GFX Labs - Delegate Communication Thread

2 Polls Closing September 18, 2024

Rolling Mission Requests
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support allowing more Mission Requests for this season. This is possible due to an authorized budget for Mission Requests that exceeds the maximum budgets of all previously approved Mission Requests.

Recommendation: Vote Abstain. We fully recommend that this be approved, but because GFX Labs is on the Grants Council, which collectively proposed this poll, we are required under updated rules to abstain for our own vote to avoid the appearance of a conflict.

Rolling Mission Requests: Voting Cycle 27
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which, if any, of the following Mission Requests they approve.

Choices are:
Request 1: Subsidized Audit Grants V2, 250.000 OP
Request 2: Experimentation of Infrastructure Subsidies 250.000 OP
Request 3: Superchain Borrow/Lend Aggregator 30.000 OP
Request 4: Crosschain alert monitoring 60.000 OP
Request 5: Optimism Dominance in Yield-Bearing Assets - DEX Liquidity for YBAs 500.000OP
Request 6: Decentralized Solvers and Aggregators on OP Mainnet / Superchain 250.000 OP
Request 7: Targeted extension of Superfest 350.000 OP
Request 8: Optimism Full Financial Audit 20.000 OP

Recommendation: Vote Request 1: Subsidized Audit Grants V2, Request 5: Optimism Dominance In Yield-Bearing Assets, Request 6: Decentralized Solvers and Aggregators on OP Mainet/Superchain, Request 7: Targeted extension of Superfest.

These all are needs or experiments we find compelling – in particular the very successful and in-demand audit grants. The other Mission Requests are helpful for business development and attracting new users and protocols to Optimism.

Others simply seemed like they needed more clear scope or different budget sizing to be effective. Or were low priority because they are largely done but not easy to find in one place (e.g. auditing the financial holdings of governance), so don’t require an entire Mission Request.

1 Poll Closing October 9, 2024

Rolling Mission Requests: Voting Cycle 28

Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support creation of new Mission Requests. There is only one proposed Mission Request this cycle:

Mission Request Request 1: Increase Prevalence of Non-USD/EURO Stablecoins

Recommendation: Vote Mission Request Request 1: Increase Prevalence of Non-USD/EURO Stablecoins. This mission targets a vertical that has not yet become established, much less dominated by a competing chain. The total budget is 15,000 OP, which also makes this a low-risk RFP to craft.

2 Polls Closing October 30, 2024

Governor Update Proposal #3: Enable Onchain Treasury Execution
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support moving the treasury to onchain execution rather than management by a multisig. This new capability extends only towards OP portion of the treasury.

This includes 3-day timelock; audit report can be found here.

Recommendation: Vote For. This is a tiny step, and certainly not sufficient to satisfy ourselves or the other delegates who, combined, signed a petition to accelerate decentralization. 17,000,000 OP currently stands in support of that petition. This proposal still requires Foundation permission to post a proposal, allowing them to keep a de facto veto. It also does not address the much more valuable ETH owed to governance.

Overall, we find it disappointing that this appears to be the single item granted (if it even counts, given the permissioned nature of how it will work) on the extensive list that delegates requested. It’s beyond frustrating that Foundation feels the need to oversee governance spending, but governance is not allowed to oversee Foundation spending. It’s also ironic, given that governance is by far the smaller spender of OP tokens.

Season 6: Standard Rollup Charter Ratification
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support ratifying changes to the Standard Rollup Charter (full text found here).

Recommendation: Vote For. We don’t think this charter is as clear on some points as it should be, such as revenue sharing details, but we also acknowledge that it is an aspirational document, and has no legal, social, or other binding obligations on governance. Just like the Law of Chains more broadly, these are more guidelines to begin and maintain conversations with potential partners, and to our reading, in no way constrains the degrees of freedom of Optimism governance.

We voted on the Onchain Treasury Transfer Test. This was a test to send a de minimus amount of OP via the new onchain governance mechanism.

1 Like

11 Polls Closing December 18, 2024

Onchain Treasury Transfer Cancellation Test
Summary: This poll is a test of the emergency cancellation measure for malicious or erroneous funds transfers.

Recommendation: Vote For. This is a test of the emergency cancellation functionality.

Upgrade Proposal #11: Holocene Network Upgrade
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support implementing the Holocene Network Upgrade.

This upgrade includes several components, the first of which is a change to block derivation. Span batches will now be strictly ordered, and invalidation occurs only from the point of invalidity, allowing for partial span batch validation.

It also adds EIP-1559 configurability.

The final change is a simplification of fee scalar configuration.

Recommendation: Vote For. The changes to derivation are primarily focused at removing code that appears to be unnecessary based on experience, and simplifying the code base in this area. From a practical standpoint, this places more emphasis on the Sequencer to keep the chain running smoothly, but does not empower the Sequencer with anything it does not possess today. OP Labs has communicated that the Sequencer software already is capable of handling this increased burden.

EIP-1559 allows for elastic gas limits, which scale costs towards a target. This was developed at the request of other OP stack operators, and we’re not sure we understand the argument that Optimism itself needs or wants this change, but will defer on this subject since it should not impact Optimism until/unless a future proposal changes the parameters for this.

More generally, only one portion of this update was audited. This is consistent with the OP Labs Audit Framework, but is still not a best practice, and is a clear case of being pennywise and pound-foolish. We would support governance stepping in to provide audit subsidies to developers authoring network upgrades if OP Labs and OP Foundation feel they cannot afford to audit every upgrade by default.

Season 7: Intent Ratification
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support ratification of a single Intent for Season 7, which is encouraging and improving interoperability. Formally:

A set of interoperable Stage 1 chains doing $250m per month in cross-chain asset transfers.

Recommendation: Vote For. Optimism has bet the farm on interoperability. Supporting that should be the top priority.

[Season 7: Anticapture Commission Amendment

](Season 7: Anticapture Commission Amen...)Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support amending the Anticapture Commission charter. Full details can be found here.

Recommendation: Vote For. These changes seem acceptable, and from a practical perspective will not alter much, except requiring the ACC participate in discussions where the Citizens’ House may consider a veto. In the future, providing a budget for the ACC, rather than relying upon retroactive funding, would be preferred.

Season 7: Grants Council Operating Budget
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support a Grants Council operating budget of 400,000 OP. Of that, 50,000 OP is a reserve budget, in case demand is high and additional reviewers are needed mid-Season.

This is a 210,000 OP reduction from Season 6, mainly in response to a smaller number of total reviewers, and splitting the Milestones & Metrics Subcommittee out into its own structure.

Recommendation: Vote For. This budget is, on a per-item basis, in line with expectations, and does not present any major surprises.

Season 7: Developer Advisory Board Operating Budget
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support a DAB operating budget of 190,000 OP.

This is a 100,000 OP increase from Season 6. The difference is largely driven by the addition of two new roles to aid with Foundation Missions, and modest increases to the compensation of all members in OP.

Recommendation: Vote For. The DAB has generally demonstrated a high level of usefulness, both to the Grants Council, and in community understanding and evaluation of protocol upgrades.

Season 7: Milestones and Metrics Council Operating Budget
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support a M&M operating budget of 170,000 OP.

Recommendation: Vote For. This is the first time the M&M has been under its own budget, so there is little to compare it to. The total combined budgets of the M&M and the Grants Council is still less than the total last season, which suggests that it is reasonable. Even if there is additional cost in spinning it out into its own body, there is a strong argument that the M&M should be independent of the Grants Council, since it is in many ways checking the work of the Grants Council’s chosen grantees.

Code of Conduct Council Dissolution Proposal
Summary: This poll asks if OP holders support dissolving the Code of Conduct Council.

Recommendation: Vote For. While we think the CoCC held value as a contribution path for junior members of governance, we agree that it is unnecessary and governance can be minimized in this area.

Season 7: Security Council Operating Budget [Onchain]
Summary: This poll asks if OP holders support an operating budget of 295,000 OP for the Security Council.

This is around 200,000 OP increase from the previous Season, which was funded by the Foundation.

The proposal will execute on-chain to the following multisig address: 0x42415E7D47Fb8080eb42f870BC2e04Ab0852a264

Recommendation: Vote For. The Security Council should answer to governance, so it needs to be funded by governance, rather than the Foundation.

Grants Council Mission [Onchain]
Summary: This poll asks if OP holders support transferring 10,000,000 OP to the Grants Council for the purposes of funding grants supporting the Season 7 Intent. The Grants Council would have full discretion in executing this mission.

This is an 8,500,000 reduction in grants budget from Season 6.

The proposal will execute on-chain to the following multisig address: 0x1795652665fAa2dfeF9865544ae8D3c65f9643A8

Recommendation: Vote For. This is the first time that the Grants Council will directly control funds it grants. The budget is smaller, which mostly reflects the decision not to continue the Superchain Grants program from Season 6.

Decision Market Mission [Onchain]
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support providing 500,000 OP to support projects utilizing the Decision Market. Butter, the Uniswap Foundation, and the Optimism Foundation are ineligible.

The proposal will execute on-chain to the following multisig address: 0x1795652665fAa2dfeF9865544ae8D3c65f9643A8

Recommendation: Vote For. It’s not entirely clear how these funds will be distributed, except that it will be done algorithmically, tied to market outcomes. It would be nice to know more about what that algorithm will look like, but it’s recognized that some liquidity or incentives will be needed to seed this decision market experiment. Whether it succeeds or fails will inform whether further funding is warranted in the future.

1 Like

9 Polls Closing January 15, 2025

Security Council Elections Cohort B Members
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Security Council. There are 6 open seats.

Candidates:
World Foundation

Andrey Petrov
OP Labs
L2BEAT
Alchemy
Maggie Love
Gauntlet
Test in Prod
Yoav Weiss
Ml_sudo
Kris Kaczor
Martin Tellechea
Ink
Coinbase
troy

Recommendation: Vote L2BEAT, Test in Prod, Yoav Weiss, Kris Kaczor, Martin Tellechea, Alchemy. L2Beat is a widely respected L2 watchdog group with plenty of technical expertise and multiple personnel available. Test in Prod, Yoav Weiss, Kris Kaczor, and Martin Tellechea previously served as Security Council members successfully. Test in Prod and Yoav Weiss make/have made technical contributions in the past to OP stack as well. Alchemy is included as another organization with deep technical expertise and multiple personnel available in the event of an emergency.

Grants Council Operations Elections
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the operations role for the Grants Council. There is 1 open seat.

Recommendation: Vote Bunnic. Nic is the only candidate, and also successfully served in this role in Season 6.

[Developer Advisory Board Foundation Mission Team Elections

](https://vote.optimism.io/proposals/89373814096940749239399795696169676931497831019947431093522618314329883874987)Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Developer Advisory Board (Foundation Mission Team). There are 2 open seats.

Candidates:
Ed
Skeletor
Danyal

Recommendation: Vote Ed, Skeletor, Danyal. These are all three fantastic candidates and the DAB would be lucky to have all of them. Ed (aka wildmolasses) successfully served on the DAB last season, and, in our capacity as a Grants Council reviewer, we found their input useful. Skeletor is a co-founder of Wonderland, and Danyal is a core contributor hailing from the Base team.

Developer Advisory Board Governance Mission Team Elections
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Developer Advisory Board (Governance Mission Team). There are 3 open seats.

Candidates:
Will

[Jepsen

](Season 7 Nominations: Governance Mission Team on the Developer Advisory Board - #3 by Jepsen)Blockdev
Godspower
Cooper01
Beskay
Shubham
Iain

Recommendation: Vote Will, Jepsen, Blockdev. Will and Blockdev successfully served on the DAB in Season 6. Jepsen successfully served on the DAB in Season 5. We would enjoy working with them again.

Developer Advisory Board Audit Request Team Elections
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Developer Advisory Board (Audit Request Team). There are 2 open seats.

Candidates:
M4rio.eth
Noah.eth
Sujith
Gjaldon
Vagner
0x73696d616f
Shogoki
Unsafe_call

Recommendation: Vote gjaldon, 0x73696d616f, m4ario.eth, noah.eth. Gjaldon has successfully located bugs in Optimism itself, and 0x7369 has an impressive background as the former head of Three Sigmas. M4ario and Noah both also have exceptional experience through Spearbit.

[Milestones and Metrics Council Reviewer Elections

](Milestones and Metrics Council Review...)Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to Milestones and Metrics Council. There are 3 open seats.

Candidates:
mel.eth (StableLab)
LauNaMu
AnthiasLabs
Mmurthy
Pavel
v3naru_Curia
Takeshi (Tané)
Pumbi (SEEDGov)
Angela

Recommendation: Vote Takeshi (Tane), AnthiasLabs, v3naru_Curia. Takeshi and AnthiasLabs both served on the Grants Council in Season 6, which means they will have a good understanding of how grants were awarded and will be measured. v3naru_Curia is an experienced member of the Milestones & Metrics Committee in Season 5 and 6 when it was part of the Grants Council.

Grants Council Final Reviewer Elections
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Grants Council as final reviewers. There are 4 open seats.

Candidates:
MattGov.eth
GFX Labs
Michael
Jackanorak
Areta
MoneyManDoug
JashFi

Recommendation: Vote GFX Labs, MattGov.eth, Michael, Jackanorak, MoneyManDoug. Matt, Michael, Jack, and MoneyManDoug have successfully served on the Grants Council for multiple seasons. Jack served with us on the Superchain Grants subcommittee last season as well. We have also successfully served for the entire existence of the Grants Council and vote for ourselves to advance Optimism.

Grants Council GrantNerd Elections
Summary: This poll asks OP holders which candidates to elect to the Grants Council as GrantNerds. There are 3 open seats.

Candidates:
Megalod
Kumahada
Ramadhan
Brichis
Jrocki
Mastermojo
Sov
Marcus01
Debbie
Ugbuericsam
Liliop.eth
glory_Sherlock

Recommendation: Vote Jrocki, Mastermojo, Brichis. All three of these candidates successfully served on the Grants Council in Season 6. While we can only fill three seats, we also want to recognize Sov, who successfully served last season as well.

Season 7: Chain Delegation Program Amendment
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support amending the Chain Delegation Program to prioritize satisfying the Standard Rollup Charter criteria as the most important criteria instead of the last criteria. The Standard Rollup Charter can be found here.

Recommendation: Vote For. This is a reasonable amendment and should encourage chains to migrate to more technically robust features in some cases.

9 Likes

1 Poll Closing Feb 5, 2025

Protocol Upgrade: Superchain Registry 2.0
Summary: This poll asks OP holders if they support amending the Superchain Registry requirements. Changes are largely putting emphasis on new members deploying via the OP Contracts Manager (OPCM) and having the most current, substantively unaltered code base.

Recommendation: Vote For. While the OPCM has not yet been audited, it has been in use for 4 months. The increased emphasis on standardization across OP chains is appropriate, given that interoperability probably depends on consistent assumptions about technical and security risks. While this is considered a protocol upgrade for governance purposes, no onchain action need be taken by governance, since the changes are for deployments of new chains.