[BIP-721] Balancer to act as a Technical Delegate in the Polygon Governance System

Introduction

Polygon Labs would like Balancer to act as a delegate in the new Polygon governance system. This initiative aims to foster collaboration and leverage Balancer's expertise in technical smart contract-based governance to contribute to the Polygon ecosystem, where Balancer plays an important role as one of the largest DEXes.

Polygon will soon launch the next phase of its System Smart Contracts governance, facilitated by the Polygon Governance Hub.

As part of this framework, technical community delegates are needed to help guide decision-making, particularly around Protocol Governance and System Smart Contracts (SSC) Governance.

Motivation

The Balancer Protocol has been a pioneer in DeFi, with a well-established governance structure that emphasizes decentralization, transparency, and community involvement. By participating as a delegate in the Polygon governance system, Balancer can play a crucial role in stewarding the future of Polygon and helping to ensure robust and inclusive governance.

Balancer’s participation will support the decentralization of Polygon and enhance Balancer's cross-chain presence and governance capabilities.

Why Balancer

Balancer is uniquely positioned to contribute as a delegate in the technical part of Polygon governance for several reasons:

1. Expertise in Governance: Balancer has a proven track record in governance and community driven decision-making within their community.
2. Smart Contract Upgrades: As one of the leading DeFi protocols on Polygon, Balancer has extensive experience in managing large-scale, decentralized systems and handling complex smart contract upgrades. This expertise is invaluable for contributing to discussions and decisions around Polygon protocol upgrades and SSC governance.
3. Community Alignment: The Balancer community shares a commitment to decentralized governance and the promotion of open, transparent decision-making processes. Acting as a delegate aligns with Polygon to foster collaboration and support the broader DeFi ecosystem.

System Overview

Polygon governance is separated into three pillars, each of them governed in a distinct and separate fashion:

• Protocol Governance facilitates ecosystem consensus and decision-making over the Polygon PoS chain via the PIP framework and the Polygon Protocol Governance Call, similar to Ethereum EIP governance.
• System Smart Contracts Governance covers the shared components of Polygon networks, which are upgradeable on Ethereum, e.g., PoS staking contracts. This is the pillar where voting and delegation will soon be enabled and where Balancer would act as a delegate.
• Community Treasury Governance is handled by the Polygon Funding Proposal framework and the Community Treasury Board. This is the only pillar that deals with funding distribution to the ecosystem.

The chart below describes the proposed governance flow, constituting various checks and balances, with tokenholders staked in the PoS chain serving to direct governance via their ability to signal on proposals.

Staked token holders delegate votes to Polygon governance delegates, who scrutinize proposals coming from the core protocol development and research community, as well as the Protocol Council.

Potential Contributions

As a delegate in the Polygon governance system, Balancer can offer significant contributions in the following areas:

• Signal Vote: Actively engage in voting on technical Polygon Improvement Proposals (PIPs) discussed in the forums and Polygon governance calls, and submitted on-chain by the Protocol Council.
• Maintain Accountability: Help ensure that the Protocol Council remains accountable, while at the same time upholding accountability to the staked tokenholders who delegate their votes to you.
• Stay Up To Date: Engage regularly in Polygon community spaces, including the forum and Discord to stay informed and contribute to discussions.

Conclusion

The next chapter of Polygon governance is coming soon, and while the particular implementation will likely change over the coming months as parameters are ironed out, any community member will be able to influence the future of Polygon.

Balancer’s participation as a delegate in the Polygon governance system will be mutually beneficial, enhancing collaboration between both communities.

All community members are encouraged to participate in the discussion and provide their insights and opinions on this proposal.

Specification

Upon approval of this proposal, the Balancer Foundation will act as a liaison between Polygon Governance Hub, the Balancer community and the Ecosystem-Council, by creating a delegation profile and disclosing a delegate statement, through the Foundation/OpCo executor wallet.