Compreendendo a governança do Dash

Um dos maiores desafios da criação de uma plataforma de criptomoeda é garantir que você crie um sistema descentralizado de governança para gerenciar, financiar, manter e expandir o projeto. Este elemento-chave tem estado ausente em todas as principais divisas até à data, pelo que a resposta natural é criar uma fundação sem fins lucrativos que encarregue de manter o protocolo central e promover a moeda, mas não esteja realmente ligada aos detentores de moeda. qualquer maneira significativa. Essa abordagem tem algumas questões que foram evidenciadas a partir da experiência de plataformas de criptomoeda mais antigas.

As atuais fundações de criptografia não estão relacionadas à própria moeda por qualquer mecanismo incluído no protocolo e não são projetadas para sobreviver aos adotantes iniciais quando perdem o interesse. A fundação então luta para manter o financiamento até que ele imploda e o desenvolvimento central do protocolo seja deixado lutando por financiamento ou dependendo da caridade que não pode ser contada e não permite orçamento e planejamento adequados. As doações também são injustas para os doadores, porque há sempre free riders que se beneficiam do esforço feito por outros sem contribuir. Outros projetos se financiaram pela premiação de moedas ou pela execução de pré-vendas, o que não é uma ótima solução porque o controle dos fundos é centralizado e, nesse estágio, é impossível quantificar as necessidades futuras do projeto.

Através da rede de nós completos e do requisito de garantia, o Dash já tem uma rede descentralizada de operadores de masternodes que investem pesadamente no futuro da moeda e que, como um grupo, podem atuar como administradores do desenvolvimento e promoção do protocolo principal. Propomos um sistema de gestão descentralizado baseado no mecanismo de votação do masternode. Os operadores da Masternode não são os únicos interessados no sucesso do Dash, mas são os mais estáveis porque, ao contrário dos mineiros, eles não podem reutilizar seus ativos para nenhuma outra finalidade ou moeda.

No sistema orçamentário, parte da recompensa do bloco é mantida em depósito pela própria rede, em nome dos operadores, para ser executada no desenvolvimento e expansão do ecossistema de acordo com o voto dos masternodes em diferentes propostas orçamentárias. Estes fundos destinam-se a apoiar o desenvolvimento e a promoção da moeda. Os operadores da Masternode votam em orçamentos e projetos específicos a serem financiados, definindo assim a direção que a moeda está tomando. Isto é feito de uma forma completamente transparente através de um portal público onde novas iniciativas são propostas e os masternodes podem votar nelas. Funcionando como um Kickstarter ou Lighthouse descentralizado, o orçamento pode ser usado para qualquer coisa que crie valor dentro do ecossistema.

Este é um sistema 100% descentralizado alimentado pelos masternodes, onde os orçamentos são definidos e pagos diretamente do blockchain. A blockchain contrata desta forma os principais desenvolvedores e introduz um novo conceito de empreiteiros blockchain, onde as pessoas trabalham e são diretamente compensadas pela rede, através dos votos descentralizados de todos os operadores de masternode. Uma vantagem deste modelo é que ele pode sobreviver aos primeiros usuários. Se os primeiros operadores de masternode vendem suas moedas, o novo proprietário pode criar um masternode e com isso adquirir o direito de votar nos orçamentos e projetos. Isso garante que há um sistema de manutenção em funcionamento à medida que as pessoas vêm e vão, tornando a rede capaz de se sustentar sozinha, sem depender de atores específicos.

Observe que, se você não operar um masternode, ainda poderá votar nas propostas do DashBoost. Veja https://www.dashboost.org para mais informações.

Orçamentos e votação por masternode

O sistema funciona como um mecanismo de votação descentralizado estabelecido nas regras que regem o blockchain, onde os orçamentos para projetos específicos são propostos, então os masternodes como um todo votam neles. Cada projeto, se for aprovado, é adicionado ao orçamento total e pago diretamente do blockchain à pessoa que faz o trabalho. Isso permite que o Dash contrate desenvolvedores do núcleo e os pague diretamente após a aprovação do trabalho de forma descentralizada.

Um masternode vota uma proposta (tecnicamente um objeto de governança no blockchain) usando o comando de exemplo “masternode vote yes”, “masternode vote no” ou “masternode vote abstain”. Os votos então se propagam pela rede e são computados de acordo com as instruções seguidas pela própria rede. Orçamentos em discussão e progresso de votação podem ser visualizados usando o comando de exemplo “masternode budget show”.

Um sistema de governança descentralizado bem definido permite que uma rede de criptomoedas resista e sobreviva aos seus criadores originais. Dessa forma, gerações posteriores de operadores de masternodes têm uma maneira clara de suportar o sistema, conforme definido pelo próprio protocolo, aplicando a sabedoria das técnicas de crowd e o vínculo de confiança estabelecido pela garantia da masternode para criar um sistema de gerenciamento descentralizado. Isso cria um valor incrível dentro da moeda, o que nos permite ser mais ágeis e competir com outros sistemas de pagamento, como Bitcoin e cartões de crédito, em escala global.

À medida que o sistema se desenvolveu, uma forte equipe de empreiteiros produtivos pagos com recompensas de blockchain surgiu e se estabeleceu. Isso inclui a equipe principal de desenvolvimento, provedores de garantia, equipe de notícias e relatórios, laboratórios de desenvolvimento experimental, parcerias com universidades, contratação de empresas de marketing e RP e integrações com trocas de terceiros e plataformas de pagamento. O mercado reconhece o valor da estabilidade da rede como um todo e que a possibilidade de financiamento confiável e suficiente resulta em uma implementação mais rápida e mais coerente do roteiro Dash e dos serviços do painel central.

Planejamento de recompensa

To guarantee long term sustainability of the blockchain, the network keeps a portion of the block rewards back as new blocks are created, with the masternode operators tasked to act as stewards and invest in the maintenance and expansion of the network by voting. This results in faster development and promotion, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits all actors, including miners, masternode operators, investors and users. More importantly, this gives the blockchain itself a self- preservation mechanism that is beyond the control of any individual.

Mining reward for Proof-of-Work	45%
Recompensa do Masternode para a Prova-de-Serviço	45%
Decentralized governance budget	10%

Masternodes and miners take 45% of the mining reward each, at the time it is created. The remaining 10% is disbursed monthly by the masternode operators once the results of their votes are tallied, creating the first self-sustaining decentralized cryptocurrency platform organized as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The masternode operators establish a social contract with the network they benefit from and are bound to act as caretakers, dedicating their time, due diligence work and a portion of the network rewards to furthering the ecosystem. This has a ripple effect that benefits all parties involved - especially the end users.

The value generated by work done implementing proposals is expected to be greater than allocating 100% of rewards to mining because the network has needs beyond only cryptographically securing the blockchain. The expected result is greater net benefit not only for proposal winners, but also masternode operators, miners and normal users. In fact, the introduction of the decentralized governance budget itself was decided by a masternode vote, making the first distributed decision the actual creation of the system, similar to establishing a constitution.

This approach of distributing the normal block reward in a way that considers all critical elements a cryptocurrency needs for its long term viability, e.g. mining, full nodes, development and promotion, is revolutionary as it is done without changing the emission or creating any additional inflation for investors. The network simply distributes the available resources in a way that is of greater net benefit to all parties.

Contractors and proposals

Contractors of the blockchain can be developers, outreach professionals, team leaders, attorneys or even people appointed to do specific tasks. Proposals generally begin life as simple pre-proposal forum posts on the Dash Forum, where feedback and suggestions are solicited from the general community. Once the proposal owner decides they have a reasonable chance of passing their proposal, it is created as a governance object on the blockchain. A fee of 5 DASH is associated with this action to prevent spam and ensure only serious proposals make it to this stage. Several tools exist to allow masternode operators to comfortably review and vote on proposals. The net total of yes votes must exceed 10% of the total masternode count at the time votes are tallied in order to pass. If there are more passing proposals than the available block reward can provide for, the proposals with the most yes votes will pass first, creating a cut-off point for less popular proposals. The same process is then repeated every month, and the total amount of Dash available for proposals decreases by approximately 7.14% per year, together with the overall block reward.

The following video by Tao of Satoshi includes advice for proposal owners entering proposals during periods of high competition for the available budget funds:

Websites de Proposta

The community has gathered around DashCentral as a website to facilitate discussion and voting on proposals formally entered on the Dash blockchain. Other websites, such as Dash Ninja and Dash Nexus are available to monitor progress over time and gather more detailed statistics. Dash Masternode Tool also allows for voting without the need to share masternode private keys with a third party service.

A typical view of proposal discussion and voting on Dash Central

Each proposal includes a description of the proposal goals, details of what work will be done and a breakdown of the requested budget. Many proposals also link to their own website or the pre-proposal discussion, or include a video to validate the identity and sincerity of the proposal owner. Discussion on Dash Central occurs below this information, and masternode owners have the option to verify their ownership of a masternode and ability to cast a vote by signing a message from the masternode collateral address. Masternodes can vote at any time, and also change their vote at any time until the cutoff block is mined and voting stops. This occurs 1662 blocks prior to the superblock. After voting stops, the blockchain executes a decentralized tally and validates all votes. Once consensus is reached, the results are broadcast and the budget is allocated soon after in a superblock.

Proposal details and voting buttons on Dash Central

Once passed, proposals are able to report back to the network on the Dash Forum or via published public channels and social media. Since it is possible to create proposals that pay out over several months, it is also possible to revoke funding from a project by changing the vote if development or spending of already allocated funds is unsatisfactory. This encourages proposal owners to work honestly and diligently to win the trust and approval of the network. Ongoing discussion and gradual improvement over time results in a close bond between the network and those working for the network in supporting roles.

Voting on proposals is updated in real time every 2.5 minutes as blocks are mined, so current winning proposals and the total allocation of the available budget are always open and visible to everyone. Dash Nexus is a popular site used for this purpose.

Monitoring budget allocation on Dash Nexus

Finally, Dash Watch (which was itself funded through a budget proposal) exists to monitor the ability of blockchain contractors to deliver on their promises with respect to delivery dates and the total amounts of budget allocated over multiple voting periods. A team of dedicated staff routinely interact with proposal owners to track progress of the various projects and provide reports to voting masternodes in a single location. While providing data on the performance of your proposal to Dash Watch is optional, many masternode owners take advantage of the data they make available to make their voting decisions. The Dash Watch team may be contacted at team@dashwatch.org email address or through their website.

Proposal monitoring on Dash Watch

Budget allocation

The total budget of the network can be calculated by taking 10% of the reward over the period of time between two superblocks, which occur every 16616 blocks or approximately 30.29 days. A voting cutoff occurs 1662 blocks before the superblock, and the final votes are tallied at this point. A proposal must satisfy the condition (YES votes - NO votes) > (Total Number of Masternodes / 10) in order to be considered passing. Then, in the superblock, the winning proposals are awarded in the order of the margin by which they are passing until either the entire budget is allocated or no more passing proposals exist. This allows for completely trustless and decentralized allocation of the budget.

If a proposal has passed the voting threshold but insufficient funds remain to pay the full amount requested, it will not receive partial funding. Instead, any smaller proposals which have also passed the threshold that will fit in the budget will be funded, even if they have lower net approval than the larger proposal. Proposals requesting payment over multiple budget periods will remain in the treasury system for the duration of their validity, even if they do not pass the voting threshold, and even if insufficient budget is available for funding as described above. Any unallocated budget is simply never created in the superblock, reducing unnecessary inflation.

Due to the decentralized nature of the masternode system, it is sometimes necessary to form funded organisations, such as committees or companies, to be responsible for some project or task. These are submitted in the same way, but the committee itself receives the funds. Another alternative is to place trusted escrow services between the budget allocation event and the actual submitter of the proposal to ensure that work is paid for in stages, as it is delivered. Some oversight over blockchain contractors is sometimes needed. Each budgeted item requires either a team manager or a committee responsible for implementation of the work. Periodically, this manager is expected to report on budget expenditure and completed work to show the value created from the allocated funds. This allows repeat proposal submitters to build up a reputation and gain trust from the community. Proposals which do not provide regular reports and cannot answer questions about their budget allocation will soon be defunded if it is part of a regular monthly proposal cycle. The result is a kind of self-policing system.

Scaling and future uses

As the number of blockchain contractors increases, a point is reached where masternode operators cannot be realistically expected to evaluate the volume of proposals. At this point funding organizations can be created to act as contractors for the distribution of funds to many smaller decentralized projects, according to current needs. Dash Core Group, Inc. is one example of such an organization.

The existence of the decentralized budget system puts the power of determining where Dash goes in the future in the hands of the masternode network itself. All core development and several peripheral developers are already funded from the budget, and other projects not even conceivable at this time will likely arise in the future. This decouples the survival and value of the blockchain from the current userbase and developers, making Dash the first blockchain designed to outlive its original users, a self sustainable decentralized cryptocurrency network that can still operate cohesively and bring added value services to end users in a consistent way.

Conclusion

Every masternode operator establishes a bond of trust and a social contract with the network in which she is bound to contribute to the development and maintenance of the ecosystem she benefits from. Under this model, a portion of the funds that the operator is bound to receive are in a sense allocated in custody, not in ownership, and are held in escrow by the network to be executed by the operators for the benefit of the ecosystem. Everyone contributes equally and proportionately to the benefits they are receiving and the risks they are taking, there are no privileges and no loopholes. This is complemented by the full node voting mechanism that allows for a distributed group to vote on a continuous basis on practical matters without the need to forfeit their right to decide to others, every few years, like with traditional governments or cooperative corporations.

We envision a future in which this model of transparent, unbreakable and verifiable contribution to the common good, in combination with continuous participation of the crowd through active voting, is utilized to manage organizations that are owned or operated jointly by its members, who share the benefits and responsibilities of those collectives, like governments, cooperative corporations, unions, DAOs, cryptocurrencies, etc. We call this model decentralized governance by blockchain.