We’ve crossed into step three of our journey to becoming an Apex AMM! Learn about the first version of our governance and what it means for you.
Governance v0 is here: ORCA tokenholders can now share their ideas in our brand-new Forums and submit proposals on-chain at governance.orca.so!
Since day one, we’ve committed to building an open platform that is governed by its community. Now that the Orca ecosystem has grown and Whirlpools have launched, we feel that the time is right to launch the first edition of Orca’s governance, which we’re dubbing “v0” — a nod to its nature as a prototype. This will provide you, our podmates, with a concrete way to have your voices heard and be the first step in iterating toward the Orca DAO of the future.
Why governance matters
We believe that Orca brings unique value to the ecosystem in various ways, including:
- Refreshingly simple UX
- Composability through Whirlpools: A capital-efficient, well-architected, and soon-to-be-open-source primitive that others in the ecosystem can build upon
- A better world through the Impact Fund
However, Orca will not be able to offer that value if it does not evolve to adapt to the needs of a continuously changing ecosystem.
Governance is the answer to that problem: The way to align a decentralized community around shared goals through (1) the sharing of ideas and (2) incentive alignment (rewarding the contributors who actually implement those ideas).
Governance, in other words, ensures Orca’s longevity. We want Orca to be able to continue providing its unique value far into the future, which requires incentivizing contributors other than the core team to dedicate their time and ingenuity to the development of the protocol. This is hard work, but we believe that through trial, error, and a dash of human-centered design, it is possible.
A final note: Many of us on the Orca team are true governance nerds: Starry-eyed believers in the potential of decentralized governance to organize people in a radically transparent and inclusive way. We expect the road there to be bumpy, but we’re excited to be navigating this bold new frontier together with our community. We hope you’ll be an active participant in the journey ahead!
Why we’re starting with “v0”
In preparation for launching governance on Orca, we conducted extensive user research with major participants and designers of existing governance systems. The results were clear: No one’s figured out the perfect way to organize a DAO.
We don’t claim to have all the answers, either. However, what we do expect is for Orca’s governance to continuously evolve as a result of real-world learning. By deploying the simplest available form of governance, we aim to kickstart that learning process as quickly as possible: V0 is a direct deployment of Realms, Solana Labs’s open-source governance UI. Long-term, we plan to use these learnings to build a custom governance platform on top of the open-source SPL governance smart contracts.
As governance evolves, we’ll be experimenting with all sorts of governance parameters, like proposal thresholds, discussion periods, and anything else that the community brings to the table. This will be a team effort, and we’ll appreciate any and all feedback that you may have!
How it works
Have an idea? Start by sharing it in the Orca Governance Forum at forums.orca.so. After soliciting feedback from the community, any tokenholder with at least 100,000 ORCA will be able to formally propose changes to the ORCA protocol on the V0 site at governance.orca.so.
After that, there will be a 7-day period in which every ORCA tokenholder will be able to cast their vote. 1 ORCA = 1 vote. If there are at least 500,000 “yes” votes, the proposal passes, and the core team will do their best to implement the changes. In the future, you’ll be able to include code in your proposal for Orca’s governance controls to automatically execute.
Want to get a deep dive? Swim on over to the v0 Governance Forum for a full rundown of the process.
Oh! And one more thing… To learn as much as we can from this prototype, the Orca team will not participate in voting until stated otherwise. (We may, however, express opinions and provide technical feedback on proposals.) Tokens allocated to investors in Orca’s Series A have not yet hit their cliff and will also not be available for voting at this time. In other words: the final say lies with you. We’re excited (and are admittedly a bit nervous) to see what you come up with! 😉
How do I get involved?
Head to the governance channel in our Discord to share your feedback, thoughts, and suggestions, or to the Forums to share an idea for a proposal. We look forward to building Orca’s decentralized future together!
Disclaimer: The content of this communication is not financial advice and should not be relied on by any persons as financial advice. This communication has not been provided in consideration of any recipient’s financial needs. We have not conducted any financial assessment based on the personal circumstances of any recipients. Before using the protocol, carefully review all relevant documentation and consider risks including total loss of funds.
