[RFC] Trial run a Governance Guardians Program

[jengajojo]

Summary

To increase the efficiency of governance at shutterDAO, this proposal suggests hosting a trial of the Governance Guardians composed of the ‘The Shutter Knights’ who will be charged with implementing strategies to alleviate current governance challenges for the shutterDAO.

Background and Motivation

Since its inception, shutter DAO has seen steadily declining participation and an increase in potential threats posed by the lack of delegate participation, as outlined here. The lack of delegate engagement and increasing governance challenges have made it difficult to enact crucial proposals, including those aimed at security and growth.

Additionally, there are concerns about the concentration of decision-making power in the hands of a few active participants, which runs counter to the principles of decentralisation. Without adequate participation, Shutter DAO risks becoming centralised, with key decisions being made by a small group. This presents governance risks, such as the potential for gridlock, conflicts of interest, and lower-quality decision-making due to insufficient input from the broader community. These trends are already evident, as participation metrics show reduced engagement in key governance votes and discussions, highlighting the need for systemic changes to governance​.

At the same time, there has been contentious discussion about treasury management as seen here. The discussions on Shutter DAO’s treasury management highlight concerns over stagnant assets like USDC, which don’t generate yield and missed opportunities for low-risk, interest-bearing alternatives such as sDAI or USDM. There’s also a need to balance grants with financial strategies to avoid depleting non-SHU assets.

The DAO has RFPed the tech-related work to Blockful, enabling the DAO to focus directly on proposals without worrying about the technical steps of implementation. This approach has shown success and could be an example for future efforts.

To address these issues and take learning from the dev House RFP, this proposal seeks to introduce a team of Governance Guardians called the ‘The Shutter Knights’, which consists of a team of three individuals or entities tasked with improving governance efficiency, stewarding DAO treasury, leading technical improvements and fostering collaboration within the DAO for 6 months. This neutral entity will work to reignite governance participation and lead initiatives to further decentralise Shutter DAO’s processes. At the end of the trial run the DAO can evaluate whether this program should be renewed.

Examples from other DAOs: Decentraland, Arbitrum, SKY (Prev: Maker), AAVE

Specification:

What is a Governance Guardian?

A Governance Guardian is a person or entity whose goal is to help the DAO and its stakeholders work efficiently towards realising its full potential.

The Governance Guardians, called the ‘The Shutter Knights’ from here on, will consist of a team of 3 knights with specific responsibilities and deliverables to alleviating current governance challenges. The three roles are:

1. Governance Knight
2. Treasury Knight
3. Tech Knight

Role and responsibilities:

Governance Knight

1. Improve Governance participation and process.

• The facilitator shall take on initiatives which help improve the participation of delegates as well as total tokens participating in governance of the DAO.

• Initiatives such as Recognized Delegate Programs, Delegating tokens to performing delegates, Introducing and facilitating voting cycles and working on improving governance frameworks fall under the responsibilities of this role.

2. Facilitate Governance process

• Facilitate the creation, discussion, and refinement of proposals.
• Help contributors follow Shutter DAO’s governance templates and submission guidelines.​
• Host regular governance calls to facilitate discussion between delegates.
• Promote transparency by providing progress updates on governance initiatives.​

Treasury Knight

In charge of both the supervision of the state of the treasury as well as certain tasks related to the disposition of the treasury (always subject to approval by the DAO)

• Prepare monthly financial reports on the status of the treasury
• Provide and encourage feedback/discussion on those proposals deemed necessary to improve treasury management
• Formulate proposals to the DAO to carry out treasury management.
• Promote the treasury’s sustainability by driving proposals that generate funds for the DAO, which are necessary to meet its costs.
• Seek partners who can provide treasury-related services to the DAO.

Tech Lead

• Host technical initiatives aimed at enhancing governance infrastructure.
• Maintain and update smart contracts related to the DAO.
• Work with developers and external contributors to ensure the DAO’s technical needs are met.
• Research and propose innovative tools to facilitate more efficient governance processes.
• Operate necessary infrastructure, like bots and monitoring services for the DAO based on the needs.

Shutter DAO has currently hired @Blockfull through the Dev House on Retainer RFP; we propose including them automatically in the programme (if they agree) if there are no applicants for the tech role.

General Responsibilities

Along with the responsibilities mentioned above, each Knight must agree to:

• Be part of a 2 of 3 Ops multi-sig, which will hold and release payment for this program according to conditions defined in this proposal
• Abide by existing and new rules that the DAO comes up with in the future
• Have an objective, neutral approach in their participation in the DAO

Selection Process

• If this proposal is approved, the author will open an application thread to receive applicants for these roles.
• Any individual or entity who is an existing delegate can apply for each role.
• To nominate oneself, applicants must follow the provided format (Template).
• Applicants have 7 days to submit their nomination on the forum.
• Once the nomination period ends, a proposal (for each position) will be presented on Snapshot with the list of candidates, allowing the DAO to select the candidate that best meets their expectations and needs.
• The candidates with the majority of votes will be appointed as Shutter Knights.

Note: In case the existing DEV on retainer agrees to take on the tech lead role, no separate selection will be held.

Requirements

• Alignment with the ethos and objectives of the Shutter ecosystem.
• Active delegate in the DAO (i.e. has voted on at least 50% of the proposals)
• Each role can be filled by both individuals and organisations.
• Fluent in the English language, both spoken and written.
• Ability to simplify and communicate complex information to the community clearly and understandably.
• Solid knowledge about the Shutter ecosystem and the crypto space.
• Autonomy and responsibility to carry out concrete actions.
• Verifiable experience in governance-related activities.
• Availability of 25 hours a month. (this is an estimated workload,The knights must accept to fulfill their obligations regardless of this estimation)

Application Template

Delegate Discourse Name:

Twitter:

Telegram:

Discord:

Github:

• Have you previously contributed to the Shuttert ecosystem or its DAO? [Yes/No]: [If yes, please share links and supporting data]
• Which role are you applying for?
• Do you understand that the Knight’s Role must adapt to changes approved by Shutter DAO? [Yes/No]:
• Do you have verifiable experience actively working in governance or a DAO? [If so, please share links and supporting data.]
• Have you had previous experience in a similar role? [If so, please share links and supporting data.]
• Would you like to share any other information or skills that you consider relevant for the position and that have not been addressed in this template?
• Please identify and share any conflict of interest that may arise in performing the facilitator role.

Budget and compensation

Compensation:

Each role shall be compensated at 80USD/hr, i.e. 2000 USD/month paid in SHU.

In case prior compensation already exists, such as in case of the tech lead, this proposal shall not include additional compensation for this role.

Performance Bonus:

At the end of the program, each role holder shall be entitled to a performance bonus of 250,000 SHU upon meeting all deliverables and submitting a report outlining their work.

Budget request:

• If this proposal is approved, then the DAO agrees to fund the program once the candidates election has concluded.
• The Governance Knight shall directly post a proposal to snapshot with the SHU amount approved in this proposal.
• The onchain 30D MA SHU/USD value shall be taken into consideration while calculating the budget.
• The budget ask shall include compensation for all elected roles + 20% buffer to guard against SHU price volatility + performance bonuses
• All unused funds shall be returned to the DAO at the end of the program

Next Steps

Gather feedback from the DAO

[d0z3y]

Thanks Jengajojo for taking the time to write out this thorough proposal. I am broadly supportive but have a few questions / concerns.

One of the goals is to avoid key decisions being made by a few member of active participants in the DAO. I am concerned that nominating 3 individuals will result in a further concentration of decision making within a small group of individuals. Firstly because we are only selecting 3 and secondly, if I know that a given area is being managed by a knight, there is less urgency or incentive for me to participate. This may lead to a reduction in engagement. I realise you mention individuals or entities however from the point of view of the dao, they should be considered the same.

I like the idea of having consistent oversight and strategy for each area to ensure a coordinated approach (e.g. for treasury management I would hope we would have a comprehensive evaluation of solutions and providers rather than voting on ad-hoc proposals for a given function in isolation). In fact I think a clearly defined strategy should be a key output of the role.

I think a better approach than a knight for a given area would be a group or committee that is open to everyone. In this instance, I would see the Knight being responsible for coordination / administration (set up meetings, agendas etc) rather overall oversight or decision making.

With regards to candidates, maybe limiting it to delegates is ok, however if that is the case, we should ensure than we have a period whereby we encourage any interested DAO members to enlist as delegates first.

I slightly concerned about a simple 2 of 3 multisig, given the numerous complex hacks that we have seen of multisigs in the industry, I do not feel like this is a sufficient number. It is also unclear what the ops treasury will hold in terms of assets? If it is the only the assets required to fund the knights then it also may not be best practice for the knights to control their own payments, should this not be controlled by the wider DAO given it is funding the program?

7 days does not seem sufficient time for potential nominees to prepare the applications. I think this should be extended to a month.

How will each individuals contribution be evaluated? What are the criteria and process? Assuming they are considered to have done a good job, will there be scope for other candidates to apply for the role anyway?

I am undecided as to whether we need to compensate the role. As you mention there are a number of individuals who already actively contributing to the DAO without compensation.

If these roles are directly compensated, will the individuals involved open themselves up to potential liability in any contractual or regulatory disputes that may involve the DAO?

You mention neutrality, I am not sure how this applies? Are there DAO members that are not considered neutral?

With regards to next steps, I think this is a great start to a discussion of how governance for the DAO can move forward and thanks again for taking the time to think it through!

[jengajojo]

Thanks for the feedback and support @d0z3y

I recognize the concern that having only three individuals in prominent roles could inadvertently lead to a concentration of power. The aim of the Shutter Knights is to coordinate governance, not to centralize decision-making. However, we agree that involving a smaller group in key roles could reduce the urgency for broader engagement. We can create incentives for broader engagement, such as rewarding delegates who actively contribute to the governance process (e.g., in the form of reputation points or token-based rewards) and add this to the budget. What do you think?

The primary role of the Shutter Knights should be as facilitators and coordinators. The Shutter Knights would facilitate discussions that ensure a coordinated strategy, but they would not have unilateral control over decisions. Their presence in no way bypasses the DAO governance.

I understand your concern about the payment setup. An alternative approach could be to setup payment stream directly from the treasury which can be cancelled with a DAO vote. How does that sound?

At the end of the trial period, the DAO will conduct a review based on the KPIs each role has submitted in their application, and each Knight will provide a report on their contributions. If the performance is deemed satisfactory, the roles could be renewed or re-evaluated. Additionally, new candidates can apply at this point, ensuring that there is an opportunity for fresh leadership.

Regarding liability, we can explore using legal structures (e.g., DAO-based agreements or indemnity clauses) to minimize personal exposure for the Shutter Knights. These could be designed to protect individuals in case of legal disputes, as long as they are acting within the scope of their responsibilities as defined by the DAO. Regarding neutrality, all Shutter Knights must operate in a neutral and objective manner. This means they should not have a vested interest in specific outcomes or be involved in activities that could compromise their ability to make unbiased decisions.