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19 min read • Published on 17 May 2024

Governance Review #17

Anastassis Oikonomopoulos

Governance Representative

L2BEAT provides weekly updates on governance in concise articles.

Governance Review #17 publication thumbnail

Optimism

Season 6: Introducing Blockspace Charters: Superchain-first Governance

Optimism Foundation published a post to announce that in Season 6, they intend to introduce Blockspace Charters, a new, technical-focused governing document (and framework) for the Superchain.

At a high level, a Blockspace Charter consists of three primary components: Criteria, Governing Policies, and Precommitments.

The post also covers how the Superchain Registry will play a crucial role in the Blockspace Charter framework by serving as an accessible index of what chains are a part of the Superchain. It acts as the source of truth for which chains have been accepted under a specific charter and documents the specific configuration values which have been chosen for each chain.

Retro Funding 4: Deliberative process on the definition of profit

Following the Foundation’s post on experimenting with deliberative processes, the first deliberative process, on defining profit, was announced.

In previous Retro Funding rounds, each Citizen conducted their own assessment of impact and decided how to calculate ‘profit’ by considering the past rewards received by projects and deducting that amount from impact to arrive at a final OP allocation In Retro Funding 4, the Collective will be using the deliberative process to come to consensus on a definition of profit, which will be universally applied to the retro round.

Badgeholders will no longer need to calculate profit, but instead, a collective definition will be applied and subtracted from each voter’s assessment of impact.

Delegate Resignation Process

The Optimism Foundation published a post that outlines the process a delegate who wants to resign from participating in the governance of the Collective should follow.

Season 6: Grants Council Operating Budget

In Season 6, the Grants Council will be renewed and the Foundation announced that the nomination process has started and will continue until June 5, 2024.

Prospective applicants for Grants Council Leads may propose a Grants Council Operating Budget for Season 6. Delegates should only vote to approve one Grants Council Operating Budget. The budget proposal with the highest proportion of “Yes” votes will be approved. Delegates are effectively electing the Lead who has authored an approved budget

Season 6 Nominations: Code of Conduct Council

The nomination period for Season 6’s Code of Conduct Council has started, and the deadline to apply is until June 5, 2024.

Cycle 22 Final Grants Roundup

Gonna, the current Grants Council Lead, published the final roundup of all the grants given by the council in Cycle 22. The Grants Council received a total of 530 Mission Request applications (a ~73% increase since Season 4), along with 23 corresponding to Audit Requests from elected Service Providers.

Discuss with L2BEAT

The Collective is buzzing with activity for the preparations for Season 6. There are a lot of changes coming and new things introduced and we’d like to take some time to discuss them with other delegates.

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.

Upcoming Events (Times in UTC)

Arbitrum

On Chain Vote - Grant Request from Curve Finance

This proposal seeks support for a standalone grant application by LlamaRisk on behalf of and to support the growth of Curve Finance on Arbitrum. The grant request is for 237,500 ARB that will be distributed over 16 weeks, and the amount will be matched by Michael Egorov, the founder of Curve.

This grant application is NOT part of LTIPP but has been designed to follow a similar model and is proposed to be distributed over a similar period. If this proposal is approved by the DAO and the LTIPP council is agreeable this proposal can fit within the monitoring of LTIPP as well.

The Tally vote ends on May 28 2024 at 5:45 am UTC.

Temp Check (Concluded) - Pilot Phase: M&A for Arbitrum DAO

This proposal for an 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 (the full M&A proposal can be found here).

The requested operational budget is 25,000 ARB/month along with 2,000 ARB for access to data providers or research platforms. That brings the total request for the pilot phase to 52,000 ARB.

The Snapshot vote ended on May 15 2024 at 3:17 pm UTC and the proposal was successful.

Updates to the STIP Bridge Timeline

Due to the many STIP /Backfund protocols missing the May 3rd application deadline, the deadline was extended to Tuesday, May 14th at 11:59 PM UTC. As a result, the Challenge and review period has also been extended until Monday, May 20th at 5:00 PM UTC to give more time to delegates to review the applications and post a challenge if they wish.

It’s noted that after May 20th, 6:00 pm UTC, delegates will not be able to post a challenge Snapshot. However, if there are legitimate reasons, a delegate can submit a proposal to claw back funds at any time.

[ARDC] STIP Bridge Accompanying Data

To help community members and delegates form a holistic view of STIP-Bridge applicants that aren’t automatically required to go through a challenge vote on Snapshot, Blockworks Research, acting as one of the Research Members for the ARDC, published a workbook that includes qualitative data on the aforementioned applicants

[ARDC] STIP Analysis Case Studies

In their capacity as the risk member for the ARDC, Chaos Labs has begun conducting case studies on STIP recipients. The first case study provides an in-depth analysis of the Arbitrum STIP program’s impact on the Vertex Protocol, focusing on its efficiency and associated risks. This analysis is part of a broader series that evaluates the STIP program across three major protocols.

[RFC] Arbitrum Multi-sig Support Service (MSS)

Entropy advisors submitted an RFC to propose creating a structured multi-sig framework to facilitate funded programs within Arbitrum DAO to reduce operational spending and increase proposal efficiency.

As a quick summary, the RFC proposes creating a pool of 12 elected and highly trusted delegates that will participate in various multisigs as needed and will be compensated a flat fee of $1,500 USD/month. The signers are not responsible for verifying that a payment _should _be made (e.g. based on a project achieving a milestone), but are rather responsible for the operational side of executing such payment, after confirming the request with the respective party responsible for the requestor’s oversight.

Furthermore, the proposal includes an optional “add-on” of monthly financial reports by R3gen Finance, which would add an additional cost of $6650 USD/month.

[RFC] Thoughts on the End-Game Perpetual Incentives Program

We (L2BEAT) published our thoughts on incentive programs, with a focus on a possible approach to how a perpetual incentives program could look like, based on the learnings from the incentives program we’ve had so far.

Although the post is marked as an RFC (request for comment), it’s not meant to be a specific proposal, but rather a discussion starter to get more delegates involved in the discussion and hopefully lead to some concrete solutions to be added in the design of a perpetual incentives program.

We urge you to read the post and drop your comments and feedback to help push the conversation forward. It’s an experimental approach but we believe it’s worth exploring.

[RFC] Set up a Sub-Committee for the Security Services Subsidy Fund

ImmutableLawyer submitted an RFC on behalf of the Arbitrum DAO Procurement Committee (ADPC) that intends to set up the Security Services Subsidy Fund (‘SSSF’) Sub-committee, seeking 60,000 ARB to fund the members of the SSSF Sub-committee over 1 cohort spanning 8 weeks.

The SSSF Sub-committee will be composed of 5 members who will be elected by the DAO and will be responsible for receiving and reviewing applications from projects looking to get a subsidy to pay for security-related services from the service providers that the ADPC has whitelisted.

[RFC] Establish a Short-Term Marketing Program

404 DAO and Rogue House submitted an RFC that seeks to propose the creation of a short-term marketing program. The key proposed initiatives include developing a discoverability page, creating a unified brand identity and messaging for the programs, and executing a comprehensive content strategy. These efforts will address immediate marketing gaps and set a foundation for long-term strategic improvements. The proposal also outlines roles and responsibilities for the campaign, including coordination by 404 DAO, execution by Rogue House, and oversight by an Advisory Council.

The total funding request for the initiative comes out to 238,500 ARB and the marketing campaign will run for 3 months.

[RFC] ArbitrumHub: A Request for Community Feedback and Comments

0xBuilder submitted an RFC that seeks to collect feedback on ArbitrumHub, a platform designed to serve the ArbitrumDAO community by providing a single point of access to a wealth of information and resources relevant to the DAO, ahead of creating a formal proposal to be submitted to the DAO.

ArbitrumHub is currently being used by the Arbitrum Foundation to detail different grant programs and incentives and it is in the process of becoming a central hub for all related activities, gathering feedback from users to enhance functionality.

According to 0xBuilder, keeping ArbitrumHub up and running is a big task that requires a lot of resources, and therefore, they are seeking to prepare a formal proposal to request funding for the DAO.

Updates from the Arbitrum Fellowships

Following the creation of the onboarding working group, we (L2BEAT) helped introduce and facilitate the idea of Arbitrum Fellowships as a next step for new contributors that are onboarded in the DAO. On a high level, Fellowships are meant to bring together contributors with knowledge of and experience in similar domains and have them explore the opportunities that exist in that domain in the DAO. For more information on Fellowships, please refer to our forum post linked above.

Right now, there are 4 fellowships working on exploring the domains of Business Development, Ecosystem Mapping, Social Media, and Education.

Each Fellowship has a Gandalf (a coordinator) who is responsible for publishing updates on their progress for interested parties to follow along, and for potential new contributors to use as a resource if they want to get involved.

You can find the forum threads with the updates from each respective Fellowship in the links below:

If you want to get involved in any of those Fellowships, please make sure to reach out to the onboarding working group (more info here). If you’re a delegate or have DAO context relevant to any of those fellowships, we urge to you drop your feedback under the respective thread to help the Fellowships create something valuable for the DAO.

How to add an event to the ArbitrumDAO Governance Community Calendar

Arbitrum DAO has a community-run Google Calendar where all important calls and events are added for the convenience of delegates and other interested parties. While any contributor in the DAO can add their event to the calendar, the access to doing so is currently gated to a few members and not open to everyone to avoid having to deal with spam or malicious links.

We (L2BEAT), being among the people who have edit access to the calendar have written a short guide on how you can request for an event to be added to the ArbitrumDAO Governance Community Calendar and the information you’ll be asked to provide.

Discuss with L2BEAT

There’s a myriad of open fronts in the DAO right now and we’re doing our best keeping up with everything. From being the DAO Advocate for the ARDC, to following the progress of different working groups and proposals, including but not limited to the GCP, STIP Bridge, M&A, MSS, Arbitrum Fellowships, AVI, and OpCo (in no particular order), we’re involved in several initiatives.

Having said that, we’re keen to discuss any and all of the above topics as well as others that we might have forgotten to mention with other delegates and interested parties, including the proposal authors.

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

Temp Check - Onboard Uniswap to Redstone

The proposal to deploy Uniswap on Redstone has completed the 7-day RFC phase. All contracts have been deployed and verified. This deployment has therefore been optimistically approved by the Uniswap DAO. This temperature check is to determine whether the DAO will be deploying an onboarding package for Redstone

The Snapshot vote ends on May 18 2024 at 9:48 am UTC.

Uniswap Delegate Reward -3 Months-Cycle 1

This proposal outlines the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative, a compensation program designed to improve participation quality and dedication among Uniswap delegates. The initiative was developed by several members of the Uniswap Delegate Reward Working Group, which conducted extensive research and produced findings supporting the implementation of such a program.

The proposal passed temp-check successfully and will soon be heading to an on-chain vote.

Delegate Incentives Program Applications

Following the successful temp check, and ahead of the on-chain vote, the applications for the delegate reward program have started and the deadline to apply is May 20th at 7 pm UTC.

For the first cycle, you’re eligible if you have:

Discuss with L2BEAT

Designing a delegate rewards program is a very nuanced undertaking, as is evident from the plethora of contradicting feedback under the proposal, as well as in the group chat of the working group (in which we participated). We’re interested in discussing with other delegates or people who have experience designing and implementing such a program to see if and how we can improve it.

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.

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.

Polygon

Grant Allocator - Call for Applications

Pete from the Community Treasury Board (CTB) published a post announcing that the CTB is inviting applicants to serve as Grant Allocators (GAs) for the upcoming Community Grants Program that is soon to start its first season, with a focus on consumer crypto.

Polygon Protocol Governance Call (PPGC) #19

Blockworks Research published an overview of the Polygon Protocol Governance Call (PPGC) #19 while stating that they will be doing that for future calls as well. On May 4th, 2024, Polygon Developers met to discuss and finalize inclusions for the upcoming hard fork. The main focus was on PIP 22, PIP 36, PIP 30, and increasing the minimum gas price.

Discuss with L2BEAT

We’re interested in discussing the recently announced call for grant allocators as well as the information about their first season.

When/where to catch us:

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

Starknet

SNIPs: process revival

Ilia from StarkWare published a post announcing the plan to revive the SNIP process and propose short-term improvements. SNIPs (Starknet Improvement Proposals) are the Starknet analogue of Ethereum EIPs. However, in the current state of affairs, there are aspects in which a SNIP differs from an EIP both in its purpose and in its (lack of) processing

Discuss with L2BEAT

We’re interested in discussing all new developments in Starknet with other delegates or interested parties.

When/where to catch us:

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

Connext

Vote - Adopt Partial Private Voting

This proposal advocates for the implementation of shielded voting within Connext DAO’s governance process, utilizing the Shutter implementation on the Snapshot. The shielded voting offered by Snapshot is a voting mechanism deployed on the Shutter network, which uses cryptographic thresholds to hide the voting choice until the vote is over. There is no cost or operational overhead associated with enabling shielded voting.

The Snapshot vote ends on May 22 2024 at 6:44 pm UTC.

Vote - Long-Term Marketing Collaboration for Education and Distribution of Content Around the Connext Ecosystem

This proposal outlines a long-term marketing collaboration between the Connext DAO and Nebula Agency, aiming to enhance awareness and understanding of Connext’s protocol through education and content distribution. The estimated budget for content creation, KOL partnerships, and campaign management is 5,015,000 NEXT tokens for a duration of 6 months.

The Snapshot vote ends on May 24 2024 at 8:35 pm UTC.

Vote (Concluded) - Research and Comparative Analysis Report of the xERC-20 (ERC-7281) Standard by Ethereum 2077

This proposal outlines a project by Ethereum 2077 to conduct an in-depth analysis and write a comprehensive report on ERC-7281 (xERC-20), a standard vital for cross-chain token interoperability. The proposed analysis timeline is approximately 4 weeks, and the total budget requested is 65,000 $NEXT paid in 2 tranches.

The Snapshot vote ended on May 17 2024 at 07:01 pm UTC and the proposal was successful.

[RFC] Introducing the Connext Governance Task Force

MinistroDolar from SEED Latam submitted an RFC that seeks to establish a ‘Connext Governance Task Force’ to help ConnextDAO and the Connext Foundation work efficiently toward the success of the core protocol while maintaining a neutral and impartial stance.

The proposed structure of the Governance Task Force (GTF) is a team of 3 people: a Program Manager, an Operations Officer, and a Treasury Officer, each with a specific mandate. The GTF is to run for a pilot period of 6 months, with a total budget of $36,000 denominated in $NEXT ($2,000/mo per role).

[RFC] Security Council Upgrade

Following the successful proposal to extend the current Security Council cohort for another 6 months, MinistroDolar has submitted an RFC to propose changes to the original structure of the Security Council, after discussing it with other delegates on the open governance call on Friday 26th of April. You can find the recording of that call here.

Connext Delegates Call Recording

We (L2BEAT) published the recording of the last Connext Delegates Call that took place on May 10th, 2024.

Discuss with L2BEAT

We have been actively involved in the discussions around the security council and the proposed governance task force and we’d like to hear your thoughts and feedback. Additionally, we’re interested in discussing the proposal to adopt partial private voting as well as the long-term marketing collaboration proposal which is one of the biggest submitted to the DAO so far in terms of budget request.

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.