DAO Governance Proposal Stages (Pre-Proposal)
Summary
Establish a robust and binding voting process for governance proposals.
Abstract
To reduce the impact of spam and low quality proposals and increase time to assess implications and implementation pathways - each “Governance Proposal” should pass through three distinct stages. Proposals must meet specific criteria before they may be moved to the next stage. The end result is a binding governance decision.
Motivation
Community “Polls” are the only mechanism at this time for the community to vote on complicated governance issues, for example, on issues surrounding voting power, fee structures, and other socio-economic dynamics. The poll category is designed to be a non-binding gauge of community perceptions, not a binding governance proposal. However, in response to community feedback, the DAO Committee has taken on the practice of implementing polls as policy, in the absence of a more formal voting mechanism.
This is problematic for three reasons. First, the poll format does not allow time for consensus building and adequate assessment of impacts and implementation pathways. Second, there are no restrictions on who can submit a community poll, leading to spam proposals and there are no voting power thresholds to ensure important governance decisions are made by a representative majority (based on voting power). Finally, because polls are non-binding, their implementation has become dependent on the DAO committee, undermining the efficacy of the DAO and confidence in our governance process.
This proposal aims to establish a three-tiered voting process that ends in a binding governance proposal.
Specification
The voting process will include three tiers: Pre-proposal Poll, Draft Proposal, and Governance Proposal. Each tier will have progressively increasing submission and passage thresholds.
Stage 1: Pre-Proposal Poll
The purpose of the pre-proposal poll is to introduce a governance issue to the community, gauge community sentiment, and determine if there is enough support to move forward with the drafting of an initial proposal. Pre-Proposal Polls can only pass to the Draft Proposal stage with a simple majority (51%) of participating voting power with a threshold of at least 500K VP.
Polls do not need to be composed in any specific form. They can be drafted in the full proposal format, or be presented as a straightforward question. Polls are currently the only option we have for governance issues that fall outside the established categories (Grants, name ban, catalysts and POIs).
- Submission Threshold: 100 VP (i.e. equivalent to one name)
- Passage Threshold: 500K VP
- Voting Period: 5 Days
Stage 2: Draft Proposal
The purpose of the Draft Proposal is to present a potential policy to the community in a structured format and to formalize discussion about a proposal’s potential impacts and implementation pathways. Draft Proposals can only pass to the binding Governance Proposal stage with a simple majority (51%) of participating voting power with a threshold of at least 1M VP. A Draft Proposal that fails or does not reach this threshold can be amended and resubmitted one time.
- Submission Threshold: 1,000 VP (or delegated VP)
- Passage Threshold: 1M VP
- Voting Period: 1 Week
Stage 3: Binding Governance Proposal
The purpose of the Governance Proposal is to formalize the passed version of a Draft Proposal into a binding governance outcome. Only established or recognized community members can submit Governance Proposals, which are only passed if they reach the needed acceptance criteria for their category. In the interim period before new voting categories have been established (and for proposals that do not have a pre-set category) a Governance Proposal must receive a simple majority (51%) of participating voting power and at least 6M VP to pass as a binding decision.
- Submission Threshold: 2,500 VP (or delegated VP)
- Passage Threshold: 6M VP (or needed acceptance criteria for their category)
- Voting Period: 2 Weeks
Conclusion
DAO Governance should be agile and responsive, however, at the same time tempered and deliberative. In its current form, important community decisions are being made on a week-to-week basis, and through non-binding community polls. The proposed voting framework will moderate the pace of our self-government and facilitate a detailed and deliberative process to ensure we make informed and representative decisions.