Draft Proposal - Addendum to Governance Process

[cryptmiss]

1. GM Fox Fam!

   After spending a few months elbow deep in the governance tracker, I noticed we have an opportunity to optimize this process. After some initial conversation during an AMA Lunch call, I am bringing this idea to the community for feedback. Once I have heard more from the community, I will place the your ideas into the official SCP format and move to ideation. I look forward to a lively discussion!

   This proposal is to update our current governance process for clarity and standardization.

   The original recommended first step was optional to allow more flexibility in the conversation as well as move governance forward quickly. Recently, the community has spoken and would like more time with the proposal.

   Current Governance process tl;dr:

   Recommended: Post idea on the forum and get feedback from the community. Use this feedback to refine your proposal.

Required: Once your proposal following the template 57 is drafted and ready to move forward, post it in the Proposal Discussion category for final feedback and include a For/Against poll 7

1. gauge sentiment.

After 5 days in the Proposal Discussion category, if the feedback is overall positive and confidence that the proposal will pass is high, make your proposal 21

1. to the DAO

The current process can be found in its entirely here: https://forum.shapeshift.com/t/fox-governance-process/55

1. Proposed governance process tl;dr:

   (All steps will be required)

   Incubation: Post idea to obtain feedback from the community. This feedback should be used to refine your proposal.

2. Ideation: Format proposal into appropriate template (SCP or Workstream) and share final draft to gauge community sentiment.
3. Voting: Voting will take place via Snapshot & Boardroom.
4. Details of proposed governance process:

   Incubation:

Post in

• forum.shapeshift.com
• Posted under “Proposal discussion” category
• No specific format required
• Intent is to engage the community
• Timeline: (See poll below)
• No other requirement to move to Ideation
• Ideation:
• Ideation proposal is posted to Boardroom (Note: this will take place on the forum until Ideation functionality on Boardroom has returned)

ShapeShift Community Proposal (SCP) format or Workstream Proposal format

• should be used
• SCP number is included in title (SCP # can be obtained by reaching out to Miss, Tyler or Neverwas in the Governance channel)
• Posted under appropriate category (listed below)
• Proposal must be under ______ characters (Waiting to hear back from Boardroom on their limitation)
• Voting is 1 vote per fox token (while ideation is still in the forum, any Forum user can vote)
• Include link to the Incubation post
• Must include for/against poll
• Timeline: 48 hours? 5 days? (Poll below)
• Proposal may move forward if the overall vote is positive after timeline specified above
• Voting:
• Voting is available on both Snapshot and Boardroom (Boardroom is the interface to Snapshot
• Voting is 1 vote per fox token
• SCP # is included in the title
• Include links to the Incubation and Ideation posts
• Timeline: 72 hours
• Quorum: A minimum of 4,000,000 FOX must participate in the vote for it to be considered ratified. (Soft quorum will still be in effect. For votes that do not reach quorum, assume that 70% of the votes necessary to achieve quorum would be against the proposal. If this would still result in a majority of votes being in favor of the proposal, the proposal can be considered passed.)
• Other items of note:

  Any proposals not following governance process will be asked to be removed.

• All meaningful governance discussion should take place on this forum to ensure the community has full transparency.

Proposal categories:

Progressive Decentralization:

• Transitioning responsibilities and ownership of all ShapeShift operations to the DAO.

Partnerships:

• Developing mutually-beneficial partnerships and affiliate revenue opportunities with aligned DAOs and products.

Product (Features and Product):

• Planning the optimal feature roadmap for achieving ShapeShift’s vision as the open-source interface to the decentralized universe.

Engineering:

• Planning and executing the open-sourcing of all ShapeShift code and infrastructure. Developing new features, fixing bugs, and optimizing performance of ShapeShift’s web and mobile applications.

FOX Tokenomics:

• Evolving and enhancing FOX token utility and value accrual.

Marketing & Growth:

• Executing campaigns focused on growing the ShapeShift ecosystem.

Moderation:

• Supporting the community and maintaining the integrity of all ShapeShift various platforms such as Discord, The Forum, Boardroom and Notion.

Operations:

• Managing and optimizing ShapeShift’s operational processes.

Special Projects:

• Propose new workstreams to be added.

Customer Support:

• Delighting and education customers as they navigate and experience The ShapeShift DAO.

Information & Globalization:

• strategizing, implementation, and optimization of growth campaigns/initiatives for the ShapeShift DAO.

Polls

How long should each post remain in Incubation before moving to Ideation?

How long should each post remain in Ideation before moving to Voting?

[Josh_shapeshiftdemo]

Thanks . I like the additional clarity the proposed process provides (how’s that for some schnazzy alliteration 1f642

[cryptmiss]

Note from mentioned (and assuming he will expand on

• )

  Suggestion to have Incubation posts tagged under specific workstream category & Ideation posts tagged under Proposal discussion

[willy]

Appreciate you pushing this forward ! I’ll do my best to share my thoughts in the forum, but maybe we can get this into a google doc to add suggestions and comments?

Here is a modified version of the tl;dr:

–

Governance process tl;dr:

Incubation - [x day min]: Post your idea in the relevant Workstream on the forum to obtain feedback from the community. Include a yes or no poll

1. in your post to measure community sentiment.*

Ideation - 5 day min: Once incubation post has been live in the forum for x days and has majority upvotes, post a draft proposal in Proposal Discussion. Proposals must follow this template

1. and include a yes or no poll. Proposals may continue to be refined based on community feedback during this stage.
2. Voting - 3 day min: After 5 days in Ideation, if a draft proposal has more upvotes than downvotes, it can be posted to SnapShot for official vote.

1. Feel free to remove the poll/upvote requirement from the incubation step, but I think we may as well include if we’re making that step required. It’s helpful to know whether or not community members like your idea, and polls are a great way to measure.

   –

   Modified version of Ideation step:

   Ideation:

2. Ideation proposal is posted to Boardroom (Note: this will take place on the forum until Ideation functionality on Boardroom has returned)

ShapeShift Community Proposal (SCP) format or Workstream Proposal format

• must be used

SCP number is included in title (SCP # should be 1 greater than the most recent SCP posted in

• Proposal Discussion
• Posted under appropriate category (listed below)
• Proposal must be under ______ characters (Waiting to hear back from Boardroom on their limitation)

Voting power is calculated using the strategies defined on SnapShot, explained here

• (while ideation is still in the forum, any Forum user can vote)
• Include link to the Incubation post

Must include for/against

• poll
• Timeline: 48 hours? 5 days? (Poll below)
• Proposal may move forward if the majority votes in favor after timeline specified above
• –

  Modified version of Voting step:

  Voting:

Voting is available on both Snapshot and Boardroom

• (Boardroom is another interface to Snapshot

Voting power is calculated using the strategies defined on SnapShot, explained here

• (while ideation is still in the forum, any Forum user can vote)
• SCP # is included in the title
• Include links to the Incubation and Ideation posts
• Timeline: 72 hour minimum
• Quorum: A minimum of 4,000,000 FOX must participate in the vote for it to be considered ratified.

Soft Quorum: For votes that do not reach Quorum, assume that 70% of the votes necessary to achieve quorum would be against the proposal. If this would still result in a majority of votes being in favor of the proposal, the proposal can be considered passed. See

• Soft Quorum Calculator
• –

  One additional note I’d like to add to this one:

  Other items of note:

  Any proposals not following governance process will be asked to be removed.

• All meaningful governance discussion should take place on this forum to ensure the community has full transparency.
• As FOX continues to expand across DeFi and across chains, the SnapShot voting strategy will be updated to grant 1 vote for 1 FOX wherever feasible.

–

Lmk what you think! Overall looks great, this is going to be a major improvement 1f525

[willy]

I also think we should keep this section, which was originally forked from Gitcoin’s governance:

Conflicting Votes

From time to time there may be conflicting proposals. To avoid issues, the Ideation phase can also serve as time for anyone to list their preferred alternative option on the forum. Each proposal on an associate topic will have a [TOPIC] block placed in its title.

After that time, a formal proposal will be put forward including all options available to move forward with that received majority support in Ideation. This will ensure that everyone has the ability to surface their preferences while keeping decision timelines reasonably short.

Evolving Governance

Remember, this is a living document. If there’s anything you want to add or anything that’s unclear, please suggest it below or make an addendum proposal!

[cryptmiss]

Thanks for the in-depth thoughts Willy! Your brain works differently from mine and that’s an awesome benefit to the DAO. 1f64c

A few thoughts in return…

Proposals may continue to be refined based on community feedback during this stage [ideation].

Once Ideation returns to Boardroom, my understanding is that proposals can no longer be modified as the Boardroom posting is not able to be edited. Let me know if I am misunderstanding.

Additionally, if we do have edits in Incubation, it damages the integrity of the poll. I may see the original Ideation post, vote for the proposal and it could be edited after my vote. This is likely a small risk, visiting Ideation isn’t the final step, but something to think about.

Include a yes or no poll in your post to measure community sentiment. [Incubation]

I do think the poll in incubation is redundant. But I defer to your thoughts on this. I can also put a poll up on this post to ask how the community feels about a poll in both Incubation and Ideation would be preferred. (Let me say poll one more time.)

SCP number is included in title (SCP # should be 1 greater than the most recent SCP posted in Proposal Discussion

My concern here is that if Ideation posts can not be edited and we post with the incorrect SCP #, it doesn’t not set us up for success. I think this step can be updated once we confirm that Ideation posts on Boardroom can or can not be update.

I also think we should keep this section, which was originally forked from Gitcoin’s governance.

Love the inclusions regarding voting power and keeping the additional items.

I really appreciate all of the feedback! I’m going to link this into general and governance today to get a few more eyes on it. I’m really hoping for more community engagement on this.

[willy]

Likewise! 2 heads (or even better, 2 dozen fox heads) are so much better than one.

Here are my thoughts in response, and I agree it would be great to get more community input on everything!

Once Ideation returns to Boardroom, my understanding is that proposals can no longer be modified as the Boardroom posting is not able to be edited. Let me know if I am misunderstanding.

Additionally, if we do have edits in Incubation, it damages the integrity of the poll. I may see the original Ideation post, vote for the proposal and it could be edited after my vote. This is likely a small risk, visiting Ideation isn’t the final step, but something to think about.

While the Ideation post can’t be edited, when the proposal is created in SnapShot, it’s possible to post a refined version of the Ideation post. You’re right that the integrity of the Ideation poll isn’t perfect if a proposal changes in this draft stage, but like you said I think the risk is small and worth it. The official SnapShot governance vote is the one that really matters. For example, with the AngelVault proposal, Bryan got a bunch of feedback in the Ideation stage and used this feedback to refine the final Proposal. If a proposer were to make controversial changes between Ideation and the final stage that weren’t based on community feedback, I think it’d be unlikely that their proposal would pass and would only damage their reputation. I worry that if we don’t allow changes in the ideation stage, we won’t get enough community feedback in the Incubation stage and will end up with lower quality final proposals.

I do think the poll in incubation is redundant. But I defer to your thoughts on this. I can also put a poll up on this post to ask how the community feels about a poll in both Incubation and Ideation would be preferred. (Let me say poll one more time.)

Hehe I like the idea of polling for the poll. We can also start with no poll and see how it works. I just think the polls are valuable and worth the low effort to include. If an idea didn’t have majority upvotes in the Incubation stage, would we really want it moving to Ideation? If we’re making the Incubation step required, I feel like we may as well require a poll as well as majority upvotes.

My concern here is that if Ideation posts can not be edited and we post with the incorrect SCP #, it doesn’t not set us up for success. I think this step can be updated once we confirm that Ideation posts on Boardroom can or can not be update.

My concern on the flip side is that governance would no longer be permissionless or decentralized and would require the approval and interaction of a small subset of community members. As long as each SnapShot proposal has the correct SCP, which we’ll be able to verify in the Ideation phase, then we’ll be good (esp. because it will be a req to link to the Ideation post from the SnapShot proposal).

[cryptmiss]

We should also include that you need to hold 100 fox to create a proposal in boardroom. (note to self!)

[cryptmiss]

Thank you for clarifying and sharing your thought process on this! I appreciate the experience and wisdom you bring, not only to this, but to the DAO as a whole. I’m grateful to have a leader like you involved.

I’m going to take the suggestions to update the proposal and then get a new draft together and post to ideation in the next few days.

[willy]

Thanks for the kind words ! I’m so grateful to have you involved and focused on improving and clarifying this critical process.

We should also include that you need to hold 100 fox to create a proposal in boardroom. (note to self!)

Yes, great call. For this one, maybe we should word it “Must hold 100 FOX to create a proposal in Boardroom or SnapShot” or just “Must hold 100 FOX to create a proposal” (Boardroom is an additional interface to SnapShot). Wdyt?

We’re getting into the nitty gritty now which is good 1f642 1f680

[Amicus.eth]

Thank you for this organized post.

I have one question: what is the failing of the present system? How is it unclear? and how is it not standard? are there examples of each that you can point to? I see declarations as substantiation in a few places in the forum so this is not particular to your post, I just happen to be raising it here.

And some comments:

If we are making substantive changes to the proposal process, then we may consider including how long a defeated or unsuccessful idea has to remain dead until it can be revived again.

I am not sure why we call this a governance process. Governance is a broad function that encompasses Strategic planning, Risk Frameworks, and control measures exercised through policy making. IMO this is a policy on how to add items to an asynchronous agenda and subsequently how to vote on those agenda items. As many persons will never have experienced governance before it might prove useful (or not) to define what we mean if we want harmony down the road.

[PeteCoin_shapeshiftd]

I wanted to take the time to really read and form opinions on this - and ultimately I want to start by thanking

1. for this thought provoking post. In no particular order:

   In the new proposed process, under Incubation - I can see an argument FOR having a specific format, even if only for parts of it. I think that having a fully freeform incubation phase lends itself to flexibility - but it also demands more time from governance participants. With a consistent format, someone can easily glance at key parts in the same place and make value judgements on the post quickly. For example, I’ll place a lot less time considering a proposal asking for $5,000 in funding over one asking for $50,000 in funding.

I would like to additionally propose, for the moving of a proposal from incubation to ideation, a FAQ document of sorts. There have been common questions asked of multiple proposals since September 2020 -

1. ’s requests for specific falsifiable goals being one that immediately comes to mind. If we are reworking the process for efficiency, it may be wise to have a document that someone reviews to meet a minimum standard of what the community has expected before?

Other than those two - I have nothing further. I think this kind of work is awesome - thanks again!

[jonisjon]

Thanks for moving this forward - Im all for the proposed changes and no additional comments from me at this time!

[cryptmiss]

Seems legit to me!

Nitty gritty? Best day ever.

[cryptmiss]

• Thanks for the thoughts Amicus!

  A few areas we have had struggle in:

  confusion about whether a forum stage was required, proposals being moved back to the forum stage when missed

• confusion surrounding how much time is needed in each step

Addressing what qualifications, if any, a failed proposal need to meet in order to restart the process could be a good inclusion. What would you suggest?

As far as calling it a governance process, I’m going to ask and/or to address this.

Gentlemen, if you would mind lending a hand with Amicus’s comments. I may be punching about my weight. 1f642

[cryptmiss]

1. Love these thoughts Pete!

   I can see that argument as well. I see the incubation stage being more casual, a place to brainstorm and formulate ideas, discuss budgets, etc. I would say that Ideation is the place where the proposal really starts to take place that I would give the higher level of scrutiny. I may not participate in every Incubation post as I would the Ideation stage. For example, the FOXCHAIN proposal I would have very little, if anything, useful to add in the incubation step. I would pay more attention to it in the Ideation stage where the proposal is drafted and organized in a manner I could find the key parts that are important to me.

I hope that makes sense.

1. 1f914
2. In the end, if we push the incubation step into a template, it leaves less room for the freeform thoughts to happen in a single, visible space.

I think this is a great call out. I will review the templates that are referred too. I think that may be the best place to address the questions that are commonly asked. But we could certain review those templates and make sure everything pertinent is there. I love

1. ’s thought provoking questions on proposals!

I appreciate the kind words.

[IrohDW]

Here are my thoughts on making a section explaining after a proposal passes.

My understanding of who executes proposals and what that involves is limited, so it is possible some of what I’ve put below may be wrong. Also, I’d recommend keeping things as general as possible because the actions a person should take after their proposal passes can vary wildly depending on the specific nature of their proposal and the groups it involves. Keeping that in mind, I would add something like this:

Post proposal process

So you’ve worked hard to push your proposal through the above steps and succeeded. You may be asking yourself, now what? The funds for your proposal are obtained by core ShapeShift members with multisig keys that allow them to access the treasury. It may be benefical to contact them and provide the information they need to execute your proposal. The easier you make it for them, the sooner your proposal can go from passed to executed.