Enhancing Multichain Governance: Upgrading RARI Governance Token on Arbitrum

This is a draft proposal by the Rari Foundation to gather community feedback to finalize this proposal for submission to the Arbitrum DAO.

Abstract

The RARI DAO seeks to enhance its governance framework by upgrading the RARI token contract and bringing its governance from Ethereum mainnet to the Arbitrum ecosystem. This proposal requests to regirster a custom gateway for a new RARI L2 token contract via Arbitrum native bridge, as only the Arbitrum DAO can implement this change. The custom gateway will enable more efficient governance processes with the upgraded token, reduce user costs, and improve overall accessibility for RARI DAO.

Motivation

RARI DAO is governed by the $RARI token, which when locked in veRARI grants voting access. The current token contract is on Ethereum mainnet and is not upgradable. The RARI DAO wishes to upgrade its governance, a part of which is a token contract upgrade with snapshots and delegations embedded. Only the Arbitrum DAO can however set up the mapping of L1 → L2 token addresses in the custom gateway (which is controlled by Arbitrum DAO) on the Arbitrum native bridge. Here is more information about the topic: ERC-20 token bridging | Arbitrum Docs

Rationale

The RARI DAO multichain governance upgrade is designed to make governance more accessible, by simplifying the UX, reducing gas fees, and enabling new token functions. This aligns with Artbitrum’s commitment to user-centricity and technical inclusivity.

With a custom L2 token implementation we will be able to perform the RARI DAO governance upgrade and move our governance fully into the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Key Terms

RARI token: RARI DAO governance token ($1.94 | Rarible (RARI) Token Tracker | Etherscan

RARI DAO: body governing the Rarible Protocol and RARI chain

Custom L2 RARI token: upgraded and simplified RARI token to be used in RARI DAO multichain governance moving forward

Specifications

RARI token in question ($1.94 | Rarible (RARI) Token Tracker | Etherscan) does not have upgradability nor allows the owner to register in the Arbitrum token bridge router.

As such, we’re requesting a custom L2 token implementation and using the (standard) custom gateway. Lacking the ability to upgrade / owner-register, we are seeking Artbirum DAO’s approval to register the upgraded RARI token to the custom gateway so we can proceed with the custom L2 implementation.

The upgraded token contract was fully audited and can be found here: https://github.com/rarible/protocol-contracts/pull/305.

Token contract was deployed to Arbitrum Sepolia, RARI testnet (which is on top of Arbitrum Sepolia) and all contracts were tested manually as well.

RARI DAO voted in favor of the upgraded token: Tally | Rari DAO | RRC 30 - Enhancing RARI DAO Governance: Plan for upgrade

Update: the executable code to create the custom gateway was prepared by Offchain Labs and can be found HERE.
The code was fully audited by Trail of Bits. Findings are HERE.

Steps to Implement

  1. Deploy token contracts on Arbitrum and RARI chains (done)
  2. Security audit of the proposed code change (in progress by Arbitrum Foundation)
  3. Change mapping for L1 → L2 tokens on bridge router and custom gateway (This can be done only by Arbitrum DAO)

Timeline

Implementation upon the proposal’s execution (aiming late September).

Overall costs

N/A

15 Likes

Blockworks Research will be voting FOR this proposal on Snapshot.

We support this proposal to upgrade the RARI token contract and transition its governance into the Arbitrum ecosystem. This onboards another community into the Arbitrum ecosystem, contributing to the growth of the network. So long as there are no technical risks, which there does not appear to be, we endorse this proposal and would like to ask others to move it forward.

4 Likes

Rari has long been a partner of Arbitrum and was one of the first Orbit L3s to deploy using the Arbitrum stack. Pending a technical review and code audit, we believe this proposal introduces an opportunity to signal Arbitrum DAO support for L1 projects migrating to Arbitrum.

4 Likes

Happy to see this proposal go up here. Thank you @Janabe

Upgrading the RARI token contract would definitely improve the community’s overall governance accessibility.

Just a quick question; is there a problem with the link here?

It says “Page not found” so I can’t review the upgraded contract

3 Likes

thanks for flagging @WinVerse the link should be: Implement bridged RARI token for Arbitrum ecosystem (Arbitrum + RARI chains) by evgenynacu · Pull Request #305 · rarible/protocol-contracts · GitHub

will correct this for the snapshot vote draft

2 Likes

We support the upgrade of the RARI token contract and transition of its governance to the Arbitrum ecosystem. It’s an interesting precedence of governance transitions to seek easier and cheaper access that is aligned with the project’s initiatives.

We are curious about how the project encourages RARI token-holders on L1 to bridge their tokens to Arbitrum One/RARI Chain for the governance, and evaluate and mitigate potential risks during the migration.

3 Likes

gm, fully supporting this proposal and the RARI initiative.

Can someone help me understand why this would be a CONSTITUTIONAL AIP?

It seems pretty straightforward and something that more projects might want to do - if we receive more requests, we might want to streamline the process so we are not a blocker for token issuers.

4 Likes

Lampros Labs DAO supports this proposal to upgrade the RARI token contract and transition its governance into the Arbitrum ecosystem. This is a positive step that will onboard another community into the Arbitrum network, contributing to the overall growth and development of the ecosystem. We believe this alignment between the RARI DAO and Arbitrum DAO will be mutually beneficial for both communities.

Though the technical efforts for adding this by the Foundation and its associated risks shall be assessed beforehand, while also ensuring that the same process will be doable for other communities migrating to Arbitrum.

These thoughts are collectively presented by @Blueweb, @Euphoria & @Nyx under the Lampros Labs DAO delegate.

4 Likes

Thanks, everyone, for the comments!
Below are a few updates:

  • @Euphoria @BlockworksResearch @gauntlet A technical audit of the executable code was initiated by AF
  • @Tane RARI FND will, at minimum, offset the costs of bridging + further incentives are in consideration. Also, our multichain governance transition will be gradual.
  • @maxlomu my understanding is that proposals requiring code change are by default constitutional, but the AF might be able to provide more context

We’ll progress to temp check as the next step, but please do jump in here if you have any more questions or suggestions.

2 Likes

update: this proposal is now live for a temp check vote

https://snapshot.org/#/arbitrumfoundation.eth/proposal/0x22f9e560d0a4aac46cc1e49ea71858d531226d0750409acdbfd766fa9c5eb1cb

1 Like

I fully support this initiative.
This decision was made by RARI DAO back in July and finally reached Arbitrum.

I support the idea that voting will be in the Arbitrum network with more favorable gas prices for voting.
I have never seen anyone do this before - it will be a great example for other DAOs.

3 Likes

OpenZeppelin, as Security Member of the ARDC, reviewed the Rari multichain governance proposal and its specifications. Given the needs of the RARI DAO, we found the proposed changes to be warranted. Since the currently deployed contracts are non-upgradeable and the RARI DAO wishes to add new features to their token while also aiming to enhance user experience, the proposed changes become necessary.

You can read our full review with all the accompanying details here:

4 Likes

I voted FOR this proposal as it will bring more users to the chain and help on the evolution of the governance framework for the RARI DAO

1 Like

This proposal is fantastic—RARI’s arrival will greatly boost the development of Arbitrum. Although the current NFT market is quite sluggish, I believe NFTs will experience a resurgence in the near future. To seize the next wave of the NFT boom, it’s crucial to have reliable builders of NFT infrastructure. The RARI team has been deeply involved in this field since the early days of NFTs, which makes them particularly valuable. I fully support this proposal, and it is entirely necessary for the Arbitrum network to make reasonable technical adjustments to better integrate with them.

1 Like

I believe this is a strong move for both ecosystems, as it not only reduces governance costs but also fosters collaboration between two innovative networks but, @Janabe could you clarify how the custom gateway implementation will affect the user experience, especially for those unfamiliar with bridging tokens? :face_with_monocle:

1 Like

Hey @maxlomu , this would be a constitutional AIP as it involves the RARI token being registered on Ethereum L1 to the RARI token on L2 via the L1CustomGateway contract through a chain-owner registration. You can read through the steps on the Arbitrum Docs here.

Here’s the excerpt from the ArbitrumDAO Constitution Section 2 under DAO Proposals and Voting that covers this.

New Chain Approval: Authorizes a new chain as approved by the ArbitrumDAO. This includes authorizing both Governed Chains and Non-Governed Chains

2 Likes

Voted 'FOR’ on Snapshot. Migrating RARI DAO to Arbitrum will not only improve governance efficiency and reduce user costs but also bring an active community to the Arbitrum ecosystem. The OpenZeppelin review confirms that the changes are well-founded and that the new token contract is fully audited. Therefore, I believe this move to be a net positive for both RARI DAO and the broader Arbitrum ecosystem.

2 Likes

I support the initiative and voted for it. I look forward to seeing more improvements in Rari Chan and Rari DAO.

1 Like

Hey! Bridging from L1 to L2 will provide the user with the upgraded token without any other actions needed. From a user perspective, there is no change to how they bridged before.

1 Like

Seconding blockworks, @gauntlet and others, support in a proposal that in future can potentially be replicated and tailored to basically allows the onboarding of more protocols over time in arbitrum.
Voting for.

3 Likes