TPP Architecture and Ignite Review
Authors: Factory Labs (@drnick @Matt_FactoryLabs)
Introduction & Scope
As part of the Ignite proposal, Factory Labs was was commissioned to evaluate automation opportunities within the ZKsync Ignite programme as part of its “Programme Mechanic Automation” workstream. Our mandate was not to review the performance of the Ignite programme itself, but to review the set up and operation of the Ignite programme from a technical perspective in its first season, with a view to looking towards potential enhancements of the programme with respect towards automation goals and to review how the TPP architecture more generally could trend towards automated outcomes in the future.
As we have extensively discussed in the DAO in recent months, how the TPP framework aims to take a more governance minimised and automated approach to building out DAO action. Broadly, the goal is to build ‘permissionless pathways’ that flow tokens from the DAO out into the elastic chain ecosystem to drive protocol growth and network adoption. The goal being, that instead of tokens sitting in the custody of centralised committees a more transparent and trust minimised architecture is achieved that leverages the affordances of smart contracts maximally.
ZKsync is unique in its DAO infrastructure form, in that instead of tokens sitting minted in a DAO treasury contract, the network leverages a more advanced token contract. It utilises a minting function, which affords the minting of ZK on demand up to a spending cap. Ignite was the first active utilisation of the ZKCappedMinter framework, which can be thought of as a framework for extending the token contract via the creation of capped minters from a CappedMinterFactory contract, which can be distributed outwards into the ecosystem to facilitate the creation of token programmes that achieve a broad scope of network oriented goals.
Our goal, was to review how this framework was utilised, identify any structural issues with its utilisation, but also take a broader look at the future of the Token Programme framework and propose ideas and enhancements that could lead us towards a DAO architecture that realises the vision of a hyper efficient organisation that drives the network of effects of the elastic chain ecosystem.
Programme of Our Work
We have produced a comprehensive report, which you can find HERE, which details our findings and recommendations, along with technical specifications for implementing automation improvements.
Key deliverables include:
- Process Flow Analysis: Detailed mapping of the current incentive distribution process from analytics recommendation to user claim.
- Transaction Flow Efficiency: Documentation of coordination challenges and potential solutions
- Technical Enhancement Roadmap: Specifications for transition to the V2CappedMinter framework.
- Customer Experience Evaluation: Analysis of current claim process friction and suggested improvements
- Technical Specification: Potential designs for future TPP advancement, including potential augmentations to the council architecture and CappedMinter framework.
Key Takeaways
Overall, the CappedMinter framework is functioning well and promises to be the right substrate for the TPP architecture to develop. It demonstrates a capabilitiy of trustlessly initiating token programmes from DAO governor vote, passing minting roles to pre-identified multi-sigs. It facilitates tokens to be minted on demand, allowing the DAO to have oversight and control of the programme in a highly trust minimised fashion.
There are however a number of emergent issues, that can be learned from Ignite both in programme operation and technical architecture that will enhance the token programme framework going forward.
The findings stand out as most significant:
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Human Coordination is the Primary Bottleneck: The biggest challenges aren’t technical but human. Coordination challenges largely stem from the complexity of transaction payloads, leading to difficulties for non-technical signers. Simplifying calldata and enhancing documentation is essential. To address these coordination issues, we propose establishing a dedicated Cross-TPP Steering Committee (SteerCo) with a trained, DAO-wide signing pool, standardised onboarding processes, emergency signing bounties, and structured offboarding policies to improve reliability and reduce bottlenecks.
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Capped Minter Framework Functions Well: The fundamental architecture linking token governance to token issuance is working well, though it can be enhanced with the V2 framework. We propose some approaches for moving towards use of the V2CappedMinter framework that will enhance transaction flow efficienct.
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“Hook Contracts” Represent a Major Opportunity: Creating CappedMinter framework extensions that can link CappedMinters directly to other mechanisms could eliminate several manual steps and significantly reduce human coordination requirements.
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User Experience Challenges: Programmes that support massified token distribution create scenarios where many thousands of users expect payment on time. This places a highly concentrated demand on user facing support systems and technical systems. We propose deploying AI-powered support agents to effectively manage high-volume claim periods, automating support tasks and significantly reducing user frustration.
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Transaction Flow Trust Models: Given the recent ByBit hack and other similar attacks, it is paramount that trust architecture around council structures is improved. Moments of custody (which also incurs tax implications) of the tokens should be minimised as much as possible and generally the bands of possible transactions that can be achieved should be restricted and we should think about “going beyond multi-sigs” to architectures where tokens can only flow to specified targets, under specified conditions. Moving council structures to oversight and veto like action.
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Farming Activity: The sheer volume of microtransactions (especially from bots) has created unexpected data processing loads. Pre-filtering insignificant transactions could dramatically improve system performance. Alongside, building data based approaches for building network level trust at the account level will build sybil resistance and minimise farming activity.
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Formalise Iterative Improvements:: Formalising and regularly sharing documented efficiency improvements with the Token Assembly will help institutionalise incremental enhancements, fostering a more robust and transparent governance framework.
In Summary, Immediate Recommended Enhancements:
- Establish Cross-TPP SteerCo to streamline multisig signing.
- Implement Hook Contracts to automate token flow.
- Deploy AI support agents for high-volume user interactions.
- Transition to CappedMinter V2 for enhanced security and transparency.
- Develop a Trust Scoring system for effective Sybil resistance.
We believe that animating TPP builders towards tackling these issues and building innovative incremental improvements will provide a foundation for more automated TPPs across the Elastic Chain ecosystem. The goal should be to gradually remove human checkpoints where appropriate while maintaining necessary governance oversight.
Our full report contains detailed technical specifications and implementation recommendations that can be made available to the appropriate teams.
Appendix A: Process Flow Diagram
The process flow diagram showing the complete Ignite Programme workflow across Governance, Analytics, Technical, and User layers
Appendix B: Full Report
Link to the full report: Automation and Optimization Review: Ignite Programme and TPP Framework