SIP-287: Extend Governance Epoch Duration from Three to Four Months

Simple Summary

This SIP proposes extending the length of the standard governance epoch duration from three to four months, with council elections thereby occurring three times a year rather than quarterly.

Abstract

The current length of governance epochs was set to three months with the passing of SCCP-78: Change Spartan Council Epoch to quarterly (3 months), with the members of the four councils (Spartan, Treasury, Grants and Ambassador) elected at the conclusion of March, June, September and December respectively. This SIP proposes extending the epoch duration to four-month intervals, thereby occurring in December, April and August thereafter.

Specification

Should this SIP pass, the change would be achieved by:

• Concluding the current epoch (October 1st through December 31st) in order to avoid a sitting Spartan Council extending their own tenure.

• Calling modifyEpochSchedule on the four councils in January of 2023.

    function modifyEpochSchedule(
uint64 newEpochEndDate
) external override onlyOwner onlyInPeriod(ElectionPeriod.Administration) {

• The then-current value would be altered to the new, desired value.

    "epochEndDate": "1682899199", // Sun Apr 30 2023 23:59:59 GMT+0000

• The Governance Module would then use the interval between the last epoch and and the current epoch end to calculate the epoch duration going forward, effectively setting it to four months.

Rationale

Individual members of the four councils have expressed the opinion that the three-month epochs can hamper the smooth arrangement and management of ongoing protocol initiatives (partnership negotiations, integration activities, business endeavours, etc.). What is more, especially during a time of market downturn, voter fatigue can occur among token holders, a factor which can hinder the effectiveness of council elections in securing optimal candidates. For these reasons, plus the ongoing efforts to facilitate council member replacement mid-epoch (where necessary) this SCCP seeks to transition to four-month epochs, establishing greater council and, by extension, project stability.

Copyright

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