Zcash governance: bicameral model

Governance
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Binji from Optimism was kind enough to meet with me today to open up dialogue between the teams so that we can learn from their governance model. At this point, its simply a conversation to learn more about their governance model, what is working, how it is evolving, and what they have learned in the process.

Next step is to meet with Justine, who is the head of governance at the Optimism Foundation in September to dig in deeper. If you are interested in being a part of that conversation, please dm me.

These are a few rough notes from today that I’m just dropping here for consideration and conversation.

On governance

  • Their governance work has focused on reducing the threat of capture. That lead to the bicameral model.
  • Believes that it is working well for them.
  • The foundation is stewarding the effort today with the goal of exiting in the future.
  • His initial thought was that a strictly parallel model for Zcash might be too much to swallow out of the gate, but that a hybrid with the zBloc might be a good next step, where the members of the zBloc serve as the initial “Citizen’s House”
  • An additional resource from Justine that he pointed me to: The Collective DAO Archives - Metagovernance - PoolTogether

On grant funding

I may have some of this wrong or it might be slightly off but tried to capture this as best I could.

  • Various orgs may be given funds to allocate grants
  • There is a grants council made up of 12 members that are elected by token holders and/or delegates
  • Open calls are made to allow different orgs, groups or people to request “missions” for a given “season.”
  • Missions are sponsored by on of the 12 members and are then voted on by token holders
  • Seasons run for 4 months, with a one month reflection period after each season. They are currently in their 6th season.
  • A new council is voted in for each season.
  • Grants can be milestone based, or retroactively funded in an upfront smaller grant to get them started.
  • Granting authority may be delegated (there are other details related to lockups, etc.).
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