[Non-Constitutional] Turbocharge Arbitrum DAO offchain governance

Proposals
1

Turbocharge Arbitrum DAO offchain governance

Non-Constitutional

Abstract

As one of the world’s biggest DAOs, Arbitrum DAO could take advantage of the Turbo plan that Snapshot.org (the off-chain voting platform we use for temperature checks) offers. This proposal aims to upgrade Arbitrum DAO’s snapshot space (the one with the arbitrumfoundation.eth ENS name) to Snapshot’s Turbo plan for $6,000 USD per year.

Motivation

Arbitrum DAO has been a heavy user of snapshot.org ever since AIP-1, by being one of the most active DAOs in that platform, with 5,427,817 total votes cast as of October 24ᵗʰ, 2024, at 12pm UTC.

The Turbo plan of snapshot.org allows DAOs to take advantage of a set of advanced features, that are relevant to Arbitrum DAO right now, such as:

  • have longer proposal text (from 10,000 to 40,000 characters)
  • enhanced visibility of the Arbitrum DAO snapshot space (higher ranking on the snapshot.org homepage and in search results)
  • a delegate dashboard like this one where tokenholders can easily redelegate their voting power, and delegates can update their delegate statements (or get them auto-imported from Karmahq.xyz), in a page like this one.
  • a customizable whitelabel interface (with Arbitrum DAO’s branding, including a custom domain, colors, and logo)
  • more voting strategies (from 8 to 10)
  • more voting choices in proposals (from 50 to 1,000)
  • more proposals published (from 20 to 40 daily and from 100 to 200 monthly)
  • and other features that can be seen here.

All these features would allow the Arbitrum DAO to be more effective in its governance efforts. Also, by being a Turbo customer, there is an opportunity for Arbitrum DAO to ask custom features that the snapshot team would be happy to look into and prioritize.

Rationale

The main reasons to upgrade to snapshot.org Turbo plan are two fold.

  1. There have been several instances where some proposals text in Arbitrum DAO had to be cut from their original size in the forum, to fit the current 10,000 character limit on the snapshot.org temperature check proposal, which hinders the legibility of proposals in the medium where they are being voted on, and might cause confusion for the voters, as to what is being voted on.

  2. Currently, snapshot.org homepage doesn’t show Arbitrum DAO as a featured DAO, because Arbitrum DAO’s snapshot space does not have the gold badge that would come with the Turbo plan. Once Arbitrum DAO upgrades to the Turbo plan, Arbitrum DAO’s snapshot space would be showing in the top section of the snapshot.org homepage.

snapshot.org current homepage

Specifications

The snapshot.org Turbo plan is the obvious next step for Arbitrum DAO which relies heavily on offchain proposals for its governance processes. Since its inception, Arbitrum DAO has published 330 offchain proposals on its snapshot.org space with an average of roughly 16448 casted votes per proposal, as of the 24ᵗʰ of October 2024, at 12pm UTC. That’s almost 10,000 votes casted per day, since AIP-1.

The additional features the Turbo plan provides can be fully used by Arbitrum DAO and are fairly needed. Also, with additional discoverability in snapshot.org homepage and search results, Arbitrum DAO will be front and center for DAO governance enthusiasts who have not yet looked into and participated in Arbitrum DAOs governance.

This proposal aims to get consent and alignment from Arbitrum DAO members, so that the Arbitrum Foundation will pay from their budget and upgrade Arbitrum DAOs snapshot.org space, controlled by the Arbitrum Foundation owned arbitrumfoundation.eth ENS name, to the snapshot.org Turbo plan.

Steps to Implement

The main step to implement this proposal is for the Arbitrum Foundation to transfer the equivalent of $6,000 USD in ARB to a snapshot.org controlled wallet. Snapshot.org team has confirmed that they can accept payment in ARB on Arbitrum One. After the payment is received, the arbitrumfoundation.eth snapshot space will be upgraded to the Turbo plan.

Then, as a second and optional step of the implementation, the Arbitrum Foundation (who controls the arbitrumfoundation.eth ENS name and therefore has admin rights over the Arbitrum DAO’s snapshot space) can also customize the snapshot space and create a subdomain like https://snapshot.arbitrum.foundation to host the whitelabel version of the Arbitrum DAO snapshot space.

Timeline

This proposal will be up for discussion here in the forum and gathering feedback until the 31ˢᵗ of October. If it gathers enough support from delegates, by way of commenting here in this forum thread, the Arbitrum Foundation should proceed with the payment and implementation of this proposal.

Overall Cost

$6,000 USD equivalent in ARB, per year.

9 Likes
2

All I want for Christmas is 40k characters. Seeing that the foundation owns the relationship to snapshot/Tally - I think this is best funded by the foundation at the request of delegates rather than taking it through the fully Tally process.

6 Likes
3

Yes, this is something that the AF can cover, especially if the sentiment from the DAO is that it wants this upgrade.

9 Likes
4

Negligible cost for the extra visibility and benefits, we should be at the top of the page!

3 Likes
5

I really want to see Arbitrum DAO right at the top when I open Snapshot, instead of having to scroll down every time. But like @DisruptionJoe said, I don’t think something this small needs to go through a full DAO proposal, especially since the amount of funding is minimal and should already be covered by Arbitrum DAO’s basic operational budget. We just need to give the relevant team a heads-up that it’s time to get this done—just like how we added the gold badge to Arbitrum X, let’s upgrade Arbitrum DAO’s Snapshot space too.

3 Likes
6

Just a note that L2BEAT supports this as a delegate.

4 Likes
7

I support this proposal

3 Likes
8

I believe it’s far better value received than spent. Wonder why we didn’t activate it earlier, thanks @paulofonseca for brining it up.

We definitely support this.

4 Likes
9

Hi here! I’m Fabien, the founder of Snapshot. We’re proud to support Arbitrum’s governance and appreciate your interest in our Turbo plan. I’m available and happy to answer any questions you might have about the Turbo plan.

2 Likes
10

I believw the benefits are worth the costs. It would be amazing if the AF unlocked this for us!

4 Likes
11

Entropy also supports this path forward.

5 Likes
12

No brainer, especially if the constitution states the foundation as being party responsible for subscriptions.

also think that since they set it up, we should let AF upgrade rather than go through a DAO vote

thanks to @coinflip for first noticing that we don’t have a gold star unlike other much less active DAOs and to @paulofonseca for doing the research & taking it public with the proposal

2 Likes
13

I support it. There’s no reason we shouldn’t pay for this, as it’s one of the main tools used by governance, and the cost is not significant.

2 Likes
14

Thank you for this proposal, @paulofonseca. I support it as it brings a lot of value to the DAO and its members for a small cost.

2 Likes
15

I remember having a conversation with someone regarding this on X so really excited you put this up here @paulofonseca.

With AF looking to cover the costs upon community backing, DAOplomats is fully in support of this initiative. And just as @0x_ultra said, we should be at the top of the page :arrow_up:

2 Likes
16

Hey all! Thank you for the replies!

Just edited the proposal to show that this payment and implementation should come from the Arbitrum Foundation.

In the meantime, please show your support for this proposal as a comment here in this forum thread.

1 Like
17

404 DAO supports this proposal. Arbitrum should be front and center on Snapshot’s DAO page. The additional features, specifically increased character limits, will greatly reduce information fragmentation.

We have a question for @fabien regarding Turbo’s spam flagging - we noticed in most all proposals there are currently many “small” token holders voting with <0.1 ARB, are these the accounts that would be flagged?

2 Likes
19

Our team supports this proposal. We believe that increasing the character limit is crucial for properly reflecting Forum proposals in Snapshot.

A minor clarification, we noticed changes were made to the proposal regarding its duration. Will it be renewed annually without a vote? From our perspective, we don’t think another vote is necessary, but it would be good to clarify this.

2 Likes
20

AF should cover this.

2 Likes
21

This is an easy yes, we’re in support.

2 Likes