Initiative Title
Provide a concise and descriptive title for your initiative. Use the format [Draft/Discussion] [OBRA] Your Initiative Title - Author for submission.
Split Delegation
Abstract
Provide a brief summary of your initiative
This is a proposal to fund the design, implementation, and support of an update to the SafeDAO’s delegation strategy, enabling three key features: split delegation, transitive delegation, and delegation term limits.
Previous Discussion
Provide links to any relevant previous discussion
Aligned Strategy
Which pre-approved strategy is this initiative driving forward?
Strategy 5: Increase governance participation
Funding request:
What resources are being requested from SafeDAO in USDC?
60.000 USDC
If applicable, upfront funding:
Indicate if upfront funding is needed. Refer to 'Payout’ under Get funding from SafeDAO for lump sum payment options.
N/A
Relation to budget:
State the requested funding as a percentage of the total initiative budget (e.g. if you ask for 50k for Strategy 1: 25%)*
40%
Metrics and KPIs:
Which metrics and KPIs will the initiative be measured against?*
-
Impact on governance participation (direct attributable increase in participation through tool):
-
amount of tokens used for voting
-
amount of individual voters
-
distribution of voting power
Initiative description:
What is the initiative about?
Currently, there are several large SAFE token holders who are likely unable or unwilling to participate in Safe governance, since doing so would mean delegating their substantial vote weight to a single entity and trusting it to act in the entity’s and Safe’s best interest. This is due to a fundamental limitation in the current delegation strategy available in Snapshot and used by SafeDAO: accounts are limited to delegating their full balance in a given context to only one account.
Gnosis Guild is currently building an updated delegate registry and Snapshot strategy, implementing three key features:
- Split Delegations: Accounts can delegate their vote weight to any number of other accounts, along with defining the ratio of their vote weight that each of their delegated accounts should receive. For example, Alice could delegate 80% of their vote weight to Bob and 20% of their vote weight to Charlie.
- Transitive Delegation: Accounts can delegate not only their own vote weight, but also any vote weight delegated to them. If Alice delegates to Bob, and Bob delegates to Charlie, Charlie’s total vote weight is the sum of the vote weights of Alice, Bob, and Charlie.
- Delegation Term Limits: Accounts and Snapshot spaces can optionally set limits to length of time for which any given delegation is valid. Spaces can also choose which, if any, term limit to respect when calculating vote weights.
This initiative supports the development of the registry, Snapshot strategy, Snapshot delegation updates, and backend tooling. It also includes the implementation, maintenance, and support of the updated delegation framework for the SafeDAO.
The outcome of this work should enable much more fine-grained delegation options for members of the SafeDAO, ultimately leading to improved vote-weight utilization (more SAFE tokens, from a greater diversity of holders, being represented in each proposal).
Current status:
Does the offering (product/service) already exist or is the funding used to create it?
The second version of the delegate registry contract has been successfully implemented and audited. The backend services for calculating vote weights have also been implemented, along with the first version of the corresponding Snapshot strategy. However, a significant amount of testing is still required for both the vote weight service and the Snapshot strategy, as well as SafeDAO’s specific proposed setup. We anticipate additional dev work to address any issue that may arise during testing and to make any necessary modifications for Safe’s specific setup.
Risks:
What risks does the initiative entail?
This initiative involves updates to SafeDAO’s Snapshot strategy, a critical governance component. As such, it should be approached with caution and be well tested before being enabled on SafeDAO’s Snapshot space.
Timeline and milestones:
Provide a detailed timeline or roadmap, include key milestones
| Week | Focus | Outcomes | USDC | $SAFE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Implementation | Complete implementation of the Snapshot strategy, updated Snapshot delegation dashboard, subgraphs, and backend services. | 22.500 | N/A |
| 3-4 | Testing | Implement a test Snapshot space replicating SafeDAO’s setup with the new delegation strategy, and handle any issues identified while testing. | 22.500 | N/A |
| 4-8 | Support | Resources available to provide support for issues that arise post-rollout. | 15.000 | N/A |
Initiative lead:
Who is the accountable initiative lead? (individual or organization)
Team:
How many individuals in total will be working on this initiative and what role do they have? Please provide a brief background of the team members, highlighting their relevant experience and expertise
Gnosis Guild would assign a full pod (one designer/PM and two engineers) to this initiative for four weeks, and on-demand resources to respond to any issues that arise in the four weeks after the DAO starts using the new strategy.
Additional support/resources:
Are there any resources (non-financial) requested from the Safe Ecosystem Foundation or the core contributors?
None
Implementation dependencies:
Does the implementation of this initiative require any prior changes in the current governance processes, e.g., updates to the governance framework, or have any other dependency? If yes, please specify these. Note that the funding of the initiative will be dependent on the approval and (if needed) successful implementation of such necessary governance modifications or any other dependency.
This proposal is dependent on the proposed governance framework amendment.