Governance Roadmap S19/20 & Beyond

🤖 DAO Governance and Vision
15

I wanted to provide an update on where we landed with some of these items that were outlined several months ago. I will also take the opportunity to share some areas that have been identified that will be worked on in the new year.

Completed items:

  • Update and socialize the DAO cadence (budget cycles, grants rounds, product milestones, etc.)
  • Research Passport gating the governance forum
  • Comms cadence ossified and increased

In progress items:

  • Create more context for Stewards:
    • Publicize and socialize DAO happenings
    • Make sync and async updates easily available/accessible (details TBC)

This is ongoing and updates can be found in the thread Enhancing Our Stewarship.

  • Develop governance metrics and KPIs for:
  • Gitcoin as a whole
    • Standby for renewed DAO Goals and EssentiaI Intents to be published
  • Financial sustainability
    • Foundation/Workstream budgets to be socialized by early October in a way that’s easy to digest
  • Governance initiative
  • Clearly outline current DACI (Driver, Approver, Consulted, Informed) framework for every level of decision making at the DAO, including for Stewards

Gitcoin EIs were announced, DAO goals to be shared in Q1.
Regular financial updates now provided monthly in the forum.
Governance initiative KPIs yet to be developed.
Current DACI framework (somewhat) outlined in the Governance Manual under each role

  • Outline and update voting thresholds (currently at +1M tokens, looking to reduce significantly)

Recently passed in Snapshot, looking at implementing in Q1.

  • Research DAO2DAO governance opportunities

Ongoing, will likely remove this task since it doesn’t have a clear “end date”.

Incomplete items:

  • Roll out PIP (Passport) and AIP (Allo) initiative

Allo details shared in a post, but full plan not yet rolled out. Targeted to be completed in Q1.
Passport details still TBC. If there is a rollout, it won’t be until Q2 or Q3 2024 at the earliest.

  • Roll out expanded Gitcoin Grants governance initiative

Discussions are still in early stages, updates on this likely to come from the GPT team in Q1.

  • Explorations of election-based roles at Gitcoin

The only role being explored for elections is the Executive Director of the Gitcoin Foundation. More on this in Q1.

  • Monthly Steward onboarding calls

Training materials are nearly complete, will share details of this in Q1.

  • Exploration of GTC delegation incentives program

This has not started and is being evaluated in terms of priorities.

Looking Ahead

As we continuously strive to improve our governance framework, I’ve identified a few areas where our proposal structure and process could benefit from greater clarity and organization. This post aims to address these gaps and propose a structure that enhances our decision-making efficiency. Your insights and feedback are crucial in shaping a robust governance model for our community.

1. Identifying Types of Proposals

In a previous discussion titled What should Stewards vote on, I outlined three primary areas for Stewards’ decision-making:

  1. Allocation of treasury funds
  2. Governance changes
  3. Electing or removing the Executive Director of the Foundation

Furthermore, we are in the process of introducing the Allo Improvement Protocol, aimed at integrating community input into Allo development. Additionally, we are exploring the Passport Improvement Protocol, though it is still in its nascent stages.

Next steps:

  • Ratification of “What should Stewards vote on” ideas into a “Gitcoin Governance Constitution” (targeting Q1)
  • Share more details about the Allo Improvment Process (first introduced in this post) and how to get involved (targeting Q1)
  • Share more details about a Passport Improvement Process and how to get involved (still TBC and timing TBD)

2. Categorizing Treasury Fund Allocation Proposals:

Currently, two groups can request treasury funds: Community members and Core Contributors. Core Contributors have been using a mish-mash of structures to request funds from the treasury. In the new year we’ll be proposing two potential structures for requesting funds:

  • A unified category named “Budget Requests and Amendments” specifically for Core Contributors
  • Gitcoin Citizen Proposal (GCPs) for Citizens/community members

Next steps:

  • Ratification of this proposal (Q1)

3. Proposal Naming Conventions:

A consistent naming convention is crucial for organizing and maintaining a clear historical record of proposals. Inspired by the practices at POKT (PIPs, PUPs, PEPs) and ENS (Epoch-based naming), I will be suggesting the following format below for Gitcoin. I’d like for this process to be as collaborative as possible, so please provide any feedback you have to this.

  • Utilizing our ‘Seasons’ system, proposals could be named as “S20.1 [Proposal Type]” or “S21.3 [Governance Change]”.
  • Adding descriptors like [Social] or [Executable] to indicate the nature of the proposal.

Next steps:

  • Agreeing to a naming structure with community input (Q1)
  • Agreeing to a way to document and store everything within the Governance Forum and any other locations the community sees fit (Q1)
  • Collecting feedback on the “descriptors” section (Q1)
  • Ratifying this through a vote (Q1, Q2 at least)

4. Structured Proposal Process:

To enhance the proposal development process, I will be recommending new formats to follow in the governance forum:

  • Initiating proposals as drafts for community feedback, marked as [DRAFT].
  • A “temperature check” phase to gauge community sentiment, indicated as [TEMP CHECK].
  • Finalizing the proposal for voting, labeled as [FINAL].

This process will ensure thorough community engagement and feedback before any formal voting. This is also important to establish ahead of S21 (Feb 1) when Gitcoin plans to announce it’s Gitcoin Ecosystem Contributor Program (working title, more details to come).

Note: The labels above are not set in stone and suggestions for alternative flows are very welcome.

Next steps:

  • Collecting feedback on the process (Q1)
  • Ratifying and documenting the agreed upon naming conventions (Q1)

5. (Re)Defining Stewardship at Gitcoin

The ongoing conversation in the post Enhancing Our Stewardship outlines a lot of the gaps and possibilities wrt to Gitcoin’s Stewards.

6. Governance Experiments

In the new year, we’ll be looking to innovate and experiment with our governance structure and mechanisms with the goal of increasing participation and continuing to make decisions in the best interest of the DAO.

Some of these experiments may or may not include:

  • GTC delegation matching program
  • Secret ballot votes (both during the vote and after the vote is complete)
  • Streamlining governance administrative processes (like the current oSnap proposal)
  • Clearer/easier ways for the Gitcoin Citizens to plug into the Gitcoin ecosystem and contribute meaningfully

As soon as I have this all drafted into a project tracker, I will post to this thread create a new thread and share there.

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