Uniswap DAO Community Members Vote in Favor of New Governance Process

Uniswap community members chose Wednesday to reform the voting process on the popular decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol in an effort to make it easier to change the way the system is governed.

The initial proposal, which opened to a vote last week, saw nearly 100% in favor of altering the governance structure within the ecosystem.

The biggest changes will see Uniswap reduce the number of off-chain "snapshot votes" that precede on-chain votes to one. Final governance votes – the on-chain votes that approve or reject a proposal – will remain the same.

While both kinds of votes require participants to contribute UNI, the native token of Uniswap, on-chain votes add data to the Ethereum blockchain, whereas off-chain votes poll community members on their initial stance towards a proposal.

Read more: On-Chain vs. Off-Chain Transactions: What’s the Difference?

Devin Walsh, director of the Uniswap Foundation, said the proposal seeks to address inefficiencies in the governance structure with changes such as increasing the quorum – or amount of UNI represented – for voting and reducing the number of votes to pass a proposal.

“The intention of the off-chain votes is to provide a signal to the community that there's consensus on a proposal,” Walsh told CoinDesk. “What we found is you only need one off-chain vote to achieve that benefit of a signal, and requiring the community to vote twice is redundant and unnecessary.”

The move to ease governance is part of an effort to empower community members to participate in the protocol’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). In August, Walsh and Head of Ops Kenneth Ng spearheaded efforts to establish the Uniswap Foundation, a body aiming to support developers within the ecosystem and streamline governance.

Uniswap is not alone in trying to facilitate a more frictionless DAO governance environment. Earlier this month, the creator behind Waves Blockchain said he would explore a new DAO governance structure to emphasize accountability within the protocol.

Walsh told CoinDesk that when a DAO establishes its voting structure it must “contemplate whether goals of its governance process are being reached, and be open to iterating upon the process to reach those goals.”