[README] Radicle Governance Process 🌱

abbey · March 3, 2021, 11:56pm

This document describes the process for discussing, developing, and creating Radicle Governance Proposals

Radicle’s Ethereum integration is maintained and upgraded through a community governance system in which RAD token-holders and their delegates debate, propose, and vote on all changes to the network’s Ethereum-based protocols. To propose changes, community members must create a Governance Proposal, executable code that outlines a proposed set of simple or complex actions and is subject to on-chain voting. Anybody with 1% of RAD delegated to their address can propose a Governance Proposal.

NOTE: Radicle governance only relates to it’s Ethereum smart contracts. Governance of the Radicle Link protocol and peer-to-peer stack will be via an official RFC process.

The Radicle governance process is meant to be owned and developed by the Radicle community, therefore this process should be considered an active work in progress and is subject to change.

TL:DR;

Radicle’s governance process is structured around an expectation of self-direction. Community “champions” (the individual(s) who created a proposal) are expected to escalate proposals from phase to phase, with guidance from community moderators. There are four stages in the governance process. To be considered an official Governance Proposal, a proposal has to go through all four stages.

Temperature Check → Structured Discussion → Formal Review → Governance Proposal

Create a Temperature Check to initiate an informal discussion around a proposed idea and/or change.
Use feedback from the Temperature Check to draft a proposal that meets the criteria set in this document and start a Structured Discussion (t/r 5 days)
Submit the draft proposal for Formal Review by creating a Snapshot poll (t/r 5 days)
If passed, deploy a Governance Proposal via rad gov. (t/r 3 days)

Please refer to the rest of the document for details on how to navigate each phase.

Overview of Stages

Phase 1: Temperature Check - Discourse

The path to creating an official proposal starts with an informal discussion in the Governance category of radicle.community by calling for a Temperature Check. Inspired by Uniswap, a “Temperature Check” is a way to officially create a space for discussion around a question or proposed change with the goal of developing arguments and background for a potential proposal. The purpose of this phase is to get feedback on ideas and create the space for productive discourse. Anybody can create a Temperature Check to start a community discussion around an idea, question, or proposal.

To start a Temperature Check:

Create a topic and label it as follows: “Temperature Check - Your Topic of Discussion Here”.
Ask a general, non-biased question about a potential change, improvement, or action (i.e. Should swapping on the Balancer LBP be unpaused?)
Add any additional information to contextualize the question for the greater community
Collect feedback and engage in discussion for 3-5 days

It’s important to remain as objective as a view as possible. Present developed arguments and the “full picture” — not just your opinion!

Phase 2: Structured Discussion - Discourse

To move a Temperature Check forward, it should then be presented for formal, structured discussion in Phase 2. Phase 2 requires two things: a formal discussion on Discourse and a drafted proposal that presents a thorough analysis for formal review by Radicle stakeholders.

Drafted Proposal

The goal of this phase is to take the the ideas, arguments, and feedback generated in the Temperature Check and craft an overview of the proposal that meets the following criteria:

Functional description (what is this being proposed?)
Purpose (what’s the “why”?)
Background (what is the reasoning behind the proposal?)
Link to Temperature Check
Reasoning & analysis (what is the case for the proposal? what are the pros and cons?)
Technical implementation (who will be writing the code? what is the scope required?)
Impact (how does this contribute to the long-term resilience, sustainability and/or growth of the Radicle network?)
Open questions (what else needs to be figured out?)

Governance Proposals are executable code and must be audited. The Radicle core team will support community members with development resources if necessary, but please do not create a draft proposal without thinking through the technical implementation.

Structured Discussion

To escalate a Temperature Check to a Structured Discussion:

Create a topic and label it as follows: “Discussion - Your Title Here”.
Include an overview of the drafted proposal that meets the criteria outlined above and link to it’s previous Temperature Check.

Anybody can escalate a Temperature Check to a Structured Discussion by putting together an draft proposal that meets these criteria. If a Structured Discussion is started without demonstrating a successful Temperature Check, then it will be flagged and closed by community moderators.

Phase 3: Formal Review - Discourse + Snapshot

After a proposal is thoroughly discussed, the proposal can be submitted to the community for Formal Review.

To do this:

Create a Snapshot poll that includes the updated overview of the proposal and options on how to move forward. The options can be multiple choice (if to present multiple options for the proposal) or be binary, but must include the choice Make no change. The Snapshot poll length should be set to 5 days*.

Note: You can’t edit a Snapshot poll after it is submitted, so please make sure you include as much information as possible.*
Create a topic and label it as follows: “Formal Review - Your Title Here”. Link the Snapshot poll in the topic. Any topic that is labeled Formal Review and does not link to a successful Temperature check and/or does not meet the criteria outlined above will be flagged and removed.
All Radicle stakeholders are responsible for ensuring proper review of any proposal in Formal Review. This includes the core team. However, as the ‘Champion’ of the proposal, it is your responsibility to gather support for your proposal by sourcing delegates, actively responding to questions, and addressing feedback regarding the proposal.

At the end of 5 days, whichever option has the majority of votes wins. 4% of participation is required for a Snapshot to pass Formal Review. Only then should it be deployed as an official Governance Proposal. If the option “Make no change” wins, the topic should be archived by community moderators.

Phase 4: Governance Proposal

Once a draft proposal has been formally reviewed and consensus has been met in the Snapshot, it can be officially proposed as a Governance Proposal. Governance Proposals are voted for on-chain via gov.radicle.network. They are executable code, not suggestions for a team or foundation to implement. All proposed code should be audited by a professional auditor. Anybody with 1% of RAD delegated to their address can create a Governance Proposal. At the moment, proposals can be made with our custom governance CLI tool. An official governance interface for creating proposals is in development.

All proposals are subject to a 3-day voting period, and any address with voting power can vote for or against the proposal Resources for proposing can be found here.

To create a Governance Proposal:

Write the proposal code and deploy the proposal via rad gov. All proposed code should be audited by a professional auditor.
Ensure at least 1 million RAD is delegated to your address. If you do not have enough RAD to create a proposal, find a delegate to either delegate to you or propose on your behalf.
Create a topic titled “Governance Proposal [Proposal Number] — [Your Title Here]”. Be sure to include:
- A link to the official proposal in gov.radicle.network
- Links to any relevant Snapshot polls/discussion threads and
  link to any relevant Snapshot polls/discussion threads.
- A full overview of the proposal, with any feedback or changes introduced during the Formal Review

Topics that begin with “Governance Proposal” that have not successfully passed a Temperature Check and a Formal Review should be removed by community moderators.

Community Moderators

Moderators steward governance by supporting community members as they escalate proposals through the governance process. This includes:

Refining and updating governance processes based on needs of the project
Ensuring proper following of the governance process
Removing spam & members who violate Code of Conduct

Current lead community moderator: @abbey

This process is for creating official Governance Proposals for formal voting on-chain. “Off-chain” governance for community actions & proposals that are not related to systems that the governor does not control, can be discussed and improved via informal governance on this forum. This can include starting formal discussions around ideas, strategies, and suggestions for refining and improving Radicle governance.

If you’d like to start a discussion on a topic that lies outside of formal governance, please be sure to tag the topic as metagovernance.

abbey · February 18, 2021, 6:03pm

onur · February 21, 2021, 8:22am

Thanks so much for outlining the process @abbey. I discovered some people using a Ledger Hardware wallet might have issues signing their delegation with MetaMask. Here is a workaround a friend showed me today to delegate RAD token using sybil.org and a Ledger Hardware wallet (please use at your own risk and validate everything beforehand):

THE FOLLOWING ISN’T OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION

I. Make sure contract data is enabled

To enable contract data:

Connect and unlock your Ledger device.
Open the Ethereum application.
Press the right button to navigate to Settings. Then press both buttons to validate.
In the Contract data settings, press both buttons to allow contract data in transactions.

The device displays Allowed.

II. Delegate using MyEtherWallet

Go to https://www.myetherwallet.com/ (alternatively offline clients are available)
Select Access my wallet and select Hardware
Select Contract on the left menu
Enter the contract address (0x31c8EAcBFFdD875c74b94b077895Bd78CF1E64A3)
Select Contract on Etherscan
Copy the Contract ABI to clipboard
Switch back to MyEtherWallet and paste it in ABI/JSON Interface
Click continue
Select the delegate function in the Select an item dropdown menu
Enter the desired Delegatee (address):
Value in ETH should be set to 0
Click Write
Do following steps to confirm and sign on your hardware

The above steps might be outdated at some point so please validate the contract address and everything yourself. Since you’re “just” delegating it should be okay and hopefully MetaMasks support for Ledger fixes this at some point.

jebba · February 21, 2021, 1:08am

@onur thanks for all the docs in the various threads.

Just curious, but would it be possible to do like this (Note, I’m a noob, I haven’t done this):

Got to contract address on etherscan:
Radicle: RAD Token | 0x31c8eacbffdd875c74b94b077895bd78cf1e64a3
Hit “Connect to Web3” and connect to your Ledger via Metamask.
Go to “Contract” tab.
Click “Write Contract” button.
Under “delegatee (address)” enter the Ethereum address to delegate to.
Click “Write”.

Then, I presume, you pay some gas and it gets delegated. ?

onur · February 21, 2021, 8:35am

Thanks, you’re welcome!

Hit “Connect to Web3” and connect to your Ledger via Metamask.

If using Ledger via Metamask would work as expected, we wouldn’t need to go through this process in the first place and could just perform the delegation from the sybil.org website.

Thats why I proposed the detour of using MEW as that seems to work better with Ledger. In the process you’ve outlined Metamask is still used, which caused the problem in the first place.