Solana has reached a certain level of maturity, with almost 3.5yrs of Mainnet-Beta, the development of an independent validator client (Firedancer), alternative releases of the default client (Jito), a growing distribution of stake (NC of 30) and a vibrant community of validators, developers, NFT communities and more.
With this in mind, it is proposed to develop a formalized framework and implementation for governance on Solana.
This is necessary to foster continued decentralization of power in the network, moving away from single decision-making authorities and enabling sustainable collaboration between client teams.
Governance on Solana currently exists minimally and is used only rarely. Primarily protocol-altering changes go through levels of social consensus with ultimate authority resting with the core engineers at Solana Labs.
On-chain voting is possible through the feature program, however lacks functionality and visibility and has barely been used in practice.
A group of interested community members is developing ideas around governance to identify the most suitable path forward.
This forum will be used for more specific and formulated proposals to be discussed and finalized, with the intention of then putting these to a vote.
The goal is to develop a framework for governance, with further discussion taking place at Breakpoint 2023 in Amsterdam, and beginning an implementation in Q1 2024.
To ensure low friction and a smooth transition to an active governance ecosystem the initial scope should be limited in scope to the most critical aspects to maintain focus and avoid governance fatigue amongst participants.
Thanks for posting these. To help orient those new to the discussions, we’ve been focusing conversations on the following topics -
Why
There’s been a general agreement among discussion participants to-date that a more formalized and inclusive governance process is necessary for reasons described in the “Why” section of the Gitbook linked above (I’m limited to only two links as a new user.)
Who
“Who” and “What” are the areas we’ve been focused on defining first, as pre-requisites for determining the “How”.
Currently three “Who” proposals are on the table and can be discussed here
What
Currently two “What” proposals are on the table and can be discussed here
How
There’s been a general agreement among discussion participants to-date that a more formalized and inclusive governance process.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts on Solana’s governance! It’s exciting to see the community gearing up for more structured decision-making. Moving towards a formalized framework makes a lot of sense given Solana’s growth and diversity of stakeholders.
It’s clear there’s already a solid foundation with nearly 3.5 years on Mainnet-Beta, alternative client developments like Firedancer and Jito, and a vibrant mix of validators, developers, and NFT communities.
Your point about decentralizing power and fostering collaboration between client teams is crucial for long-term sustainability. I agree that while on-chain voting exists, it’s not yet fully utilized. Transitioning to a more active governance model could really empower the community and streamline decision-making.
I’m glad to hear there’s momentum building around this, with discussions happening in places like the Staking Alliance Discord and documented ideas on Gitbook. And planning to finalize proposals at Breakpoint 2023 sounds like a great step forward.
Starting small and focused makes a lot of sense to avoid overload and keep everyone engaged. This approach will help in laying down a solid foundation without overwhelming participants.
Looking forward to seeing how these ideas evolve and contribute to Solana’s future. Let’s keep the momentum going!