Background

The DAO started the first treasury delegations as a program called Delegation of UNI to Active but Underrepresented Delegates in December, 2023. According to our analytics we shared in the original round 2 ideas thread, this program has been essential to keep the governance healthy and retain the active and capable delegates. At the same time, the originally promised time period has already passed, but the delegation has been kept as they didn't have their expirations. In addition, there have been discussions to consider how we proceed with the treasury delegation going forward. Through the process, we have decided to implement an important feature, expirations of the delegations to the Franchiser contract and create a robust system to keep the delegations enabled for the appropriate delegates.

Proposal Summary

We propose allocating up to 18 million UNI of total amount as the treasury delegation, distributing into selected delegates.

We select delegates based on the objective criteria and metrics (the DIP criteria/scoring + VP cut-off) after the application phase. Each selected delegate receives 1M UNI delegation. Furthermore, the top delegates by scores are considered Tier 1 delegates and receive additional 1M UNI delegations.

Once we conclude the program details and delegates with each delegation amount, we will have an onchain vote to ratify the program, apply the delegations with expirations provided by the new implementation by ScopeLift team, and withdraw the original delegations as promised.

NOTE: Since the delegation to developers is in a slightly different context from the delegation to active but under-represented delegates in this program, we will scope it out and think it should proceed as another separate project.

Motivation

Originally, the delegation to underrepresented delegates was intended to promote healthy governance.

In healthy governance environments, proactive delegates wield significant voting power, ensuring malicious votes are prevented and quorum requirements are met.

To meet the above conditions, the previous treasury delegation assigned 10 million UNI to seven delegates.

Around when the originally promised time period had passed, the discussion about delegation began with a proposal concerning a governance attack.

Based on our preliminary research and the discussions held in the forum regarding the delegation of UNI to active but underrepresented delegates, we have compiled actions that the Uniswap DAO should take from the perspectives of maintaining healthy governance and preventing governance attacks, and have drafted items for voting.

Key Discussion Points

Details can be reviewed in the discussion forum

Proposal Specifications

Based on the discussions in each thread and feedback from the delegates, we propose a balanced and feasible proposal for the next iterations of the treasury delegations. This framework focuses on increasing allocation, setting the delegation period, establishing sustainable evaluation methods, and building the operation for continuity of the program.

Decide on its continuation, and delegation amount

Program continuation

First, we need an option to vote on for whether we continue the treasury delegation program.

Setting the increase or keep the amount

Allocate up to 18 million UNI, distributing a certain amount of UNI to the two sets of delegates. This will provide sufficient voting power to the currently active 12 delegates, allowing them to reflect their opinions in votes.

Delegate selections

First, we need a thread for delegates to apply for this round. As before, we need to conduct applications and select delegates from there with the objective criteria that were used for the DIP Cycle 3 and VIP cut-off.

• Only delegates who have participated in onchain voting for at least three months prior to the application post
• DIP Cycle 3 criteria and scoring metrics
  • We will re-calculate the scores for each delegate based on their recent activities
• No more than 1M UNI VP has been delegated to the account. For the delegates who have received the original delegations, the current VP amount minus the amount of the delegations in the original program should be considered as the original delegations will be withdrawn, should this proposal be approved and proceeded. Any other temporary delegations will also be treated in the same manner.
• Agree to adhere to the DAO Principles

Selected delegates based on the above criteria and metrics will receive 1M VP delegations (1.5M in total as delegation hard limit). Top 6 delegates by them are considered Tier 1 delegates and receive additional 1M VP delegations (2.5M in total as delegation hard limit)

Delegation period and evaluation mechanism

Expiration period

Erin and we have worked with the ScopeLift team to introduce the expiration of each delegation at the contract level, so that we are sure that delegation period is set onchain. The factory contract has been deployed on https://etherscan.io/address/0x807d62f954a2c3fb00ef32f064032228000b9899.

With the new implementation, we are able to set the expiration of delegations for each delegate. This proposal will utilize the new features to assign 18 months as the expiration time for delegations.

Selected delegates' responsibilities

Each delegate elected by the DAO, who will receive the treasury delegation should maintain the following requirements:

• Maintain a minimum 80% voting participation rate over the past 3 months.
  • Participation rate calculation:
    • Includes both Snapshot and on-chain proposals
    • Excludes cancelled proposals
    • Measured from the date of Snapshot approval
• Maintain a minimum of 80% justification rate for all votes cast in the delegation thread. The motivation is that a delegate’s primary responsibility is not only to vote on behalf of their delegators but also to provide a clear, reasoned explanation for each vote. This transparency helps the community understand the basis for decisions, reassuring them that the vote was carefully considered and aligned with community interests. Providing a well-founded rationale is a fundamental duty to maintain open communication and uphold the trust placed by delegators.

Program management

To continue the program effectively and secure the Uniswap governance, we will work with the Uniswap Accountability Committee to smoothly operate the program including actions like below:

• Publish every 3 months report of the evaluation
• Delegate selection management and evaluation of the program for each round

Evaluation and revocation process

Every 3 months, we will publish a report in a dedicated thread on the forum detailing the proposals from the past three months, including a list of the delegates who met the participation requirements and those who did not, following a similar format used on the incentive program.

Delegates who fail to meet the minimum participation requirements will have their delegations revoked via an onchain voting. (NOTE: the new implementation hasn't supported early terminations based on the off-chain conditions yet.) They will be eligible to reapply during the following cycle. We will create a proposal to revoke their delegations.

Disclosure

We (Tané) are willing to apply for the proposed treasury delegation as a recipient if no critical objection as we believe our further involvement is beneficial to the DAO while we are the author of the program proposal. We will abstain from voting on the Snapshot itself and would abstain from voting on the onchain proposal if needed.