Just voted YES on The Watchdog proposal on tally. This is the kind of market-driven accountability mechanism Arbitrum needs.
What stands out here is how The Watchdog elegantly applies several of Ostrom’s principles for managing shared resources:
- Monitoring by community members: By creating financial incentives for community sleuths, we’re establishing decentralized monitoring that Ostrom identified as crucial for sustainable governance. This turns every community member into a potential guardian of our treasury.
- Graduated sanctions: The low/medium/high severity classifications with corresponding bounties creates the kind of proportional response system that prevents both over and under-punishment, maintaining trust in the system.
- Conflict resolution mechanisms: The review committee structure provides a clear path for resolving disputes, another core Ostrom principle that prevents governance paralysis.
- Minimal recognition of rights: The program respects the autonomy of grant recipients while establishing boundaries for misconduct - striking the exact balance Ostrom advocated for.
What makes this proposal particularly strong is that it aligns market incentives with ecosystem health. As someone who’s consistently advocated for skin in the game and performance-based accountability, I see this as the perfect complement to our grants programs.