Define and implement a 3-step governance

Proposal
#1

Written by Regan Bozman and Pierre Chuzeville from Dove Mountain Partners

Summary

Define the C.R.E.A.M. governance process. From idea to implementation, including days per stage, key stakeholders, quorum, and thresholds.

  • C.R.E.A.M. Governance Request: someone posts an open question in governance forums. The forum post should include a link to the associated Snapshot poll. IF PASSES THEN:

  • C.R.E.A.M. Improvement Proposal: a CIP (C.R.E.A.M. Improvement Proposal) is then created. IF PASSES THEN:

  • Execution: a two-day Timelock period before proposed code is executed

As part of these changes, we also proposing lowering the C.R.E.A.M. balance needed to submit a Governance Request or Improvement Proposal to 250 CREAM.

For

Implement a 3-step governance proposal lifecycle from idea to implementation with specific parameters settings, while also lowering the C.R.E.A.M. balance needed to propose Governance Requests and Improvement Proposals.

Against

Do nothing

Motivation

Currently, there is no clearly defined governance proposal lifecycle. This decreases community participation in governance. Most other Tier 1 DeFi protocols have adopted a well thought governance process to foster innovation and community participation.

Additionally, the $CREAM required to propose a vote is too high – it’s currently well over $100,000, pricing out many active community members

Specification

Several governance venues are available to C.R.E.A.M. governance, each serving its own particular purpose.

  • forum.cream.finance is a Discourse-hosted forum for governance-related discussion.
  • Snapshot is a simple voting interface that allows users to signal sentiment. Votes on snapshot are weighted by the number of CREAM delegated to the address used to vote.

[1] C.R.E.A.M. Governance Request (CGR) — Discourse/Snapshot

The purpose of the CGR is to determine if there is sufficient will to make changes to the status quo.
To create a CGR:

  • Ask a general, non-biased question to the community in the CGR Discussion on forum.cream.finance about a potential change (example: ”Should C.R.E.A.M. implement EPNS decentralized notifications?”). Forum posts should be labeled as follows: ”First Check - [Your Title Here]”. The forum post should include a poll in it.
  • CGR posts should be labeled as follows: ”CGR - [Your Title Here]”
  • Voters use Snapshot to indicate their interest in bringing it forward to the next stage.

Snapshot poll lengths should be set to 2 days.

Quorum: At the end of the 2 days, a majority vote with a 15k CREAM yes-vote threshold wins.

If the First Check does not suggest a change from the status quo, the topic will be closed on the governance site.

[2] C.R.E.A.M. Improvement Proposal (CIP) — Discourse/Snapshot

The proposal should be based on the winning outcome from the CGR and can consist of one or multiple actions, up to a maximum of 10 actions per proposal.
To create a CIP:

  • Create a topic in the Proposal Discussion category on forum.cream.finance titled ”CIP — [Your Title Here]” and link to any relevant Snapshot polls/discussion threads as well as the code audit report. Topics that begin with ”CIP” that have not successfully passed through the First Check stages will be removed by moderators.

  • Use feedback from the First Check post and create a new Snapshot poll which covers the options which have gained support. This poll can either be binary or multiple choice but you are required to include the option ”Make no change” or its equivalent. Set the poll duration to 5 days.

  • Make sure that the discussion thread links to the new Snapshot poll and the First Check thread

  • Reach out to your network to build support for the proposal. Discuss the proposal and actively solicit delegates to vote on it. Be willing to respond to questions. Share your view point, although try to remain as impartial as possible.

  • Users must have 250 CREAM in their wallet in order to submit a vote.

The voting period should be coupled with communications of CIPs via Twitter and Discord.

Quorum: At the end of the 5 days, a majority vote with a 40k CREAM yes-vote threshold wins.

If the Snapshot vote does not meet a 50% majority approval then the vote is rejected and no changes will be enacted.
Authors of proposals that are rejected may resubmit their proposal, but should include significant changes that address issues that may have prevented the CIP from passing during the initial vote.

[3] Execution

  • If the proposal has passed successfully, a two day timelock will follow before the proposed code is executed.
1 Like
#2

I’m not sure why you separate the voting into two phrases. Any reason of this 2-step voting?
I saw that there are different threshold, quorum and voting period, but I don’t get the purpose.

Besides, since we have multisig already, I don’t see the benefit of putting time lock here. What’s the rationale behind? Time lock is more decentralized, but it also deprive protocol of the ability to react to emergent situation in a timely manner. I would say C.R.E.A.M. Finance multisig is running well so far and no reason to implement time lock, extending the governance procedure.

3 Likes
#3

Agree with eason, I dont see the need for two vote phases since part of the reason for creating the listing team was to have fewer votes.

40k CREAM quorum is way too high. I dont think we’ve ever have that many votes unless a whale decided to join in. 15k as it is today is fine.

#4

This is great feedback - thanks @eason and @Kiba

1/ Two phase voting - you’re right that my proposed plan may complicate the governance process. The reason that I proposed it is that I think it’s useful to do a soft poll on people’s opinions before moving stuff to a formal vote.

So an alternative is to just have people include a poll in their proposals in the governance forums and people can indicate interest right within forum.cream.finance.

This is how we run governance in the Index Coop and it has worked well.

2/ Timelock - totally fair. I’ll remove. I agree multi-sig is working well.

3/ Quorum - I’ll adjust down to 15k votes

2 Likes
#5

That’s great!

I like the idea of soft polling. I’ve seen it implemented in many DAO. Surely we can do this on the forum.

I believe we need topic to exist on forum for a while before moving into voting. That’s for the broader reach of topic among the community. In the meantime, we can do soft polling to avoid the dependency and blocker that two phase voting might bring us.

2 Likes
#6

In re timelock: It can be useful to separate roles into multiple parts:

  1. A keeper role, that can pause the system, or a market, in an emergency. Or move funds to a timelocked safety account.

  2. A time-locked contract upgrade procedure.

This enables a response team for emergencies, while also protecting upgrades.

1 Like
#7

I’ve updated the specification based on helpful feedback from @eason and @Kiba. This was the original specification:

Specification

Several governance venues are available to C.R.E.A.M. governance, each serving its own particular purpose.

  • forum.cream.finance is a Discourse-hosted forum for governance-related discussion.
  • Snapshot is a simple voting interface that allows users to signal sentiment. Votes on snapshot are weighted by the number of CREAM delegated to the address used to vote.

[1] C.R.E.A.M. Governance Request (CGR) — Discourse/Snapshot

The purpose of the CGR is to determine if there is sufficient will to make changes to the status quo.
To create a CGR:

  • Ask a general, non-biased question to the community in the CGR Discussion on forum.cream.finance about a potential change (example: ”Should C.R.E.A.M. implement EPNS decentralized notifications?”). Forum posts should be labeled as follows: ”First Check - [Your Title Here]”. The forum post should include a poll in it.
  • CGR posts should be labeled as follows: ”CGR - [Your Title Here]”
  • Voters use Snapshot to indicate their interest in bringing it forward to the next stage.

Snapshot poll lengths should be set to 2 days.

Quorum: At the end of the 2 days, a majority vote with a 15k CREAM yes-vote threshold wins.

If the First Check does not suggest a change from the status quo, the topic will be closed on the governance site.

[2] C.R.E.A.M. Improvement Proposal (CIP) — Discourse/Snapshot

The proposal should be based on the winning outcome from the CGR and can consist of one or multiple actions, up to a maximum of 10 actions per proposal.
To create a CIP:

  • Create a topic in the Proposal Discussion category on forum.cream.finance titled ”CIP — [Your Title Here]” and link to any relevant Snapshot polls/discussion threads as well as the code audit report. Topics that begin with ”CIP” that have not successfully passed through the First Check stages will be removed by moderators.
  • Use feedback from the First Check post and create a new Snapshot poll which covers the options which have gained support. This poll can either be binary or multiple choice but you are required to include the option ”Make no change” or its equivalent. Set the poll duration to 5 days.
  • Make sure that the discussion thread links to the new Snapshot poll and the First Check thread
  • Reach out to your network to build support for the proposal. Discuss the proposal and actively solicit delegates to vote on it. Be willing to respond to questions. Share your view point, although try to remain as impartial as possible.
  • Users must have 250 CREAM in their wallet in order to submit a vote.

The voting period should be coupled with communications of CIPs via Twitter and Discord.

Quorum: At the end of the 5 days, a majority vote with a 40k CREAM yes-vote threshold wins.

If the Snapshot vote does not meet a 50% majority approval then the vote is rejected and no changes will be enacted.
Authors of proposals that are rejected may resubmit their proposal, but should include significant changes that address issues that may have prevented the CIP from passing during the initial vote.

[3] Execution

  • If the proposal has passed successfully, a two day timelock will follow before the proposed code is executed.

This is the updated specification:

Specification

Several governance venues are available to C.R.E.A.M. governance, each serving its own particular purpose.

  • forum.cream.finance is a Discourse-hosted forum for governance-related discussion.
  • Snapshot is a simple voting interface that allows users to signal sentiment. Votes on snapshot are weighted by the number of CREAM delegated to the address used to vote.

[1] C.R.E.A.M. Governance Request (CGR) — Discourse

The purpose of the CGR is to determine if there is sufficient will to make changes to the status quo.
To create a CGR:

  • Ask a general, non-biased question to the community in the CGR Discussion on forum.cream.finance about a potential change (example: ”Should C.R.E.A.M. implement EPNS decentralized notifications?”). Forum posts should be labeled as follows: ”First Check - [Your Title Here]”. Make sure to include a poll in the post.
  • CGR posts should be labeled as follows: ”CGR - [Your Title Here]”
  • Voters use the built in poll to indicate their interest in bringing it forward to the next stage.

Soft polling should last for 5 days before moving forward.

Quorum: At the end of the 5 days, if there is a majority vote in favor of the proposal, move to the second step (CIP).

If soft polling does not support a change from the status quo, the topic will be closed on the governance site.

[2] C.R.E.A.M. Improvement Proposal (CIP) — Discourse/Snapshot

The proposal should be based on the winning outcome from the CGR and can consist of one or multiple actions, up to a maximum of 10 actions per proposal.
To create a CIP:

  • Create a topic in the Proposal Discussion category on forum.cream.finance titled ”CIP — [Your Title Here]” and link to any relevant Snapshot polls/discussion threads as well as the code audit report. Topics that begin with ”CIP” that have not successfully passed through the First Check stages will be removed by moderators.
  • Use feedback from the First Check post and create a new Snapshot poll which covers the options which have gained support. This poll can either be binary or multiple choice but you are required to include the option ”Make no change” or its equivalent. Set the poll duration to 5 days.
  • Make sure that the discussion thread links to the new Snapshot poll and the First Check thread
  • Reach out to your network to build support for the proposal. Discuss the proposal and actively solicit delegates to vote on it. Be willing to respond to questions. Share your view point, although try to remain as impartial as possible.
  • Users must have 250 CREAM in their wallet in order to submit a vote.

The voting period should be coupled with communications of CIPs via Twitter and Discord.

Quorum: At the end of the 5 days, a majority vote with a 15,000 CREAM yes-vote threshold wins.

If the Snapshot vote does not meet a 50% majority approval then the vote is rejected and no changes will be enacted.
Authors of proposals that are rejected may resubmit their proposal, but should include significant changes that address issues that may have prevented the CIP from passing during the initial vote.

[3] Execution

  • If the proposal passes successfully, the C.R.E.A.M. team will implement the proposed changes.
1 Like