Governance Meeting Notes Mega-Thread

Abstract

  • A proposal to decrease the maximum gas per block from 10M to 4M will be placed on-chain soon. SCRT Labs believes this will make long block times less likely. More information can be found here: DISCUSS: Network Issues w/ Shade Airdrop - 2/21/22 Should intervention be necessary within the 7 day voting period, that is of course always possible.
  • Potential shorter proposal voting periods could help with these types of urgent proposals, but this will require discussions regarding specifics, and everyone will need to agree with the implementation.
  • Roughly half the expected early claims from the Shade airdrop are claimed, once the first 75k - 80k are claimed it is expected it will slow down. Shade expects roughly 10x the current load in the next 3 months when they get closer to other mainnet launches.
  • Load balancing the front-end seems like a good solution to control the network stability, future projects can learn from this. We need to put more effort into sharing these types of best practices.

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Abstract

  • The 2021-Q4 Secret Foundation Transparency Report will be presented next week Wednesday March 9th at 16h00 UTC during our weekly Governance Call.
  • The dev committee proposal now includes Lumi and Xiphear from Trivium as co-leads, in addition to Gino from Dreamscapes.
  • Community governance participation has 10x-ed over the past months, no one clear cause can be identified, but it seems like airdrop hunters are at least partially causing it.
  • Some committees might be served better by transitioning back to SF for funding, there are pros and cons for either solution and the discussion has only started. Leave your thoughts in the governance-related channels on Discord or Telegram.

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Abstract

  • Tor presented the 2021-Q4 SF Transparency Report which will be published sometime next week after all questions have been incorporated. Any questions should be directed to the governance channels on Discord or Telegram so they can be included in the final version of the report.
  • Small changes were made to the Secret Network Charter & Code of Conduct after final input by the validators. It will move into the on-chain voting period tomorrow.

Action Points

  • Leave any questions regarding the SF Transparency Report in the governance channels on Discord or Telegram. They will be included in the final version of the report.
  • Cast your votes on the open proposals: https://secretnodes.com/secret/chains/secret-4/governance
  • Reach out to Patrick at SF if you are interested in joining Secret Foundation as a social media manager.
  • Leave feedback on the minimum validator commision discussion on the forums: Minimum Validator Commision - Discussion

Full Notes

Abstract

  • Committee meetings have transitioned to DST together with the US, they now start one hour earlier in UTC time.
  • A new Validator Survey will be released at the end of March / beginning of April containing questions related to newly submitted CCBL projects, a potential minimum validator fee, and some optional questions regarding infrastructure and hardware.
  • An auto-compounding solution for SCRT stakers is being explored.

Action Points

  • Is there something you’d like to see built on Secret Network? Submit it as a CCBL project idea: https://forms.gle/vm9h5hy6KGBmjXaR6
  • Leave any questions regarding the SF Transparency Report in the governance channels on Discord or Telegram. They will be included in the final version of the report.
  • Cast your votes on the open proposals: https://secretnodes.com/secret/chains/secret-4/governance
  • If you have any questions you would like to ask the validators, leave them in the governance channels and they will be incorporated in the next Validator Survey.
  • Reach out to Patrick at SF if you are interested in joining Secret Foundation as a social media manager.
  • Leave feedback on the minimum validator commision discussion on the forums: Minimum Validator Commision - Discussion

Full Notes

Abstract

  • The SN Charter & CoC has passed on-chain governance (proposal #81). Governance updates sent to validators will now also include whether a proposal abides by the Charter.
  • The first upcoming upgrade will most likely occur in April, for more details see the recent SCRT Labs blogpost: SCRT Labs Update: Scaling Secret - Bringing Privacy to Smart Contracts and Public Blockchains This upgrade will be the first to utilize the x/upgrade module and cosmovisor, which will lead to easier upgrades. Another upgrade is tentatively scheduled for June. Upgrades will most likely occur more frequently moving forward.
  • The next Validator Survey will be sent out next week, this time a similar version will also be made available to the community to get their feedback. Topics will include: a minimum validator commision, pay-rates, validator infrastructure, and new CCBL projects
  • Next week there will be another Monthly Governance call, March 30th 15h00 UTC on chat.scrt.network

Action Points

  • Is there something you’d like to see built on Secret Network? Submit it as a CCBL project idea: https://forms.gle/vm9h5hy6KGBmjXaR6
  • Leave any questions regarding the SF Transparency Report in the governance channels on Discord or Telegram. They will be included in the final version of the report.
  • Cast your votes on the open proposals: secret | Secret 4 | Governance Proposals & Results
  • If you have any questions you would like to ask the validators, leave them in the governance channels before Tuesday and they will be incorporated in the next Validator Survey.
  • Last Chance: Reach out to Patrick at SF if you are interested in joining Secret Foundation as a social media manager.
  • Leave feedback on the minimum validator commision discussion on the forums: Minimum Validator Commision - Discussion

Full Notes

Abstract

  • The April upgrade will be about immediate scalability and the June upgrade will be about cross-chain contracts. Both upgrades will probably be near the end of the month, but more details to be released at a future date. It would be good if we are able to pull forward support for new hardware, at least for some categories.
  • Carter & Jordan are leaving Secret Foundation after many great contributions to both the foundation and the broader ecosystem. Luckily for us they will still be very involved in the Secret Network.
  • A lot of different opinions on the focal currency topic, a good portion of the community thinks it’s a risky idea which could negatively affect DeFi applications on the network while at the same time opening us up to a lot of risks. This seems most suitable for projects / chains that are very closely connected with Secret Network, for example OPEN. It might work well if it also includes shared security across the chains.

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  • The cosmwasm issue doesn’t affect our live network as it didn’t exist in the version that we have. The April upgrade will include a few backported cosmwasm functions, however only interfaces and they will be reimplementing in the enclave so even if they have vulnerabilities we won’t be impacted.
  • The best Community Curated Bounty List idea submitted by Friday April 8th 14h00 UTC will win 25 SCRT! Link: https://forms.gle/vm9h5hy6KGBmjXaR6
  • When selecting a bridge provider technical factors should be considered as well as standardization factors. We should prevent bad UX, i.e. do migrations as infrequently as possible. Submit items for a wishlist on the forums so we can form a RFP for Secret Network Bridging. Should we limit the search to only bridges that work on every IBC chain, or also include Secret Network exclusive solutions?
  • Right now SCRT Labs is leaning towards waiting for inqlusion’s liquid staking module and including it in the upgrade in June / early July. This module by inqlusion will most likely be deployed in the entire cosmos ecosystem in the next months. It’s an NFT solution where you can convert staked SCRT into an NFT. That NFT accrues the staking rewards and is transferable and redeemable.
  • There will be an additional governance meeting by the CCBL working group on Friday April 8th at 15h00 UTC to go through the submitted CCBL project ideas.

Action Points

Full Notes

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Abstract

  • A phased approach to increase the validator active set seems to be the most popular solution, suggested is an increase to 85 following Shockwave Alpha and a further increase to 100 following Shockwave Omega. Peering issues seem to be the biggest argument against increasing at this moment.
  • An additional ‘express’ proposal type with a shorter voting period seems useful for certain situations that are not so critical that it needs immediate intervention, but where a 7 day voting period is too long. Quorum for such a proposal type should be higher, for example 50%, and a supermajority might be warranted.
  • In preparation of the main SF tax discussion next week the community highlighted some of its concerns and wants regarding this topic. This mainly focussed around SF creating a scope and budget in collaboration with the community and SLabs to then arrive at an optimal SF tax. A good portion of the attendees felt strongly about taking steps in the right direction in the near future instead of pushing it another 3 months as they were afraid that it would otherwise be placed on a backburner as the default situation has the higher tax level.

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  • The Shockwave Alpha upgrade has been delayed by two weeks to May 11th due to additional testing of the new upgrade module.
  • Increasing the active set by 10 should not have a large negative effect on network stability. If anything causes a downturn in network performance it will likely not matter if we have 70 or 80 validators in the active set. The delay of the upgrade also allows us to determine the effect of this change without being influenced by an upgrade.
  • The community will gather their wishes and a proposed timeline regarding SF scope and legal structure modifications in a document in preparation of next week’s Governance call. A draft can be found in the governance channel on Discord.
  • Clarity was given on the current SF legal structure and its origins. Scope and transparency discussions are orthogonal and can happen in parallel. An updated scope is necessary to determine a budget and as a result a suitable SF tax level. The solution space should not be limited, perhaps creating a new 3rd NPO entity is the best solution. Clear timelines can be set around an audit, an NPO switch is more complicated due to legal implications.
  • The 2021-Q4 Secret Foundation Transparency Report is now publicly available: SF Q4 Transparency Report (Presented Q1 2022)

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Abstract

  • A very productive governance call going over the coming changes to SF structure and scope. In short, SF will transition to an NPO and spearhead marketing, comms, branding, and events. SCRT Labs will spearhead biz dev, grants, infrastructure, and documentation.
  • Tor will propose an interim reduction of the SF tax to 4% on the forums soon, after 3 days of discussion it will move to the chain. Once the scope and budget have been determined the tax will be adjusted up / down as needed.
  • An auditor will be identified by Guy and Tor in May.
  • A working group will be gathered by Guy, Tor, and pmuecke to find a few people in the community with knowledge in the following areas: finding an auditor, legal counsel, a CPA to get suggestions for the transition to an NPO.
  • Beside the Validator Survey there is now also a slightly shorter Community Survey: https://forms.gle/XKcWp4Toszxg2jyh8

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Abstract

  • A Testnet Committee is currently being discussed on the forums to further improve testnet and support developers during testing their contracts / applications. More information to follow in the next couple of days.
  • Node and Validator Operator support is currently already handled by the Support Team, if more support is needed after the upgrade it can be included in the next Support Team proposal.
  • The Working Group to help the process surrounding transitioning Secret Foundation to an NPO is currently being set up, if you have a relevant background / experience / contacts, please reach out.

Action Points

Full Notes

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Abstract

  • The testnet proposal is currently being reworked after input from the community on the forums. Further input is much appreciated. Reach out to Sandy or Taariq if you would like to contribute. Currently two approaches are being considered, a centralized and a decentralized one.
  • Most people in the governance call seemed to agree that committees should continue as usual until a potential structure change in collaboration with the Secret Foundation has been discussed further. More steps in this direction will be taken in the next few weeks.
  • In principle, discretionary budgets and funding are the responsibility of the lead/proposer once the voting period has concluded. That being said, we do feel strongly for everyone that has lost something in the recent UST crash and we are seeing what we as a community can do to help everyone affected, both within our own community as well as the Terra community.

Action Points

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  • A plan was presented to move the awareness, education, and international growth committees funding from the chain to the Secret Foundation as part of a ‘Secret Agency’. These committees have substantial overlap with SF goals, this change will allow for more efficiency and closer collaboration.
  • Funding lead pay seems to be the easiest transition, only needing alignment between the committees and SF. SF is willing to fund lead pay starting immediately. The leads seem to prefer a transition period of another full funding period to ease the transition.
  • Funding of the discretionary budgets will be the harder aspect, as one of the requirements is that secret agents don’t need to KYC. This can not be integrated within the current SF processes.
  • No clear consensus appeared during the Governance call in relation to timing of this transition to funding by SF. Therefore, the proposals will go on-chain as originally planned and the community is asked to vote with their own transition timing preferences in mind.
  • With the current SF funding rate and their current resources, this transition does not seem to impact the SF tax at 4%.

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  • Awareness, IGC, and education are currently looking to structure the ‘secret agency’ as an Estonian NPO. SF will fund the ‘secret agency’ since their goals fall within the scope of SF, but not incorporate them. To get this NPO up and running will probably take ~6 weeks.
  • Consensus during the gov call seemed to be that the Terra Dev Fund is a great opportunity. A good number of people would prefer SLabs to pay for it through the ecosystem pool, but if they are unwilling it’s better that the stakers pay than no one at all.
  • A discussion is ongoing on the forums whether the potential 6% Terra Dev Fund tax should be offset by an increase in inflation.

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  • Edu, awareness, and IGC (the Secret Agency) are now looking at a DAO entity in the Marshall Islands as an alternative to the Estonian NPO. In the meantime IGC handles routing of funding and KYC.
  • The BizDev committee funding was discussed and whether it should be fully funded by the community pool, or also by other stakeholders. Further discussions will be had in the leads call once the next proposal is out on the forums.
  • All stakeholders are asked to join the next Monthly Governance call (June 29th) and give updates on their ongoing projects.

Action Points

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  • The Terra dev fund proposal is currently in the on-chain voting period (proposal #98). Several projects are considering moving to Secret Network and some Terra 2 projects may be looking to move / go multi-chain.
  • The dev committee is going to be restructured and Gino is stepping down. Biz Dev is aiming to merge with Dev and form the ‘Head of ecosystem growth and venture capital’ committee. If approved by the chain and depending on performance in the next funding period, they aim to float the idea of funding this new committee using a new on-chain tax in Q4. More information will be posted on the forums next week.
  • The ‘dev docs’ grant was approved today and completion is expected in mid-July.

Action Points

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  • The SCRT Labs Delegation form for Q3 & Q4 is live with a deadline of July 10th.
  • Dan answered a number of questions regarding the new BizDev (and Dev) proposal on the forums. CCRs might come back into the proposal based on some more discussion. Next week this proposal will be one of the main discussion topics in the governance call.
  • Updates on the progress of the Secret Agency were shared. There is potential for a large number of working groups, namely: recruitment, activation, education, international growth, university relations, events, social media, KOL relations, artist relations, and design. This program will be very transparent and relevant metrics will be made public. Currently accountability lies with SF, which has the highest of standards.
  • The 2022-Q1 and Q2 Transparency Reports are a priority for SF. Currently the audit and NPO transition have not been a priority as SF is currently under-resourced. SF is learning a lot about the NPO transition by the Secret Agency being set up. At current rates SF has enough funds for the next 12 to 18 months.

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  • The Secret University proposal is looking for funding from the community pool to achieve their first milestone which includes 3 pathways: “Welcome to Secret Network”, “Creating your first Secret Contract”, and “Building your first dApp”.
  • The CCBL update proposes four new projects to be added, as well as the SCRT limit to be increased to 25k SCRT.
  • There seemed to be a consensus in the governance call that inflation should be handled carefully, we should not change it unless absolutely necessary, especially in a bear market, and we should strive for stability.

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  • The aim of Secret University is to focus on onboarding devs from web2 and web3 and get them started on the important details of rust as well as Secret Network specific components such as permits and viewing keys. A recent grant application is looking to do similar things, it might be worth considering a collaboration.
  • The Dev committee will for now move forward as their own committee, and see where opportunities for collaboration with BizDev (and other committees) exist.
  • A ‘Community Asks from SF’ proposal was posted on the forums on behalf of a broad group of stakeholders. The aim is to increase transparency, assistance for SF, and NPO research. The proposal seems very reasonable and doesn’t really contain any surprises. SF will respond with their views and feedback on the forums and the discussion can continue from there. The main points of discussion seem to be the compensation breakdown, balance sheets, and budgets.

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  • A great discussion is occurring on the forums on the ‘Community asks from SF’ petition proposal thread with input from SF, SCRT Labs, and the community. In the next 24 hours the latest version will be shared there and the aim is to have it go on-chain Sunday or Monday. All feedback is welcome.
  • Starting next week (July 27th) the governance call will be brought one hour forward to 2pm UTC (3pm UTC outside of DST). The aim is that this will enable SCRT Labs to join more often.
  • For validators it is important to check their minimum gas fee setting after a migration as the default in secretd is still 0.25 uscrt. Over the past months several validators migrated their validator node without editing this value resulting in them not including most tx’s.

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