Below is the thread to gather discussion topics for the upcoming standing Delegate call on Tuesday, October 15th.
The goal is to collaboratively curate the agenda by having Delegates propose discussion topics (with reasoning) in this thread. Others can “upvote” a topic by liking the different posts, which will help prioritize the items for the agenda.
I will update this forum post the day of the call with a proposed agenda based on results from the forum. I will use that agenda as a guide to help facilitate the call.
Check out the Standing Delegates Call post describing the focus, format, cadence and other details of these standing calls.
Your Gov Experience gal- Shelby
AGENDA BASED ON THREAD
TPPs were the only topic suggested to discuss this week.
I will start the call with a very brief intro & some housekeeping items, but most of the time will be used to discuss TPPs and other topics Delegates want to discuss on the call.
So far, predominantly present in all discussions, inside and outside of the forum, are TPPs. Everyone can read through your post about TPPs and ask questions from there during the call. I’d also encourage people to read Dr. Nick’s post which has my comment – thoughts, questions, concerns, I took while reading it and so far understanding of TPPs. It would be great if we all came out of this week’s call with a much better understanding of TPPs, everything around their implementation, and actionable steps we can take to ensure they are a success.
Thanks to everyone who joined the Standing Delegate Call yesterday! As promised, below is a collection of summarized notes and links shared in the call from yesterday.
As folks keep asking for recordings of these calls, I am working getting approval to create a ZK Nation youtube channel where I could post the recordings of these calls. I will keep everyone updated.
If you have feedback or opinions on the Standing Delegate Calls, feel free to leave feedback here
Resources & Reminders:
TPP FAQ: This new resource aims to help the community better understand TPPs and provides some examples to help start reframing terms and mechanisms that have become typical for onchain organizations.
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Key question this model is focused on answering: How do we become more decentralized in DAOs while addressing inefficiencies of traditional Delegate-based decision making?
The TPP framework outlined here suggests using smart contracts that initiate, execute, and terminate actions based on governance decisions, with limiting human involvement in the operational loop. Dr. Nick envisions creating a system where governance within a TPP happens automatically and continuously, without needing constant oversight from Delegates or program managers - which can become sites of control, gatekeeping and power.
TPPs should aim for trustless execution of transactions fully onchain based on automated mechanic outlined in a token program. However, achieving this probably won’t happen immediately. There is recognition that some human oversight, such as program managers controlling multisig wallets as admins of capped minters, may still be necessary before moving fully to automated smart contract governance for TPPs.
The point of designing mechanisms for TPPs is to gain accountability in decentralization. TPPs are attempting to a new standard for onchain governance. It adds in a certain type of friction from traditional proposal processes. The transition period to get used to this type of thinking and framing for TPPs may be an adjustment, but the more we iterate and improve to process the easier it will be to transition to automating these purely based on onchain date eventually.
No one model for TPPs: There is no single model or approach for TPPs. There are specific aspects that TPP authors should keep in mind when designing a token mechanic, but each TPP will look slightly different and will have different considerations based on the aim of the token program, and may require different levels of complexity. There will likely be many “pluralistic mechanisms” that run alongside each other.
Concerns raised by Delegates on call:
Although everyone seems to share the excitement about experimenting with TPPs, the approach outlined in Dr.Nick’s post seems quite complex and not necessarily realistic in the near future. Feels like a risk to focus on one format.
High barrier to pass TPP means this could lead to less spending initially in ecosystem which could have consequences. Although it does avoid overspending upfront.
Short iteration cycles for experiments for TPPs: Short timeframes may not allow for enough time to truly test or justify for large-scale programs.
How to ensure the success of TPPs
TPPs require a certain technical understanding to set up (e.g. deploying a capped minter, thinking through distribution mechanics). The process needs to be accessible for anyone to be able to set up. Many agreed it would be helpful to have further templates and tools at the ready for proposal authors to use when imagining TPPs.
Based off of the learnings from TPP001, the Gov Team is working to identify the missing information and resources needed to make it possible for anyone to launch a TPP. We have already pushed for the creation of a capped minter factory - which will make it easy for anyone to deploy a capped minter - which should go live on mainnet this week.
Other guiding questions: How can we use infrastructure from other TPPs when drafting new TPPs? How can we build on top of existing TPPs and reuse mechanisms?
This is the key. This is our grand vision for how TPPs should work (and will work in time). Highlighting it because it will involve trial and error, many iterations, and optimization. Hence the program managers (or my initial suggestion “ecosystem leads” would be helpful to ensure their success).
Having Program Managers will speed up the progress of TPPs and bring them to their functional stage quicker. It’s important to have someone who can help newcomers with TPPs, get used to them, learn about them, track and measure results and their activity, iterate, improve, and optimize for what the specific TPP is trying to achieve.
It’s still a bit unclear how this will work for stuff like events, sponsorships for hackathons, bug bounties, R&D, maybe (educational) content creation, etc. i.e. things that bring value to the ZKsync ecosystem but have no onchain trackable metric. Maybe a solution lies in a combination of onchain attestation mechanism, combined with TPP contract templates, and a Program Manager as the approver. Just an idea.
Yep!
The risk associated with this is focusing on complexity rather than accessibility. To create an ecosystem and culture of developers, creators, artists, buildooors, etc. capital needs to be accessed easily, preferably in a familiar way (applications & approvals). If I had to track some metrics for building a successful chain, I’d focus on the # of deployed contracts + # of onchain transactions. Then developer activity, active end-users, liquidity, # number of successful projects, retention, TVL, etc. Completly separate discussion. Much to say here.
Time to market (and go-to-market strategy) is important. Even though we’re optimizing for long-term success, it’s important to take advantage of this market cycle where a lot of retail users are pouring into crypto, lots of new developers coming, lots of activity overall. Hence the argument for accessibility to funds with as little to no friction.
This made me really happy and optimistic. If we standardize TPP deployment for certain things and remove the technical complexity of launching them, we can put them to work fairly quickly and iterate fast! Happy to help with this if I can.
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AGENDA BASED ON THREAD