It was really great to spend some time with Lido contributors and other delegates during Devcon week, and participate at Lido Connect. Establishing personal relations of trust makes communication easier so problem solving, opinion sharing, and working together becomes easier.
Now it’s time for a vote-athlon!
1. Establishing the Network Expansion Committee
Forum post here
Vote: Approve NEC
Rationale:
This is an evolution of the already existing NEW (Network Expansion Workgroup) that aims to reduce governance overhead after a track record of having all their governance proposals accepted.
The team has proven solid and is now experienced in these types of deployments, and I see no reason to burden them with extra steps.
There is one caveat that I would like to see adopted as part of the appeal/dispute process. Currently a message needs to be signed by EOAs with 100k to stop the automatic acceptance. Since the DAO Ops team is working very hard on making governance more streamlined and easy, I’d like to see delegates having their delegations recognised. Imagine this: a LDO holder delegates their snapshot and onchain voting power to a delegate, but is still expected to keep an eye on the NEC forum posts? Wouldn’t it make sense that their voting weight is also delegated for such matters? My response here.
2. Should Pier Two continue in the Curated Module Set following the acquisition of Numic?, 3. Should Alchemy continue in SDVT and LoP following the acquisition of Bware Labs? and 4. Should Nansen continue in SDVT following the acquisition of Stakewithus?
Forum posts here, [here]Bware Labs has been acquired by Alchemy - #3 by Sven) and here
Vote: For for the 3 of them
Rationale
We are going to see more acquisitions and more consolidation in the space. Dwindling profit margins, lack of clarity on the future of key aspects of the staking mechanisms - including issuance! - are reshaping the industry.
The analysis done by the Lido Node Operator Sub-Governance Group (LNOSG) here makes me vote confidently for the For option, and I’d like to see them repeat this work for future consolidations of operations.
5. Reevaluation of Lido on Polygon state
Forum post here
Vote: Sunset Lido on Polygon
Rationale
While it is sad to let go of projects, it is not really contentious. This proposal is put forth by ShardLabs, who have been driving the project, and they support the sunsetting of the project.
The economics of it are atrocious and Polygon hasn’t really picked up as it seemed it could. I think it was the right move to try, and it is the right move to shut it down now.
6. GOOSE 2024 cycle: Lido DAO goals for 2025
Forum post here
Vote: Adopt Goals
Rationale:
Hasu’s were the only GOOSE goals that were proposed. I see that as negative. Hasu has a keen strategic eye, and I think his analysis is informed and calibrated. But competition and other views would be welcome. For next year I would like to maybe put together a team to put forth another strategic view of the market conditions, or at least to see more action by other keen Lido contributors.
- Strengthen LDO’s Role in Governance. Align incentives with Lido’s long-term success, promoting stability and sustainability for the protocol.
- LDO is currently a governance token without value accrual that provides access to governing a big chunk of Ethereum’s stake. Aiming for value accrual could have the consequence of turning LDO into a blue chip, with long term holders potentially getting more involved in Governance as it impacts their rev streams too. Distribution of LDO will become key.
- Establish an Open Market for Validators. Align validator rewards with contributions toward Lido’s mission.
- That is a bet. I think it could be a trojan horse that hurts the decentralization of the validator set, or more precisely, the allocated amounts to the different typologies of validators. But I trust the Lido contributors to find the right formula to implement this goal in a way that pushes the overall Lido mission: make staking simple, secure, and decentralized. Simplicity and decentralization might suffer here.
- Expand stETH’s Ecosystem with a Diverse Product Line. Aim to meet the varied needs of Ethereum stakers and reignite adoption.
- It is kind of linked to the above, but broader. I agree with the analysis that there is a huge variety of offers for yield based on Ethereum’s inflation rewards plus on-top protocol rewards, and playing this game could be very beneficial, in the same way Procter & Gamble and other FMCG companies own the competition of their best products.
LGTM, with the caveats above, and will revisit this post often.
7. On-chain vote #181
On-chain votes reflect decisions already taken by vote. Some snapshot, some by the relevant committee.
- Change Easy Track limits for PML and ATC following the Snapshot decision. Reduce the PML limit from 6M to 4M, and increase the ATC limit from 1.5M to 7M in USDC/USDT/DAI per quarter to reflect operational changes.
- Increase the Lido Stonks stETH limit to 12,000 stETH and reset spent amount, as per the Treasury Management Committee’s decision to achieve TMC-1. Resetting spent amount will allow swapping up to 12,000 stETH in 2024, and the limit will be reset again on January 1, 2025, as originally scheduled.
- Update the reward address for Node Operator
ID 16(Simply Staking), as requested on the forum.
I see no problems with these as they have been previously discussed, or the change on the Node Operator ID is standard procedure.