By Shelby Steidl & Abbey Titcomb
2021 was the year the Radicle project introduced the Radicle token (RAD) - its native governance token - making it the first open-source, community-led, and self-sustaining network for software collaboration. A major step towards the decentralization of Radicle, RAD has enabled a number of Ethereum-based features as well as the communal ownership, collective governance, and long-term sustainability of the Radicle network. The first year of governance held some exciting new developments for Radicle as well as provided a lot of learning opportunities for the core team. This is a summary of the most notable developments and summary of important proposals.
The Governance Working Group
The creation of the Governance Working Group has helped grow the capacity of our governance capabilities and bolstered expansion of governance resources. The Governance Working Group has primarily consisted of Abbey Titcomb, a core Radicle contributor, and Shelby Steidl, a governance facilitator, as well as key partners such as Larry Sukernik and Derek Hsue from Reverie. The Governance WG is in charge of facilitating and coordinating the governance process for the Radicle community. The governance team launched the Radicle Governance Hub, a collection of all important information and resources needed to get started with Radicle governance as well as outlines the Radicle governance process. We also launched the Radicle Governance Twitter page which acts as a ticker account for all important governance-related announcements and reminders.
Governance Proposals by Stage in the Governance Process
Governance Proposal (on-chain vote)
- The Radicle Grants Program (v2) was one of Radicle’ largest community development projects of 2021. The proposal for the RGP went through two rounds of Formal Review (see V1 here) and two Snapshot polls (V1 results, V2 results). The proposal’s Formal Reviews both failed to meet participation requirements, which triggered a general re-evaluation of Radicle governance parameters. Despite this setback, we decided to push the proposal forward to an on-chain vote. Reasoning is outlined here. As of Monday, January 10th, the proposal officially passed an on-chain vote with 5.23% of RAD holders voting in support of funding the Radicle Grants Program.
Formal Review
- Remove name registration fee: This proposal was put to a Snapshot vote in early December 2021 (see results here). Although it obtained a majority of in-favor votes, it failed to meet participation requirements. It has been paused and will be picked up in 2022 after issues with voting participation have been addressed.
Notable Temp Checks
Key Community Proposals
- Use Success Tokens to diversify Radicle Treasury with a Token Swap (Chandler from UMA)
- Partner with Gro Protocol on Treasury Management (Joyce from Gro Protocol)
Challenges & Important Discussions
While there were many exciting developments for Radicle governance in 2021, there were also a few challenges. Although we would participation in voting rounds from a wide variety of the community, we struggled to reach the minimal voting participation threshold - 4% of total RAD supply. This led to discussions around re-evaluating participation thresholds and brainstorming ways we could activate larger token holders in the community via promotion of delegation.
Focus Items for 2022
Education via organized/accessible information: We want to continue to reorganize content in a way that is easy for any community member to understand. We want to make sure everyone can find the information they are looking for within a few clicks and that governance processes are so clear your grandma could figure it out.
Delegation/Voting Activation: We want to perform a more detailed stakeholder analysis and formulate targeted activation for each of these groups. One way we are already working to do this is via delegation and a Recognized Delegation Platform mentioned above.
Improved Governance Infrastructure: We want to demystify and simplify “governance” within the Radicle ecosystem. We’ll be exploring how to develop (or adopt) new tooling for improving our governance operations. The goal is to make it easier for community members to delegate, vote, and propose governance actions. In addition, we’ll be focusing on how to best support our Core Teams as the Radicle project continues to decentralize product development.
Events: Community input and participation is what makes the DAO world go ‘round. We want to provide opportunities for the community to come together to discuss the most pressing, challenging, and exciting issues around governance. We will try to host a few of these discussions (both virtually and HOPEFULLY in person).
Thank you for all of the contributions and support throughout 2021! We are looking forward to where the Radicle community will take governance in 2022.