Expand Tally Support for the Arbitrum DAO

[Frisson]

Constitutional / Non-Constitutional

Non-Constitutional

Abstract

Tally has contributed to the Arbitrum DAO as a service provider since the DAO was created one year ago, serving as the home for onchain governance, security council elections, and delegation. We’ve gathered feedback about how we can improve our support for Arbitrum through many conversations over the past year with DAO stakeholders including delegates, contributors, and Foundation representatives. We propose to expand our support for the Arbitrum DAO by improving the proposal process, upgrading the Governor contracts, and highlighting delegate contributions. We also propose to ensure that the DAO is set up for success by researching specifications for partial delegation and shielded voting.

Motivation

Arbitrum is the largest and most decentralized DAO in the world. Tally is highly invested in the success of both the Arbitrum DAO specifically and the Arbitrum community as a whole. We have a strong track record as an Arbitrum governance service provider, ecosystem builder, and delegate. Tally continuously ships improvements for the Arbitrum DAO, including transfer actions, improved Safe support, proposal collaboration, and the nominee selection stage of Security Council elections. This proposal would enable us to invest more resources into the Arbitrum DAO and scale up our impact.

The majority of the improvements outlined in this proposal are specific to Arbitrum’s unique implementation of onchain governance and will not be re-used in other DAOs. We are long-term partners to the Arbitrum DAO who plan to continue investing specifically in making Arbitrum governance great.

Rationale

This proposal contributes to Arbitrum Community Values by making the Arbitrum DAO more socially inclusive, technically inclusive, and user-focused. Our proposed improvements make it easier for contributors of all backgrounds and technical abilities to engage with Arbitrum governance.

Specifications and Steps to Implement

We propose to expand our support for the Arbitrum DAO by improving the proposal process, upgrading the Governor contracts, and highlighting delegate contributions. We also propose to ensure that the DAO is set up for success by developing a specification for partial delegation and shielded voting.

Improve the proposal process
Watch a demo video here - note that this demo is designed to provide a general overview of the user experience. It is not a final design.

• Link forum proposal posts and Tally proposals so that delegates can create Tally proposals from forum posts, see forum proposal comments directly on Tally, and be updated by a Tally Discourse bot when onchain proposals are created.
  • In order to show posts on the proposal page, Tally would need Embedding permission
  • In order to post “this proposal is now onchain (link)”, the Tally Discourse bot would need an API key with topics.writepermission from https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/admin/api/keys/new
• Build a diff checker into Tally proposals that shows what text has changed from Snapshot without having to click back over to Snapshot, to help delegates understand any relevant changes from the temp check phase to the onchain governance phase.
• Enable cancel functionality on Tally proposals so proposal creators can cancel onchain proposals if there are mistakes. (see upgrade Governor contracts section)
• Develop full proposal execution integration by dynamically showing each phase of proposal execution with accurate time stamps so that contributors and delegates can easily manage proposals through the execution process.
• Improve support for late quorum extension on Tally so onchain proposals are automatically extended on Tally when late quorum extension is triggered.
• Fully integrate the quorum of each Governor throughout Tally, including on the proposal page and the delegates page so that delegates always know exactly how much voting power is required to reach quorum.
• Show Security Council transactions on the main Arbitrum DAO page on Tally so the DAO can easily view actions taken by the Security Council.

Upgrade Governor contracts
We’re planning to partner with Scopelift to implement the upgrades. Scopelift is the developer of Flexible Voting and has deep experience with high-value governance contract upgrades.

• Add a cancel() function to the Arbitrum DAO’s implementation of OpenZeppelin Governor so proposal creators can cancel onchain proposals if there are mistakes.
• Add Flexible Voting to the Arbitrum DAO Governors to enable future innovations like voting from Orbit chains, voting from DeFi contracts, and shielded voting.

Highlight delegate contributions
Watch a demo video here - note that this demo is designed to provide a general overview of the user experience. It is not a final design.

• Integrate Karma’s delegate score and contributor metrics into Tally’s delegate page so token holders and DAO stakeholders have access to holistic participation information. Karma will provide the following via their API:
  • Onchain and Snapshot voting pct, delegator count, voting power, list of delegators
  • Stats for different timeframes: Lifetime, last 30 days, last 90 days etc
  • Various sorting criteria (score, voting power, voting pct, forum activity)
  • Onchain endorsements by peer delegates
  • Updates to the scoring logic if needed (Based on community feedback)
  • Software maintenance and keeping data updated on daily basis

Research to set the DAO up for long-term success

• Research a partial delegation solution so that token holders can delegate to more than one address.
• Research a solution for shielded onchain voting so that large delegate voting does not influence other voters during the voting or election period. Ensure that this solution applies to Security Council elections.

Timeline

Research and Design: 0.5 months

Development: 2 months

Testing, audit, and deployment (includes DAO proposal): 2 months

Total: 4.5 months

Overall Cost

Improve the proposal process: $120,000 USD in ARB

Upgrade Governor contracts: $50,000 USD in ARB (100% will go to Scopelift)

Highlight delegate contributions: $40,000 USD in ARB

• Tally: $20,000 USD in ARB
• Karma: $20,000 USD in ARB

Research to set the DAO up for long-term success: $10,000 USD in ARB

Total: $220,000 USD in ARB

special thanks to the DAO Ops Excellence team at GovHack who helped moved this proposal forward @shawn16400 @hiringdevs.eth @hung-vu @cbxm

[Immutablelawyer]

I am personally in favour of this proposal.

Over the past few months, we’ve had several discussions and debates on improving governance tooling within the Ecosystem so as to holistically optimise the process. Our governance framework (technical and otherwise), underpins each and every aspect of what we currently execute and what we intend to execute on in the foreseeable future. In this regard, funding Tally so as to ensure a more seamless experience for the DAO is in my opinion a no-brainer.

Most notably, I am naturally looking forward to the cancel function due to some mishaps that we had in submitting the ARDC Proposal. Hence, inputting this function, which is minor in nature, ensures a longer-term value-add.

The above aside (which emanates from a personal experience), I think another important facet of this proposal is the Flexible Voting mechanism especially re. shielded voting (a topic that has been discussed even quite recently due to the Security Council elections).

All in all, this proposal represents a list of necessary optimisations that we need by a service provider that has shown commitment and full alignment to the DAO’s longer term vision and current term objectives.

I’d also like to mention that for an Optimistic Governance Module grant that we’re working on, Tally also offered integration support to the Tally Frontend for the ArbitrumDAO fully free of charge. Hence, the proposal’s merits aside, Tally has also shown its commitment to participating actively within our community (this can also be seen by the large amount of proposals that are actually put up by Frisson - who is always ready and willing to dedicate time for proposers).

I look forward to seeing this come to fruition!

Kind regards,
Immutablelawyer
Axis Advisory

[jengajojo]

Thanks for the proposal @Frisson and appreciate the Tally teams’ continued support with helping the DAO grow. I am generally in favor of the proposal but would like to urge you to look at the split delegation contracts being built by Gnosis and check if this can be forked/built up instead of a brand new solution.

[Frisson]

Thank you for the kind words Joseph! We’re excited to continue collaborating with you to move Arbitrum governance forward.

[Frisson]

Thanks jengajojo. Appreciate you flagging the split delegation contracts, we’ll include that in our research!

[Tane]

Hi @Frisson and other contributors to the proposal. We appreciate all the work and features that Tally has provided for the Arbitrum DAO and the DAO governance world in general.

We’d like to express full support of the initiative and echo @Immutablelawyer that the proposal covers a list of necessary improvements to be done for the better DAO operations by all parties and we are looking forward to seeing a great DAO tooling product thrive with the growth of the Arbitrum DAO.

@Frisson

Enable cancel functionality on Tally proposals so proposal creators can cancel onchain proposals if there are mistakes.

A small comment on the cancel functionality; it may have already been considered but to prevent accidental cancelations of proposals in the middle or the final phase of voting, it would be better to only make it available for the first X hours or 1 day after the proposal creation (like flight ticket free cancelation.)

[Frisson]

Thank you for your support Tane! Noted on the cancel functionality - that’s a great point.

[JoJo]

I will just comment on the merit and not the numbers cause I didn’t had the time to look more in depth into them.

I strongly support this initiative. We have one of the most prolific DAO, automate partially the experience by having a deeper connection between our forum, the activity of delegates and Tally would be a very good move forward and likely improve the quality of life for most. And when that happens usually people can better focus on doing what they would actually need to do (which is not fighting against technology to keep everything aligned, like what might happen today with the current fragmentation we have).

Thanks for the update @Frisson !

[cp0x]

Hello, @Frisson
Great changes, I like them.
However, I have a several questions )

1. Will these changes apply only to Arbitrum?
   I mean, if these improvements are used by other DAOs, it will not be entirely fair to Arbitrum DAO
2. Your code is open source?

And the third comment not about these changes: I noticed that our delegations are displayed differently in different parts of the site.

Here

But here I see 2 lines and incorrect values

Can you fix this?

[ruslanklinkov]

That’s a nice offer. I think Tally will only get better, more functional and more convenient. However, I would like to make a suggestion. Let’s make a roadmap with milestones. Each milestone will include a budget and a deadlines. If all tasks are completed on time and with quality - you get paid. I think this option will be more suitable as you will be motivated to do all the work quickly and efficiently. What do you think?

[Harold]

I echo the sentiment Joseph shared.

Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to your answers to cp0x, for me to be able to make up my mind.

Lastly, I’d like to see a more detailed breakdown of the costs. I think it’s important to walk the delegates through how you got to these specific USD amounts. Is this based on a predicted amount of hours you’re expecting to need?

[Frisson]

Thank you for your support JoJo! Happy to answer any questions you may have as you dig into the numbers.

[Frisson]

Thank you for your questions cp0x.

1. The majority of the improvements outlined in this proposal are specific to Arbitrum’s unique implementation of onchain governance and will not be re-used in other DAOs. We are long-term partners to the Arbitrum DAO who plan to continue investing specifically in making Arbitrum governance great. I added this note to the main proposal text.
2. Tally in its entirety is not yet open-source. We have near-term plans to open-source our front end. We also specifically designed the architecture of Tally to be modular with the underlying Governance contracts, so Arbitrum onchain governance is not technically dependent on Tally in any way. Onchain governance actions like voting can be take on Arbiscan or alternative UIs, and any onchain action can be created via the command line.

I’m working with the team on a fix for the voting power issue you shared and will follow up here with updates. Thanks for surfacing!

[Frisson]

Thanks for your suggestion @ruslanklinkov! The timeline section of the proposal lays out the milestones and timelines for delivering them. We’ll apply specific dates to each milestone if/when the proposal passes temp check. Tally is a high-profile company in the governance space and our reputation would be permanently and severely damaged to an extent greater than the cost of this proposal if we were to fail to execute for our largest client/user base (the Arbitrum DAO). We will deliver . With that said, we will of course return the funds if some catastrophic, unforseen issue comes up that somehow prevents us from finishing the project.

[Frisson]

Thanks for your feedback, Harold! I replied to cp0x in the thread. The costs are based on both predicted work required and predicted value to the DAO. We believe the costs outlined in the proposal are a great value for the scope of the project and quality of the service providers delivering the work. Our goal was not to maximize the amount of money Tally can make off this proposal, but rather to request enough funding to enable us to allocate the resources required to expand support for Arbitrum and create a differentiated, best-in-class experience for governance stakeholders.

[Frisson]

I added this item to the Improve the Proposal Process specification because it was suggested by an Arbitrum delegate and I think it’s a fantastic idea.

• Build a diff checker into Tally proposals that shows what text has changed from Snapshot without having to click back over to Snapshot, to help delegates understand any relevant changes from the temp check phase to the onchain governance phase.

[Englandzz_Curia]

Thank you for this comprehensive proposal. The integration of forum posts and the introduction of a cancel function for proposals stand out as particularly beneficial features. However, could you elaborate on how the team plans to address potential security concerns associated with these new features? Additionally, how was the budget estimated, and does it account for unforeseen complexities that might arise during implementation?

[ruslanklinkov]

Thank you for your answer. I wish you good luck in your work!

[Frisson]

Thanks for your comments @Englandzz_Curia!

I think the primary security concerns would arise from the smart contract upgrades (let me know if there are other particular concerns you foresee). We plan to address smart contract upgrade security by 1. working with the team most experienced with these kinds of upgrades (Scopelift) and 2. auditing the upgrades. The audit is not currently included in the cost of the proposal, which is one thing we will need to address.

The budget is based on both predicted work required and predicted value to the DAO. We spent time scoping the work to try to identify potential complexities. It’s important to note that we are already quite familiar with the Arbitrum DAO smart contracts due to our past work, I don’t expect anything to arise that would materially affect the budget.

[bendi]

Hi all, Ben from ScopeLift here. I just want to jump in and say that we are excited to contribute on the smart contract development side of this proposal. We’re big fans of Arbitrum generally, and in particular the work the team has done around governance to make protocol upgrades for the network truly controlled by DAO in a safe way. We’re looking forward to helping continue the trend. Please let me know if you have any questions about this proposal.