Participating in Arbitrum Governance: A Descriptive Overview
Just like every other organisations with a governance structure or ownership, the Arbitrum DAO comprised of a decentralized and well structured governance system with various key components as highlighted in this article;
Understanding the Arbitrum DAO:
The Arbitrum DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) governs the Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova chains, along with their underlying protocols. Governance tokens, specifically $ARB, are crucial in this system, as they represent membership in the DAO and enable holders to vote on proposals. This DAO is governed by The Constitution of the Arbitrum DAO, which is a set of rules that describe how the DAO will operate. The Constitution is enshrined within a number of social contracts that are used by the Arbitrum DAO to govern itself and its technologies. The distribution of $ARB tokens decentralizes governance, aligning the Arbitrum community's incentives with those of the Ethereum community. Arbitrum DAO uses smart contracts to codify the decision-making protocol articulated within The Constitution of the Arbitrum DAO.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Making Arbitrum's technology decisions more community-based(Decentralized) is a big move towards letting the Ethereum community help shape its growth. This also brings Arbitrum's goals closer to the wider Ethereum community's goals.The governance system comprises the Security Council and the Arbitrum DAO itself. The Security Council, a 12-member elected body, ensures the security and performance of Arbitrum through emergency actions when necessary. The Arbitrum DAO, a global community of $ARB token holders and their delegates, governs Arbitrum and its Security Council. The DAO can modify the powers of the Security Council and is responsible for major decisions like upgrading core contracts and authorizing new L2 chains.
Delegation and Voting:
Participants can either vote directly on proposals or delegate their voting power. Delegates, elected by token holders, vote on behalf of those who delegated their power to them. Delegating is done via Tally, a decentralized governance tool, and requires connecting an Ethereum wallet containing $ARB tokens. Delegates are expected to act in the best interest of the token holders and align with the DAO's values. You can grant your voting power to a delegate if you don't have the time to actively participate in the governance process. If you decide to delegate your voting power to someone else, be sure to select a delegate who demonstrates the values enshrined within the Arbitrum DAO Constitution.
Voting Process:
Proposals undergo different stages, starting with a "temperature check" in the Arbitrum DAO governance forum for community discussion. If a proposal passes this stage, it moves to an on-chain vote via Tally, with specific thresholds for approval depending on the proposal type. It's crucial to evaluate proposals based on their alignment with the values and goals of the Arbitrum DAO as outlined in the Constitution.
Engagement and Community Values:
Participation in the Arbitrum DAO is not only about voting or delegating but also about engaging with the community and upholding the values enshrined in the Constitution. It’s a step into the new frontier of governance mechanism design with significant implications for the future of decentralized technology.
ARBITRUM
Arbitrum is a suite of scaling solutions providing environments with high-throughout, low-cost smart contracts, backed by industry-leading proven technology rooted in Ethereum. Arbitrum has primarily 2 blockchains called Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova. The newest product Arbitrum Orbit let’s you create your own dedicated chain that settles to one of Arbitrum’s Layer 2(L2) chains. Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, or Arbitrum Goerli. Learn more about Arbitrum here.
