ORIGINALLY POSTED: 25th October 2022
This document sets out the basis for how governance on the Flare Network will operate, including the role of the Songbird network within a bicameral governance system.
The Flare Foundation
The Flare Foundation is a Netherlands based non-profit organisation tasked with supporting the Flare ecosystem. One of its important roles is supporting clear and transparent governance within the ecosystem.
Basic Governance Process
A formal proposal called a Flare Improvement Proposal (FIP) is submitted. There will then be a notice period during which time the Flare Foundation and others may make formal comments on the proposal. This is followed by a voting period, with an end date whereby each FLR token may be used to cast 1 vote. There will be two criteria attached to the vote. These are:
- The percentage of yes to no votes, of those voting, required to pass the vote.
- The minimum turnout threshold that is required to pass the vote, expressed as a percentage of the number of FLR tokens in circulation.
Routes To Governance
There are two routes to generating a valid FIP, firstly through the Flare Foundation and secondly through the community.
Foundation Originated FIPs
For the purposes of security and expediency, the Flare Foundation may submit a Flare Improvement Proposal at any time. A Flare Foundation Proposal can pass with a simple majority vote based only on those who turn out to vote. The Flare Foundation will generally adhere to a 1-week notice period and 1-week voting period. For security reasons only, the Foundation may reduce the timeframe of these periods.
Community Originated FIPs
To avoid overburdening the Flare community with an excessive amount of decisions and votes, Flare’s canary network, Songbird, is to be used as a filtering mechanism for community-initiated Flare governance proposals.
There will be four governance proposal periods per year. During each period, candidate FIPs may be submitted on Songbird. SGB can then be staked by any user to any of the candidate proposals. The proposal, if validly formed, with the most stake at the end of the period then becomes an FIP. If a proposal wins the staking round but is not validly formed then it shall not become an FIP and the next highest staked proposal will become the FIP for that proposal period. The FIP is then voted on by Flare Token holders and will either pass or fail as per the requirements set out below.
Valid Proposal Formation
An FIP must be validly formed so that the foundation or the community can implement it. A guide for valid formation will be released prior to the end of Flare’s beta period when community originated FIPs become active.
Rules for community proposal types
- For a simple majority decision, a proposition is confirmed if strictly more than 50% of votes cast are in favour of it and there is a minimum turnout of 30% of total available supply of FLR tokens.
- For a super majority decision, a proposition is confirmed if strictly more than 66% of votes cast are in favour of it and there is a minimum turnout of 50% of total available supply of FLR tokens.
- For a super super majority decision, a proposition is confirmed if strictly more than 80% of FLR tokens vote in favour of it and there is a minimum turnout of 70% of total available supply of FLR tokens.
Governance Process: Originating from the Flare Foundation
Governance Process: Originating from the Community
Rewards From Delegation
Whilst SGB tokens are staked to a candidate FIP on Songbird, the staking contract can delegate to FTSOs accruing the FTSO rewards. The returns are distributed in the following way, with returns distributed proportionally to the staking amount in both mechanisms:
- If the winning candidate proposal is accepted by vote on Flare then the returns of all proposals are distributed to those that staked to the winning proposal.
- If the winning candidate proposal is rejected by vote on Flare then each proposal, other than the winning proposal, receives their own delegation returns and additionally receives the delegation returns from the winning proposal distributed relative to the stake ratio of each non winning proposal.
Governance Timing
Foundation originated proposals may occur from the inception of the Flare Network. Community originated proposals may occur from the end of the Flare Network beta mode.
Who Can Stake & Vote
All token holders barring the Flare Foundation may vote on an FIP or stake to a candidate proposal on Songbird.