The below response reflects the views of L2BEAT’s governance team, composed of @kaereste and @Sinkas, and it’s based on the combined research, fact-checking and ideation of the two.
We have raised some questions in regards to Base’s participation in Optimism governance in the “Welcoming Base to Optimism” post, but we’d also like to respond to this post. Firstly to welcome Base in the Collective, and also to offer our feedback to the questions you’ve asked.
- How do you think Base should participate in Optimism governance?
In a way, the way Base participates sets a precedent for future such cases. We’d love to see Base actively engaged with the community, frequently engaging with discussions happening in the forums with constructive feedback, analysis and solid reasoning.
We’re not entirely sure of how interactions and decision-making will be handled on Base’s side (whether through an individual or a team), and we’d appreciate a clarification on that.
An interesting approach would be to delegate a portion of the voting power to active participants in the Optimism and Base communities.
- How can we further the Superchain holding true to our values of decentralization and neutrality?
We reflect @Polynya’s view that getting Base to Stage 1 & Stage 2 (as per our site) would be a meaningful step toward decentralisation. On top of that, helping establish the Law of Chains by firstly adhering to it, but also through helping create and establishing a process to enforce as many things as possible through trustless mechanisms would be amazing.
Base, being the first chain to be onboarded to the Superchain, can bring the perspective of the onboarded entity, which can help us better understand nuances in the process, or in the Law of Chains, for other chains.
- What unique perspectives can Base bring to Optimism governance?
Base’s experience in retail UX and regulatory matters can prove invaluable to the DAO. It’s no secret that DAOs are very complex from a UX perspective and there’s no streamlined process for contributors. There’s also regulatory concerns surrounding funding mechanisms such as grants.
Having Base’s input on the above could prove invaluable to the Optimism Collective as we scale.
- How would you like to see us show up? What have you seen work well with other participants?
We’d like to see Base actually participating in discussions happening here in the forums, and attending the community calls. The grant received by the Foundation puts Base among the top delegates and as such, we expect active participation in governance.
- What are ways we can better solicit input and feedback from the community?
As already mentioned above, participating in the biweekly community call would be a good way to engage with the community and solicit feedback. It’s possible that not everything related to Base x Optimism can be discussed within the span of an hour that is the community call, but it’s definitely the place to start.
Another idea that we are experimenting with internally (and we encourage Base to experiment with it as well), is to making your governance team available for community through Office Hours. That way you can gather feedback from the community and raise it to the forum or delegate calls. It’s also a good opportunity to exchange ideas between delegates. Of course, feel free to join our Optimism Office Hours as well. 