Governance Update: Announcing the Venus Snapshot Space

Venus has launched a Snapshot space that will be integrated into the Venus governance process.

What is Snapshot?

Snapshot is a gasless, off-chain, voting mechanism. Eligible participants can cast votes with only a signed message from their wallet, which removes the need to pay transaction fees to participate in governance. Snapshot provides a streamlined voting experience with less friction, which will further enhance Venus governance participation.

Snapshot also offers lots of flexibility, allowing for additional strategies, tokens, or networks to be added to the voting score at the discretion of governance.

Check out the Snapshot docs for more information on the platform, and join their Discord for support if needed.

Use Cases

Snapshot can be used for any governance matters or decisions that don’t require accessing the protocol’s funds or admin functions. A great example would be community voting on changes to the Venus branding or logo, sentiment checks on opening new markets, governance process changes, and other off-chain matters.

With the integration of Snapshot and the ability to conduct non-governance polls, the Venus team is recommending an additional change to the recently introduced governance process. The governance consensus check conducted on Snapshot between the VRC (Venus Request for Comments) and VIP (Venus Improvement Proposal) will be called “Consensus” to distinguish it from the informal, non-governance “Poll” also conducted via Snapshot.

Snapshot Limitations

While Snapshot is a powerful tool for governance coordination, it does have some limitations.

With Snapshot, votes are recorded off chain, and it’s not currently possible to trigger on chain effects or protocol changes with the vote results without additional plugins. Given these limitations, the initial implementation of Snapshot will be limited to votes on proposals that don’t require accessing the protocol’s funds or admin functions.

Voting Eligibility & Snapshot Moderation

In the current setup, as per the Venus Tokenomics, only XVS vault stakers are eligible to vote through Snapshot. This allows for maximum openness to the engaged Venus community, and limits voting power to those who actively utilize the Venus platform. Additional voting eligibility criteria can be proposed and voted on in future Snapshot votes.

Ultimate authority over the Snapshot page will be decided by the governance process. These powers can be delegated to designated admins, who then have the power to change settings and remove spam proposals from the front end interface. The ENS owner can add new admins or revoke these powers at their discretion.

Snapshot Voting Process & Standards

• Snapshot votes will be announced at least 24 hours in advance of the start of voting.
• Voting period will last 72 hours.
• Voting results will be announced within 48 hours of voting completion.
• Poll question and choices should use neutral phrasing (avoid introducing bias)
• Polls should include an abstain option (allows for participation without influencing vote)
• Poll text should link to a discussion on the Venus Forum to allow for feedback and suggestions

Additional best practices will be added over time as data is gathered about Snapshot usage in the Venus governance process.

Any questions or suggestions around Snapshot should be discussed in the Venus Community Discord Server.