Purpose

This retrospective provides an overview of key governance activities, proposals, and financial highlights of ENS DAO during Q4 2024, focusing on transparency and improvements in governance practices.

Q3 Recap

In Q3 2024, the Meta-Governance Working Group focused on enhancing the autonomy and efficiency of the ENS DAO's governance processes. Key initiatives included:

• Proposal Approvals: Three major proposals were submitted, two were approved and one failed to meet quorom:

  • EP 5.14: Updated endowment permissions for diversified fund management.

  • EP 5.15: Introduced a bond mechanism to lower barriers for proposal submissions—did not meet quorom.

  • EP 5.16: Authorized reimbursement of $1.2 million in legal fees for the defense of the eth.link infrastructure.

• DAO Tooling Enhancements: Supported independent projects to improve governance tracking and tooling, such as Dhive Analytics, x23AI, and ENS Ledger.

• Compensation Guidelines (EP 5.18): Redefined compensation structures for stewards to ensure fairness and transparency, with updated USDC and ENS token distributions.

• Governance Distribution Pilot (EP 5.19): Proposed a pilot program to further decentralize governance by distributing ENS tokens to service providers and the Security Council.

These efforts aimed to empower individual contributors, reduce reliance on centralized actors, and strengthen the resilience of the ENS DAO's governance framework.

Q4 Executive Overview

In Q4, ENS DAO focused on steward elections, endowment expansion, financial transparency, and governance enhancement through innovative proposals and initiatives.

Guidance for Participating in Governance

Community members are encouraged to actively engage in governance by utilizing the ENS DAO Term 6 Dashboard as a resource. This dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of governance activities, including Snapshot voting, proposal discussions, and updates on key initiatives.

Explore the dashboard here to stay informed and get involved.

Proposals

• EP 5.18 — ENS DAO Steward Compensation Structure

  • Outlines the compensation structure for ENS DAO stewards for Term 6.

  • Vote Result: 99.4% Approval

• EP 5.19 — Governance Distribution Pilot

  • Retroactive distribution of ENS tokens with a detailed table for distribution amounts.

  • Vote Result: Broad approval

• EP 5.20 — ENS Endowment Investment Policy Statement

  • Introduces guidelines for managing treasury, investments, and asset allocation.

  • Vote Result: 85.12% Approval

• EP 5.21 — Governance Security Bounty

  • Compensation for securing ENS DAO against a governance vulnerability.

  • Vote Result: 90.58% Approval

• EP 5.22 — ENSv2 Development Funding Request

  • Funding for ENSv2 upgrades, focusing on decentralization and scalability.

  • Vote Result: 74.07% Approval

• EP 5.23 — Governance Security Bounty

  • Compensation for addressing a $150M vulnerability and strengthening DAO resilience.

  • Vote Result: 90.28% Approval

• EP 5.24 — Term 5 Q4, Collective Working Group Funding Proposal

  • Funding requests for operational continuity of DAO working groups.

  • Vote Result: 90% Disapproval

• EP 5.25 — Collective Working Group Funding Request

  • Resubmission of EP 5.24 with unchanged funding specifications.

  • Vote Result: 100% Approval

• EP 5.26 — Implementation of ENS Governance Distribution Pilot

  • Authorizes the distribution of ENS tokens approved in EP 5.19.

  • Vote Result: 100% Approval

• EP 5.27 — Revoke DAO’s Ability to Upgrade Name Wrapper

  • Mitigates vulnerability by revoking DAO’s ability to upgrade the Name Wrapper.

  • Vote Result: 100% Approval

• EP 5.28 — Reimbursement of eth.limo’s ongoing legal fees

  • Reimburses $240,632.38 in legal fees for eth.limo's critical gateway services.

  • Vote Result: 99.99% Approval

• EP 5.29 — Funding request for ENSIP-19 Reverse Resolution

  • Funding for gateways enabling ENSIP-19 EVM-chain reverse resolution.

  • Vote Result: 55.76% Disapproval

For more details about each proposal, visit the Voting Period Bulletin and the ENS DAO Governance Documentation.

Special Election

Following the resignation of Alex Van de Sande (avsa.eth) as Meta-Governance Steward, a special election was held to fill the vacancy. Nominations were open from November 2-5, with voting taking place from November 5-10. Candidates were required to gather 10,000 Snapshot votes to qualify.

The candidates for the election were:

1. Nick.eth

2. SpikeWatanabe.eth

After the community vote, Nick.eth was elected as the new Meta-Governance Steward and served for the remainder of Term 5, starting on November 11 and ending on December 31.

Service Provider Program Season 2 Brainstorm

In November 2024, Avsa.eth initiated discussions for the second season of the ENS Service Provider Program, aiming to enhance its effectiveness based on feedback from current service providers. The program, initially approved by the DAO in November 2023, has been instrumental in enabling teams to contribute significantly to the ENS ecosystem.

Key Considerations for Season 2:

1. Positive Feedback and Continuation:

   • Service providers acknowledged the program's role in facilitating full-time contributions to ENS, expressing a desire for its continuation.

2. Scheduling Adjustments:

   • To avoid overlap with Steward elections and holiday periods, future elections are proposed for Q1 (February or March), ensuring a more focused selection process.

3. Voting Mechanism:

   • Introduction of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) with a Round Robin method is proposed to rank candidates effectively, enhancing the selection process.

4. Funding Duration:

   • A two-tier funding system is suggested:

     • Top-Ranked Projects: Eligible for two-year funding streams, providing stability.

     • Lower-Ranked Projects: Receive one-year funding, subject to annual reevaluation.

5. Application Flexibility:

   • Current providers may apply for both one-year and two-year streams, allowing adaptability based on project scope and performance.

6. Budget Considerations:

   • Discussions include setting a budget that reflects the program's success and the DAO's financial capacity, ensuring sustainable growth.

These proposed adjustments aim to balance stability for high-performing service providers with the DAO's need for regular oversight, fostering a dynamic and responsive ecosystem for ENS development.

For a detailed overview and to participate in the ongoing discussion, visit the ENS DAO Governance Forum.

Working Group Amendments

In December 2024, netto.eth proposed a series of amendments to the ENS DAO Working Group Rules, focusing on enhancing governance by limiting roles, ensuring diversity, and addressing conflicts of interest. Each amendment required individual approval through a voting process. More details can be found here.

Multi-Sig Structure and Secretary Role

A related discussion led by Limes.eth highlighted changes to the structure of multi-sigs as they pertain to the Secretary role. While there was support for restructuring the multi-sigs, there was low consensus on the concept of Role Exclusivity. This prompted further discussions and the drafting of alternative solutions, such as the proposed amendment below:

Proposed Amendment:

1. If the Secretary is a working group steward, the Meta-Governance working group multi-sig fills the Secretary keyholder role for the working group.

2. If the Secretary is a Meta-Governance Steward, another working group multi-sig, where the Secretary isn’t a steward, fills the Secretary keyholder role.

Next Steps

The Ecosystem Working Group (WG) considered implementing this amendment on main.eco.wg.ens.eth without requiring a standalone proposal, potentially bundling it with other amendments if support was gathered. Feedback and best practices were invited to refine the approach.

Results

The community showed interest in the proposed changes, but the discussion revealed varying opinions, particularly regarding Role Exclusivity. For additional context, visit the discussion on Secretary and Working Group Multi-sigs.

Steward Election Results for Term 6

The ENS DAO recently concluded its steward elections for Term 6, electing representatives across three key working groups. Below is a summary of the results and additional details about the elected stewards.

Meta-Governance:

• 5pence.eth

• daostrat.eth

• netto.eth

Ecosystem

• slobo.eth

• limes.eth

• daemon.eth

Public Goods

• simona.eth

• coltron.eth

• sovereignsignal.eth

These stewards were chosen through community voting to guide the respective working groups in achieving their goals for Term 6. Congratulations to all the newly elected stewards!

Conclusion

Q4 emphasized steward transitions, financial stability, and governance upgrades. Moving forward, the DAO aims to explore further endowment expansions and increase governance participation, including potential solutions for Coinbase delegation.