SNXweave Weekly Recap 10
October 19, 2021
The following post contains a recap of news, projects, and important updates from the Spartan Council, Core Contributors, grantsDAO and ambassadorDAO from last week, as well a discussion regarding the ongoing meta-governance SIPs.
Welcome back to another recap from SNXweave! As mentioned in our podcast, SNXweave will be covering the grantsDAO and the ambassadorDAO in addition to our regular Spartan Council and SIP coverage. So going forward, we’ll be giving quick weekly recaps of news and important updates from the previous week from the Spartan Council and Core Contributors, as well discussing what the grantsDAO and ambassadorDAO are up to. We have a lot of interesting content to cover from last week, so let’s get started!
Spartan Council and SIP updates
Present at the October 12, 2021 Spartan Council Weekly Project Sync:
Spartan Council: Afif, BigPenny, bojan, Danijel, jj, Kain, KALEB
Core Contributors: DG, Rafa
Starting off with some great news, Sargas was officially deployed on Mainnet OVM, meaning shorting is now available on L2. Justin says there may be some limitations with regards to how much of a loan you can create without running out of gas, however Optimism’s regenesis should alleviate this situation in the next couple of weeks.
There has also been some progress with the Atomic Exchange Function SIP — Kaleb and Afif have been looking at oracle update frequency in order to optimize the parameters of the exchange function during sandbox testing. In doing so, they were able to minimize risk to the debt pool while maximizing uptime for the exchange function.
Next up is the Wrappr Factory SIP, which is pretty close to being done, although it will likely be released after the regenesis. There was also some concern about adding more liquidity on L2, but Kaleb says things are looking much better in terms of any frontrunning risk.
Futures is also progressing well, with the goal to have it up on Kovan after the regenesis. It was decided to wait for Optimism so that no history is lost, and to give us a better idea of what Futures will look like post-regenesis.
SIP-187 to fix partial synth updates in debt cache was also a topic of discussion, as Jackson presented this SIP to the council and community last week. During his presentation, Jackson explained that the partial updates in the debt cache aren’t being updated properly when minting and burning sUSD. However now, with SIP-187, when minting and burning sUSD, the debt cash and the total debt value of the system are updated right away, and don’t require a debt snapshot to happen first. This fix will be applied on L1 and L2, and actually slightly reduces the minting and burning costs in the process. This SIP is currently being voted on.
Another important discussion that the Spartan Council had was regarding Kwenta. Going forward there will a clearer differentiation between Synthetix as an infrastructure provider and Kwenta as a dApp developer. We will see this change happen as Kwenta begins to go at their own pace and manage their priorities. This is a shift from what Synthetix has usually done, meaning there may now be releases without a dApp update. So Synthetix features will no longer be expected to be useable in the dApp at the moment they are released. The Council recognizes that this is a significant shift, so BigPenny is working on a blog post, with the help of the rest of the Council, to detail the specifics of this change.
Lastly for Spartan Council updates, Kain suggested creating a shared project management tool for the Council to more clearly iterate and detail their goals and expectations for the epoch. These goals will be listed in order of priority and will be updated with progress as time goes on, including which members of the Council contributed to each of the goals. This will be a great way to help maintain accountability. Kain will be putting this together for the Spartan Council.
grantsDAO
Present at the October 14, 2021 grantsDAO meeting:
grantsDAO Team: ALEXANDER, CT, Mike, rubber^duck
In grantsDAO news this week, several projects are in the works. Version 2 of the SIP/SCCP site revamp was completed and delivered by Wilhearts, so it has been passed on to Andy who is handling the code integration there.
Another gDAO project in the works is a flashloan tool for SNX stakers. As a brief background, flash loans allow you to borrow any available amount of assets without putting up any collateral, as long as the liquidity is returned to the protocol within one block transaction.
The motivation behind this grant is aimed at stakers who are low on liquidity or unable to acquire sUSD easily, and therefore may desire to sell some of their SNX in order to pay off their remaining debt. Stakers in danger of liquidation may use this tool to fix their C-ratio without the liquidation penalty, and potentially with less market impact. Alexander said that there have been a few errors on this dApp, such as out of gas errors, but they are all being worked on and it is being tested more.
DAO journalism is of course an ongoing grantsDAO project, as all of our listeners know that we at SNXweave have been covering Spartan Council and SIP updates, as well as governance participation. However, as we have officially begun today, SNXweave is expanding coverage with the help of the gDAO.
Another exciting project that the gDAO has been working on is an updated Synthetix Staking Guide. This is separate from the Synthetix.io documentation, as it will be focused more towards the everyday user. This guide will provide a detailed introduction to staking, derivatives, C-ratio management, debt hedging, and more. The purpose of this guide is to become the go-to place to get help on general usage of the protocol and to learn all about how to use Synthetix.
Tools.Synthetix is another gDAO initiative that will be very helpful in organizing information in an accessible format. CT says the idea around the Synthetix Tools initiative is to have a single site with all the different tools that directly and indirectly help the Synthetix community. This includes dApps that have been built internally, dApps that have been built by community members, and other applicable pages. This will provide an easy way to have all of the different tools that support the community in one place.
As for the gDAO website, the hope is to have version 1.5 done in the next month or two. On this new version, there will be significant changes that make applying for grants easier and more organized. v1.5 will also provide a better overall experience for the user because it will clearly separate the different areas to address in a grant proposal. The longer-term goal for the gDAO site, likely version 2 early next year, will be to expand the database functionality to be able to leverage all the advanced features of the smart contract, which includes segmented payments.
Lastly for gDAO updates is the formation of The 300 role. You may have seen some of the announcements in Discord from Mike, but in case you missed it, he will also be putting together a blog post explaining the vision and details of this role.
The 300 is a group of volunteer community members who will have a say and actively participate in marketing initiatives for Synthetix and the greater ecosystem. This group will be focused on expanding the marketing reach of Synthetix on social platforms, sourcing new marketing ideas, and identifying areas of improvement. There are no requirements or qualifications to join, besides being an active participant in the community. So far, The 300 channel in Discord has been active with members of the community contributing marketing ideas and supporting the Synthetix ecosystem partners on social platforms.
ambassadorDAO
Present at the October 11, 2021 ambassadorDAO meeting:
Ambassadors: andy, GUNBOATs, MiLLiE
Up next is the ambassadorDAO, which also has quite a few updates from this past week. The Governance Participation Program ended last week — thank you to everyone to delegated their UNI to the Synthetix Ambassadors! As a refresher, this program aimed to mobilize dormant voting power held by small token holders who support the Synthetix Ambassadors’ governance philosophy.
With the amount of UNI that was delegated, this program was a great success in encouraging governance participation. The aDAO will, however, be brainstorming additional sustainable ways to encourage delegation from other protocols. Millie suggested first hosting community calls with protocols like Compound or AAVE, and their grantsDAOs, to connect with members of other communities.
Another exciting project that we will soon see from the Amabassadors is Spartan City Halls. These events will allow other communities to present their projects and ideas to the Spartan Community. The Ambassadors hope to host the first City Hall with Lyra, which will be a great opportunity to sync up communities and learn about their governance, while also giving Lyra a platform to talk within the Synthetix community. Spartan City Halls will be hosted in Discord, recorded, and posted on Twitter. Expect a date and agenda for the first City Hall soon.
Lastly for aDAO projects, the Ambassadors are working on publishing a roadmap blog post. Similar to the project management tool that the Spartan Council hopes to create, this roadmap will detail the projects and goals that the aDAO will be aiming to tackle over the next three months. Millie says they hope to release it in the next week or so.
Additional SIP updates
Andy also presented three governance SIPs last week, which sparked a significant amount of debate from the Spartan Council. Check out the #spartan-council channel in Discord for the separate threads where these three SIPs are being discussed.
The first was SIP-161 for a Core Contributor Committee, which will help coordinate and govern the Core Contributors. The SIP details that this committee would be comprised of existing and former Core Contributors elected to the role by the Core Contributors themselves. Andy explained that this committee would be three members who are responsible for duties such as managing the Core Contributor roadmap, deciding their payment and performance reviews, and interfacing with the Spartan Council to help decide the prioritization of SIPs. A more detailed list of responsibilities for the Core Contributor Committee can be found in the SIP proposal.
BigPenny suggested simplifying this SIP by making it into a more general approval for the Core Contributors to form a Core Contributor Committee and organize it themselves according to their needs. He also expressed that any budgetary details should be decided by the Treasury Council if they will be the ones providing funding to the Core Contributor Committee.
Danijel also had some small adjustments to this SIP, as well as a few clarification questions. One important aspect that Danijel noted was making sure to define that the Core Contributor Committee is to be voted on every epoch, unlike the Core Contributors themselves.
The next SIP that Andy presented was SIP-172, which details V2.X governance processes and changes. This proposal aims to simplify meta-governance processes of the Synthetix Governance System. The SIP also clearly redefines the different types of governing bodies within Synthetix, including the difference between the roles and responsibilities of a Council versus a Committee.
The governing bodies now known as councils will be the Spartan Council, Treasury Council, Grants Council, and Ambassador Council. And the governing bodies now known as committees will be the Core Contributor Committee and the Risk Committee. If approved, each of these governing bodies will now fall under the umbrella term of “Synthetix DAOs.” CT also noted that it would be nice to see the timeline for elections brought back in this SIP.
The last SIP that Andy presented was SIP-186 for the previously mentioned Risk Committee, which will consist of members who are selected from the other governing bodies of Synthetix. BigPenny suggested to instead have the committee members selected by the other governing bodies, rather than selected from within them. This would entail each governing body having a say in the selection of at least one Risk Committee member.
Andy further explained that this committee would consist of five members who would be responsible for analysis of risk within the Synthetix Protocol, carrying out the risk analysis to be introduced in the SIP life-cycle, and providing risk analysis summaries for the Spartan Council to take into consideration when debating and voting on SIPs.
There is currently debate surrounding the following topics: whether five is too many Risk Committee members, if there should be three- or six-month epochs for this position or no epochs at all, and if members should be selected by stakers or governing bodies.
There seems to be some agreement that the Risk Committee should not have epochs since it is a role that is heavily reliant on skillset and deep understanding of the Synthetix system. A few Spartan Council members have also agreed that the various governing bodies would be better suited to select the Risk Committee members since it is an informative committee rather than a governing body. Danijel also suggested possibly having some sort of trial period since this is a rather complex and abstract proposal. All in all, this SIP has sparked the most debate amongst Spartan Council members and may require an additional presentation.
SNXweave Podcast: https://anchor.fm/snxweave
SIP/SCCP status tracker:
SIP-135: L2 Shorting, Status: implemented
SIP-120: Atomic Exchange Function, Status: approved
SIP-182: Wrappr Factory, Status: approved
SIP-80: Synthetic Futures, Status: feasibility
SIP-187: Fix Partial Synth Updates in Debt Cache, Status: SC vote pending
SIP-161: Core Contributor Committee, Status: SC review pending
SIP-172: V2.X Governance Processes & Changes, Status: SC review pending
SIP-186: Risk Committee, Status: SC review pending