How to Participate in Governance
The first in a series of blogs relating to the current state Regen Network governance
As an active $REGEN token holder one of the most important duties is to participate in governance and vote on updates to the blockchain. The Regen Network blockchain is currently in its early stages, however, there will be many governance proposals coming up over the course of the first year.
For example, changes that could be proposed might include the ability for token holders to transfer their tokens to one another or for Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) to be enabled, which would allow for the sending of messages to transfer tokens from one chain to another. In order for these updates to be made to the blockchain, or for any code changes or resource allocation to be made for that matter, a governance proposal must first be submitted and voted on.
Validator Process for Governance Proposals
One thing to note is that proposers must deposit 200 $REGEN tokens when submitting a proposal that is at stake in case the proposal does not pass. For this reason, it is important that validators communicate their intent to the community efficiently. For best results, we recommend validators follow a process similar to what is outlined below.
Create a poll in the public channel of our Discord server
After a potential proposer has a good idea of what blockchain parameter should be changed they should start a poll on Discord. Polls are a great way to gauge community sentiment as well as surface questions and comments from community members. The Regen Network Discord server provides the simple poll bot in the server, if you are not familiar with this bot please take a moment to check out the features and commands in their documentation.
Start a discussion surrounding the proposal in the Discord
Once the poll has finished and participants feel the need to discuss the proposal a bit further, dialogue should be created around some of the specifics of the proposal. There are a couple of benefits to this such as creating cohesion among the community and potentially finding validators that can support it.
Create a discussion on the Regen Network Discourse Forum
Once the project has been organized and polled, the proposer or team should post a soft proposal on our Discourse forum. The proposal should include all relevant information such as why the proposed change is important and technical specifications. Please view this guide for more details as to the information needed inside of a governance proposal.
After the soft proposal has been posted and some formal dialogue has been created, the validator or team should review any suggestions presented in the discussion and amend the proposal as needed. This is a very important step and is the final opportunity for the proposers to gauge whether or not the proposal will be approved by the token holders and validators before submitting.
Announce the Governance Proposal
Getting the proposal out to the rest of the token holders is a very important part of getting a proposal passed. Validators and token holders need to be made aware of the proposal. Even though there has been discussion on Discord and in the Discourse forum there may be some extra visibility necessary in order for voters to become aware of the proposal.
After the soft proposal has been finalized it’s a good idea to post links to it on the Discord server, social media, and respective blogs or websites. This will ensure maximum visibility and participation in voting.
Submit the Proposal
If everything has gone as expected and the steps above have been followed it is time to submit the proposal on-chain for token holders to vote on. Please take a look at this guide for constructing the json which is used to send the proposal to the chain. In our next blog, we will go into more detail about the technical requirements of submitting a proposal.
How to vote on a proposal using Keplr Wallet
Keplr Wallet makes it easy for token holders to vote on governance proposals! Simply visit the Keplr governance dashboard and review the proposals listed, click vote, and cast your yes or no vote!
At the time of writing, there have been no governance proposals submitted to the Regen Network blockchain. Above is an example of the governance dashboard for the Cosmos chain, we will use it for the purposes of this section.
Each proposal has some information included for you to review and if you click the proposal it will open up some details. Let’s take a look at the top proposal, #47 Parameter Change: lower minimum proposal deposit amount.
At the top you will see the title of the proposal with the time it was submitted directly below that. Notice the status underneath the submittal time says VOTING PERIOD. This means that this proposal can actively be voted upon.
This next section provides the token holder some details on what is happening with the vote and includes the vote button. The chart shows you the ratio of Yes, No, NoWithVeto (counts as No but also adds a Veto vote) and the percentage of wallets that have abstained from voting. If you want to vote please click the vote button and choose inside of the popup!
Voting Characteristics:
On-chain proposals are open for voting for a two-week period and require a 40% quorum in order for the final vote to pass or fail. If a quorum is not reached, your deposit is forfeited and the proposal will not be enacted.
Note that the weight of a particular person’s vote is proportional to how many tokens are staked by that person.
If a proposal passes, the change which was voted upon will be implemented.
The final section of the proposal view shows the deposit end time, voting start/end, and a short description of the proposal.
The next blog post in this series will cover a more in-depth view of the technical requirements when submitting proposals. Thank you for taking the time to read this general overview of the current state of Regen Network governance!
