YIP-7 Proposal: Change Governance Vote Parameters To Adjust For Quebec

[m.laeng]

Author: Markus @m.laeng
First publication date: 2025/01/13

Summary

Tezos bakers have voted to a accept the protocol change for the next Tezos upgrade Quebec (PsQuebecnLByd3JwTiGadoG4nGWi3HYiLXUjkibeFV8dCFeVMUg), recently. This upgrade reduces the block time on Tezos from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
The shorter block time impacts Youves governance votes because vote phase durations are currently defined in terms of block numbers. This YIP proposes reconfiguring the voting phases to reasonable durations under the Quebec protocol

Rationale

The DAO V2 contract (KT1T3BFEu9WSQyRuV9Fyd7SqTU4rW3ptJ3NN) has parameters that define the lengths of voting periods in governance votes. When DAO V2 was established, Tezos had a block time of 15 seconds. Accordingly, the following durations were chosen for the voting periods:

• Vote delay: 1440 blocks (~6 hours)
• Vote length: 28,800 blocks (~5 days)
• Timelock execution delay: 11,520 blocks (~2 days)
• Timelock cancellation delay: 28,800 blocks (~5 days)

During the first votes, it became apparent that these durations were on the longer side and could be reduced. Subsequently, with the Paris protocol upgrade, block times were reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds, which naturally shortened the voting periods. Under the Paris protocol, the durations became:

• Vote delay: 1440 blocks (~4 hours)
• Vote length: 28,800 blocks (~3.333 days)
• Timelock execution delay: 11,520 blocks (~1.333 days)
• Timelock cancellation delay: 28,800 blocks (~3.333 days)

Although these periods were tighter, successful YIPs were concluded.

Now, with the Quebec protocol further reducing block times, voting period lengths will shrink again. If no changes are made, the durations would become:

• Vote delay: 1440 blocks (~3.2 hours)
• Vote length: 28,800 blocks (~2.666 days)
• Timelock execution delay: 11,520 blocks (~1.066 days)
• Timelock cancellation delay: 28,800 blocks (~2.666 days)

These shorter periods may make it difficult to meet quorum goals within the available time. Therefore, it is recommended to set new parameters to ensure reasonable voting period lengths under the Quebec protocol.

Methodology

This YIP proposes to set the following new voting period lenghts:

• vote delay: 2700 Blocks / (~6 hours)
• vote lenght: 43200 Blocks / (~4 days)
• timelock execution delay: 14400 / (~1.5 days)
• timelock cancelation delay: 37800 / (~3.5 days)

These parameters will be changed by calling the set_governance_params entrypoint of the DAO_V2 KT1T3BFEu9WSQyRuV9Fyd7SqTU4rW3ptJ3NN, with the new number of blocks per period. All other parameters will be the same as before.

Proposal

With this proposal, when executed, the DAO V2 will call the set_governance_params entrypoint of the DAO_V2 KT1T3BFEu9WSQyRuV9Fyd7SqTU4rW3ptJ3NN and set the following new values:

Parameter	old value	new value
super_majority_percentage	80	80
quorum_cap:upper	3744000000000000000	3744000000000000000
quorum_cap:lower	800000000000000000	800000000000000000
timelock_cancelation_delay_blocks	23040	37800
timelock_execution_delay_blocks	11520	14400
min_yes_votes_percentage_for_escrow_return	30	30
vote_lenght_blocks	28800	43200
vote_delay_blocks	1440	2700
escrow_amount	1000000000000000	1000000000000000

Code

Source code in SmartPy

GitHub repo with the source code

import smartpy as sp

def yip7(unit):
    sp.set_type(unit, sp.TUnit)

    #############################
    # DAO new governance params #
    #############################
    dao_entrypoint = sp.contract(
        GOVERNANCE_PARAMS_TYPE,
        sp.address('KT1T3BFEu9WSQyRuV9Fyd7SqTU4rW3ptJ3NN'), # youves DAO V2
        entry_point="set_governance_params"
    ).open_some(message='DAO: Invalid entry point set_governance_params')

    # new governance params for DAO
    new_governance_params = sp.record(
        escrow_amount = sp.nat(1_000_000_000_000_000), # 1000 YOUs
        vote_delay_blocks = sp.nat(2700), # 6 hours
        vote_length_blocks = sp.nat(43200), # 4 days
        min_yes_votes_percentage_for_escrow_return = sp.nat(30), # 30% (remains unchanged)
        timelock_execution_delay_blocks = sp.nat(14400), # 2 days (remains unchanged)
        timelock_cancelation_delay_blocks = sp.nat(37800), # 3,5 days 
        super_majority_percentage = sp.nat(80), # 80% (remains unchanged)
        quorum_cap = sp.record(
            lower = sp.nat(800_000_000_000_000_000), # 0.8M (remains unchanged)
            upper = sp.nat(3_744_000_000_000_000_000) # 3.744M (remains unchanged)
        ),
    )
    sp.set_type_expr(new_governance_params, GOVERNANCE_PARAMS_TYPE)
    
    # DAO LAMBDA
    sp.result(sp.list([
        sp.transfer_operation(new_governance_params, sp.mutez(0), dao_entrypoint)
    ]))

Compiled Michelson code

GitHub repo with the compiled code

{ NIL operation; PUSH address "KT1T3BFEu9WSQyRuV9Fyd7SqTU4rW3ptJ3NN"; CONTRACT %set_governance_params (pair (nat %escrow_amount) (pair (nat %vote_delay_blocks) (pair (nat %vote_length_blocks) (pair (nat %min_yes_votes_percentage_for_escrow_return) (pair (nat %timelock_execution_delay_blocks) (pair (nat %timelock_cancelation_delay_blocks) (pair (nat %super_majority_percentage) (pair %quorum_cap (nat %lower) (nat %upper))))))))); IF_NONE { PUSH string "DAO: Invalid entry point set_governance_params"; FAILWITH } {}; PUSH mutez 0; PUSH (pair nat nat) (Pair 800000000000000000 3744000000000000000); PUSH nat 80; PUSH nat 37800; PUSH nat 14400; PUSH nat 30; PUSH nat 43200; PUSH nat 2700; PUSH nat 1000000000000000; PAIR 8; DIG 4; DROP; TRANSFER_TOKENS; CONS }

SHA256 Hash of the Michelson code

871c8d23b29b4b20441e240088689a491606e495079c75543999b764f014fd71

[m.laeng]

YIP-07 has been submitted for voting: Please vote here:

youves