ARC: Institute a Voting Delay Period

Governance
1

Simple Summary

A proposal to increase the voting delay period for all on-chain governance proposals (AIPs).

Background

Aave governance proposals (AIPs) vary in complexity, scope, and impact. As Aave continues to make progress on its growth trajectory, it is becoming obvious that certain proposals need to allow more time for pre-vote analysis. For instance, AIP-33: Add FEI to Aave V2 was, fortunately, able to be canceled, via delegation removal, rather than needing to use the Aave Guardian.

This month has seen the most governance proposals (9) of any month since Aave V2 has launched with no sign of slowing given the variety of authors and proposal type.

Proposal

A formal analysis period is defined as a non-voting period where a proposal is active (e.g. submitted on-chain). Currently, the votingDelay configured on Aave governance is set to 0 - voting begins immediately when proposals are created.

We propose to set this voting delay to 2 days, in seconds, using the setVotingDelay method on the core governance contract. Setting the votingDelay will cause there to be a new review period between the proposal submission and when voting for that proposal begins.

We encourage the community to chime in via comments below but should mention there is precedent for this in Compound (see Governance Analysis Period proposal).

Potential Side Effects

  • The Guardian is marginally more likely to be needed should time sensitive issues arise.
  • Gauntlet’s risk parameterization will see a delay from time to identifying a suboptimal risk parameter to executing a change. At least until a riskAdmin role is implemented.

Next Steps

  • Snapshot with multiple choices (e.g., 0, 2, 4 days)

Resources

Aave Proposal Voting docs

6 Likes
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Speaking On Behalf of Blockchain@Berkeley:
We see the need for this proposal. Adding a voting delay would enable more time for deliberation and review while also giving plenty of time for guardians to step in when needed. Two days adds a lot more time to catch mistakes but isn’t long enough to prevent Aaves’ rapid progress. We believe this is an improvement to Aave governance, and we support this proposal!

5 Likes
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I support this proposal

3 Likes
4

100% support. The Aave governance already has this capability - delay can be set in a straightforward way.

2 Likes
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Associated Snapshot poll

2 Likes
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Inkyamze,

Abstaining from voting is a huge problem in governance. By enabling a voting delay, it allows more time to understand the proposal and encourage more voting participation. I support and would advocate for a 1-day delay. This suggestion allows for more efficient processing of votes and deters collusion from bad actors.

1 Like
7

The Snapshot has passed and we have secured enough proposition power for the long time lock. We are targeting posting a vote very soon.

1 Like