The ApeCoin DAO governance is very far from ideal because voting activity is very low for different reasons. There are around 77,000 $APE holders, but the ApeCoin proposals are receiving ~910 votes on average. And the participation in decline, for example the most recent proposal got only 470 votes.
One of the main reasons is that voting takes time ane efforts, and not everyone can afford to allocate these resources. These holders are becoming the silent majority.
I want to suggest and discuss a few ideas on how to prevent the threat.
1
We should set a nomination/election space to offer equal opportunities for all DAO members to receive delegated votes. My idea is to create a space to post submissions from community members who want to participate in government with delegated votes. A very simple solution that we can implement very fast is to create a thread on the forum for such submissions.
But this option will work only if we will make it visible by large number of $APE holders. So to inform as many holders as possible the thread with voting should be shared regularly via ApeCoin social media. Also, the link to the space/thread can be reflected in the snapshot.org describtions of proposals.
2
As @0xNameLesssuggested to implement a cap on the amount of voting power one wallet can use. This way we will prevent the community of a situation where one highly charismatic influencer will acquire a disproportionate number of votes. Also, this will help to limit governance attacks by whales.
3
To implement a cap on the amount of time a delegate can use each delegated voting power. After the term is over, delegators can check the activity of delegates and assign their voting power again. Thus the voting activity of delegates would be regularly evaluated by delegators.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about the delegation system. It’s something I’d like to see promoted more. Especially because people have real lives, things to do besides follow AIPs. There’s always the risk that bad proposals will slip through the cracks without voters watching carefully.
I have some constructive criticism for the above ideas. As a general statement, I don’t think there are any major problems with the delegation system that require changes. 2 & 3 are ideas I do not like. And I think that we can create a thread for number 1 without requiring an AIP.
Creating a thread to highlight delegate candidates is a great idea. I don’t think we need an AIP proposal for this. Do you want to make it, or do you want me to make it? I also think that promoting it on Apecoin’s Twitter is something that could be done by the moderators.
A cap on voting power is something that could be done. In a discussion in early days about quadratic voting, there was talk of any apecoin over a certain amount counting as less for votes. I disagree with applying this to delegates, as it would disincentivise delegators to use them.
I like the idea of delegates. And I don’t think they should be given term limits or a cap on how many times they can be used. You and I are both individuals who would like to be delegates. I think that we will be held to a standard where we are naturally evaluated by our delegators.
Again, I’m not sure that any changes to the system should be made. I DO think that we could do more to incentivise & educate delegators on the process. The last AIP vote recieved a very small amount of votes, which is not a good thing for ecosystem. Delegation system can help fix that!
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I would suggest to impement a bottom limit of tokens a candidate holds. Maybe minimum 50000 $APE tokens. Why? The limit will guarantee that their decisions will positivelly impact the token price. Also, such requirenment will communicate that holding tokens is beneficial.
We should compensate very well those candidates who managed to aquire a big number of delegated votes.
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From the feedback that I am seeing, people do not understand how to delegate or have an easy way to see which accounts are receiving delegated votes. This is mainly a UI/UX issue more than an inherent issue with the delegation process.
Hey @Brooklyn, I agree completely. Thats what I’m seeing too. There’s not a lot of information on how to use it, and also not a lot of delegates who are offering (publically) to perform the service. It’s defintely an UI/UX issue. If we can find ways to let people know better, thats something I’d like to see!
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Thank you @ASEC for your ideas and the ApeCoin DAO community for the thoughtful discussions. A moderator will get in touch with the author to draft the AIP in the appropriate template. Once the AIP is drafted and meets all the DAO-approved guidelines, the proposal will be posted on Snapshot for live official voting at: Snapshot
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