1 Poll Closing May 22, 2025
DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP)
Summary: This poll asks ARB holders if they support providing 80,000,000 ARB to a 12-month program focused on providing incentives on specific assets, but not specific protocols.
The committee overseeing DRIP, and with full discretion over its allocations, would consist of Entropy Advisors, Offchain Labs, and the Arbitrum Foundation.
Voters are strongly encouraged to view the full proposal discussion here.
Recommendation: Vote Against. We think the concept of an asset-based incentives program has merit, and is worth trying. However, we cannot vote for the plan under the current version. We would vote in favor if the following pain points are addressed.
Firstly, the oversight committee is not appropriately balanced to account for conflicts of interest. Offchain Labs is a service provider to the Arbitrum Foundation, and only two votes are required to disburse any funds or set policies. Given that the only oversight built into the DRIP program – short of total clawback and defunding – is the committee members checking each other, we think this committee makeup is not setting the program up for success.
Secondly, accountability for past programs is cited as a problem, and Entropy has agreed to take full responsibility as the owner of this program. This is the correct direction, but stops short on important details. It is not clear what failure looks like for this program (each season will have its own targets, which would also be set by the committee). And ultimately, with the current makeup of the committee could in theory never act according to Entropy’s views, and they would still be left accountable simply because they are the only member of the committee that the DAO realistically can hold accountable.
Our suggestions to upgrade this proposal:
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Rather than have a committee that makes all decisions, split responsibilities amongst the three members. While they may collectively work to establish the strategic goals of a season, setting the specific targets and deliverables, monitoring or selecting a service provider to monitor, and execution should not all fall to the same parties. This prevents the common problem of “grading your own homework” and prevents falling prey to the temptation of setting low targets that are easily met, grading leniently in order to meet those targets, and having no realistic way to objectively fail that is obvious and not subject to debate.
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We recommend replacing either Offchain Labs or the Arbitrum Foundation with another member, since they have a conflict of interest in serving together and would represent a veto-proof bloc of votes that need not take into account the DAO’s only representative in discussions. The current committee is not demonstrably different than simply giving the Foundation the 80,000,000 to implement the program.
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Add a requirement that a comprehensive report be provided to governance on the forum for any ended season before another season can begin (even if some data is still being collected and will be updated later). This builds a historical record, and also may help demonstrate to governance that the committee improves over time.
We think this program would be valuable, and appreciate that it is designed to be less biased towards incumbent protocols, which was a common complaint of the previous incentives programs. With the above upgrades to the governance structure of the program, we would cast a vote in favor of this program.
1 Poll Closing May 29, 2025
[CONSTITUTIONAL] AIP: ArbOS Version 40 Callisto
Summary: This poll asks ARB holders if they support upgrading Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova ArbOS to Callisto, which supports a number of features in the recent Ethereum Pectra update. There is also a bug fix for Stylus for several calls which may not always reflect current state.
This upgrade has been audited by Trail of Bits.
Code difference can be seen here. Version 40 replaces Version 32.
NB: ArbOS versions do not use sequential numbering.
Recommendation: Vote For. This adds support for several Pectra features and is a bug fix for Stylus. The code was reviewed and audited.