Following the clarifications provided to me in the Discord and Community Call (thanks everyone for the warm welcome!), I understand that the 2M self-delegation is going to be resolved soon as the funds are planned to be used. This, combined with the changes to grant applications and the Protocol Delegate Program should reduce the ambiguity of this in the future from this situation happening again.
Personally, while I disagree with this delegation since other protocols did not do something similar, it seems like the issue should resolve itself going forward. However, there is a part that remained unclear to me: if the Protocol Delegate Program was implemented as an explicit discouragement of grant self-delegation, why are these delegated funds still being used after the passing of this vote on December 21st?
Now, I have to admit that the reason why I am aware of this discussion is because this decision to use the 2M OP is affecting me and the protocol I wish to represent directly. As of the time of writing, there are less than 24 hours left for the vote to close, and these 2.3 Million OP have moved ParaSwap from being the ~5th to not even being a nominated protocol anymore. This, once again, is happening in a vote for something specifically designed to remove protocol self-delegation , and offer an alternative instead.
Had ParaSwap also decided to also use its unspent OP to self-delegate, we would have enough to have closed the gap and made it to 8th place. However, other protocols that are now going to be excluded from this round due to this self-delegation did not even have this choice. Atlantis World ( represented by @revmiller ), for instance, is another protocol where these 2.3M made the difference between being represented and exclusion. In a similar vein, at least 1 Grant Council Reviewee is being affected by this issue as well.
Personally, if I do not make it past this round, I am fine applying to represent ParaSwap again on the next voting round, but how many members might potentially be discouraged from applying again in the future?
I understand these votes being counted while we didn’t have an alternative for protocol delegation, but I’m unsure as to why the wallet with the largest voting power in an election about an alternative to Grant Self-Delegation would be a wallet voting with Grant Self-Delegation.