JIP-19: Rotate the Security Council
Category: Procedural, Security
Abstract
This proposal initiates a rotation of the Security Council operations by expanding its membership from six to seven and expanding the signing threshold to 4-of-7. These changes will broaden our technical and security expertise and improve “liveness” (i.e. speed and reliability of coordinating threshold signatures) and will initiate a new 12-month term of the Security Council from the point of DAO vote execution.
Motivation
The recent JIP-14 proposal reaffirmed the historic composition of the Security Council, to fulfill the constitutional requirements outlined in the Jito Foundation Bylaws, which mandates a 12-monthly term of Security Council members.
This recent JIP has allowed the additional time to administer a deeper review of the Security Council operations, which has yielded the following insights for minor improvements:
- The Security Council would benefit from a composition that is populated with more security aligned and technical professionals who are specialists in Jito’s technical architecture.
- The Security Council response times could be improved with the addition of a new member allowing the 4 quorum threshold to be hit easier due to increasing the probability that a Security Council member has prompt access to their keys.
Currently, the Security Council is populated with high trust, high esteem founders from key projects in the Solana ecosystem, but this can often generate issues with promptly coordinating the signing set for the Security Council quorum due to increasing demands on their time and travel responsibilities. JIP-19 proposes to change the composition towards security specialists, who are more equipped to respond safely with critical keys in times of Security Council action.
To further improve response times and liveness of the Security Council operations, we propose to expand the Security Council membership by one person, to a total of seven (7) members, which will facilitate rapid coordination of the Security Council Quorum.
These simple but important updates to the Security Council operational set-up is a precautionary move that will further enable rapid response of the Security Council when it is called into action.
Key Terms
Signing Set: The group of Security Council members whose signatures are required to authorize an action.
Threshold Signature (4-of-7): Any Emergency Action or veto now requires four valid signatures out of seven Council members.
Rotation Trigger: Approval of this JIP by Tokenholder Vote initiates the expanded Council and establishes future rotation eligibility.
Liveness: The Council’s ability to achieve its threshold and execute actions within required timeframes, minimizing operational delays.
Security Specialist: An individual with deep expertise in blockchain security, MEV mitigation, or Solana protocol architecture.
Specification
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Expand the signing set of the Security Council from 4 of 6, to 4 of 7.
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Approve the composition of the Security Council to be, members from the following entities:
- Founder of leading Solana DeFi protocol (existing member)
- Founder of leading Solana governance protocol (existing member)
- Representative of Jito Foundation Administrator (existing member)
- Founder of Solana audit firm
- Founder of security research firm specializing in crypto
- Lead security researcher for well regarded crypto audit firm
- Founder of Solana development company
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The rotation will be triggered by the approval and consent by JTO token holder vote
Benefits / Risks
| Benefits | Risks |
|---|---|
| Improved Liveness: More members, improves coordination capabilities | Coordination Overhead: Larger group may require more scheduling effort. |
| Deeper Expertise: Security-focused members aligned to Jito’s architecture. | Onboarding Complexity: New members will need onboarding to Council processes. |
| Maintained Oversight: All changes still subject to Tokenholder elections and Removal Proposals. | Transitional Overhead: Temporary adjustment period as members acclimate. |
Outcomes
Immediate: Security Council is reconfigured to seven members with a 4-of-7 threshold.
Ongoing: Council will convene under the new structure for all Emergency Actions, vetoes, and Regular Meetings. A new 12-month term will begin.
Governance Continuity: Tokenholders retain the right to remove or replace any member via Removal Proposal at any time.
Cost Summary
No new additional costs are required, the existing nominal payment of $1,000 in USDC, or JTO to Security Council members remains in place.