Hi, I’m Oscar, a cardano ambassador and pc-gov.
I’d like to share with you the DRep Workshop that we held on April 27th in Seoul.
The DRep Workshop was held offline for a total of 4 hours and was attended by 8 community members.
We spent some time reviewing the DRep Code of Conduct before using the Miro board to facilitate the workshop.
*At the end of each sector’s discussion, we cast a vote on the aggregated agenda. We allowed each sector to have three votes per person based on their preferences.
Why here?: Motivation
Most participants attended the DRep Workshop because they wanted to get an update on how Cardano governance is currently being implemented. Some participants were SPOs that run stake pools, but didn’t have a complete understanding of the current state of governance because it’s being implemented separately from the SPO ecosystem. Some participants were participants in the CIP1694 Global Community Workshop last year and wanted to know how much progress has been made since that workshop.
The participant who disclosed that he owns a significant amount of ADA stated, "I feel that it’s difficult to follow the governance changes that are happening in the Cardano ecosystem alone, so I attended the workshop to understand them. From the participants’ responses, it’s clear that when neither regular community members nor SPOs are directly involved in governance, it’s difficult to stay fully informed about the latest developments. Furthermore, the community recognizes the importance of governance, and although the level of understanding may vary, there is a shared appreciation of its importance.
We felt there was a need for more communication and education about the current state of Cardano governance.
Why become a DRep?
The motivation for wanting to become a DRep received the highest number of votes for “economic interest,” but other reasons such as “influence in the ecosystem, participation to curb the dictatorship of certain groups, a sense of justice” were also mentioned as motivations for DRep participation.
An interesting point here is that while most participants basically believe that economic interest is the primary motivation for participating in DRep activities, there is also an opinion that emphasizes the importance of DRep participation as a means of check malicious actors and stakeholders who lack public interest in governance activities.
How to become a DRep?
A variety of ideas were mentioned as to how DRep onboarding could be facilitated, including.
- Higher quality translation and paraphrasing of documentation, including guidelines and tools provided.
- More detailed planning, including a roadmap for the DRep program. (e.g. compensation plan, specific incentives for DReps, etc.).
- Intuitive interface, user-friendly UX, content and promotion to make DReps more accessible, etc.
- Documentation of DRep credentials (if you become a DRep)
- Need for an entertainment component to the DRep program and, by extension, to Cardano governance itself
The most voted idea was “Higher quality translation and paraphrasing of documentation, including guidelines and tools provided”. This is because onboarding is not easy if the process is difficult to understand, and in countries where English is not the native language, the quality of translated materials and the timing of delivery can also have an impact.
The second most voted idea was ‘More detailed planning, including a roadmap for the DRep program. (e.g. compensation plan, specific incentives for DReps, etc.)’. While the development of functional elements for onboarding is very important, it is also mentioned that it is important for DRep onboarding that such a system is established because it is not clear what rewards and incentives DReps can get at the moment.
Despite the low number of votes, it was very interesting to hear that the governance system itself needs to have a more entertainment element to it. In fact, I think that if we can include an entertainment element in the governance system itself, we can get more engagement from the community.
Ethical Frameworks
In the Ethical Frameworks sector, a discussion was held on what additional frameworks should be put in place to ensure the ethical operation of the DRep scheme. Below are the comments that emerged from that discussion.
- Restriction on SPO or DeFi Dapp internal stakeholders’ DRep participation (In the case of DeFi, to prevent the utilization of stakes by investors through liquidity pools).
- Stricter validation and verification of scope for conflicts of interest, with requirements for KYC beyond certain recommendation levels for cases that could adversely affect the ecosystem as a whole (e.g., compliance, anti-money laundering efforts, verification of absence of serious crimes by DRep operators).
- The purpose of building an on-chain governance system for the Cardano ecosystem must be clearly defined.
- Disclosure of token holdings by DRep candidates (with ADA having the highest proportion among the tokens held, at least).
The opinion that received the most votes is the ‘Restriction on DRep participation by SPO and DeFi Dapp stakeholders.’ Each SPO would participate with significant influence in the ecosystem, also in the case of DeFi, deposited liquidity itself can represent a stake. Hence, there was an opinion suggesting the partial restriction of participation from both groups. Interestingly, this opinion was voiced by a current SPO.
The next most voted idea is about ‘Strictness in validating conflicts of interest for DRep candidates and the need for KYC requirements beyond recommendation levels for certain serious matters.’ Concerns were raised about the potential exploitation of the DRep system by specific interest groups if verification of conflicts of interest is not conducted. Moreover, without proper verification, individuals associated with social controversy, criminal activities, or terrorist financing might become DReps, posing reputational and judicial risks to the Cardano ecosystem.
DRep branding & tooling
In the DRep branding sector, the following ideas were expressed.
- A symbolic element for the DRep
- An entertainment element for the DRep scheme
- Comprehensive marketing of Cardano governance, Cardano values, etc.
The idea with the most votes is “Comprehensive marketing of Cardano governance, Cardano values”. Comments included continued branding and marketing of Cardano values and Cardano governance, including community strategies for new acquisition, IRL strategies, or sponsorship and collaboration with NGOs related to governance.
Summarizing the proposer’s remarks, the essence is not merely about intensifying marketing efforts. The proposal aims to continually communicate why we consider governance important and position it, thereby consistently promoting the rationale of Cardano governance both within and outside the ecosystem. This suggestion underscores the importance of establishing and promoting awareness of the rationale of Cardano governance within the Cardano ecosystem.
In the DRep tooling sector, the following opinions were expressed.
- Communication tools between DReps and delegators
- Mobile applications such as the Catalyst app
- Translations provided in participants’ languages
- Scan to track DReps’ votes (which agendas were voted on?)
- Rewards for delegators to discourage resignations
The most voted opinion was ‘Communication tools between DReps and delegators’ . Other opinions received almost equal votes. This opinion emphasized the importance of channels enabling direct communication between delegators and DReps. It was proposed based on the argument that since DReps vote on various governance actions, having a channel for real-time communication with delegators to collect, discuss, and incorporate their opinions on specific agendas is essential.
Conclusion: As the DRep Workshop was conducted with only 8 participants, it may not represent the opinions of the entire Korean community.
Based on an overall assessment of the discussions, the core opinions of the DRep Workshop in Korea revolved around preventing corruption among DRep participants, restraining specific stakeholders in governance, and enhancing transparency in the DRep system. Particularly, during the discussions, some community members suggested that the current ‘DRep Code of Conduct’ verification process should have some level of enforceability beyond just being recommendations.
There was also a lively discussion about the need to clearly address the purpose of the Cardano ecosystem’s pursuit of on-chain governance before establishing various detailed governance mechanisms such as DReps. While striving for greater transparency through the establishment of an on-chain governance system, concerns were raised that the complexity of on-chain governance itself could undermine transparency and, without a clear and shared purpose, could lead to competition among stakeholders. Some participants also expressed the view that an impartial arbitration group, independent of stakeholders, is essential.
[Discussion Summary]
- The necessity of DReps or participants performing public interest and oversight functions.
- More promotion and education about the current status of Cardano governance.
- Provision of high-quality information for the DRep system.
- Rigorous verification for DRep participants and candidates.
- Tools to enhance communication between DReps and delegates.
In order to gather more input from the community, we plan to continue hosting both online and offline workshops and meetups. If you have any questions or topics you’d like to discuss regarding the workshop results, please feel free to comment below. Thank you.
Source: DRep Workshop Recap (Seoul, South Korea - April 27th)
[Korean] DRep Code of Conduct