Rocket Pool — Protocol DAO Governance

At Rocket Pool’s heart is a vibrant community of node operators from across the globe, that care deeply for Ethereum and staking. We believe that decentralised governance is not just a necessity, but a fundamental aspect of our DNA — it’s what makes us a community-driven protocol that truly represents the collective voice of its node operators.

As we continue to evolve and improve our governance model, we’re excited to take you through the Houston Protocol DAO features, which bring a new era of decision-making transparency and community-driven innovation. In this article, we’ll delve into what node operators can expect from the new governance model and provide advice on how to prepare for the transition.

TLDR:

• Current Snapshot address is being deprecated.
• Node operators will need to: initialise their voting power, set their pDAO signalling address, set their delegate (if delegating to another node operator).
• Initially pDAO on-chain voting will be disabled until enough vote power is initialised.

Where are we today?

Rocket Pool has grown significantly, now staking over 763,488 ETH, since we launched the Protocol DAO Governance Phase 0.

Phase 0 introduced Protocol DAO (pDAO) Snapshot voting, enabling the pDAO to signal its intent. However, direct on-chain governance was excluded until the Protocol DAO matured and stabilised, paving the way for it to assume control.

Since then, the Protocol DAO has flourished into an institution; with a defined governance process, active voting participation, a grants program, a liquidity incentivisation program, treasury management function, and lively public debate.

How does governance work going forward?

Houston introduces an innovative on-chain governance framework, empowering the pDAO to shape Rocket Pool’s direction by directly voting on key decisions, such as protocol settings, treasury allocations, and Security Council appointments.

Today there is one place to go for Rocket Pool voting and that is Snapshot. Node operators set a Snapshot address that they can either use to vote on Snapshot or delegate their vote to a voting delegate.

Pre-Houston Voting

Going forward, we will still use Snapshot to vote on most aspects of Rocket Pool (Snapshot has the benefit of being gas-free). In fact, it is our opinion that any on-chain proposals should first be voted on via Snapshot before proceeding to on-chain vote.

Due to some technical constraints, we need to deprecate the current Snapshot address and replace it with two shiny new ones. Consequently, there will be up to 3 addresses involved in voting:

• pDAO Signalling Address — will be used as your Snapshot address going forward, if you want to vote directly or if you want to override your delegate’s Snapshot vote. This address is only used for Snapshot not on-chain voting.
• pDAO Delegate Node— if you choose to delegate your vote. You will set this to your delegate’s node address. If you choose a delegate they will vote for you on Snapshot and for on-chain proposals. The delegate’s node address is available on the delegate’s page.
• Node Address — if you have not delegated your vote or if you wish to override your delegate’s on-chain vote you can do this from your node.

On Houston launch, it looks something like this:

Post-Houston on launch when voting is disabled

Initially, on-chain voting will be disabled to allow for enough vote power to get setup on the new system. Once enough vote power has migrated, the Core Team will switch on the voting system and the pDAO will have the helm. The Core Team will also migrate Snapshot over to use the new signalling address and delegates, creating a unified governance system.

Post-Houston when voting enabled

How do I initialise my voting power?

If you registered your node prior to the Houston release, please take note that you’ll need to initialise your voting power. This is a one time action.

We recommend doing so, as soon as possible, to ensure we can enable pDAO voting and to make sure you don’t miss out on participating in proposals that matter to you. When a proposal is raised, vote power is set at that time, so it’s essential to initialise your voting power before any important votes are raised.

Before initialising your vote it is best to upgrade your node to version v1.13.6 or higher.

rocketpool pdao initialize-voting

If you’re delegating your voting power, please note that you’ll need to find your delegate’s delegation address on our Delegates website. Keep in mind that this address differs from their current Snapshot address, so make sure to update accordingly.

Next, if you would like to vote on Snapshot votes you can set your new signalling address. There are two stages to the process.

Firstly, start by connecting the new signalling address to the Rocket Pool website using MetaMask, WalletConnect, or any of the other methods the website supports. You will then be presented with a dialog to look up your node address.

Do not load your node’s private key onto a hot wallet. Please choose another account for the purpose of Snapshot voting.

The website will ask you to sign a message saying that your node’s address can delegate to the new signalling address. Signing won’t cost any gas. After you sign, the frontend will give you a command to paste into the smartnode. Go ahead and paste it into your smart node’s CLI and follow the prompted steps. The command should look something like this:

rocketpool pdao set-signalling-address 
< snapshot signing address > 
< EIP712 signature >

If you later decide to delegate your vote, you can use the set delegate command.

rocketpool pdao set-voting-delegate <delegate node address>

There is a fantastic status command that will show you a summary of your vote power, delegate, and the current governance proposals.

rocketpool pdao status

You may notice that your vote power has doubled. Relative to everyone else you have the same proportion of vote power. We have simplified the vote power calculation by removing the rather useless (divide by 2) term.

What do I do as a delegate?

The new on-chain voting system is completely separate from the current Snapshot voting system. Consequently, your delegated vote power will need to migrate over to the new system.

To support migration of your delegated vote power you will need to have a registered node address, set up your signalling address, and update the Delegates website with your delegate node address.

A constraint of the new on-chain voting system is that the delegate’s account has to be a registered node account.

Do not load your node’s private key onto a hot wallet. This process can be done from your node or you can use another address for the purpose.

Initialise your voting power as above and let us know what your new delegation node address is, so that we can make you visible on the Delegates website.

To support Snapshot voting and updating your profile on the Delegates website, set your signalling address, as described above.

Your delegated vote power will not be able to migrate until you have set this up so it is important you do this as soon as possible.

How does on-chain voting work?

What should you expect when an on-chain vote proposal is raised? How will it work?

In theory anyone can propose a vote but they should only do so after going through the governance process. To raise a proposal, it requires a bond of staked RPL. Before voting can start, there is a 1 week delay to make sure everyone has seen the proposal and that it is valid.

Node operators who opt into locking their RPL for governance purposes, play the role of verifiers — verifying that the proposal is valid. If they detect that the proposal is invalid they can earn a proportion of the proposer’s bond.

After this challenge period there are two voting periods (1 week each):

• Period 1: If you are voting for yourself or are a voting delegate
• Period 2: If you are voting for yourself or you have delegated your vote and you disagree with your delegate

Vote proposal timeline

A key aspect of Rocket Pool’s on-chain voting system is that, if you have delegated your vote, you may override that vote if you choose.

Once both of these periods are complete and the vote is successful, it can be executed and applied to the protocol.

Lastly, it is important to go over what options, you as a voter, can choose.

• For — you support the proposal
• Against — you do not support the proposal
• Abstain — you want to abstain (your vote will count for quorum)
• Against with veto — you do not support the proposal, and it is either spam or the proper governance process was not followed. The veto will essentially burn the proposer’s bond.

For more information on the Houston pDAO features please check out the docs: https://docs.rocketpool.net/guides/houston/pdao

Questions or just say hello!

There are more aspects of the governance system that I have not covered but this was a long article, so congratulations for getting this far. I should adopt my own points system… but instead knowledge is your reward.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

About Rocket Pool

Rocket Pool is Ethereum’s most decentralised liquid staking protocol and the second largest. Its 3,600+ worldwide node operators have staked over 775,000 ETH!

Liquid stakers can participate by depositing as little as 0.01 ETH to receive the rETH liquid staking token. Rocket Pool is a fully non-custodial solution, and its node operators are economically-aligned to perform well for stakers.

Joining as a node operator is fully permissionless and requires just 8 ETH (instead 32). For more information check out our node operator guide.

The Rocket Pool team have been in the staking space since its inception in 2016, which gives them a pedigree and track record without peer.

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