If you have been paying attention to Particl News and the chatter in the community chatrooms as of late, then you probably already know by now that Particl is transitioning into an exciting new phase.
Indeed, we have already announced that, in the days to come, there would be two major proposals published on the CCS that require community consensus to be set in motion. These are the output claim management proposal and the one to enable a brand new, powerful treasury model.
That’s directly in line with our recent efforts to put more focus on community governance and improve the degree of decentralization of the project. This now puts you in a much more influential position.
Today, we are thrilled to reveal all the details and parameters of this on-chain and entirely decentralized voting mechanism.
Let’s jump right in!
Table of Contents
- CCS Proposals
- On-Chain Voting
- Approval Rates, Quorum, Duration, and Consensus
- Potential Voting Outcomes
- Proposal Lifecycle
- Community Fund
- First Proposal Coming in on Wednesday
CCS Proposals
As explained, in detail, in the introductory blog post of the CCS, anyone can submit proposals on the CCS to request donations for initiatives from the community. The introduction of the CCS was the first step in improving the level of decentralization and put in place a solid governance mechanism. The on-chain voting system, which is now integrated into the CCS, is the next step to that mission.
On-Chain Voting
The on-chain network voting system is an additional governance tool that you can now use to let your voice be heard. Any CCS proposal can now request a network vote to determine consensus. The most common use for network votes will be for proposals requesting initiatives to be funded from the Community Fund, but can be used for other purposes as well. That's all up to the proposal owner!
The voting system works using staking weight, meaning that you register a vote every time you stake a block on the network. This ensures that only those with a stake or interest in the project can vote, preventing outside influence from affecting the votes unjustly. It also encourages more people to stake their coins to vote, which increases the network’s security and performance at the same time.
The main benefit of on-chain voting compared to the legacy, SMSG-based voting system that was present in Particl Desktop is auditability and provability. With this system, all votes, and their tallied results, are permanently written on the blockchain, and results can provably be observed at any later time without any risk of tampering.
It's important to mention that staking pools, whose staking weight is made up of all the coins staked on the pool, also possess the power to vote. The more coins a pool contains, the more voting power it has.
Note: For a vote to be counted, you need to successfully stake a block within the voting period. If you own a small balance of PART (< 1,000 PART), it is likely that you don’t stake a block every week and thus, won’t register a vote.
Approval Rates, Quorum, Duration, and Consensus
For a proposal’s voting process to be considered valid, there are three requirements to fill. They are the quorum requirement, the approval rate, and the minimum duration of the voting process. The quorum requirement is determined by what percentage of the blocks within a given voting process cast a vote. The approval rate is defined by the percentage of the votes cast being in favor of a proposal.
Proposals that require a vote are separated into two different categories, each one with its own value requirements.
Non Protocol Consensus Votes
- Quorum: 20% of blocks during the voting period
- Approval rate: >= 60% in favor
- Duration: 5,040 blocks minimum
Non protocol consensus votes are proposals that do not require a major change in the protocol to be made. Typically, they would be proposals claiming funds from the Community Fund, for example, or determining the direction of a particular initiative.
For a non protocol consensus vote to be considered valid, its voting period must be a minimum of 5,040 blocks (roughly one week). Within that period, 20% of the blocks staked need to cast a vote for one of the available voting options. That means the quorum has to be at least 20%. Finally, to be considered as approved by the community, it needs to reach an approval rate of at least 60%, meaning at least 60% of all the votes cast for the proposal are in favor of the proposed idea.
Protocol Consensus Votes
- Quorum: 20% of blocks during the voting period
- Approval rate: >= 75% in favor
- Duration: 10,080 blocks minimum
Protocol consensus votes are a bit more important in scope and can have a more significant impact on the ecosystem. They are any proposal that requires a specific change in the protocol, such as, for example, integrating a decentralized treasury model, modifying the inflation rate of the blockchain, introducing a new privacy technology, etc.
Just like non protocol consensus votes, their quorum requirement stands at 20%. But because of their increased level of importance and ramifications, they require a higher level of approval from the community. In fact, the required approval rate has to be at least 75%. Finally, the duration of any protocol consensus vote has to be a minimum of 10,080 blocks (roughly two weeks) to give ample time to anyone to be able to cast their vote.
Potential Voting Outcomes
There are a few possible scenarios to a vote. Here they are with their respective outcome.
- If quorum is not met, the proposal is REJECTED ❌
- If the quorum is met but the votes fail to meet the target approval rate, the proposal is REJECTED ❌
- If the quorum is met and the votes reach the approval rate (“Yes”), the proposal is APPROVED ✅
- If a voting round reaches its expiration before reaching quorum or the target approval rate, the proposal expires and is REJECTED ❌
Proposal Lifecycle
Below is the basic process for submitting and evaluating proposals that require a vote.
- A proposal is submitted on the CCS. Click here to see how to submit your own proposal.
- The proposal owner indicates, in the header, whether the proposal requires a vote or not.
- The proposal is reviewed by the CCS administrators and then published.
- Valid proposals are open for discussion for a minimum of one week but voting does not begin immediately. The proposal can be edited by its owner in response to community feedback.
- If a proposal becomes clearly inactive (proposal owner stops commenting on the proposal or does not authorize the start of voting), a CCS administrator may mark the proposal as “Abandoned”. Abandoned proposals are publicly viewable, but cannot be edited, commented on, or be authorized to vote. A CCS administrator can mark a proposal as abandoned at any time before the proposal owner authorizes voting. Once the proposal owner authorizes voting on a proposal, it cannot be abandoned unless the proposal owner revokes voting on the proposal.
- The proposal owner authorizes voting to start. A CCS administrator will then assign a voting block interval to it (duration of the voting period).
- The voting period begins for the number of blocks assigned by the administrator. For example, one week is around 5,040 blocks.
- When the voting period ends, the proposal is formally approved or rejected. This depends on if the quorum and the approval rate are met.
- When a proposal with a budget and deliverables is approved, work can begin. The proposal owner can submit claims for funds upon completion of the milestone deliverables that are pre-defined within the proposal.
Community Fund
If you have a great project or business you wish to build on Particl, or if there’s a service you want to provide to the ecosystem, you may require funds to make it happen. Ever since the initial release of the CCS, the only way to get that funding was through community donations.
With the on-chain voting system, you will soon be able to claim funds from the Community Fund to help you realize your initiative. And because this Community Fund belongs to all PART holders, it needs their approval to draw funds from it.
Indeed, to incentivize more use of the CCS system by the community, the team is going to open up the Community Fund. All you’ll need to do to claim the funds is craft a clear proposal that requires a vote and explains your initiative in detail as well as why you need the funds. Then, you need to convince the Particl community to vote in favor of your proposal and approve the claim of funds.
First Proposal Coming in on Wednesday!
You won’t have to wait for too long to put on your first vote! As soon as this Wednesday (28th of April, 2021), we will publish the first-ever proposal to require the use of the on-chain voting system.
This proposal, which was widely requested by the community, seeks to nominate the Particl team as managers of the manual claim process required to unfreeze all legitimate anon and blind coins. These coins are currently frozen as part of the emergency hardfork deployed by the team weeks ago and they need to be re-enabled as smoothly as possible. Keep an eye out on Particl News and the CCS on Wednesday for all the details on the proposal!
With the support of the on-chain voting system as well as the upcoming few proposals, the Particl project is entering a brand new phase that emphasizes the power of the community much more. If you’ve ever had a great idea for a project, business, or service you think would benefit the Particl ecosystem, you’ll have all the tools you need to make it happen, if you can convince the community!
This addition to the CCS marks a significant milestone for the project and should lead to many more community contributions than we’ve ever seen. Don’t forget, if the decentralized treasury model proposal is approved, the Community Fund is also going to grow in value and, if the price of PART increases, will grow exponentially in value, opening even more doors. This has tremendous potential and we can’t wait to see what you, the community, will create with these resources!
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