โš–๏ธProposal System

The proposal system is the way changes to the platform state and policy are suggested, discussed, voted on by the council, and finalized as accepted or rejected.

Introduction

A proposal is a motion to change the state or policy of the system in some way. There are a wide variety of such proposal types, each type having a different

  • set of required input parameter values

  • requirements and risks of proposing

  • barrier for getting accepted

  • delay to being put into motion when accepted

The reason for this differentiation across types is because different proposals have very different effects, and carry very different risks of failure or abuse. The proposal system has the responsibility of coordinating the different actors involved in the lifetime of a proposal, from submission to finalization.

Roles

The relevant roles in the proposal system are

  • Proposer: A member that has submitted an instance of a specific proposal type. A given member can submit multiple proposals at once, or over time.

  • Council Members: They are tasked with voting on proposals, which determines whether the proposals are accepted or not, as well as discussing a proposal with the proposer, and leaving a rationale for their vote.

Concepts

Vote

Each council member can submit at most one vote per proposal, and it includes the following:

  • Rationale: A human readable description of why they are voting as they are.

  • Type: There three types

    • Approve: Proposal should be approved.

    • Reject: Proposal should be rejected. Additionally, it can be expressed whether it should be slashed as part of the rejection.

    • Abstain: Voter has no position on outcome.

Proposal Type

A proposal type is a parametrized intention to have some effect on the platform. The set of proposal types will increase considerably in the future, and the current types are listed below.

Constants

All proposal types have constant values for a shared set of parameters that are common across all types, thee are called proposal constants. The name and semantics of each constant is listed in the table below.

Parameters: General & Specific

Whenever a proposal of a given type is created, the proposer must provide values for a set of parameters. The parameters fall into one of two categories: general and type-specific. Each parameter will also have some constraint on the valid range of values. The general proposal parameters are

  • Proposer: Member identifier of the proposer.

  • Title: A human readable title.

  • Rationale: A human readable description text that is intended to hold the rationale for the proposal should be accepted. It is expected that some social convention will emerge on the appropriate encoding of this text, for example markdown, that would facilitate consistent input and display across client applications.

  • Trigger: An optional block number where the proposal is to be executed.

  • Staking Account: The account that holds the funds that will be locked for staking, if required.

The type-specific parameters for each proposal type are listed with the proposals below.

Creation Conditions

When a proposal is submitted, a set of conditions on the values of the input parameters (only) are evaluated, these are called creation conditions, and creating the proposal fails if they are not satisfied. These are things like for example respecting the upper bound on the amount of money you are asking for in a spending proposal. Importantly, these checks are pure, they only depend on parameters, not the state of the system.

Execution Conditions

A proposal may be approved, and at some point the actual business logic that embodies its intended effect has to be executed. This is always much later than when the proposal was first created, and it may very well be possible to have a proposal which originally looked would have had its intended effect to no longer be applicable because the state of he system has changed in the intermediate. An example could be that a funding proposal requires more money than the council currently can spend due to other spending that may have occurred since the proposal was approved. These conditions are called execution conditions, and importantly, they are not checked at any time prior to execution of this business logic.

Proposal

A proposal is defined by the following information

  • Id: A unique non-negative integer identifier.

  • Type: Which type of proposal this is.

  • General Parameters: Values for general proposal parameters.

  • Type-Specific Parameters: Values for type-specific proposal parameters.

  • Stage: The life-cycle stage of a proposal, as defined precisely in the next section.

  • Votes: The set of votes currently associated with the proposal.

  • Council Approvals: How many prior councils have approved the proposal, starts at 0.

  • Starting Block: The block where the deciding period was initiated.

  • Discussion: A single threaded discussion about the proposal, as defined in the discussion section.

Stage

Below is a list of the stages a proposal can be in, and what each of them mean:

  • Deciding: Initial stage for all successfully created proposals. This is the only stage where votes submitted can actually impact the outcome. If a new council is elected, any present stake is slashed by REJECTION_FEE , the staking lock is removed and the proposal transitions to the rejected stage.

    When a vote is submitted it is evaluated as such:

    1. If APPROVAL_QUORUM and APPROVAL_THRESHOLD are satisfied, then increment council approvals counter. If counter now is CONSTITUTIONALITY then remove staking lock and transition to gracing stage, otherwise transition to dormant stage.

    2. If SLASHING_QUORUM and SLASHING_THRESHOLD are satisfied, but point (1) is not, then slash full stake, remove the lock and transition to the rejected stage.

    3. If points (1) and (2) are not and cannot be satisfied by any future a outstanding votes, then slash stake by up to REJECTION_FEE, remove lock and transition to rejected stage.

If DECIDING_PERIOD blocks pass while still in this stage, apply checks (1-3) with same transition and side-effect rules as above.

  • Dormant: Was approved by current council, but requires further approvals to satisfy CONSTITUTIONALITY requirement. Transitions to deciding stage when next council is elected.

  • Gracing: Is awaiting execution for until trigger block, or GRACING_LIMIT blocks since start of period if no trigger was provided. When this duration is over, the execution conditions are checked, if they are satisfied the proposal transitions to the execution succeeded stage, if they are not, it transitions to the execution failed stage.

  • Vetoed: Was halted by SUDO, nothing further can happen. This is removed at mainnet.

  • Slashed: Was rejected with full stake penalty by the current council.

  • Execution Succeeded: Execution succeeded, nothing further can happen.

  • Execution Failed: Execution failed due to unsatisfied execution conditions, nothing further can happen.

  • Rejected: Was not approved, nothing further can happen.

It useful to designate any proposal in the stages deciding, dormant or gracing, as an active proposal, and any other proposal is said to be an inactive proposal. Votes can not be submitted for inactive proposal.

Before mainnet, an extra transition rule is worth bearing in mind is that, for any active proposal, SUDO can initiate veto, which results in transition to vetoed stage.

The stages and transitions, excluding SUDO dynamics, are summarized in the image below.

Staking

As described, proposals may require staking to be submitted. A single account must be used to provide the stake for a proposal, and it cannot be used to hold stake for any other proposals or purpose, except voting, at the same time. The staking is implemented as a lock with id PROPOSAL_LOCK_ID.

Discussion

A single threaded discussion is opened for each successfully created discussion. A thread can be in two discussion modes, open or closed. In open mode, any member can post a message, while in closed mode, only the active council, the original proposer, or one among a set of whitelisted members can post. Mode can be changed by member or council member at any time, and default mode is open. Both council members and proposer can curate whitelist by adding and removing members. A poster can edit a post an unlimited number of times, but only if they have access. A thread can no longer be updated in any way (mode, posting, edits, etc.) when DISCUSSION_LINGERING_DURATION have passed since being rejected or executed. Lastly, at most MAX_POSTS_PER_THREAD can be posted in a single thread.

Proposals

This section includes proposals that concern the platform as whole in terms intended effect and type-specific parameters.

Signal

Parameters

Note that the distinction between signal and the rationale parameter is that the rationale is the why and this is the what.

Constants

Creation Conditions

  • signal is non-empty.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

None.

Amend Constitution

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

None.

Funding Request

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

  • each amount is greater than zero.

  • each amount is no more than MAX_SPENDING_PROPOSAL_VALUE

  • there is at least one account

Execution Conditions

  • the council budget is no less than the sum of amounts.

Effect

  • the council budget is reduced by the sum of amounts.

  • for each account in accounts its fund is augmented by its corresponding amount in amounts.

Runtime Upgrade

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

blob is non-empty.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The block after this proposal is executed will follow the rules of the runtime captured in blob.

Create Working Group Lead Opening

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when creating an opening for workers in the given group with given inputs, except signer check.

Effect

Same as when creating an opening for workers in the given group with given inputs, except the opening type is for lead.

Cancel Working Group Lead Opening

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when cancelling an opening for workers in the given group with given inputs, except signer check.

Effect

Same as when cancelling an opening for workers in the given group with given inputs.

Fill Working Group Lead Opening

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when filling opening in group for worker with given inputs, except application_id as winners and signer check.

Effect

Same as when filling opening in group for worker with given inputs, except application_id as winners.

Slash Working Group Lead

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when slashing a worker in group with given inputs, except

  • signer check,

  • worker corresponding to worker_id must be lead.

Effect

Same as when slashing a worker in group with given inputs.

Terminate Working Group Lead

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when terminating a worker in group with given inputs, except signer check.

Effect

Same as when terminating a worker in group with given inputs, and removing lead designation.

Set Working Group Lead Reward

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

Same as when updating reward of a worker in group with given inputs, except signer check.

Effect

Same as when updating reward of a worker in group with given inputs.

Decrease Working Group Lead Stake

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

stake_amount is greater than zero.

Execution Conditions

Same as when decreasing worker stake in group with given inputs, except signer check.

Effect

Same as when decreasing worker stake in group with given inputs.

Update Working Group Budget

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

If budget_update is non-negative, then this it must be no more than the council budget, otherwise the absolute value must be no more than the current group budget.

Effect

If budget_update is non-negative, then this amount is reduced from the council budget and credited to the group budget, otherwise the reverse.

Set Max Validator Count

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

new_validator_count is no less than the MinimumValidatorCount value in pallet_staking module storage and no greater than MAX_VALIDATOR_COUNT.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

Same as set_validator_count in pallet_staking module with given input.

Set Membership Price

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The membership price is set to new_membership_price.

Set Referral Cut

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The referral cut is set to new_referral_cut.

Set Initial Invitation Count

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The default invitations count is set to new_default_invite_count.

Set Initial Invitation Balance

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The new invited initial balance is set to new_invited_initial_balance.

Set Membership Lead Invitation Quota

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

The membership working group has an assigned lead with membership id membership_id.

Effect

The invitation quota of member is set to new_invite_count.

Set Council Budget Increment

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The budget increment is set to new_budget_increment.

Set Councilor Reward

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

The councilor reward is set to new_councilor_reward.

Update Global NFT Limit

Parameters

Constants

Creation Conditions

Execution Conditions

Global limit value for specified period is updated

Constants

The following constants are hard coded into the system, they can only be updated with a runtime upgrade.

Extrinsics

Submit Proposal

Parameters

Conditions

  • Signer matches controller account of proposer

  • Number of active proposals is no greater than MAX_ACTIVE_PROPOSALS.

  • If PROPOSAL_STAKE is greater than zero, then account must have a free balance no less than that. Alsoaccount is bound to proposer, and only has a voting lock if anything.

  • If trigger is provided, it must be no less than current block plus GRACING LIMIT + DECIDING_PERIOD.

  • Creation conditions for type are satisfied.

Effect

A new proposal , of type type , is created in the deciding period stage, and a new discussion thread is opened in the open mode. Moreover, if PROPOSAL_STAKEis greater than zero, a new lock with id PROPOSAL_LOCK_ID and amount PROPOSAL_STAKE is set.

Vote

Parameters

Conditions

  • proposal corresponds to an existing proposal in Deciding stage.

  • Signer is role account of councilor identified by councilor.

  • Councilor has not yet voted on this proposal.

Effect

Record vote of councilor, and follow steps in Deciding stage for processing a vote.

Post to Thread

Parameters

Conditions

  • proposal corresponds to an existing proposal in where discussion is active, that is either the proposal is active, or no more than DISCUSSION_LINGERING_DURATION blocks have passed since it became inactive.

  • author corresponds to signer.

  • If author is a member, either is the proposer, or the discussion mode is open, or it is closed and the author is on the whitelist for this thread.

  • The current number of posts in this thread is less than MAX_POSTS_PER_THREAD.

Effect

Post is added to thread.

Update Post

Parameters

Conditions

  • proposal corresponds to an existing proposal in where discussion is active, that is either the proposal is active, or no more than DISCUSSION_LINGERING_DURATION blocks have passed since it became inactive.

  • post corresponds to an existing post on proposal.

  • author of post corresponds to signer.

Note that editing is possible, regardless of mode, so long as the author is owner.

Effect

Update text of post.

Change Thread Mode

Parameters

Conditions

  • proposal corresponds to an existing proposal in where discussion is active, that is either the proposal is active, or no more than DISCUSSION_LINGERING_DURATION blocks have passed since it became inactive.

  • signer corresponds to member identified with member_id

  • member is either proposal author or council member.

  • mode respects MAX_WHITELIST_SIZE.

Effect

Update thread discussion mode to mode.

Create Blog Post

Parameters

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

None.

Effect

A blog post is created.

Veto Proposal

Parameters

Creation Conditions

None.

Execution Conditions

  • Proposal corresponding to proposal_id is either in Vote period, Grace period or pending constitution.

Effect

  • Proposal corresponding to proposal_id is automatically discarded.

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