Governance
In line with Chirp ethos, and the nature that underlies its networks, Chirp aims to be truly owned by its community. Hence, there is an ongoing goal to establish innovative governance processes that support its long-term growth, as well as the community engagement with the present and future of the project. The goal is to have agents participate in its development, enable community growth and build value for the economy of Chirp network.
On-chain Governance
Chirp is a democratic and participatory economy. Therefore, its stakeholders have the ability to decide on its future path and intervene for the purpose of improving its economy and its networks.
Sound governance models help networks develop in the direction that creates the most value for participants in the Chirp ecosystem. Governance mechanisms must be designed such that decisions are transparent, permissionless, and align incentives for the long-term. Moreover, on-chain governance plays a role in making governance decisions transparent and permissionless, which is a key driver in promoting widespread participation, which will also lead to handing control of the protocol to the community.
Governance Functions
Chirp stakeholders are called to participate in the decision process leading to network expansions and changes to its ecosystem. This includes: Network expansions with new technological basis; Destination of Token Revenue Pool funds; Other relevant changes to the way Chirp’s network functions.
Voting Mechanism
The voting mechanism itself is through Commit-and-Reveal, in which the votes are submitted concealed, and the results are revealed once the voting period ends. This is expected to maximize participation and incentivize honest behavior, given that network participants will only know the outcome of the vote when the voting period has ended.
Votes run through a 4-step formal process:
- Initial solicitation of interest on the community forum;
- Preliminary triage by the Chirp Team;
- Consensus discussion and vote in the form of Chirp Improvement Proposal (CIP);
- Implementation of CIP (if approved).
In light of the above, any stakeholder should be able to submit proposals for the network. Every proposal is subject to a preliminary triage by the Chirp Team (or a governing body to which the Chirp team delegates this role). Once it receives approval from the preliminary triage, the proposal is submitted to discussion on Chirp’s official governance forum, and subsequent vote. The reason for this preliminary triage is to avoid CIPs that could harm the Token Economy, or that are not feasible and, therefore, counterproductive for the market’s perception of the Economy.
There are two only outcomes to a voting process: approved or rejected. If a proposal is approved, it is Chirp Team’s responsibility to implement it.
If the case emerges for two approved proposals being contradictory with each other, the most recent one should be the one to consider. Nevertheless, it will be up to the Chirp Team or a governing body to which the Chirp Team delegates this role to clarify the feasibility of this outcome, or to submit a new voting proposal to clarify the will of the community.
Given the key aspect of certain decisions for the future of the project, certain votes require a reinforced majority of ⅔ of voters in order to be approved, namely ones that result in changes in governance policy.
Voting Rights
In order to maximize participation among network stakeholders, there are three major voting groups:
Network Keepers
Each Network Keeper’s voting power is based upon the number of registered gateways on their wallet that have received rewards in the last 30 days prior to the start of the vote.
The voting power of each Network Keeper within its voting group is calculated by:
No. of Active Registered Gateways to the Keeper Total No. of Active Registered Gateways
Token Holders
Token holders are called to participate in the governance processes through their token balance. Their voting power is calculated on the token balance that is locked-up. The locked tokens used to cast a vote are subject to a period of three months minimum lock-up.
The voting power of each Token Holder within its voting group is calculated by:
Balance of Voting Tokens Locked by the User Total No. Locked Tokens
Network Users
The users of the Chirp networks, being a defining part of the project, are allowed to participate based on the history of network subscriptions (measured by their Access Badges in the previous 12 months, wherever applicable).
The voting power of each Network user within its voting group is calculated by:
No. of User Access Badges in last 12 months Total No. of Access Badges in the last 12 months
Voting rights are cumulative, meaning that stakeholders eligible to vote through different voting groups can cast their votes through the different existing mechanisms. The split of the voting power across the different voting groups is:
- Network Keepers - 50%
- Token Holders - 30%
- Network Users - 20%.
The Chirp Team will be responsible for deciding when such governance will come into force.
The wallets containing the Token Treasury and Token Reserve will not be allowed to vote.
Voting Fees: Funding Chirp Public Goods
A fixed fee will be implemented for each vote casted through the different voting groups. The revenue generated by these fees will revert to the Token Reserve, namely to fund a Grant system for Chirp public goods.