Open Custody Protocol Community Governance Guidelines
Community governance empowers OPEN token holders to make decisions on the OCP evolution and development. This launch is an important step forward in our journey toward decentralization.
Here’s how it works:
Ideas & Discussion → Voting Proposals → Token Holder Consensus → OCP Board Ratification
Stage 1: Ideas & Discussion
In this initial stage, anyone is welcome to submit ideas and proposals for discussion, irrespective of whether you are a token holder or not. Initiate a thread in the appropriate forums (governance, protocol, or other) and engage the community in constructive discussions.
When crafting your submission, focus on the end goal. What does success look like in implementing your idea? What benefits would it bring to the OCP community? How can we best execute it? If you have any resources to contribute to expediting the process, feel free to suggest them.
Stage 2: Preliminary Voting Proposals
As discussion topics gain significant traction, they will progress to the voting proposal stage. Here, OCP Governance Forum moderators will transform these ideas into Preparatory Voting Proposals, also known as Open Custody Protocol Improvement Proposals (OPIPs) published on the corresponding forum threads. This transformation serves to prepare the community for the more formal process of consensus building.
Each Preparatory Voting Proposal will be accompanied by a poll with three options: Yes, No, or Abstain. A proposal must receive a minimum of 100 votes, with the majority being “Yes” to move forward to the next stage.
At this juncture, it’s important to note that these proposals, while crucial, are not yet binding. They function as a barometer to measure community interest and preliminary consensus. This crucial stage serves to identify potential obstacles, engage in problem-solving, and shape the proposal in a way that best suits the collective vision of our community.
Stage 3: Token Holder Consensus
The culmination of our collective efforts is this final stage, known as the Token Holder Consensus. Proposals that have been diligently discussed, refined, and have gained significant approval in Stage 2 now advance here for final approval by OPEN token holders via the Snapshot voting platform.
Similarly to OPIPs proposed on the Community Forum, they will be accompanied by a poll with three options: Yes, No, or Abstain.
In this stage, voting power directly correlates to the amount of OPEN held in any web3 wallet. Therefore, to vote, users must ensure they have OPEN in their wallet prior to the creation of the voting at Snapshot.
After the conclusion of the voting period, the proposal is forwarded for the OCP Board for the final ratification.
In the future stage of OCP DAO development, decisions made on Stage 3 will directly become legally binding. At the moment, a formal ratification by the OCP Board is needed to finalize the vote for legal reasons.
Stage 4: OCP Board Ratification
Once the token holders have reached a consensus on a proposal, it must be ratified by the OCP Board. This step is legally required since our current legal structure is not a DAO yet.
This four-stage approach embodies our commitment to ensuring that the growth and evolution of OCP are truly collaborative processes, echoing the aspirations and ideas of our entire community.
Who can participate?
Anyone can initiate discussions on the Community Forum. OCP moderators are responsible for aggregating community suggestions into voting proposals.
Any token holder with OPEN in their web3 wallets is eligible to vote on Snapshot.
Which areas of OCP are included in Community Governance?
The main areas for governance proposals may include:
• governance mechanisms
• roadmap prioritization
• fee structures (transaction fees, staking rewards, community revenue distribution)
• research and development
• developer incentives
Proposals can be submitted under the relevant categories of the Community Forum. The community is welcome to propose more categories and areas of improvement.
How is voting power calculated?
Voting power is determined by the number of OPEN tokens held in all user’s web3 wallets, with each token equating to one vote.
A Web3 wallet is any ERC20 Ethereum wallet that can connect to dApps like Snapshot.
What kind of proposals can be vetoed by OCP and why?
We’re on the path to being fully decentralized. To guarantee a safe transition of the network’s governance to a decentralized entity while ensuring the protection of stored assets, the core team will retain veto power to avoid voting on overly risky proposals for the first part of this journey. As the OCP become managed by a fully-fledged DAO, this power will gradually decrease. We thank all participants for understanding the complexities of decentralizing such a massive infrastructure.
The OCP core team can veto proposals that could potentially harm the project. These include changes to the core development team, major protocol overhauls, proposals that compromise legal and regulatory compliance, and changes to the token supply and distribution. Proposals in sensitive areas that may significantly impact the project will be assessed individually.