Voting Cycles, Reflekshon Taim, and Incentive Alinement Dey Drive Decentralized Decision Making
Translated by ScAr | Tori by Trewkat | Edit by Hiro Kennelly
If you no be person wey just sabi blockchains or person wey don dey hide for cave, e mean say you don hear about Optimism, wey be Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum blockchain. Optimism bin start for January 2021 as Optimistic Ethereum, na EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain e be, and later for late 2021, e come change to EVM-equivalent chain, and e come change di name of di network to Optimism:
“At first, we bin dey doubt small, but we don come accept di name. E short and sweet, e dey flow for mouth well-well. But pass anything, Optimism dey represent who we be as pipu: we be Optimists. We dey work with strong belief say di platforms wey we dey build go dey used to change di world for di beta.”
Small Tori
For April 2022, Optimism bin announce di launch of di Optimism Collective, wey be "a large-scale experiment for digital democratic governance, wey dey built to drive fast and sustainable growth of decentralized ecosystem, and supervised by di new Optimism Foundation wey dem just form." From di taim wey dem launch am, di governance plan for di Optimism Collective na to get two separate voting houses: di Citizens’ House and di Token House. Even tho di Citizens’ House no launch until later, dem don alredi talk am from di beginning say membership go dey granted instead of being based on token ownership, and dis group – wey dem dey call OP Citizens – go dey responsible for supervising Optimism's retroactive public goods funding, wey don reach di third round now.
As e happen, di Token House come alive wen dem do di first airdrop of di OP token for May 2022. Dem dey call Token House members OP Holders, and anybody wey hold OP tokens fi vote, but e dey necessary make tokens dey delegated first before di voting power fi dey active. Di holders fi choose to delegate di tokens to dia own address and derefore fi cast dia own votes on proposals, or dem fi also delegate to anoda address, wey mean say dat delegate go vote on behalf of all di tokens wey dey under dia delegation.
Tins fi only dey beta go
Di way Optimism take approach governance na to dey always look for how dem fi improve. Dis mindset don dey part of di process, from di beginning of di Optimism Collective. Tho di Optimism Foundation bin dey created to supervise di initial governance model, dem get one Working Constitution wey "go remain in effect for no more dan four years from di date wey dem adopt am. Afta dat taim, dem go hand over di authority for governance to one permanent Bedrock Constitution (wey go include di lessons wey dem don learn from di previous governance experiments of di Collective)."
If you sabi di concept of retroactive public goods funding (RPGF), you go sabi say e dey based on di fundamental principle wey talk say "e dey easier to agree on wetin useful for di past dan wetin go useful for di future." In other words, na with di benefit of hindsight we go fit assess di impact and value of our actions well-well. Even tho Optimism documentation no directly connect di application of dis idea to RPGF and dia governance approach, e be like say di idea don enter di Collective consciousness. Dem openly allow di governance experiment to play out, den dem go assess and improve, and afta some taim dem go make more permanent decisions about wetin go work well for di community. Dis way dey beta for many reasons compared to di alternative way wey actions wey dem take early go somehow dey considered as 'right or wrong' as taim dey go.
Taim afta Taim
Di OPerating Manual of di Optimism Collective na di best place wey you fi find all di details about di iterative process of di Token House governance cycles and structure. Like many DAOs, di Collective dey bring up ideas through one proposal process, and afta dat, di Token House delegates go fi vote on top di proposals. Unlike some DAOs wey dey use ad hoc or 'as necessary' voting cycle, di Optimism Collective get one organized and planned schedule wey dem design to optimize di time and energy of di delegates.
According to di Manual, all Token House proposals dey progress in one five-week cycle. E dey specific to state say each of dis governance weeks dey start on Thursday at 7pm UTC and e go finish di following Wednesday at di same taim. Di first three weeks na purely for feedback and review, and dem get clear guidelines about proposal titling and formatting and also expectations about how dem go provide answers to di comments wey delegates give.
Di process no end dere. Only proposals wey receive explicit approval from four delegates wey represent >0.25% of di current votable token supply dey allowed to proceed to a broader vote. Room for ambiguity no dey for dis matter; each delegate dey use di same templated statement to show say dem approve di proposal to move to one vote, but di approval no mean say dem dey endorse di proposal.
Tenk U, Oya Next
Proposals wey scale thru di feedback and review process go enter one onchain vote during weeks four and five. Proposals wey no scale thru fi dey resubmitted for di next five-week cycle. During di voting round, all delegates get di opportunity to vote based on di voting power wey dem establish thru one snapshot at di start of di period. Different quorum and approval thresholds dey set for different types of proposals, but di quorum dey measured as one percentage of di total votable (delegated) OP supply, and di approval na di percentage of approval votes as part of di overall total, e no include dos wey no participate.
One Tuff Day
Every five-week cycle dey happen inside one longer season, and between di seasons, dem get one appropriately named Reflection Period. Dis time dey specifically set aside for delegates to give dia input on wetin work well and wetin no work well, without di distraction of voting on current proposals. Di Optimism Foundation dey take on di role of collecting feedback and developing one special set of proposals wey go address di issues wey dem bring up. E dey important to sabi say dis process na inherently positive and dem complete am with di spirit of improvement wey dey drive everytin wey di Collective dey do.
Till today, di Token House don complete three seasons and dem dey for Season 4. Dis fourth season introduce Collective Intents – wey be short term goals wey dem plan to focus di efforts and budgets of di Collective. E get four Intents wey be: Technical Decentralization, Innovate on Novel Applications, Spread Awareness of di Optimistic Vision, and Governance Accessibility. Dis diagram show di proposed pathways wey di Token House go use achieve each Intent:
How everytin take Come Togeda. Source: Optimism Collective Governance Forum
Na We bi di World
Di spirit and intent of di Optimism Collective dey shine thru for evritin wey dem dey do. Rewarding contributions to di Ethereum and Optimism ecosystem thru retroactive public goods funding na just one aspect of di work wey dem dey do to scale Ethereum and design one more open and decentralized future for evribodi.
Anoda significant body of work wey come out from di Optimism Foundation na di Collective DAO Archives, wey be one open-source library of policies and governance processes from 20 different DAOs. Dis goldmine na di work of Justine Humenansky, wey also summarize wetin she find from di research into 10 categories, each of dem with beta point. You fi watch Justine as she present her findings for dis video wey dem take for ETHDenver 2023, view di slides from di presentation, or read di full Twitter thread for di highlights:
Hailing
You fi don notice say I don dey hail Optimism Collective and how dem dey run dia governance, so make I yarn for clear eye, I wan confirm say dis tori wey I write na part of BanklessDAO's Mission Proposal for Intent 3: To Spread Awareness of di Optimistic Vision. Di amazing part be say, wetin make am easy for me to write na say e no dey take taim at all to understand dia vision once you decide to look. I dey invite you to see for yourself di beta work wey dem dey do thru di Optimism Collective and find your own chance to join di pipu wey dey hail Ethereum's most optimistic Layer 2.