OP towards ‘Grow Application Developers on the Superchain’, broken down into:
    1. 6,000,000 OP for grants supporting OP Mainnet
    2. 12,000,000 OP for chain-specific grant programs supporting the Superchain (to be run by these Chains).

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024 at 8:07 pm UTC.

Vote - Season 6: Developer Advisory Board Renewal

After experimenting with a Developer Advisory Board in Season 5, delegates now need to assess whether the Board should be renewed. Delegates may choose to approve an operating budget for the Developer Advisory Board to continue in Season 6. The operating budget with the highest number of “Yes” votes will be approved, electing the proposal author as Council Lead. If delegates do not believe the Developer Advisory Board should continue, they should not approve any operating budget for a Developer Advisory Board.

There are 2 proposed operating budgets for the DAB:

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2042 at 7:54 pm UTC.

Vote - Season 6: Grants Council Operating Budget

The Grants Council plays an important role in the Collective and is assumed to persist each Season. The Token House may vote on a Council Operating Budget, thereby electing the proposal author as Council Lead. Delegates are effectively electing the Council Lead that has authored the approved budget.

There is only one proposal for the Grants Council operating budget by Gonna.eth, with a budget of 610,000 OP. Therefore, delegates are essentially voting to ratify it or not.

The Agora vote ends on May 29 2024, at 7:54 pm UTC.

Retro Funding 4 Applications and App Launch

Optimism Foundation announced that along with Retro Funding 4, they’re launching the Retro Funding App. Applicants to RF4 can use the app to apply using their Farcaster account.

We want to remind everyone that applications to Retro Funding 4 started on the 23rd of May and will be open until June 6th.

Discuss with L2BEAT

We’re happy to discuss all the active votes as well as their implications for the Collective with delegates and other governance participants. Season 6 is set to begin on the 27th of June, giving everyone enough time to understand and digest the recent changes.

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all of the above and more during our Optimism Office Hours every Tuesday at 3 pm UTC.

Arbitrum

There are several proposals up to a vote right now that are very forward-looking in the sense that they’re laying the foundations and making the first steps toward very valuable initiatives that could propel the whole ecosystem years forward: from the Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP), to the M&A Pilot and the Arbitrum Venture Initiative (AVI) Pilot.

On Chain Vote - Pilot Phase: M&A for Arbitrum DAO

The M&A pilot phase proposal is the next step toward the Arbitrum M&A proposal outlining the opportunity for Arbitrum DAO to form an M&A Unit focused on identifying and executing acquisition opportunities. The 8-week pilot phase is designed to provide the DAO with sufficient information to make an informed go/no-go decision regarding the further operationalization of the M&A unit and its funding requirements. Specifically, a dedicated team from Areta will analyze and report on:

  1. The M&A value upside for Arbitrum DAO
  2. Development of strategic areas for the DAO
  3. M&A Target examples

The budget requested for the 8 week period is a total of 52,000 ARB.

The Tally vote ends on June 2 2024 at 10:45 pm UTC.

On Chain Vote - Front-end interface to force transaction inclusion during sequencer downtime

This proposal by WakeUp Labs outlines the development of a simple but effective front-end interface that enables users to force-include transactions directly on L1 when the Arbitrum Sequencer is down, aiming to increase trust among end-users navigating the Arbitrum ecosystem.

The total cost for the development of the interface is 42,500 ARB, with 20% paid at the conclusion of the vote, and the remaining 80% streamed to WakeUp Labs through a Hedgey stream. In the context of ARDC, OpenZeppelin audited the proposal and noted that they do not anticipate any issues to arise from its execution.

The Tally vote ends on June 3 2024 at 6:10 pm UTC.

On Chain Vote - Catalyze Gaming Ecosystem Growth on Arbitrum

Following a successful temp check, the proposal to catalyze gaming ecosystem growth on Arbitrum has now gone for an on-chain vote. The proposal is requesting 200,000,000 ARB from the DAO to be earmarked for expanding the gaming ecosystem on Arbitrum over a three-year period.

The GCP is meant to serve as a catalyst, not a comprehensive program, with a focus on onboarding and supporting high-quality builders. After the rollout of the GCP, the aim is to use its learnings to mature the organization into a longer-term gaming program with a comprehensive approach to game ecosystem growth.

The details of the proposal are too many for the scope of the governance review, but we recommend that you read the full proposal to understand the GCP structure.

The Tally vote ends on June 7 2024 at 3:54 pm UTC.

On Chain Vote - Constitutional AIP - Security Council Improvement Proposal

We (L2BEAT) submitted a constitutional AIP that seeks to propose changes to the structure of the security council so Arbitrum can maintain the “Stage 1” designation as per L2BEAT and not fall back to the “Stage 0” designation. Should the proposal succeed, the associated executable will increase the threshold of the small security council from 7/12 to 9/12, as per the consensus in the temp-check.

The Tally vote ends on June 9 2024 at 1:31 pm UTC.

On Chain Vote - ArbitrumDAO Contribution; Safeguarding Software Developers’ Rights

This proposal envisages a monetary contribution to DEF & Coin Center from the ArbitrumDAO to continue their policy, litigation & advocacy efforts in relation to open-source software & software developers’ rights.

As per the temperature check passed by the ArbitrumDAO on the 24th of April 2024, Coin Center and DeFi Education Fund will receive 500,000 ARB each. The funds will initially be sent to an account controlled by the Arbitrum Foundation which will handle the transfers to Coin Center and DeFi Education Fund.

The Tally vote ends on June 9 2024 at 6:01 pm UTC.

Vote - STIP Bridge Challenges

Delegates had the option to post a Snapshot vote challenging any of the protocols applying to STIP Bridge. Protocols that have been challenged have to go through a vote instead of being optimistically approved, but they can still receive incentives if the respective Snapshot vote concludes in their favor.

There was a total of 18 protocols challenged, 6 of which were automatically challenged because they applied past the application deadline. To help delegates make informed decisions, Blockworks Research, in their capacity as the research member of the ARDC, published accompanying qualitative data for the performance of each challenged protocol during STIP.

There are 18 individual Snapshot votes and each concludes at a slightly different time on May 27 2024.

Temp Check - Arbitrum Multi-sig Support Service (MSS)

Entropy Advisors submitted a proposal that seeks to create a structured multi-sig framework (Multi-sig Support Service, or MSS) to facilitate funded programs within Arbitrum DAO to reduce operational spending and increase proposal efficiency. The MSS will comprise 12 elected individuals to all DAO-funded multi-sigs, 3 of the members will be ‘MSS Chairs’ which will receive higher compensation and additional responsibilities. All MSS signers will be compensated a base USD amount, paid in ARB, for performing these services across the DAO.

The proposed timeframe for the MSS is 1 year, with the total estimated cost being 252,000 ARB. Additionally, the proposal comes with the optional addition of a monthly token flow report (see an example here) by R3gen Finance, which will come at an additional cost of $6650/mo paid in ARB.

The Snapshot vote ends on May 28 2024 at 10:27 am UTC.

Temp Check - Streamlining the LTIPP Bounties

Matt from StableLab submitted a proposal to streamline the LTIPP bounty process, which allocated a maximum of 200,000 ARB for research bounties, allowing the LTIPP council more autonomy in choosing who completes each bounty.

The proposed process is the following:

  • Starting on May 20th, researchers are able to apply for a bounty by submitting an application on the forum.
  • The council and delegates can provide feedback on applications until the application deadline on June 3rd.
  • On June 10th, the council will select which bounties will be funded, and the respective researchers will start their research immediately.\

For more information on the application process, refer to the Bounty Application FAQ.

The Snapshot vote ends on May 29 2024 at 9:30 pm UTC.

Temp Check - Kwenta x Perennial: Arbitrum Onboarding Incentives

Kwenta & Perennial have submitted a joint proposal to request 1.9M ARB to fund targeted onboarding incentives over 3 months to bring Kwenta users to Arbitrum. Kwenta and Perennial have adopted an LTIPP format for their proposal. At the same time, Matt from StableLab and the LTIPP multisig have confirmed that they’ll handle accountability, similar to STIP Bridge.

The Snapshot vote ends on May 31 2024 at 2:02 pm UTC.

[RFC] Pilot Phase: Arbitrum Venture Initiative (AVI)

Lino submitted an RFC that seeks to propose a pilot phase for the AVI with a focus on developing a concrete strategy (thesis) for funds deployment and test cases with allocators (VCs and other programs) while advancing stakeholder alignment. The pilot phase is proposed to run for up to 4 months with a total requested budget of $99,000.

Discuss with L2BEAT

Arbitrum is at an inflection point where the decisions we make today will greatly impact the ecosystem’s future. With that in mind, we’re looking forward to discussing all active proposals and their implications with delegates and other governance participants.

We also want to remind you that, being the DAO Advocate for the ARDC, we’re interested in hearing your feedback on the initiatives the ARDC should be working on to have the biggest positive impact on the DAO.

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all of the above and more during our Arbitrum Office Hours every Thursday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)

Uniswap

Things are slow in Uniswap this week, with the proposal to support DEF going to an on-chain vote, and Uniswap Foundation publishing a summary of their financials.

On Chain Vote - DeFi Education Fund

Following a successful temp check, the proposal to support the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) has moved to an on-chain vote. If the proposal is successful, 500,000 UNI will be transferred to DEF, which will be locked in a streaming contract that would vest over 12 months.

The Tally vote ends on May 29 2024 at 0:55 am UTC.

Uniswap Foundation: Summary Q1’2024 Financials

Nataliara from Uniswap Foundation published a summary of the Foundation’s financials for the first quarter of 2024.

Discuss with L2BEAT

The delegate rewards proposal will soon head to an on-chain vote. If it passes, delegates will be compensated for participation in governance. Given that, we’d love to discuss with other delegates how delegate responsibilities should be affected, and how we can best monitor the effects of the rewards so we can use learnings to iterate in future programs.

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all the above and more during our Uniswap Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)

Hop

Discuss with L2BEAT

We were not aware of any significant governance-related news in Hop over the last week. If you think we have missed something important, please let us know!

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all things Hop during our Hop Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)

Polygon

Discuss with L2BEAT

We were not aware of any significant governance-related news in Polygon over the last week. If you think we have missed something important, please let us know!

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all things Polygon during our Polygon Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)

Starknet

Discuss with L2BEAT

We were not aware of any significant governance-related news in Starknet over the last week. If you think we have missed something important, please let us know!

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all things Starknet during our Starknet Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Connext

The 3 new proposals have long-term implications for the treasury that the DAO should carefully consider. Perhaps it’s worth pointing out that there has been a discussion about diversifying the treasury in the past which might be worth revisiting.

[RFC] V3 Reward Proposal

Najdana from the Connext Foundation submitted an RFC that seeks a reward for the Connext Foundation for the development and successful deployment of Connext V3 on testnet. The Foundation is requesting 62,500,000 NEXT (or approximately $13.8M USD at the time of writing).

[RFC] Community Leader Incentivization (May, June, and July 2024)

Stefan from the Connext Foundation submitted an RFC that describes the quarterly compensation of Community Leaders for the months of May, June, and July 2024. The Community Leaders of the Connext ecosystem are tasked with providing necessary support functions for the Connext community in an effort to keep community operations running and to monitor the completion of projects and tasks.

The total amount requested for the team of 9 administrators, moderators, and ambassadors is 266,598 NEXT.

[RFC] NEXT Liquidity Program on Base <> Aerodrome

Methodic submitted an RFC that proposes the development of a liquidity program for Connext DAO on Base, by leveraging Aerodrome’s incentive model. The proposed duration of the incentive program is 26 weeks, with 25,000 NEXT per week in incentives, for a total of 650,000 NEXT.

Additionally, the proposal also suggests that Connext DAO deploys $400,000 of protocol-owned liquidity in the NEXT/WETH pool on Aerodrome at a ratio of 7:1 ($350,000 NEXT and $50,000 WETH). To do so, the DAO would have to sell some treasury assets to obtain the necessary WETH.

Discuss with L2BEAT

Given that Connext Foundation and Proxima Labs both have significant token allocations by design, and also given the fact that the DAO recently voted in favor of ratifying the partnership token agreements which allocated 25,000,000 to Wonderland, we’re a bit skeptical of the recent proposal to reward the development of V3. Having said that, we’d like to discuss it further with other delegates as well as the Foundation to better understand the situation.

When/where to catch us:

You can find us to discuss all the above and more during our Connext Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)