Skip to main content

Understanding Governance

In this article, we describe how governance works, and how proposals move along the pipeline, from the initial creation phase, to discussion and review by the community and the Puffer team, and finally, to the voting phase.

Puffer

Proposal creation​

We are building an ecosystem in which anyone can create a proposal, democratizing the governance process. Proposals should initially be posted in the respective categories shown on the Puffer Governance Forum and will be updated to a PIP by the Governance Admin team. For a proposal to be successfully updated, you should use the designated Proposal Template and make sure to provide the following details:

  • Comprehensive description
  • Clear rationale
  • Expected benefits
  • Potential risks

Submitted proposals are posted on the Puffer Governance Forum for community review. We anticipate future improvements, such as a permissionless submission system with potential submission fees.

Proposal Discussion​

There will be a minimum five-days discussion period allows community members to:

  • Provide feedback
  • Debate proposal merits
  • Suggest refinements

The Puffer Governance Forum is the primary platform for these discussions, ensuring a transparent and collaborative evaluation of all proposals.

Proposal Review​

The Puffer Governance Review Committee plays a critical role in assessing proposal readiness. The committee evaluates proposals based on several criteria, including, but not limited to:

  • Community feedback
  • Alignment with Puffer’s long-term goals
  • Feasibility of implementation

The minimum two-day review process ensures only quality proposals advance to the voting stage. The committee will:

  • Finalize and prepare approved proposals for voting.
  • Request additional refinement from proposals authors, feedback included if required.
  • Archive any rejected proposals with documented reasons for transparency.

To ensure timely inclusion in governance, approved proposals are queued for the next available Voting Epoch.

Proposal Voting​

The final stage of the governance process is voting, exclusive to vePUFFER holders and conducted through the Puffer Voting Platform. Key voting guidelines include:

  • Seven-day voting epoch
  • Occurs every other Thursday at 12am UTC
  • Quorum depends on proposal type
    • For proposals, simple majority determines proposal passage
    • For incentive gauges, protocols compete for a share of votes and in turn, the incentives for their users
  • Results are tallied after the voting period and shared through the Governance Forum and official communication channels.

Each Voting Epoch lasts for seven calendar days and it happens every other Thursday at 12am UTC time.

For more information on voting, please refer to our article on Voting.