SIP-277: Introduce Quorums for the Treasury Council Election

Simple Summary

This Proposal aims to introduce a minimum voter participation threshold for the Treasury Council elections

Motivation

Due to the sensitive nature of the Treasury Council positions within Synthetix's governance body, the community has insisted on adding safeguards to ensure the integrity of the Treasury Council elections process and its candidacy.

Given that Synthetix is transitioning to a fully on-chain governance module, it's imperative to implement necessary protections against potential governance capture in light of low voter participation. These changes should take effect well before the transition to fully on-chain governance, in case any further improvements will be needed in the elections process.

Overview

In order for a Treasury Council election to be deemed valid, there must be a minimum amount of WD (weighted debt) that has voted for nominees in that race. If the total WD that has voted is less than the minimum_WD needed to reach quorum, the results are considered void and a re-election is triggered.

This SIP does not affect other councils, only the TC.

Specification

Parameters:

minimum_wd_threshold / value TBD by the Spartan Council

• this parameter would define the total WD required to reach Quorum for the election

Process:

• If voter participation of the Treasury Council election is less than the minimum_wd_threshold needed to reach quorum,

a re-election is triggered for the TC and all candidates must nominate again and repeat the election process

• In the event that a re-election is held, the incumbent Treasury Council members will remain in power until a valid election has been completed

Test Cases

A governance epoch comes to a conclusion and a new election is called. All governance bodies elect candidates and the top voted nominees are appointed to the available seats of their respective councils.

The Treasury Council election voter-turnout however, is not very great, participation is low and the quality of candidates are subpar.

The four top voted candidates for the Treasury Council elections are Samantha, Samuel, Samson and William. The total amount of WD that voted for those candidates is below the minimum_wd_threshold value, indicating a lack of confidence in the nominees.

The incumbent Treasury Council members remain in power and a re-election can be immediately triggered by the governance module. All candidates renominate themselves and a stand alone TC election is held.

This process will repeat continuously until quorum is reached.

*If for any reason a TC member is stepping down and there is an empty seat among the incumbents, in light of a failure to reach quorum and triggering of a re-election, the Spartan Council member with the highest vote total will place hold until a valid TC election comes to pass.

Configurable Values (Via SCCP)

N/A

Copyright

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