PoD Community Governance Updates

Nebulas’ Decentralized Ways — Part 2

Proof of Devotion (PoD) Community Governance Updates

Chinese version: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LVWUkWDZmxXBC4n9X8Z1yg

We have recently published a previous article on the status of Nebulas’ Decentralization Practices: Proof of Devotion (PoD) Community Governance Half-Year Practice Review. It presents the results and lessons learned from the six months of community governance.

In this part of the Decentralized Practice, we will discuss two topics:

1. The Boundaries of Decentralized Governance.
2. How to Achieve Long-Term Governance.

It also provides a new community governance solution that includes both proposal processing rule changes and product upgrades.

Section A:

Broad scope of proposals; difficult to implement on time.

In the 2019, the PoD Node Program launched with the original design to make a system where “All community members can make their own comments and suggestions on the future development of the Nebulas blockchain on Go.nebulas” including but not limited to:

• Nebulas mainnet network research.
• Community collaboration process optimization, governance recommendations, etc.
• Upgrade iteration, bug submission for existing Nebulas community products.
• Development and Maintenance of community ecosystem products
• Community operations and market expansion

All ecosystem suggestions can be proposed, which is an ideal structure for a one-stop solution to all problems. In practice, however, some proposals require special care:

• Bug reports sometimes require immediate intervention and the Nebulas Foundation deems it doesn’t have time for PoD governance approval.
• Regarding the Foundation-supported product upgrade iterations, which involve the Foundation’s overall product planning, it needs to be rolled up together and is not suitable for monthly temporary fixes.
• Some of the proposals are too “grand”, good for the original purpose, and difficult to land.

Section B:

Budget and duration confirmation difficulties.

The budget has not been required according to the original structure. Instead, proposals were divided into two categories according to whether they would require budgets:

• Proposals that do not require a budget. For example, the content of the proposal is to explore the direction of the development of the network, governance organization structure adjustment proposals, mainnet parameters adjustment. After a proposal is voted through, the relevant person in charge may quickly promote the implementation thereof.
• Proposals that require a budget application. This process is facilitated by the Nebulas Technical Committee, which maintains budget control. The sponsor may submit a budget, project objective, execution step and duration in accordance with the standard template of the Go.nebulas. Afterwards, apply for operation by themselves or offer the operator a reward to the community.

For proposals that don’t require a budget, we found that proposals for the entire ecosystem require broad public opinion and may be better suited to having communities vote rather than governance nodes. For proposals that require a budget, even if the proposal is well-designed, if the budget and timeline are not strictly confirmed before the vote, it will either affect the outcome of the vote or there will be verification after the vote is passed. In addition, some proposals do not pass the governance period and the sponsor would like the Foundation to support them directly. Regardless of proposals that are additionally assisted, it can cause confusion for the sponsors of other proposals.

The foundation has avoided forcing centralized access and we need to respect the results of the PoD governance vote without additional backdoors; the Go.Nebulas pool exists to mobilize the community to actively participate in building something, not to promote community suspicion or “help” the foundation to shirk its responsibilities.

Section C:

The quality of proposals make it difficult to intervene.

In the six months of community governance practice, the practical implementation program has been gradually explored:

1. Community members are free to make proposals — technical committee members composed of community members score and propose changes to proposals.
2. Governance Committee Composed of Governance Nodes to Conduct Governance by Voting via on-chain — with follow-up by the Technical Committee.
3. Project Review Submission Results — Technical Committee Follow up Technical Project, Produce Test Report.
4. Governance Committee of approved projects — Project Bonus Given by Go.Nebulas Fund Pool.

Each step requires human input. Everyone defines the quality of proposals differently and it is difficult to make absolute standards. At present, the Technical Committee has done the following work:

• Given advice on how to write a good proposals,
• Has produced excellent proposals and project selection activities,
• Standardize the quality of the proposal,
• Implement one-to-one follow-up on projects.

However, the Technical Committee only makes recommendations and cannot force the proposal creators to implement them.

Improvement of proposal rules

• Defining Governance Boundaries
• Update the proposal rules
• Clear boundaries of governance

It is essential to redefine the scope of the proposal. The clearer the boundaries of governance, the higher the likelihood of automation resulting in the lower the likelihood of misunderstanding and conflict.

The scope of the new proposal is narrowed to:

• Proposal that would utilize the Go.Nebulas pool (public address: n1cwsE8w4m6cRkr14R5c4hK3Lb9wPsUHhY9)
• Adjustments to mechanisms related to PoD rules and nodes’ immediate interests (for PoD rewards)

The Foundation will still support projects, but in principle will not overlap with the projects supported by the Go.nebulas Foundation Pool, including but not limited to the following:

• Official Foundation business. Items that the Foundation will do regardless of whether the governance vote passes or not, such as official public operations and maintenance.
• Project incubation. The Foundation and even other third-party organizations can participate in the investment.
• Bug fixes. Urgent and requiring a quick response.

For example, if a community user wants to develop their own DeFi product, it is recommended that the project itself has the ability to generate revenue or enter the financing process. If you need upfront support from the Go.Nebulas fund pool, be sure to state the reason for the support.

Proposals outside the scope of governance will be recommended to the proposer for revision and then voted on. Implementation will be attempted starting with this month’s PoD governance vote.

Product Improvement

• Standardize the governance process
• Update the product
• Clear the way of governance

Go.Nebulas will be modified accordingly:

• Proposers need to support their proposal with 1000NAX (NIP190, already passed via PoD governance vote).
• All proposals must be submitted with a clear budget and duration.

Our goal is to improve the quality of proposals. “Persuasion” is not always effective, but product upgrades can help reduce manual intervention by the foundations and technical committees.

These adjustments will also prepare for the future of Go.Nebulas on-chain automation. Proposals with missing budgets and timelines will require revisions and then will be voted on. Implementation will be starting with this month’s PoD governance vote.

For proposals that are still in the idea stage, you can:

• Share the proposal on the Nebulas Discord in the #Go-nebulas channel (discord.gg/pnn7NVs).
• Share the proposal on the community forum at community.nebulas.io.

Proposers can discuss and polish their proposal with the community members. There are other on-chain voting tools that can be used as research and community polling to organize an AMA to facilitate these functions. For proposals that end up on the PoD governance ballot, there will be some more clear-cut proposals. We also encourage community members with clear ideas to do the implementation themselves — this is in fact the case for most of the proposals.

Learn more about Nebulas:

Official website: Nebulas.io
Node Platform: node.nebulas.io
Smart asset platform nextDAO: nextDAO.io
Nebulas Wiki: wiki.nebulas.io/en/latest/go-nebulas/README.html
Github: github.com/nebulasio/go-nebulas

Community Groups:
Telegram(EN): t.me/nebulasen
Discord server: discord.gg/dsxGkBk
Telegram Node Operating Group: t.me/nasnode
Community Forum: community.nebulas.io

Social Media:
Twitter: @nebulasio
Instagram: nebulasio
Facebook: @nebulasproject