Polkadot’s Founder Announces New Blockchain Governance Model

Key Insights:

• Gov2 aims to improve Polkadot’s decision-making processes to be more inclusive and decentralized.
• All pending referenda will need 50% of the vote from stakeholders.
• Polkadot’s Technical Committee will be replaced by a decentralized body called the Polkadot Fellowship.

Polkadot and Kusama founder Gavin Wood has announced that the blockchain’s governance model will undergo a new transformation known as Gov2. Following a final professional audit of its code, Gov2 is set to launch on Polkadot’s more nimble and experimental sister network, Kusama.

Why the upgrade? Polkadot (DOT) is looking to improve its decision-making processes to be more inclusive and decentralized. Another important direction that the project is taking is increasing the number of proposals that can be voted on.

A Step Towards Full Decentralization

Once Gov2 is tested on Kusama, a proposal will be made for the Polkadot network to vote on.

However, all pending referenda need 50% of the vote from stakeholders within 28 days’ time for approval. Failure to achieve this results in default rejection. Several referenda on an array of topics can be held at the same time.

Importantly, proposals need to meet three criteria levels before they can be moved to the ‘deciding state’. Other stages that follow include a lead-in period with a set time frame, decision allocation and payment of a ‘decision deposit’. This deposit covers the cost of on-chain storage as it pertains to the referendum.

Participants can also intervene and launch cancellation proposals, which require similar voting procedures, while passive voters who choose to delegate their voting authority to community leaders can specify a different delegate for every class of referendum via a new and enhanced Multirole Delegation system.

In contrast, the current system relies on a public proposal queue, but the new governance model will expand the scope of decisions that can be made collectively under Polkadot’s governance structure.

With Gov2, anyone has the ability to start an unlimited number of referendums at any time, similar to initiating new transactions on a blockchain. This is because the new governance model aims to remove the theme of preferential treatment prevalent in the Polkadot Council and Technical Committee. Ultimately, this leaves a single hierarchy of referendum participants.