Starknet Foundation delegation for the first vote

[DevenMat]

TL;DR

• The first vote on Starknet’s protocol upgrade is coming up soon - Starknet Alpha v0.11.0
• Starknet’s Delegates Discovery page has been launched (delegate.starknet.io).
• Starknet Foundation has delegated a portion of its voting power to a broad group of independent delegates.
• There is a test snapshot vote live on snapshot.org/#/starknet.eth, delegates are encouraged to participate to help test functionality before the first vote.

Context Reminder:

The first phase of Starknet Governance is launching (more details here). From now on, community members will be able to participate in shaping Starknet through an additional channel, namely voting on protocol changes.

In its first phase, Starknet Governance will focus on Starknet protocol upgrades. Every Starknet version upgrade will be deployed on Goerli Testnet; voters will then have a 6-day period to examine and test the upgraded version as it runs on Goerli. During this time, a Snapshot proposal will be opened, and the community can vote on whether to approve or reject the upgraded version for Mainnet deployment.

If the proposal gains a majority of ‘YES’ votes during the 6-day voting period, the proposal will pass and Starknet mainnet will be upgraded accordingly. We expect the vote on Starknet Alpha v0.11.0 to be open soon.

Foundation Delegation - First Vote

As previously announced, the Foundation is delegating 33% of the overall voting power available in the first vote to:

1. First phase Builders Council: ~ 23%
2. Delegates selected from the Delegates Pool: ~10%

This post will focus on the delegates the Foundation has selected from the Delegates Pool for the first vote.

Several months ago, we announced the Phase 1 plan for Starknet governance and made an open call to the community to propose themselves as delegates. It truly speaks to the strength of our community how many quality individuals stepped up to take responsibility for the network. Delegate Expectations should remain the guiding principles for how delegates engage with the evolving Starknet governance ecosystem. We are honored to have you all helping to shape the future of Starknet.

The purpose of delegating voting power from the Foundation is to promote broad participation of involved and informed community members in Starknet governance during the first phases.

The proposal process for each person to become a Starknet delegate is permissionless and censorship-resistant by definition. Anyone can propose themselves as a delegate, and any token holder can delegate to any address. This post only discusses the Foundation’s selected delegates and only for the upcoming vote.

First Phase voting distribution is detailed in the First Phase Governance Post. Delegates will likely see new delegators distributing voting power independently from the Foundation in the coming days, weeks, and months.

As for the Foundation, the guiding principles for selecting delegates in the first vote is to enable a wide range of community members to participate, influence and start building their reputation as Starknet delegates.

The Foundation has chosen its first vote delegates based on the following criteria:

• 47 delegates who display very-high involvement, have a proven track-record of contribution to Starknet, and technical expertise received delegation.
• 48 delegates who display high involvement and a track-record of contributions to aligned ecosystems were also recognized by the Foundation through delegation.

Community members that were not elected for delegation by the Foundation for the first vote are still accessible for other token holders to delegate their voting power to. We urge those delegates to continue to participate in governance discussion via the governance forum in order to be considered by other token holders [and in the future may be considered for delegation by the Foundation]. A forum thread will be opened to discuss the upcoming v0.11.0 changes and we encourage all interested to contribute, follow, and participate in conversation.

We would like to remind that delegation doesn’t entail any present or future token transfer, or eligibility for future token transfers by the Starknet Foundation. Acting as a delegate is a completely voluntary process.

It is likely that the Foundation’s decisions regarding selecting delegates are not flawless. It is possible that talented and excellent community members were not chosen, while less suitable delegates were. We acknowledge that such a situation may occur when building such new mechanism and it is important to remember the following:

1. This delegation is only for the first vote(!) and the Foundation’s delegation represents only 10% of the currently available voting power.
2. The Foundation is aware that this may not be the best way to evaluate a wide and diverse pool of candidates and is constantly considering how to improve its decision making process. This is part of an iterative, experimental, and open process; we appreciate feedback in any form on all platforms.

Starknet Delegate Discovery Page

In order to allow a more convenient user interface for connecting token-holders with delegates, we launched a first version of our Delegates Discovery page (delegate.starknet.io).

Delegates can now edit their profiles on delegate.starknet.io, verify their ETH address, Twitter handle, add delegate interests, and reformat their delegate profile content.

If you have already created a post in the delegate thread, we have imported your profile over to the Delegate Discovery page. If you spot any discrepancies, please connect your wallet to the delegate discovery platform and update your profile. If you run into any trouble, please reach out to us via the email address at the bottom of this post or through other platforms.

Timeline

The current timeline for the Starknet Alpha v0.11.0 vote is March 21st 2023, where a 6 day Snapshot vote will be opened simultaneously with the deployment of Starknet Alpha v0.11.0on Goerli. If the community votes in favor of the upgrade, Starknet mainnet will be upgraded to v0.11.0 following the end of the vote.

A wide and high-quality pool of delegates is an important element in the functioning of the network’s governance mechanisms. The Starknet Foundation is appreciative of all those who offered themselves as delegates and wishes for serious and responsible participation. We are grateful for such a strong community.

As always, please comment below this post if you have any questions or comments. Or reach out to us at firstvote@starknetfoundation.org

[DevenMat]

Another note; please check voting power using Snapshot. This can be done by attempting to cast a vote on the test proposal, which is open for 5 days.

delegate.starknet.io takes time to refresh and may not display all active delegations immediately.

Feel free to reach out if you are having any trouble with anything mentioned in the post.

Cheers and Keep Starknet Strange!

[Vyacheslav]

Please tell me, how are you going to conduct a decentralized voting using a token if people cannot buy/ receive a token?

[Iman]

good. keep going:) hbbhh

[kikopashka]

This article details the first phase of StarkNet governance

[Vyacheslav]

I read it. And based on this article, I ask the question

[Victormark12]

I appreciate your diligence Deven , this is well detailed. It’s time to make starknet great by helping contribute to shaping the future of starknet.
I was picked, I’m very excited to be given this opportunity.

[cryptomrtz]

It’s a big step forward, the decentralization of the protocol can begin!

[DevenMat]

One goal here is to build a robust delegate ecosystem in preparation for a wider distribution of the token.

By allowing delegates to build a clear history of governance activity and participation over the coming months- there will be more data to analyze delegates when the token becomes available to the wider community.

Just for clarity, as stated in the post, being a Starknet delegate will not qualify individuals for any token distribution.

[fancyFan]

Thanks for the team’s full efforts and contributions, which will be the first step of the next grand rise of StarkNet ecosystem!

[Vyacheslav]

And why then does the article say so? But in fact, token holders and delegates not selected by the foundation will not participate in the first phase of voting?

[s0lness]

What was explained in the previous articles still holds. Token holders can participate in the first either A) by voting directly or B) by delegating their vote.

@DevenMat’s post describes the delegation performed by the Starknet Foundation, which has chosen 95 delegates. This doesn’t mean that token holders won’t vote.

Token holders are free to choose among the same delegates, choose different delegates, or vote directly.

[Vyacheslav]

At the moment, the token holders are only investors, the fund (which cast its votes) and the Starknet team (with the exception of STARKWARE). So you’re saying that investors or the Starknet team will want to delegate their votes to delegates?(Since there is no one else)

[s0lness]

Token holders are not only investors. This category also includes Starknet’s early core contributors (excluding StarkWare). The delegation mechanism is here to help token holders select delegates to vote on their behalf should they decide they do not wish to vote themselves, for example because they believe they might not have the time or the expertise.

From Medium post

[mierk]

Thanks for the team’s full efforts and contributions, it’s a big step forward, the decentralization of the protocol can begin!

[outside39rus]

I am very disappointed that I was not selected first as a delegate, but I hope that in the future my person will be selected. I would like to understand on what principle the first delegates were selected?
I believe that for better decentralization, more opinions with the same strength of voice are needed. As the practice of other projects shows this becomes a problem and the voting sometimes becomes unfair, I really hope that StarkNet will take this into account when creating the final pool of delegates.

[wind.rider]

Thank you for your participation, ser,and please check the following:

The Foundation has chosen its first vote delegates based on the following criteria:

• 47 delegates who display very-high involvement, have a proven track-record of contribution to Starknet, and technical expertise received delegation.

• 48 delegates who display high involvement and a track-record of contributions to aligned ecosystems were also recognized by the Foundation through delegation.

thank you

[ipblat]

On the first ballot, it is preferable to have more delegates selected and apply.

1. Because this is the story of Starknet’s formation. And all of the participants who got in in the first place have contributed. Of course, some more, some less. It depends on many factors.
2. Either way, I thank the Starknet team for their contributions, development, and concern for the community.

[0xzapper.bit]

Great, you guys did great job, hope starkNet going well and bring big power to layer2.

[Itublockchain]

Hey, it’s ITU Blockchain as a delegator.

We’ve written our ENS on Delegate Profile Thread but in the Delegates Discovery Page our ENS doesn’t show up. So our accessibleness is low. Can you fix it with our ENS itublockchain.eth please?