Season 1 Reflection
Season 1 has come to an end, and we at StableNode, would like to take the time to reflect on the past four voting cycles.
There we 38 proposals over four voting cycles, with the initial cycle being a batch vote.
Voting cycle #1 - 3
Voting cycle #2 - 17
Voting cycle #3 - 9
Voting cycle #4 - 9
We voted 16 Yes’s and 22 No’s. To see our voting history and the reasons, check out our delegate thread.
Governance Update #2 provides a good overview of the problems faced by the community, and we echo these concerns as there were too many proposals to work your way through, both in terms of voting and providing feedback. Specifically, voting cycle #2 was a large number of proposals, and we believe that such a large amount can act as a deterrent for individuals to get involved in the governance process.
Voter apathy is a prominent issue within decentralized governance, and when possible, we should minimize the obstacles that come with participating in decentralized governance. We don’t necessarily mean to reduce the workload/number of proposals but to find a more effective way to allow voters, especially individuals, to continue to participate in OP governance.
We also recommend using a tool like Messari governor keep track of the proposals in preliminary discussions and the active vote. The discourse and discord can get a bit overwhelming sometimes, so a quick check there to find the preliminary discussion is short.
Regarding the proposals, we recommend that future applications use previous successful proposals to help write their application. Proposals should be clear and detailed, updated post-community feedback, and contain all relevant links.
Using Boardroom’s voter track record and cross-referencing it with the history of some of the Optimism votes, it seems that even a few large delegates have stopped voting. Voting cycle 4 hasn’t concluded yet, so not everyone would have the 38 votes (the first vote was a test).
We aren’t sure of the reason for the reduced participation, but it could be due to many proposals, lack of incentives, or other reasons. We encourage delegators to re-delegate to those delegates who actively participate in Optimism governance.
One reason is that Snapshot does not support voting via Gnosis Safe, so delegates using a Gnosis Safe would be unable to vote. There is no solution yet.