Astar Townhall - Offchain Governance

[Gaius_sama]

Use your ASTR tokens to drive Astar Governance decisions!

Governance lies at the core of decentralized public blockchains, and for years, Astar has depended on the Astar Forum to manage and execute governance decisions. While this system was adequate in the network’s early days, it remains partly centralized and does not align with the current growth of the network and the Astar community.

While the on-chain governance system is still in development, the Astar Foundation is committed to increasing community involvement in governance. ASTR stakeholders must play a crucial role in shaping the network’s direction and making important decisions regarding its operation, growth, and key products like dApp Staking and the on-chain treasury.

To achieve this goal of establishing a robust governance culture on Astar, the voting process, currently conducted on the forum, will be transitioned to Astar Townhall. This off-chain governance platform will employ a voting mechanism based on ASTR tokens and will be accessible to the entire Astar community.

https://astar.townhallgov.com/

Token holders and network users can initiate discussions and proposals, expressing their views through voting power determined by the number of ASTR tokens in their address. The platform accommodates both Astar Native and EVM, also allowing users to vote with tokens secured in dApp Staking.

To initiate a new governance proposal, a discussion will be started on the Astar Forum for 7 days before the proposal can be opened for voting on Townhall for 7 days.

When creating discussions and governance proposals, be conscientious. Only proposals that benefit the network and are not abusive or personal will be taken seriously and implemented.

It’s time to join us in shaping Astar’s future! Your ASTR tokens are your voice. Let’s build a decentralized future together!

[Kabrine]

Is the governance token already defined or will it not be necessary? How will we receive them for Voting?

[BoomBLB]

It’s considered a good step, allowing the community to participate in the project, especially in governance. This will help increase engagement with the ecosystem even more.

I tried participating in the town hall, but it seems to have failed. I’m not sure if this is an issue with the town hall itself or not. In any case, I would appreciate if you could look into this. Thank you very much. =)

[you425]

Thank you, I am looking forward to the start of on-chain governance.

What will happen to Hoon’s proposed governance?

Setting Astar Network community and governance culture

TL;DR I left Astar Foundation to create and propose Astar governance as a community member. The network engagement and governance activity do not reflect the increase in Astar’s public presence; only a few people are engaged with the network. The lack of clarity in our community culture makes introducing a functioning governance for Astar hard. People should be more aware of what projects they support through dApps Staking. Treasury spending should be evaluated based on the network’s return on …

Astar Governance Technical Specification Proposal

Preface Hello, dear Astar community. This is Hoon, the former Chief Technology Officer of Astar Foundation, and now the Chief Technically is still working on the network Officer of Astar Network. This is the second of three main posts regarding Astar Governance modeling. The first post discussed Astar community culture and how we should view dApp Staking and the community treasury. For casual and long-term community members passionate about the network’s governance, you should read that post,…

[bao]

Good initiative.
To counter whale, I would like to advance the discussion on implementing Hoon’s proposed idea of “govASTR.”

[Matt]

Moving to Astar Townhall for governance is a fantastic move! It really empowers us as $ASTR token holders to have a direct say in the network’s future. Great to see Astar embracing true decentralization.

[defiguy]

I think it’s a good move to gradually make Astar governance more like a DAO. However, we need to understand the conditions of this governance. Will it be like OpenGov on Polkadot, where you can create collectives that allow users to delegate ASTR, enabling them to vote and create a voting bloc (ex. ChaosDAO and BRA_Collective)? This is similar to what some parliaments are doing to make voting faster and less fragmented.
What is your opinion on this @Gaius_sama and @0xRamz?

[tksarah]

I am also looking forward to this mechanism. The actual voting, which utilizes tokens, could serve as a model for others.

[pithecus]

@defiguy

This is similar to what some parliaments are doing to make voting faster and less fragmented.

Just my thought, but perhaps the Townhall can be initiated as it is now, then the system can gradually have such a delegation like voting system after a few iterations of the initial voting system if necessary and there are ample active proposals. But in a long term, I somewhat agree that it is ideal if governance becomes like a DAO eventually.

[pithecus]

This proposal / transition is indeed a great initiative, showing Astar’s ability to listen to the diverse voices within the community.

@Gaius_sama

To initiate a new governance proposal, a discussion will be started on the Astar Forum for 7 days before the proposal can be opened for voting on Townhall for 7 days.

One thing I am curious about is whether we will permanently split the place for discussion to Astar Forum and voting to Astar Townhall, or if Astar Townhall will eventually become the platform for both discussion and voting. If they are split, then it clearly distinguishes their roles; however, it might be less convenient for users to navigate two different platforms for one proposal and its corresponding voting.

[Gaius_sama]

For Astar Townhall, voting power is calculated on the basis of the amount of ASTR held in the user’s address at the time the vote is created (a snapshot is taken and each ASTR user has its voting power calculated).

For chain governance, I suggest reading Hoon’s proposal to understand how govASTR is defined and distributed to Astar users.

Astar Governance Technical Specification Proposal

Preface Hello, dear Astar community. This is Hoon, the former Chief Technology Officer of Astar Foundation, and now the Chief Technically is still working on the network Officer of Astar Network. This is the second of three main posts regarding Astar Governance modeling. The first post discussed Astar community culture and how we should view dApp Staking and the community treasury. For casual and long-term community members passionate about the network’s governance, you should read that post,…

[Gaius_sama]

This off-chain voting mechanism is a temporary solution until on-chain governance is fully developed, tested and deployed on Astar.

Hoon and the governance task force are currently working on deploying their model on Shiden to allow the Astar community to test it.

[Gaius_sama]

For the time being, we’ll be splitting discussions and votes between the two platforms.

It’s a similar situation to what Polkadot does between the discussions that take place on the Polkadot forum and the voting on OpenGov through polkadot.js, Polkassembly or Subquare.

Discussions will start on the Astar forum and, after 7 days, the vote can be opened on Astar Townhall. The link to the vote and, at the end, the result must be shared in the corresponding forum thread.

Today, I’m going to open a few votes on Townhall and apply this process.

[Sequaja]

Have tried Townhall a bit and looks good for me. Would love to work a bit more with it to make my decision.

[GuiGou]

I tested Astar Townhall and it seems to me pretty good.
I suggest to use only the ASTR tokens staked on dAppStaking for voting power and not all ASTR tokens.

[Juminstock]

This suggestion is precise and is exactly what we need to do; otherwise, there could be an issue with unbalanced voting power.

[Gaius_sama]

Can you elaborate on your idea, as this will limit voting power to just 32% of the ASTR supply and therefore of Astar holders?

[hoonkim]

As G mentioned in the response, I believe the core intention of this proposal is to slowly transition into a dedicated platform for governance matters. The detailed voting mechanism (with govASTR or ASTR token voting, conviction rate, etc.) would be fully customizable from the website directly!

As for my previous voting mechanism, the decision for that would come after this proposal has been enacted and we are using Townhall.

[rian]

I think that Astar Native users should be encouraged to switch to EVM so that all users can participate in voting smoothly.
EVM is obviously more convenient when using various third parties.

[rian]

I just voted in a test. Only the Astar in my wallet is valid, and the voting power I put into the dapps stakeing was not granted. Is this the correct behavior at this stage?