The team at Dock has kicked off 2021 by introducing on-chain democratic governance features to the Dock PoA mainnet.

Any holders of the new Dock mainnet token, as well as the members of the Dock Association Council, can now propose changes to the network. The Council will regularly review and vote on the proposals, and quickly act upon the ones they approve. The new democracy greatly reduces the role of the multi-signature Master account, which is controlled by the Dock Association and has superuser access to the network.

The New Democratic Process

The new process involves two entities in the network: the Council and the Technical Committee. The Council is the governing body of the network, responsible for reviewing and voting on any proposals from the community. The Technical Committee helps maintain the network and can fast-track the implementation of any urgent proposals. For the remaining duration of the PoA phase, any changes to the Council and Technical Committee membership (adding or removing members) will require votes from the existing Council members.

Holders of the Dock token, as well as the Council members, are now able to propose changes to the network. To prevent spam, any non-Council members making a proposal are required to lock 1,000 tokens, which will be returned after the proposal has been reviewed and voted on. The newly created proposal will join the proposal queue, from which the Council will consider one proposal every 20 days. The Council will have 15 days to vote on the proposal, and if approved by the Council, it will take effect in 2 days unless fast-tracked by the Technical Committee.

For more details on the new governance process, please see our docs. Any proposals awaiting consideration can be viewed here.

Coming up in 2021

The team is working towards transitioning the Dock network to Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus during the next quarter. This change will be accompanied by implementation of further democracy in the network: the Master account will be disabled, and token holders will be able to cast their votes for proposals, validator selection, and the election of new Council members.

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