Governance Process
This is the second iteration of our governance framework, released on March 24, 2022. It introduces changes meant to clarify expectations and accountability through more explicit thresholds and roles to ensure the process stays on track. To read a discussion of the thinking behind it, please read the medium post.
Lifecycle of a proposal
Step 1: Discuss proposal ideas on Discord
Step 2: Construct a formal proposal using the template
Step 3: Gov mod reviews for completion and passes along any remaining info requests to the core team. (48-72 hours)
Step 4: Announce the formal proposal and deliberate on remaining details on the forum (7 Days)
Step 5: Vote on Snapshot (72 hrs), proposals require a 2/3rds supermajority (66.66%) to pass
Step 1: General Discussion
Everyone is encouraged to start conversations about proposals in the community Discord on the #governance-discussion channel.
The goal of this phase is to test interest and develop a potential solution using the wisdom of the community. There also may be others working on similar proposals, and this discussion phase is an important step to identify opportunities to combine proposals. If you do not want to own the development of a proposal, this is also a good way to find someone to make the formal proposal.
As a general rule, building consensus at this stage will have a big impact on the ultimate success of the proposal, while helping minimize traffic and voter fatigue.
Step 2: Construct Formal Proposal
Whoever is owning a proposal should create a formal proposal using the proposal template in a way that best reflects the consensus developed in discussion.
The proponent is encouraged to reach out to team members to gather feedback or obtain insights or data necessary for informing the proposal’s implementation if they haven’t already contributed to the discussion.
Step 3: Governance Mod (gov mod) Review (48 hours)
Once they feel it is ready, the proponent can upload their proposal draft to #governance-discussion and tag one of the gov mods (@mich or @jungleezayn) to review.
The gov mods will then have 48h (72h if Friday-Sunday), to review the proposal.
Moderators:
Ensure the proposal meets the expectations of the template and suggest needed changes
If necessary info is missing from the core team, they will direct questions to the relevant team member
Suggest changes if they think it doesn’t fully represent the discussion so far
Note: the proponent doesn’t have to agree with the discussion, but there is a “Cons” section in the template that should record the reasons for dissenting views.
Within those 48h, gov moderators will suggest changes publicly in the #governance-discussion channel. The team will then wait for changes to be discussed and a new request to be made to upload.
Once the proposal is complete, gov mods will:
Add a BIP number
Invite proposer to upload to forum.botto.com
Tag the proposal appropriately
Announce the proposal in #forum-proposals
Note: the time frame of gov mods to respond may be subject to change if there is a surge in proposals.
Step 4: Final Deliberation (7 days)
The time of the announcement in #forum-proposals marks the beginning of the 7 day deliberation time. This is the last chance to debate the proposal and the details of its implementation.
Snapshot votes reference the forum proposal and its comments, therefore any significant positions and changes to the proposal should be documented there. Gov mods will help proponents to request Bottonians to write their opinions on the forum (even if the active discussion is taking place on Discord).
Proponents are expected to address criticism and consider incorporating it in the final formulation, or include it in the Cons section of the template.
The team will announce the expiration of the deliberation time 48h and 24h prior to the closing of the debate. If consensus is unclear and there are materially new comments coming in, gov mods may extend the deliberation period as needed.
Once the deliberation time has ended, the gov mods will agree with the proponent on a date and time for the start of the Snapshot vote within the next week, as well as on a summary that is posted on the Snapshot website itself.
Step 5: Vote (72 hours)
When the deliberation ends, the team will lock the forum proposal so that no further information can be added to it after the Snapshot vote is submitted.
The team will launch the vote with the agreed summary and announce via:
#snapshot-votes channel
the next appropriate recap made in #announcements
Ideally all votes are simple Yes/No choices, but there may be situations where another format is needed or becomes available.
Note: Ranked choice voting can be useful for picking between implementations if no clear consensus is reached, however Snapshot only has an option for a 50% threshold in this format and so won’t work for our 2/3rds requirement unless that can change.
The team will send reminders with the provisional results after 48h of voting to encourage full participation and announce the result as soon as the vote is over.
There may only be one snapshot vote live at a time.
For more on governance voting see Snapshot Votes
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