Author

Tané

Note

This is the revised version of the original Snapshot with a few changes below:

• Setting a shorter period of the delegations with the promise of re-evaluating the program if and when a significant change to the delegation landscape, especially the Unistaker implementation
• Election Snapshot for selection of the “distinguished” delegates out of the qualified delegates
• Reducing the total amount of UNI for delegations to up to 15M

You can check the details and ratinoale of them in our latest comment.

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 15 million UNI of total amount as the treasury delegation, distributing into selected delegates.

We select qualified delegates based on the objective criteria and metrics (the Delegate Reward Program Cycle 3 criteria/scoring + VP cut-off) after the application phase. We then introduce an election to choose the "distinguished" delegates from them.

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.

Motivation and 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. At the same time, we view this treasury delegation is a temporary solution, rather than the permanent solution to the voting quorum challenge, but believe we have made critical improvements to the program for the DAO to consider the optimal solution to the problem.

Decide on its continuation, delegation amount and delegate selections

Program continuation

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

Setting the increase or keep the amount

Allocate up to 15 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 and put up proposals for the Uniswap DAO.

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 Delegate Reward Program Cycle 3 and VIP cut-off.

• Only delegates who have participated in onchain voting for at least three months prior to the application post
• Delegate Reward Program Cycle 3 criteria and scoring metrics
  • We will re-calculate the scores for each delegate based on their recent activities (From the date when the Snapshot has concluded)
• 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

Qualified delegates based on the above criteria and metrics will receive 1M VP delegations (1.5M in total as delegation hard limit).

We then conduct a Snapshot election to select 6 "distinguished" delegates from the candidates who are qualified delegates based on the objective criteria and scoring. The distinguished delegates will receive additional 500k VP delegations (2M in total as the 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 12 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 delegate rewards 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.

We will also re-evaluate the whole program in early 2026 (after 9 months of the program start) or earlier if the new initiative like Unistaker is introduced to change the landscape of the delegations in the Uniswap DAO.

Proposed actions and upcoming votes

The next actions required to take forward this proposal are as follows.

1. Determine program continuation and Treasury Delegation amount (Snapshot)
2. Elect the distinguished delegates from the qualified delegates (Snapshot)
3. Onchain delegation with expirations to ratify the changes (Onchain)

Proposal 1: Decide on program continuation and the total delegation amount (Snapshot)

• If "For" to the program continuation, the delegation amount and delegation details are;
  • Up to 15M
  • 12 delegates
  • 1M to all selected delegates (capped at 1.5M), additional 500k to Tier 1 delegates (capped 2M)
  • 12 months' expirations
• If "Against" the program continuation,
  • We will come up with a proposal to appropriately wind down the current treasury delegation program or propose another revision of this proposal.

Application period: selection of delegates for the treasury delegation program

• Between Proposal 1 and 2, we will have a thread for delegates to apply for the program. All prospective delegates must submit their applications through this designated thread for consideration.
• After an enough time, we select qualified 12 delegates.

Proposal 2: Elect the distinguished delegates (Snapshot)

After selecting the qualified 12 delegates, we create a Snapshot vote for the tokenholders to approve 6 distinguished delegates.

Proposal 3: Execute the delegations with expirations to ratify the changes (Onchain)

Create an onchain proposal to ratify the changes voted on Proposal 1 and 2, and execute transactions to delegate the appropriate amount of voting powers from the treasury to elected delegates with the expiration set and withdraw the delegations done in the original program.

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 first Snapshot, but would vote on the ratification onchain proposal.