- Polygon has proposed a decentralized governance system that employs a 13-member council
- The council will be responsible for allowing upgrades to the network’s smart contracts
- The council members will be drawn from Polygon, Ethereum Foundation and Coinbase, among other blockchain-focused entities
Ethereum scaling layer Polygon has disclosed plans to boost its governance model by establishing a 13-member council. Dubbed ‘Protocol Council,’ its members will be drawn from reputable blockchain-focused entities such as Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase and, of course, Polygon. The council will be responsible for approving upgrades to the network’s smart contracts, something meant to decentralize the decision-making process when it comes to critical issues.
Easy to Switch to an Improved Version
Polygon has presented the idea to the community through the improvement proposal PIP-29. The proposal outlines the “need for security” as one of the driving forces behind the idea. According to Polygon, the council will help address scheduled system upgrades and help the platform seamlessly switch to an “improved version under specific circumstances.”
PIP-29 is now live, proposing the creation of the Polygon Protocol Council.
This is the next step towards the vision of a decentralized, community-led governance of @0xPolygon protocols, introduced as a part of the wider Polygon 2.0 movement.
To ensure ongoing security while… pic.twitter.com/CtUvMXTG0t
— Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) October 19, 2023
The proposed members include Polygon Labs’ Jordi Baylina, Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake, Coinbase’s Viktor Bunin, L2Beat, EthCC’s Jerone de Tychey and on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.
Polygon said the member’s selection was guided by their reputation in the web3 space and their competence in technical, governance and security matters among other factors.
The scaling layer disclosed that the council will make decisions through a multi-sig Gnosis Safe smart contract. A decision can follow either the regular or the emergency route. Under the regular route, 7 out of 13 council members must agree on a change while the emergency path needs 10 out of 13 members to reach a consensus.
From MATIC to POL
If the proposal passes, among the council’s first tasks will be to oversee the ditching of the network’s current base token MATIC for POL.
The proposal comes a month after the protocol released Polygon 2.0 upgrade proposals and at a time when the scaling layer is competing with Optimism, another Ethereum layer-2, to be the go-to scaling layer or layer-2 tech provider.
With the proposed council made up of reputable entities in the web3 world, the proposal is likely to overwhelmingly pass the community vote.
