Delegation Sentiment Check #2

On Friday, 9/6/2024, the Jito Foundation will be posting a Temperature Check on the Jito DAO’s Realms governance forum. This temperature check will be used to gauge community approval of two Foundation initiatives:

1. Jito Foundation Delegation Program Continuation

In February, the Jito Foundation delegated 12m JTO in token voting power (no tokens were directly transferred to third parties) to 17 delegates selected from a pool of community applicants.

A full list of current delegates can be found here:

  • Felix Lutsch - Community
  • MultichainMike - EmpireDAO
  • Andrew Allen- Coinbase Cloud
  • 0xjaypeg - Community
  • Ben Hawkins - Solana Foundation
  • Michael Hubbard - Laine
  • Ian Unsworth - Kairos Research
  • 7Layer - Overclock
  • Flipside Ecosystem Growth & Innovation team
  • Juanbug - PGov
  • Mark Hull - Kamino
  • Blockworks Research
  • Gauntlet
  • 0xNallok - Lode Ventures
  • Douro Labs
  • Chainflow
  • Joebuild - Community

The purpose of the delegation program was to ensure that the DAO could achieve the necessary 10 million JTO quorum by empowering key stakeholders with additional voting power. The delegation program also increases the difficulty of any governance attack on the Jito DAO. While non-delegate voting participation rates have steadily trended upward, in recent votes total non-delegated voting power falls well short of the necessary 10m sum to successfully pass quorum.

Over the course of the last 6 months the Foundation delegates have attended monthly Delegate calls, participated in forum debate, and made key decisions on the future of the Jito protocol, including a liquidity mining budget and the migration of the Jito Stake Pool management to Stakenet.

The first ‘season’ of the delegation program also coincides with a remarkable surge in usage for the Jito protocol. TVL has doubled. This activity marks the Jito DAO as one of the most engaged examples of decentralized governance on Solana.

As the Jito DAO prepares for a number of forthcoming votes, including some related to new products such as Restaking and the possibility of an associated grants program, the Foundation believes that maintaining the delegation program will ensure the DAO continues to set a high water mark for Solana governance and continues to steward the growing Jito Protocol.

Voting ‘yes’ on this temperature check will signal that the community believes the delegation program should continue operating.

2. Jito Foundation Delegation Program Extension

While the delegation program has been instrumental in the DAO consistently achieving quorum, the current amount delegated (12m JTO tokens) means there is a slim margin to reach the necessary 10m in voting power.

As such, the Jito Foundation will be soliciting applications for an additional three delegates to receive an additional ~2.1m tokens in total, bringing the total delegated token sum to just over 14 million. This will ensure that the DAO can reach quorum even in instances where certain delegates are unable to vote.

Additionally, delegate Felix Lutsch has stepped down from the program due to personal conflicts. The Foundation will seek to replace his slot, leaving a total of four new delegates.

Voting ‘yes’ on this temperature check will signal that the community approves of expanding the delegation program.

Note: Any Foundation-delegated stake is ineligible to participate in this temperature check to prevent bias.

4 Likes

Taking from the treasury to then give the tokens to two delegates, which whom receive the jito token for free? I personally don’t think this is appropriate. Jito holds value, and it should never be given for free but rather earned or bought. I would love to be a delegate. I am a full-time trader and have time to participate in the Jito DAO. The 1 million tokens would be a plus.

Hi Jered, for context the delegation program only transfers token voting power, not the actual tokens themselves. Delegates are not paid and receive no incentives from either the DAO or the Jito Foundation.
We’d invite you to apply to be a delegate using the link in the post above!

Hey thanks for clarifying. That makes a lot more sense.

I would but I’m not qualified yet.

I would think one would be an expert in cryptography. I’m definitely not there yet.

Maybe one day I can say I’m an expert in the study of cryptography.

Following a successful sentiment check, the Jito Foundation added three additional delegates, bringing the total sum of delegated JTO to roughly 14.1 million and the total number of delegates to 20.

Following a former delegate stepping down from their position, the Foundation also elected to add an additional delegate selected from the pool of new candidates in order to replace them.

The current “Season 2” roster of Jito DAO delegates can be seen below:

  • Tané Labs
  • MultichainMike - EmpireDAO
  • Andrew Allen- Coinbase Cloud
  • Kratik - Renzo
  • Ben Hawkins - Solana Foundation
  • Michael Hubbard - Laine
  • Ian Unsworth - Kairos Research
  • 7Layer - Overclock
  • Flipside Ecosystem Growth & Innovation team
  • Juanbug - PGov
  • Mark Hull - Kamino
  • Blockworks Research
  • Gauntlet
  • 0xNallok - Lode Ventures
  • Douro Labs
  • Chainflow
  • Joebuild - Community
  • Shoal Research
  • Shimon - Squads
  • Asymmetric

We believe these new members – who represent additions from the restaking, security, and research wings of the Jito community – will be valuable additions to our governance cohort as we continue to raise the bar of governance sophistication on Solana.

We’d like to thank everyone who submitted an application, and encourage tokenholders to delegate their voting power to any of the capable applicants in the Governance Delegates section of the forum.

2 Likes