ApeSwap Updates Governance Process Using Commonwealth Before Hard Cap Proposal
The ApeSwap DAO has evolved in many ways since our launch nearly a year and a half ago, especially in terms of our expanded suite of product offerings and the size of our community of users and partners. In order to more fully serve the interests of the DAO, ApeSwap is considering some changes to the governance process.
Where ApeSwap Governance Stands Today
In re-evaluating our options for governance, we started with considering the current process. Today, the ApeSwap DAO conducts governance voting using Snapshot to determine voting eligibility and voting power based on the number of GNANA tokens held in a user’s wallet. Proposals can be submitted by the ApeSwap team, or members of the ApeSwap community, based on the rules laid out in our documentation. Conversations about governance proposals are often hosted on the r/ApeSwap subreddit, including our most recent thread about a possible max cap on BANANA.
We recognize that the process is spread across multiple platforms, and there’s room for improvement in terms of community involvement. In response, we’ve aligned on two strategic objectives of updating the ApeSwap DAO governance process:
- Make it easier for ApeSwap users to get involved in governance
- Increase governance voting turnout among ApeSwap users
This is where our newest governance tool, Commonwealth, comes in.
ApeSwap DAO Governance on Commonwealth
Commonwealth is an all-in-one platform for on-chain communities to discuss, vote, and fund projects together. ApeSwap has created its own Commonwealth forum to combine the conversation around governance with the process of voting on governance. Previously, we’d host Reddit threads to discuss proposals, then host a separate voting process using Snapshot. Commonwealth allows us to bring these disparate processes together under one tool, allowing for a more simplified governance experience.
Signing up to participate in ApeSwap governance on Commonwealth is easy — you can create an account using an email address, GitHub account, or crypto wallet (like MetaMask). Once you’ve connected your account, you can view the threads in ApeSwap’s Commonwealth forum, which is divided into five Topics:
General (requires 1 GNANA to participate): Any discussion that doesn’t belong to the other sections.
Community Development (requires 1 GNANA to participate): Community proposals and community engagement ideas.
Feedback and Ideas (requires 100 GNANA to participate): Where stakeholders can share feedback and ideas.
Governance (requires 250 GNANA to participate): Where ApeSwap DAO Council and highly engaged members kickstart the conversations that will shape future governance proposals.
Proposal Review (requires 500 GNANA to participate): Where finalized proposals are posted for final approval before going into Snapshot voting.
Note: only GNANA held in a user’s wallet are considered when evaluating eligibility to participate in Commonwealth threads.
New Governance Process
Governance will now follow these steps:
- Discussion
- Proposal In Review
- Voting (via Snapshot Integration)
- Passed/Failed
At first, only proposals created by the ApeSwap DAO Council (DAOC) will be posted under the Proposal Review topic in Commonwealth. The DAOC will accept governance initiatives both from members of the ApeSwap team, and from the community. Community proposals will go through internal DAOC review first, then those that pass DAOC review will be posted in the Proposal Review topic.
Please review the Governance Guidelines to learn more about how to participate in governance.
The Road to Reducing Emissions
Ultimately, we’re revamping our governance process to prepare for a series of important proposals that will materially affect the future of ApeSwap, primarily in terms of our approach to emissions. Since members of the Core Team and of the community had been striving for clarity around the future of ApeSwap’s tokenomic decisions, we kicked off a formal discussion around a max cap on the supply of BANANA on June 17th with this Reddit post.
In tandem with the conversations emerging from the Reddit post, ApeSwap had also been working closely with our partner Gauntlet to evaluate our emissions plan, culminating in the passage of Proposal 19, which created an Excess BANANA Farm to mitigate the impact of excess emissions on the supply (and price) of BANANA.
With the launch of Commonwealth as our new governance platform, we plan to initiate two more formal proposals that affect our emissions plan. The first is Proposal 20, which will give the ApeSwap community a chance to vote on how GNANA is counted towards governance voting eligibility and voting power, that is available now for discussion. Once that proposal is complete, we’ll introduce Proposal 22 in late August, which will directly address the possibility of a max cap on BANANA supply. Both of these proposals will originate in Commonwealth, with the opportunity for ApeSwap users to participate in the discussions directly on Commonwealth, and vote using the Snapshot integration that’s native to Commonwealth.
Next Steps
We encourage ApeSwap users to create their own Commonwealth accounts, review the community guidelines, and be on the lookout for upcoming proposals, including:
Proposal 20: Expanding GNANA Voting (Live Now)
Proposal 21: Update to ApeSwap Growth and Continuity Planning
Proposal 22: BANANA Hard Cap
Future proposals may address changes to the protocol including tokenomics, emissions, cross-chain decisions, acquisitions, partnership proposals, and more.
