October 2024 Update
Key Insights
- On-Chain treasury Execution: The Proposal, passed recently by the Collective, will enable OP Token transfer proposals to automatically execute the Token transfer without relying on Optimism Foundation, which marks a significant milestone towards the decentralization of Optimism
- Grants Council Season 6: The season 6 of Grants council, which started in mid-July this year, is finally nearing its conclusion after more than 4 months of successfully running. The final cycle, Cycle 30, will start accepting applications in early November.
- RetroPGF Rounds 5 and 6: RetroFunding Round 5, awarding projects that contributed to OP stack, shortlisted 79 projects for distribution of around 8M OP token rewards. Round 6 on Governance is currently ongoing.
Primer
The monthly governance recap serves as a compendium of key governance updates for the preceding month. This update covers Optimism governance activities for October 2024.
This recap includes the following sections
- Key Metrics
- Success Insights
- Delegate Participation
- Other Governance Metrics
- Main Governance Initiatives in October
- Community Overview
- Closing Statement
Key Metrics
- OnChain Proposals
- 3 On-chain proposals were submitted for the month of October
- All 3 proposals were passed and approved by the delegates, marking a 100% success rate
- Forum posts
- Topics created: 77
- Topic posts (includes comments): 535
The number of active voters for onchain proposals averaged 50.51M OP, with a minimum of 31M OP and a maximum of 65.72M OP.
| Proposal | Onchain Votes | Boardroom Link |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling Mission Requests: Voting Cycle 28 | 31.4M OP | Link |
| Governor Update Proposal #3 | 65.72M OP | Link |
| Standard Rollup Charter Ratification | 54.42M OP | Link |
Off-Chain votes for the OP governance are not active, no snapshot votes were held in the past 30 days.
Success Insights:
- Onchain: The onchain proposals in October witnessed a 100% success rate.
- Highest Proposal turnout: The Proposal on Governor update witnessed the highest voter turnout 65M OP out of the votable supply of 102M OP
- Most contended proposal: No Controversial/ contended proposal detected in this period. Note: A controversial proposal in this context is a proposal with significant opposing votes.
- Out of the 73 on chain proposals posted till date, only 4 have been defeated. The last proposal to be defeated happened on the month of May 2024.
Browse all of the proposals on the Boardroom proposal tracker here.
Other Governance Metrics
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Delegates | 152,254 |
| Top 5 wallets Voting Power | 31.719M (30%) |
| Top 100 wallets Voting Power | 95.9M (92%) |
| Top-200 Wallets Voting Power | 99.45M (95%) |
| Delegate Quorum Gage | 5 |
| Nakamoto Coefficient | 12 |
| Early Voters | 33% |
| Mid-Proposal Voters | 31% |
| Late Voters | 18% |
| End of Proposal Voters | 18% |
| Top -1000 Delegates Active | 67.19% (68.86M OP) |
| Top-1000 Delegates Inactive | 9.76% (10.3M OP) |
| Top-1000 Delegates Ghost | 23% (23.62M OP) |
- Delegate Quorum Gauge: The number of delegates required to reach quorum
- *Nakamoto Coefficient: The number of delegates required to reach 50% of the total voting power
- **A delegate is considered inactive if they have not voted on any of the last 3 proposals but have voted on at least 1 proposal in the past.
- ***A delegate is considered a ghost if they have never voted on any proposal.
Main Governance Initiatives in October
On-chain treasury execution:
Introduction
The proposal suggests transitioning Optimism’s treasury functions to automated on-chain execution. This supports its shift toward decentralized governance, minimizing the need for manual actions by the Optimism Foundation.
Technical Implementation
A timelock contract with a 3-day delay will secure treasury transactions. This will ensure automated on-chain execution for treasury actions while keeping non-treasury proposals under manual Foundation control.
Impact
This move boosts operational efficiency and transparency, aligning with Optimism’s self-governing goals by implementing secure, automated treasury management.
Grants Council Season 6
Introduction
The Season 6 of Grants council was approved by a series of on-chain proposals in May and June with a total budget of more than 18M OP tokens. The Grants council began accepting applications mid-July and recently closed applications for its Cycle 29. Its final cycle, the Cycle 30 will begin accepting applications early November.
Workings
The Grant scopes are divided into 3 broad categories
- Intent #1: Progress towards Decentralization
- Intent # 3A: Focuses on expanding the application developer ecosystem on the Optimism mainnet.
- Intent # 3B: Grant for OP Chains to establish and run their own grant programs.
Impact
The impact of the Grants Council in Season 6 is multifaceted, aiming to solidify Optimism’s ecosystem by advancing decentralization, expanding developer resources, and supporting diverse Superchain ecosystems. Through Intent 1, it enhances governance and technical resilience, creating tools like cross-chain voting and capture assessment frameworks, thus bolstering the DAO’s autonomy and security.
Intent 3A’s focus on developer growth on OP Mainnet drives innovation with specific grants for application development, educational resources, and tools that simplify entry for new builders. This effort aims to reach a target of 9,500 active developers, directly increasing protocol adoption and ecosystem stickiness through unique projects like gaming and AI applications.
Lastly, Intent 3B’s allocation to Superchain members empowers individual OP Chains to tailor grants to their community’s needs, promoting ecosystem diversity. This decentralization of funding aligns with Optimism’s goal of a robust Superchain, making developer resources and grants accessible across multiple OP Chains.
Together, these initiatives are expected to drive sustained developer engagement, improve protocol-level governance, and reinforce Optimism’s position as a decentralized, developer-centric platform.
Retro Funding 5 and 6
Introduction
Retro Funding Rounds 5 and 6 by the Optimism Collective are part of its Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) initiative, aimed at rewarding past contributions that benefit the ecosystem. Retro Funding 5, launched in mid-2024, focused on contributors to the OP Stack, supporting advancements in infrastructure and tooling essential for scaling Ethereum. Retro Funding 6, launched later in 2024, is centered on governance contributions, and funding efforts that improve governance infrastructure, analytics, and leadership within Optimism. RetroFunding 5 has awarded results, RetroFunding 6 is still in progress.
Workings
The RetroPGF process involves the Citizens’ House, with members voting on projects’ impact. Round 5 experimented with expert voters for allocation, aiming to introduce fairness and reduce potential biases in assessing OP Stack contributions. In Round 6, the focus shifted to governance, incorporating guest voters to assess governance-focused projects and introducing a Farcaster-based application process for transparency. Each project applies under a specific category to streamline the funding assessment process, with each voting phase addressing distribution fairness and alignment with Optimism’s goals.
Impact
The Retro Funding process has expanded Optimism’s ecosystem by funding foundational infrastructure in Round 5, fostering broader tooling and protocol development. This approach enhances Optimism’s scalability and accessibility for developers. Round 6 is expected to improve governance engagement and accountability, with projects supporting the evolution of a decentralized and transparent governance model for Optimism. The use of expert and guest voters has not only diversified input but also set a precedent for inclusive and impact-driven funding across Optimism’s collective initiatives.
Community Overview
- Main Account:704K Followers
- Governance X Account: 30K Followers
- Discord: 163K Members
Community Trends
- Decentralization Commitment: Optimism’s community-led governance, including the Citizens’ House, ensures that the ecosystem remains decentralized and empowers members with a real stake in decision-making.
- Strong Public Goods Culture: Through RetroPGF, Optimism actively rewards contributions that align with public goods funding, attracting projects that build essential infrastructure and tools for the ecosystem.
- Feedback and Improvement Culture: No process is perfect, the OP collective and its members come together to discuss various processes, their shortcomings and potential improvements in a vibrant manner.
- Enhanced Governance Diversity: There’s potential to further diversify participation within governance to bring fresh perspectives and broader representation.
- Cross-Chain Collaborations: As the Superchain grows, Optimism can forge more partnerships with other chains and projects, bringing more innovation and utility into its ecosystem
Closing Summary
October 2024 marked significant strides for Optimism, highlighting its growing autonomy and ecosystem expansion. The successful adoption of on-chain treasury execution underscores Optimism’s dedication to decentralization, reducing reliance on centralized operations. With Grants Council Season 6 nearly complete and the final funding cycle underway, Optimism continues to foster a vibrant developer ecosystem, advancing both core applications and Superchain development.
RetroFunding Rounds 5 and 6 further underscore Optimism’s unique approach to rewarding impactful contributions, supporting essential infrastructure through public goods funding and enhancing governance capabilities. Community engagement remains robust, with strengths in decentralization and collaborative culture, setting a solid foundation for future growth. Optimism’s ongoing commitment to transparency and community-driven improvement is evident in its governance processes, positioning the Collective for continued success and innovation across the Superchain.