Introducing Vote Delegation to SSV DAO Governance

A few months ago, the SSV DAO approved a grant for Karma to develop a delegate dashboard to enhance voting and distribute voting power in the DAO. We are excited to announce that the https://delegate.ssv.network dashboard is officially complete and can be used to vote on the next batch of proposals.

This blog post aims to educate DAO members, participants, and the wider community on this new initiative’s why, what, and how.

TL;DR

Introducing vote delegation
What is delegation?
Why use delegation?
What is Karma?
How will delegation work?
How to become a delegate
FAQ

Distributing Voting Power in the SSV DAO

The ssv.network is undergoing a significant evolution, both in tech and governance. With the mainnet rollout underway, the entire ecosystem is preparing for a groundbreaking transition to a fully permissionless and open protocol spearheaded by the SSV DAO. From the governance perspective, this means ensuring the DAO works like a well-oiled machine, following in the footsteps of AAVE, Optimism, Uniswap, ENS DAO, and other industry leaders.

As with most open protocols run by DAOs, getting the community aligned and involved is essential. A best practice followed by successful DAOs is adopting a delegation framework. And that’s precisely what the SSV DAO has done.

After a long process of testing and optimization, the ssv.network is happy to officially welcome the community to this new chapter in governance.

Adapting the Quorum

A first step in the right direction is proposing a Quorum reform. This means making quorum simpler to reach and understand. The SSV DAO aims to uphold the highest values of decentralization and not gamble with the independence of the DAO. To do this, the following is proposed to vote on:

The new quorum requirement of 2.5% of the total supply (rather than 5% of the circulating supply) takes effect immediately after this proposal has passed.
Quorum reform makes it easier for DAO participants to understand and verify the quorum.
A simple quorum calculation can be implemented directly on Snapshot.
Easier for community and multisig signers to verify that a quorum was reached.

What is delegation?

Traditionally, delegation is the act of entrusting a task or responsibility to another person. In the context of voting in the SSV DAO, it is the ability to delegate a member’s voting power (SSV tokens) in Snapshot to a selected delegate to vote on their behalf.

Remember, this voting power is only usable on Snapshot. This is a permissionless system, meaning anyone can delegate voting power to anyone else and end that delegation at any time.

Why use delegation?

For token holders
If you are an SSV token holder who doesn’t have the time or expertise to actively get involved in the DAO, you can delegate your voting power to a suitable candidate.

In the dashboard, you can discover delegates, find their voting history, their participation in channels such as Forum and Discord, and get a general sense of their activity in Governance. You can easily delegate your tokens to a chosen candidate in the dashboard, and they will add your voting power to theirs.

For delegates
If you are deeply involved or want to be involved in the DAO, you can register yourself and solicit voting power from the community. The DAO has worked to simplify the on-boarding flow for delegates to log in through their wallet and update delegate statements and interests.

Fighting Voting Fatigue
It’s hard for the community to keep its edge over a prolonged period, familiarize themselves with every proposal, and remember to vote. By choosing delegates, the community is able to have a more “hands-off’ governance experience.

Counterbalancing Large Holders
Delegates are not necessarily whales with large SSV holdings. Any community member that wishes to support decision-making and be a good steward of the community’s voice is welcome to step up to the challenge. Ultimately, governance will be supported by chosen delegates, which will help to distribute governance even further.

Improved Efficiency, Transparency, and Direction
Delegation helps to reduce the communication and direction barriers that arise in the governance of a decentralized protocol. When you have known delegates with known voting power, you can allow better coordination & communication between the ones who formulate proposals and the big voters.

This should help to shape better the desired goals & direction — both long-term and short-term — and achieve them faster and more efficiently.

What does the total voting power of any delegate encompass?
When looking at the linked wallet of a delegate, partner vesting contracts, delegated tokens, and individual token holdings are considered. This benefits transparency since the dashboard shows holder data that can be correlated with the data from the ssv.network dune dashboard to give even deeper insights into an entity’s voting power. For example, in the future, partners with considerable voting power could use the system to delegate their voting power to further distribute power in the DAO.

What is Karma?

A few months ago, a DAO vote passed in favor of Karma building a Delegation Dashboard for ssv.network’s DAO. The dashboard works hand-in-hand with snapshot.org and is more or less just a “delegation interface” on top of the already well-known and battle-tested Snapshot voting.

Karma offers a custom delegate dashboard that the DAO and community can use to onboard delegates, get visibility into their activities, hold them accountable, improve voting participation, and further decentralize the DAO.

ssv.network ‘Karma delegation dashboard’

The dashboard also provides deep insights into each delegate’s governance activity that will help token holders decide who to delegate their tokens to. This results in better use of tokens and improves the governance of the DAO. The dashboard can also be used to reward contributors, elect them for various work streams/councils, and other purposes.

Karma is an expert in this field and has developed multiple implementations. A few notable implementations are:

● Optimism, Aave & dYdX worked with Karma to build their Delegation Dashboard

● Karma powers Gitcoin’s Steward Health Cards

● ENS DAO uses Karma’s discourse forum plugin to display the governance stats of DAO participants inside their forum

How to become a delegate

Community members can easily become delegates by following three simple steps detailed on the SSV DAO forum. All you need to do is complete your Karma profile, link your social accounts, and inform the community about your decision.

It’s important to note that the system is data-heavy; thus, some actions might take a couple of hours to reflect in the UI. Please be patient and check back later if your info isn’t up immediately. For any further questions, have a look at the FAQ at the end of the post.

Delegate scoring logic

When using the delegate dashboard, users will see that each delegate has their own ‘score’ breakdown. A formula calculates the total score and represents the delegate’s total contributions to the DAO. The score is calculated based on different metrics, like forum participation, discord activities, off-chain voting, and possibly more metrics in the future. A full breakdown can be found in the dashboard and FAQ below.

Examples of metrics that can be added in the future are OAT / Galxe campaigns or on-chain voting, but that will most likely come later as delegation becomes more established.

Get Ready to Vote on Proposals Batch [2]

Batch [2] of proposals are live on the SSV DAO forum and will be voted on in Snapshot within 7 days of them going live. This is the first opportunity to select a delegate and have them vote on your behalf. The ssv.network is excited for each community member and network participant to onboard this new system and support the DAO by ensuring that proposals are discussed and voted on.

The SSV DAO invites all token holders to use Karma, especially those who do not vote regularly. As delegation becomes more ingrained into the DAO’s voting process, there is an impetus to start looking at providing benefits for being a delegate or delegator (Swag, POAPs, etc.) Come play your part in the SSV DAO!

FAQ:

Why does the SSV DAO need delegation ?— Easy Participation: Use delegates to simplify voting and stay engaged without constant effort. Inclusive Representation: Delegates aren’t just big holders; anyone interested can join, ensuring fair decision-making. Efficient Governance: Delegates streamline communication, making goals clearer and achieving them faster.
What is the Karma delegation dashboard? — Karma is a delegation dashboard allowing the community to allocate voting power based on various data sets, comprising a ‘Karma score.’ The idea is to offer high transparency regarding the delegates’ activity and overall contribution to ssv.network.
How is my Karma score calculated? — The score takes into account various metrics and is calculated by the following formula: ((Max Score Setting * 1) * ((Forum Activity Score * 1) + (Off-chain Votes % * 3) + (Discord Messages % * 0.01))) / (Sum of Weights times Max Score Setting * 1)
Why should you become a delegate? — If you are deeply involved or want to be involved in the DAO, you can register yourself and solicit voting power from the community. Pending DAO approval, delegates can be favorably considered for future opportunities, i.e., becoming an ambassador.
Why should I delegate my tokens to someone else? — You can delegate your voting power if you own SSV tokens but can’t engage in the DAO actively due to time or expertise constraints. View delegate profiles to help decide who you would like to vote on your behalf.
How can I participate? — Understand what is expected from a delegate, post your application on the forum, and sign up on the delegate dashboard.
Can I still vote with my tokens directly? — Yes
Can I switch a delegate after choosing one? — Yes