TL;DR

• Full proposal on gov.bancor.network
• A new anti-spam measure is being proposed, and will help to maintain organization of DAO operations on Snapshot.
• The proposed change affects vBNT lockup periods on the governance contracts on Ethereum.
• At present, vBNT is locked in the governance contract for 7 hours following a new staking event.
• Herein, we propose to increase the locking period to 7 days.
• Snapshot block nomination guidelines are proposed:
  • Invalidate proposals that reference past blocks, relative to the proposal publication.
  • Invalidate proposals that reference blocks fewer than 2 days into the future, relative to the proposal publication (emergency situations exempted).
  • Invalidate proposals that reference blocks farther than 2 days past the conclusion of the voting period.

Voting Instructions

Vote FOR to increase the vBNT lockup following a new stake in the governance contracts to 7 days, and instate the proposed snapshot block nomination guidelines.

Vote AGAINST to leave the vBNT lockup period at 7 hours, and reject the proposed block nomination guidelines.

Summary of DAO Transition to Snapshot

• The Bancor DAO has voted in support of transitioning to Snapshot, to support gas-free governance participation.
• The new system on Snapshot effectively replaces the DAO decision functions of the Vote tab on the Bancor app; the overall flow of Bancor governance remains unchanged.
• The vote tab on the Bancor app will remain, and will serve two main functions:
  • Staking/unstaking vBNT in the governance contract
  • On-chain voting to renew/remove Snapshot authority
• The governance forum remains an open discussion board where anyone can create draft improvement proposals, and engage other community members in matters related to the management of the protocol.
• Submitting proposals to Snapshot for a DAO decision requires 25,000 vBNT staked in the governance contract on Ethereum at the time time of the submission, identical to the current format. Proposals submitted from addresses with insufficient vBNT will not appear on the Snapshot page.
• Proposals on Snapshot will adhere to more stringent formatting rules, including and especially the nomination of a discrete block for the blockchain snapshot to occur in. Three day voting periods will also be enforced, and moderated by DAO members. Templates will be created for community use, with a view to making the process as frictionless as possible.
• As a spam prevention, we propose increasing the current vBNT lockup period from 7 hours, to 7 days.

How Snapshot Works

Snapshot will look and feel the same as our current governance. Addresses with 25,000 vBNT staked in the governance contract will have an opportunity to submit proposals to Snapshot for a DAO decision. If a user attempts to submit a proposal with fewer vBNT staked, the proposal will not appear and no one will be able to vote on it.

Each proposal must nominate a specific block for the Snapshot to be taken. This block must be in the future, relative to the publication of the proposal on the governance forum, therefore giving community members sufficient time to discuss the proposal, and stake vBNT in preparation for the vote. Guidelines for how far into the future the nominated block should be are detailed in BIP3; 2-3 days is a good rule of thumb.

Be reminded that the time requirements are mandatory. If a proposal is created, and submitted to Snapshot for a vote with less than 2 days for community engagement during the drafting phase, the proposal may be invalidated, as per BIP3 guidelines:

"BIP documentation must be available with sufficient time for consideration by a reasonable and intelligent person. Time sufficiency is commensurate with the complexity of proposal. Minor adjustments to the protocol parameters, required for maintaining the health of the system, are prioritized over time for community deliberation. Similarly, urgent matters requiring immediate action can expedite the sufficient time requirement. Any other proposal that is not of imminent importance to the continuity of the project is not exempted. Low-to-moderate levels of complexity must allow 2-3 days for community engagement before voting commences; moderate-to-high levels of complexity must allow 3-5 days for community engagement before voting commences."

In the time between publication and the nominated future block, BancorDAO members can participate in discussions, stake vBNT in the governance contract, and participate in signature-only voting once the proposal is live on Snapshot. The voting power associated with each signature is determined at the nominated snapshot block. It is important to realize that the snapshot block is not necessarily timed to the end of the voting period. With the acceptance of this proposal, the following rules for block nomination will become law:

• The nominated snapshot block cannot be fewer than 2 days into the future, relative to the proposal publication (with the exception of emergency situations).
• Therefore, all proposals nominating a past block relative to its publication are automatically disqualified.
• The nominated snapshot block must not exceed the conclusion of the voting period by more than 2 days.

DAO ‘Membership’ and Moderation

In the common vernacular, the ability to submit proposals to Snapshot and have it visible, and available for community participation is reserved for DAO ‘members’. However, this is only a semantic change; the requirement for 25,000 vBNT to be locked in the governance contract to activate an on-chain vote on Ethereum was already working quite well. The requirement that a proposal must be supported by a DAO member with ‘significant skin in the game’ will continue essentially unchanged. The Snapshot page will be moderated, and invalid proposals removed. This practice remains auditable as all proposals are available for examination on the Bancor governance forum.

The Bancor Governance Forum is Unchanged

Snapshot is for voting only. Drafting proposals and related discussions continue on the Bancor governance forum as normal, and there is no vBNT, or BNT holding requirement to participate there.

A Proposed Anti-Spam Measure

At present, new vBNT stakes in the governance contracts on Ethereum are locked for a period of 7 hours. With the move to Snapshot, we propose to increase this lock-up period to 7 days. This adds a barrier to an annoyance vector where an antagonist may stake vBNT for the purpose of submitting needless/irrelevant proposals, before unstaking and leaving. Increasing the lockup period from 7 hours to 7 days essentially makes spamming the DAO more inconvenient.