HIP-5: Adopt a proper PoH DAO Governance process to ensure HIP quality

This proposal was accepted, please follow it if you want to pass a proposal.

Simple Summary

This proposal details a process for creating PoH DAO governance proposals and putting them up to vote.

Abstract

This proposal provides a detailed structured process for PoH DAO governance proposals. Any individual or entity wishing to create a proposal and put it up to vote will need to go through those steps to ensure that its proposal is detailed enough to be voted on and its implementation enforceable.

Motivation

The recent proposals on PoH Snapshot page confused a lot of people in the PoH community. They lack any detailed description, link to a debate on PoH forum, proper structuring of the proposal and it is not clear if they are only for collecting signalling information or if they will be binding. Moreover, some of them invite people to vote on proposals that may not be technically feasible. This proposal will ensure only proposals and polls with the bare minimum quality will reach the snapshot page and avoid voter fatigue in the process.

Specification

PoH DAO Governance Process

The Proof of Humanity governance process is primarily conducted using the DAO category on the Proof of Humanity Governance Forum. For a proposal to be accepted, it must successfully pass through three phases:

Phase Starting event Duration Passing Requirements
Phase 1: Ideation Ideation post created on the PoH Forum in the DAO category with a Phase 1 tag Open-ended For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 1 to Phase 2, there is no formal requirement. However, if a Phase 1 proposal discussion fails to garner momentum from the community, it is unlikely to become a successful proposal.
Phase 2: Specification Humanity Improvement Proposal (HIP) post created with a Phase 2 tag and a corresponding signalling poll on Snapshot 3 days For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 2 to Phase 3, there must be one outcome with a relative majority of votes on the Snapshot signalling poll. If the relative majority of votes on the poll indicates the result Make no changes, the proposal will not pass to Phase 3.
Phase 3: Consensus Humanity Improvement Proposal (HIP) post refined and edited with a Phase 3 tag and a corresponding binding proposal on Snapshot 7 days For proposals to be accepted in this final phase, there must be one outcome with a relative majority of votes in the Snapshot proposal. If the relative majority of votes on the proposal indicates the result Make no changes, the proposal will not be accepted and considered closed.

Phase 1: Ideation

This phase facilitates an initial, informal discussion on PoH Forum regarding potential proposals to PoH DAO. You can initiate a proposal in Phase 1 by posting your idea in the DAO category with the phase-1 tag. This phase allows proposals to gather community insight for refinement before opening a formal poll.

Duration: Open-ended

Passing Requirement: For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 1 to Phase 2, there is no formal requirement. However, if a Phase 1 proposal discussion fails to garner any momentum from the community, it is unlikely to become a successful proposal.

Phase 2: Specification

This phase requires proposals to be posted in a new dedicated thread the DAO category using the Humanity Improvement Proposal (HIP) template. You can create a Humanity Improvement Proposal (HIP) easily by adding the HIP subcategory, after which your draft post will automatically be populated by a HIP template for you to fill in. You can move a proposal to Phase 2 by posting the HIP-# with the phase-2 tag.

The HIP template recommends that all proposals should contain the following fields when applicable , such as a Simple Summary, Abstract, Motivation and Specification.
In addition to these fields, Phase 2 proposals must also include a link to a 3-day long signalling poll on PoH Snapshot page about the proposal outcome (that contains the proposal text as well as a link to the HIP post on the PoH Forum), and it must include the option Make no changes. The Phase 2 proposal poll on Snapshot should be prefixed by [Signalling] to differentiate them from binding Phase 3 proposal votes*. In order to be eligible to signal in the poll, community members must be registered in the PoH registry.

*In the near future, if we are able to create polls on the forum only open to Discourse accounts linked to a PoH profile, then the signalling poll could be done on the forum.

Duration: 3 days

Passing Requirement: For proposals to successfully pass from Phase 2 to Phase 3, there must be one outcome with a relative majority of votes on the snapshot poll. If the relative majority of votes on the snapshot poll indicates the result Make no changes, the proposal will not pass to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Consensus

This phase opens proposals to two signalling methods for token holders. You can move a proposal to Phase 3 by editing the HIP post from the previous phase to reflect the snapshot signalling poll result that received a relative majority of votes and by updating the proposal’s tag to phase-3. This serves to refine the proposal for the final phase.

Additionally, a PoH DAO proposal on Snapshot page must be created (that contains the proposal text as well as a link to the HIP post on the PoH Forum), it should be prefixed by [Binding] and it must include the option Make no changes. In order to be eligible to vote for the proposal, community members must be registered in the PoH registry.

Duration: 7 days

Passing Requirement: For proposals to be accepted in this final phase, there must be one outcome with a relative majority of votes in the Snapshot proposal. If the relative majority of votes on the proposal indicates the result Make no changes, the proposal will not be accepted and considered closed.

Any snapshot proposal not following these guidelines can be considered non-binding.

Many thanks to teams in the ecosystem including Gnosis, Balancer and Uniswap, which inspired this governance process.

HIP Template

HIP: <Number to be assigned>
title: <HIP title>
author: <a list of the author's or authors' name(s) and/or username(s), or name(s) and email(s),
status: Draft
created: <date created on, in ISO 8601 (yyyy-mm-dd) format>
requires (*optional): <HIP number(s)>
replaces (*optional): <HIP number(s)>

Simple Summary

(Required for Phase 1)

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Provide a simplified and layman-accessible explanation of the HIP.

Abstract

(Required for Phase 1)

A short (~200 word) description of the issue being addressed.

Motivation

(Required for Phase 1)

The motivation is critical for HIPs that want to allocate funding or change the PoH DAO. HIP posts without sufficient motivation may be rejected outright.

Specification

(Required for Phase 2)

The technical specification should describe the syntax and semantics of any new feature. The specification should be detailed enough to allow for it to be reasoned about by participants in the PoH DAO.

Rationale

(Recommended for Phase 2)

The rationale fleshes out the specification by describing what motivated the design and why particular design decisions were made. It should describe alternate designs that were considered and related work. The rationale may also provide evidence of consensus within the community, and should discuss important objections or concerns raised during discussion.

Implementation

(If necessary, recommended for Phase 3)

20 Likes

I agree, it is a relatively simple procedure and it gives some structure to the discussion. It also makes it clearer for new members how to get something approved.

5 Likes

That looks good and will make the Snapshot space way more clear.

5 Likes

This crystal clear explanation will enable both more ppl to participate and engage in decision-making. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

1 Like

This proposal has been put up to vote on Snapshot

3 Likes

I think the wording regarding on what should happen in Phase 3 is not clear. We should discuss this before submitting it to a binding voting. It says

You can move a proposal to Phase 3 by editing the HIP post from the previous phase to reflect the snapshot signalling poll result that received a relative majority of votes and by updating the proposal’s tag to phase-3.

Additionally, a PoH DAO proposal on Snapshot page must be created (that contains the proposal text as well as a link to the HIP post on the PoH Forum) […]

It does not specify if the editing of the forum post, and the proposals should be sequential or simultaneous.

Phase 3 happens after Phase 2.
The table even clearly states that Phase 3 needs the Phase 2 poll to be over and accepted for Phase 3 to be launched.

This is an adaptation of the governance process of GnosisDAO and Uniswap DAO where not a single soul has misunderstood that Phase 3 happens after Phase 2 which happens after Phase 1.

For Phase 3, once Phase 2 is done, you just edit the post with a description of the implementation, and launch a binding vote.

1 Like

But is is simultaneous?

We still need this answer in order to proceed.

My understanding is that you edit the post before.

Sorry for the late reply due to my current paternity leave.

Indeed, there are no requirements (explicitly expressed in HIP-5) in terms of sequentiality or simultaneousness of editing the proposal thread for phase 3 and submitting the binding proposal vote on Snapshot.

Theoretically, you could do both at the same time but I would not recommend it. If you do this, it does not allow for feedback time on your phase 3 post with additional information about the implementation details. This means someone could spot a mistake in the implementation details and call for people to vote “No” in Snapshot.

If you give a few days to a week of feedback time on your proposal thread edited for Phase 3, you will be able to get some comments from people and maybe update/fix some details and thus increase your chances of having the proposal passing through when going to vote.

Conclusion: the recommended interpretation is to wait a few days between editing the thread for phase 3 and publishing the binding vote on Snapshot but not waiting that much is not a basis for dismissal.

2 Likes

But isn’t this all about making rules that do not require the understanding of anyone and be self-explanatory?

Thanks, then I reserve the right to move a proposal to Phase 3, while submitting the Snapshot poll simultaneously.

Seems good, let more people to join the commuity and gov it by self.

1 Like