Distributed Governance Report #3
Governance updates from StakerDAO, Cosmos, & Compound
DGR is a monthly newsletter aiming to interpret the complex world of distributed network governance, politics, and power.
🔦 Spotlight: News & Highlights
The Maker Foundation Forms a New Board of Directors: As part of its commitment to bootstrapping MakerDAO, the Maker Foundation is pleased to announce the next phase of its board of directors. The most recent members of the board, who have provided exceptional guidance since March 2019, will shift their focus inward and continue to work with the Foundation.
Let’s Govern: Bankless is creating a way to allow DeFi protocols a way to drop tokens to their community by issuing a Bankless NFT Token, helping protocols "Community Drop" their gov tokens to Bankless NFT owners, and by participating in governance using the tokens & establishing our reputation - Ryan Sean Adams
Compound Governance is Live: Community governance has replaced the administrator of the Compound protocol. From this point forward, all changes (from supported assets to system parameters) will originate from COMP token-holders — fulfilling our vision of an open protocol that can evolve in entirely new ways. For a primer on how Compound governance works, please see our COMP announcement and the full documentation. - Robert Leshner
Sidestepping Telegram, Devs, and Validators Launch Fork of TON Blockchain: TON Labs, a startup that helped Telegram run the test network, launched its own version of the blockchain, with the support of professional validators. Called Free TON, the fork comes after the group decided not to wait until Telegram is able to clear the regulatory hurdles it faces before it can officially send TON live. - Anna Baydakova
Governance Panel with MolachDao, Compound, and MakerDao: Streamed live during the DeFi discussions virtual event.
📚 Goodreads
Smaller Validators Need a Bigger Voice: “Smaller validator operators are at risk. We're at risk of extinction in these early staking days. Larger validator companies dominate many of today's staking networks.” - Chris Remus
The Rise of Protocol Politicians: “Every protocol involves politics. People have to decide how a system will be designed. Initially, this involves a lot of debate between the people who build it. Eventually, it involves people who are affected by it.” - Richard Burton
Livepeer Governance Proposal Voting: Polls are set to be the voting process for Livepeer improvement proposals. This is a look at the well-deliberated voting process that the Livepeer community is preparing to use to begin the foray into decentralized governance. - Gavin Birch
Why the Tezos Amendment Process Needs an Adoption Period: We propose to amend the amendment process by adding a fifth period that allows for bakers and third-party applications to adapt: the Adoption Period. - ENVITED
🌐 Network Governance Updates
Governing StakerDAO
🗞️ Recent News
The Blend website is live! Blend is the easiest way to go long on the best Proof of Stake protocols. Blend is a token that tracks the price of an underlying basket of PoS assets. Learn more information on our site, but please be aware that US-based individuals will not be able to access the site at this time.
Disclaimer: This notice does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. BLND is not offered and may not be sold to or for the benefit of any “U.S. person” as that term is defined under U.S. securities law. If you are a U.S. person you may not purchase BLND.
🗳️ Live Votes and Proposals
Proposal 004 - Validator Selection was submitted in April during the first week of the month, which is the proposal phase. This proposal outlines how StakerDAO will delegate the underlying assets for the Blend basket to selected validators. Validators are or are represented by STKR token holders. The proposal approves of delegation through the use of three variables: AUM, number of delegates, and fees. Further details available here.
✅ Result: Approved by all five Council Members during the 3rd week of the month (voting phase).
🗣️ Signaling: Discussions and Community
Discussions begin across our social media channels, but the majority of discussions have occurred through our Forum and our Telegram.
STKR token holders will likely push forward a proposal in May to create Blend on Tezos. Internal conversations, as well as feedback from the community, have led STKR token holders to believe that following Blend’s launch on Ethereum, Blend would benefit from participating and accelerating DeFi on Tezos.
📅 Calendar & Meetings
Full May event calendar here.
DeFi Discussions - May 4 at 11:00pm EST
RL1: Jonas Lamis on May 5 at 12 pm EST
RL1: Christian Arita on May 5 at 5 pm EST
Consensus Distributed - May 11, 2020 - 4pm EST
Anon Summit - May 19-20, 2020 - Time TBD
Governing Cosmos
📚 Goodreads
Voting Power & Cartel Watch: What’s the importance of validator voting power?
Validators can work together to form a cartel to make changes to the Cosmos Hub. As of Apr 20, 2020:
the top 6 validators could halt the chain and veto a proposal
the top 12 validators can pass a governance proposal (unless delegators override or unless over 1/3 of the voting power vetoes)
the top 19 validators would need to work together to take control of governance or to defraud other chains (once IBC is enabled)
🗣️ Signaling: Discussions and Community
CosmWasm preparing to launch a community spend proposal: This proposal is all about adding governance control to all aspects of the CosmWasm contract lifecycle to make it compatible with the hub. Allowing governance to control code upload, contract instantiation, contract upgrades, and contract destruction (if needed).
The Cosmos Governance Working Group discussed funding improvements and a new roadmap for the Cosmos Hub post-IBC. Topics included: What happens after the Cosmos whitepaper has been delivered? What is Peggy? How can smart contract capability improve the Cosmos Hub? Establishing a comparative advantage for the ATOM token.
👥 Major Stakeholders
Governing Compound
🗞️ Recent News
The first Compound Governance Proposal: With protocol upgrades now in the hands of COMP token-holders (and their delegates), we’re excited to announce the first governance proposal, to support Tether (USDT).
🗳️ Live Votes and Proposals
✅ USDT Support Proposal: This proposal adds Tether as a supported asset, with no collateral factor or reserve factor, and updates the Compound price feed to conservatively peg Tether to $1. By using a peg, weakness in the underlying asset won’t change collateral requirements for users borrowing Tether.
✅Update DAI Interest Rate Model to Better Accommodate Zero Stability Fee: Dharma proposes a new interest rate model for Dai that can provide a better user experience to capital suppliers with a minimal impact on borrowers. Read all about the proposal here.
👥 Major Stakeholders
The Boardroom newsletter aims to decipher the complex world of distributed network governance, politics, and power. Stay tuned for the next one coming in June by subscribing now, and never miss an issue: