Octant’s Purpose & Designing A Governance Structure
Over the past few months, we have been closely listening to feedback from our community. One of the places we recognized a need for improvement, was the lack of clarity in what Octant was aiming to achieve. We have responsibilities to the GLM token and ecosystem, as this is where our the ETH that drives our staking operation comes from. We additionally feel that public goods funding is an extremely important mission that Octant should contribute towards, because we have a great opportunity to do so with our treasury. Both of these aspects presented a very unique opportunity for Octant’s mission:
Our goal is to become the first self-sustaining PGF ecosystem to financially empower both public good projects and its users.
Already we have redesigned Octant’s reward mechanism to more closely align with this mission. But even if this change fully accomplishes its intents, this only drives extrinsic motivators for Octant.
We also recognize that the current structure of Octant, with its limited scope for community impact, does not strongly incentivize our community to engage. In a DAO, user engagement and growth are often driven by the sense of ownership and influence users have over the platform. Long term, the core Octant team envisions a community driven structure for Octant governance. But governance is hard, and if you add a large treasury, it becomes even harder.
We’re looking to create something that evolves to grow within the framework of our existing system. One that could eventually become strong enough to either replace, alter, or strengthen our prevailing structure. We feel now is the right opportunity for this evolution to take place.
A Governance Framework For Octant’s Community Fund
Big changes for rewards are coming for Epoch 3, and part of this change includes a community fund, where 5% of Octant staking rewards will be allocated. With community ownership over this fund, we need a governance framework for this to become possible.
So how can we get to a place where the community can govern this fund, and potentially more down the road? The approach I see now that we have a clear mission, is to bring in a diverse group which has experience and interest, so that they, and the core team, can collectively design a framework that both empowers our community while pragmatically taking a path towards decentralization.
What is the plan, and how will it work?
One of the superpowers of our ecosystem is diversity. Over the past few months, we at Octant have been paying close attention to individuals who have shown an interest in Octant’s evolution. We have asked these individuals to join us on a journey of collectively designing a governance structure.
We are building a governance council for Octant. The main intention of this council is to start at the base of our governance decision tree, with the goal of designing a framework for the community fund. Early on, these members will be learning the nuances of Octant & the broader Golem ecosystem so that we can level set before jumping into this work. Once this context is established, we will map out our path, and take each element of this process on, one by one.
The design though is not going to be exclusively driven by the core team and the council. Additionally, any community member wishing to participate can have their voice heard. Other than a call once a month with this group, the vast majority of this conversation will be taking place on this governance board. Our Discourse Forum is open to anyone, and we welcome the diversity of opinions that our ecosystem offers!
Where are we currently?
Current work involves outlining a document so that anyone who wishes to understand the context and nuances of where Octant comes from, can feel confident in doing so. You can find this doc (still a work in progress) here.
Additionally, we’re currently focused on an aspect (which is often overlooked) in how we can design for the social layer, which provides sustainability for engagement. Many DAOs design something that finds excitement early on, but then people lose interest and they ultimately fail. Sustainability is a key feature for Octant, we’re in this for the long run. Answering questions about who are the various users that can see Octant as a tool to solve their problems. What are their roadblocks? Are they initially lurkers or do they dive in immediately?
With a thorough understanding of our users needs and how they potentially will engage in governance, we can then move forward with Octant’s framework. Answering a few key questions including what successful decentralization looks like for Octant, and figuring out how our governance model will operate, including the decision-making process and voting power.
We’re also looking into how to prevent power from becoming too centralized and ensure everyone’s voice is heard. This process is about opening up a dialogue with our community, inviting everyone to help shape a structure that aligns with Octant’s mission and values.
What’s Next?
Our first call with everyone is taking place on Monday Feb 12th at 8am PST, 5pm CET. Each monthly call will be recorded.
If you are interested in joining this conversation, please know that you can always reach out to any of the team members of Octant in our Discord. We are really excited to begin this journey, and if you feel called, consider joining us for the ride!
