As our network evolves, maintaining its integrity and efficiency becomes increasingly vital. 

To this end, we are excited to introduce two new significant governance proposals to enhance the transparency of Council membership and the efficiency of transaction fees.

In summary:

  • We propose to reduce our length fee from 0.01 to 0.0001 tokens per byte to ensure that transactions and network upgrades become more cost-effective for our users.
  • We propose that all council members have verified identities to reduce spam generated by anonymous members and to promote greater accountability and trust within our governance structure.

Below, we will delve into the details of these proposals and explain their rationale and anticipated impact on our community and network.

Reducing Transaction Fees for a More Efficient Network

Transaction fees on the Dock network depend on several factors, including the transaction's byte size, the amount of storage read or written, and the compute resources required.

Currently the network charges 0.01 tokens per byte of transaction, which we call the “length-fee”. For instance, if your transaction is 1000 bytes, the length-fee alone contributes 10 tokens (1000 * 0.01). 

We recognize that our length fee is significantly higher than that of some networks in the Polkadot ecosystem, such as KILT, Moonbeam or Centrifuge.

To address this, we are reducing the length fee by 100 times, bringing it down to 0.0001 tokens per byte.

Here are examples of how this change will affect popular transactions:

  • Transfer transactions will cost 1.3 tokens instead of 1.8 tokens.
  • Creating DIDs will cost 2.75 tokens instead of 4.5 tokens.
  • Revocation (status lists) will cost 2.9 tokens instead of 10.8 tokens.

Additionally, network upgrades will also become much cheaper, as their costs are primarily driven by their large size.

We believe this will ensure Dock’s network fees remain very competitive and entice more and more organizations to our platform. 

You can vote on this proposal here.

Introducing Verified Identities for Council Membership

Currently, anyone can become a Council member by locking a certain amount of tokens and submitting their candidacy. 

However, we’ve witnessed a recent increase in spam made by anonymous members, including a failed attempt by a Validator to become elected so they could pay themselves additional treasury rewards.

To dissuade future scam attempts, we propose that all Council members must have a verified identity, indicated by a green checkmark. 

This new requirement ensures transparency and accountability within the Council.

Prospective members must set up their identities and request verification before submitting their candidacy for Council membership. Once verified, they can proceed to submit their candidacy.

Learn more about setting up an identity here.

Vote on this governance proposal here.