[Discussions and New Ideas] Improve ION DAO Governance Participation Rate

Ecosystem ION
1

Hi, Community!

I guess this is my first time uploading a draft proposal on the ION forum using an account that is not the IBCindex.osmo account.

Today, I want to initiate a discussion on the goal of achieving a higher governance participation rate in the ION governance. Hope active involvement will be made here.

As we all know, the turnouts of most ION Proposals exceeded the 30% governance quorum limit by an extremely thin margin.

Until now, the governance quorums can be reached by sending frequent governance reminders to many communities.

  • ION DAO Twitter & IBCX Twitter
  • Validators’ Telegram Group Chats (Forbole, DHK DAO, OmniFLix, POSTHUMAN, B-HARVEST, Bro_n_Bro, strangelove)
    ^ The purpose of this was for some ION whale stakers to see possibly the governance reminder (Check the Tweet for more details)
  • Osmosis Telegram Group Chats (Official-EN, Siberia, and others for various languages)
  • Cosmos Telegram Group Chats
  • Manually contact to whose ICNS addresses match ION stakers’ addresses
    ^ By the way, manually contacting stakers who are distinguishable by their ICNS addresses via Twitter is better to be the last-minute option in the case that there are no more choices, in my opinion.
  • Make transactions that send a small amount of OSMO to all ION stakers with a memo filled with the governance reminder texts
  • Cosmos/Osmosis Reddit
  • ION DAO/Osmosis Discord

The above items did actually work, and we made 4 more passed proposals so far after the recently rejected one (due to the quorum).

However, we should consider coming up with further solutions.

  • We can’t find the whale stakers, and there are no promises that the whale stakers will participate in future governance. Not to mention governance participation is not mandatory and is totally up to stakers’ choices.

Sending governance reminders as many as possible looks fine in terms of building a more vibrant community and feeling alive ourselves. The problem is that people will feel overwhelmed after they see lots of reminder posts in the various communities where they are joining.

Now let me summarize a list of solutions that have been addressed and discussed by several folks.

1. Reward Governance Participants by Routine

  • Launch ION NFTs and send the NFTs to governance participants
  • ION rewards

2. Improve Visibility and Accessibility of ION DAO & the ION DAO Governance

  • Add ION DAO/ION DAO governance to the Kelpr Dashboard

3. Revamp ION DAO Staking

  • Establish Staking Reward
    ^ At the moment, we can utilize ION for staking rewards, but fees from IBCX are yet to be utilized because the funds are not adequately collected. A plan to forge an environment where IBCX is widely established as a solid asset will be started with the previously uploaded draft proposal.
  • Reduce unstaking period
    ^ Having a shorter unbonding period than LPs before establishing staking rewards makes sense considering the opportunity costs between stakers and LPs, in my opinion.

4. Revamp ION DAO Governance

  • Further Reduce the Governance Quorum
    ^ Maybe 20% ~ 25% or never.
  • Give LPs voting power as well
  • Adopt weighted voting power by staking duration

5. Organize a Group and Allocate some ION to them for doing a Delegated Vote

  • Establish a governance subDAO and let them have some voting power
  • Organize a small group with one wallet that is managed by several multi-signers and let them have some voting power

6. Others

  • The dev contributors may be able to contribute to the total staking amount and the quorum with the funded ION (Proposal #12)
  • Unstake staked ION of those who have never participated in the ION governance.
  • Find ION whale stakers
    ^ Inferring or distinguishing the owner of the whale stakes addresses is nearly impossible. Most ION whale stakers had no transactions on Osmosis during the past few years. You can check some whale staker’s addresses, and their transaction history has been inactive for the past months (2 months ~ 9 months except for receiving the ION DAO governance reminder).
  1. osmo1wc66e32p64mq4jvp80vuq929emv3kdruzmkjmq - 65 ION
  2. osmo1jjw67e2zyxjx2zm8mvyapf9yssrd4ws2wgzgec - 45 ION
  3. osmo1zanyh4uc956s98wqqk9xlrnk76g5rv3s2ncs3k - 43 ION
  4. osmo1s86xpyzvgfu9vyf9a7pgxz99g826h576vayqys - 40 ION
  5. osmo1l50dfjsv6wpef0e9txhtkz6jtcmzfljudvavcn - 40 ION
  6. osmo1lzef80fkrqlj02am55yhasas4np8cmtrr5p56x - 39 ION
  7. osmo1w0ujj2qvr48dqg58nzsywrmkwr7qayvrj6f3yc - 37 ION
  8. osmo1maq08chk7geprv408jt8fps5m55wtxfqnwuah2 - 32 ION
  9. osmo1zk6fshrfetd3eu8p2n4y0jhk3xj0mg4j02sqld - 28 ION
  10. osmo1gtwah2fxkwajrypfs88wjv0vjt5uee5rp59wck - 27 ION

This is the end of my draft. Can’t wait to see some feedback from you! Remember that we don’t have to choose only one specific solution :slight_smile:

Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. Also, let me know if there is something good to be added in case I forgot to include it above.

2 Likes
2

A very difficult subject. In essence I would try to avoid lowering the quorum, since you also become more risky with regarding to manipulation.

I would simply start with making a diagram which is quite normal where you plot the effort against the expected effect. That will allow you to make an educated guess what your first step should become.

4 Likes
3

Great job Messi(Jiwon) as always :muscle:

I would think that what Charles and luisqua “proposed” on TG to unstake those whales as they harm our governance would much improve reaching quorum. And not only whales but all those that have not voted in past 10 proposals(number could be less). If they will be upset they can always restake and participate again. It is not like they are banned, just not sure why “inactive for many months wallets” would even stake as being active voter is the usecase of staking at the time.

On the other hand as to what you wrote I like idea of:

  • adopt weighted voting power by staking duration and maybe also add weight to participation
  • give LPs voting power as well
  • reward voters with NFT(for example for every 10 votes you get one, which could be given some utility like higher voting power or some random small airdrop in future…up to discussion…)

I wouldn’t however:

  • lower quorum
  • introduce staking rewards( would rather do random airdrop like we did now if DAO sees need to do it again )
2 Likes
4

Thanks for your feedback, @LeonoorsCryptoman. I will try to create it and share it as well.

1 Like
5

As always, I do appreciate your feedback, @SasoLithops.

Unstake → Establish Weighted Vote

I like the idea, but we gotta check the feasibility and potential risks. Let me work on it :sunglasses:

In addition, I will try to reach out to some Stargaze guys to kick off the discussion about NFT. or do I better post the NFT idea on this forum first?

2 Likes
6

Hey, I’ve mentioned this a lot in the telegram but wanted to leave my thoughts here.

  • Unstake staked ION of those who have never participated in the ION governance.

This idea to me is the best option because it gives us the following:

  1. Removes dead VP that has no interest in governance.
  2. Gives us actual numbers of active ION holders to reach out to.
  3. If unstaked ION wants to participate in governance in the future they can stake again without losing anything.
4 Likes
7

Thank you. Agree to check first :muscle:

Hmmm not sure to be honest. Maybe do both post here and ask them on Stargaze. Together we must think of something good :wink:

2 Likes
9

Unstaking dead VP would be possible if we do a contract migration with the Retention Parameter included!

Let me have a discussion with our team members to find if there could be some potential risks.
e.g., Manipulation of the governance by new whales with huge amounts of ION, etc.

cc. @SasoLithops , @luisqa :slight_smile:

4 Likes
11

Perfect. I agree. Best to check first for all potential risksđź’Ż

1 Like