The Evmos Community Proposal Lifecycle

Phase 1 - Discussion
Phase 2 - Formalization
Phase 3 - Signal
Phase 4 - On-Chain Vote

Phase 1: Discussion & Ideation

The purpose of this phase is to vet ideas with the active Evmos community members. Each idea for a proposal should have its own Commonwealth thread, and discussions should be as narrowly focused as possible. Anyone can participate and is encouraged to provide feedback in this phase of governance. The goal of Phase 1 discussion is to gain a rough community consensus, and refine the idea so that it can be formalized. The thread author should make an effort to address all comments and take them into consideration.

  • Minimum Duration: 48 hours
  • Forum Tag: [IDEATION]

Phase 2: ECP Formalization

Phase 2 is where the idea is formalized into an ECP that includes all of the criteria specified in the ECP Template. It must be a clear and complete description of the proposed enhancement. All ECPs must have the following core components, with additional/varying sections for certain proposal types (refer to the templates page):

Title: Short and sweet, with the correct tags prefixed.

Summary - A brief, high-level summary of what changes are being suggested. Summary should be a single sentence, or a bulleted list.

Authors - List of authors and contributors involved in the writing of the proposal.

Abstract - Abstract is a multi-sentence (short paragraph) technical summary. This should be a very terse and human-readable version of the motivation and specification sections. Someone should be able to read only the abstract to get the gist of what this specification does.

Motivation - The motivation section should describe the "why" of this proposal. What problem does it solve? What benefit does it provide to the Evmos network?

Proposal Type Specific Content

Make sure to double check your proposal type to see what additional information or details are required. Especially for funding proposals!

  • Minimum Duration: 72 hours (3 days)
  • Forum Tag: [PRE-PROPOSAL]

Phase 3: ECP Signaling (Temperature Check)

At any point during Phase 2, the author may finalize the ECP by initiating a community temperature check. To do this, the author must change the tag of the forum post to [PROPOSAL], and add a forum poll to gauge the community sentiment.

Proposals should only move to Phase 3 once the author has considered all community comments, responded to all concerns and questions, and believes that the proposal is ready to go on-chain for a final network-wide vote. Proposals in Phase 3 should not be edited further with the exception of minor mistakes.

Forum Tag: [PROPOSAL]

Phase 4: On-Chain Voting

If the signaling polls in Phase 3 show an overall positive sentiment and no major issues are brought up, the proposal may be submitted on-chain for the formal voting. Submission guidelines are listed here.

Forum Tag (Depending on Outcome): [VOTING], [PASSED], [REJECTED], [VETO]

Proposal Lifecycle Flowchart

Proposal Lifecycle

Other ECP Statuses

  • Withdrawn: Assigned when a member withdraws their proposal, or if the proposal is abandoned with no activity. Forum Tag: [WITHDRAWN]
  • Deferred: Assigned when a proposal has been deemed as not ready or not a priority but can be re-proposed at a later date. This status can be assigned during Phase 3 with a failed forum poll or signaling. Forum Tag: [DEFER]

Governance Council & Core Devs

Governance Council

The Evmos DAO Governance Council may "fast-track" a proposal onto on-chain voting for time-sensitive and urgent matters. The Council must provide the community a post-mortem on why the Council deemed it was necessary to forego the Proposal Lifecycle. If the community deems that the decision was made in bad faith, the Community is encouraged to engage in discussions and hold the responsible parties responsible through disciplinary actions or even the removal of Council members through an on-chain vote.

Core Developers

Core developers are not bound to the ECP Framework for network and protocol related proposals. It is expected, however, that thorough testing and due diligence is performed by the developers for all network upgrades. It should be noted, however, that network upgrades must still go through the process of on-chain voting.

Assistance & Review

All proposers are welcome to approach the Governance Workstream for assistance in any part of the Proposal Lifecycle. In addition, proposers may request a formal review of the proposal before going on chain.