Maximize Your DAO Influence: Understanding Soroban Governor Token & Voting Power

Are you looking to enhance your governance within a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) built on Soroban? Understanding the nuances of the Soroban Governor Token contract is key. This guide dives deep into how this specialized token works, how it dictates voting power, and how it ensures fair proposal thresholds.

What is the Soroban Governor Token Contract?

The Soroban Governor Token contract is the backbone of voting power within your DAO. Unlike traditional tokens, the Soroban Governor Token isn't a tradable stellar asset. Think of it as a measure of influence derived from your engagement, assigned through a governance contract after each voting round.

• Not a Standard Token: It isn't transferable; that means you cannot send it or receive it from other users.
• Voting Power Representation: Balances represent individual voting strength within the DAO.
• Linked to Governance: Balances are set by the governance contract after each voting round.

How Your Voting Power is Determined

Your balance of the Soroban Governor Token represents your voting power. But how is this balance determined?

• Snapshot of Engagement: After each voting round, the governance contract analyzes user participation and allocates token balances accordingly.
• Non-Transferable Influence: This unique design prevents the buying and selling of voting power, promoting engagement-driven governance.

Understanding Optimal Proposal Thresholds for Fair Governance

To prevent spam proposals and ensure serious initiatives are considered, the Soroban Governor employs a smart mechanism for calculating proposal thresholds.

• Dynamic Calculation: optimal_threshold() dynamically determines the minimum voting power needed to submit a proposal that reads addresses and balances for each user.
• Top 10% Rule: It identifies the balances of all users, sorts them, and selects the smallest balance within the top 10%.
• Minimum Participation Guarantee: If the top 10% represents fewer than 5 users, the threshold is set to the 5th highest balance. This ensures at least five participants can always create proposals.
• Data Integrity Check: Before calculating, the contract verifies that everyone's balances are updated to the most recent round, this ensures data integrity for all users.

Why this Threshold Calculation Matters

This sophisticated approach to threshold calculation has significant benefits:

• Prevents Oligarchy: Avoids a few large token holders dominating the proposal process.
• Encourages Broad Participation: Ensures a reasonable number of participants can initiate proposals.
• Maintains Relevance: Adaptively adjusts the threshold based on user activity and token distribution.

Ensuring Data Integrity: Balance Updates Are Critical

A crucial aspect of the Soroban Governor Token contract is ensuring the balances are up-to-date.

• update_balance() Function: An external script calls this function, using the user's address as an argument.
• Potential Synchronization Issues: If the script encounters errors, some users might not have their balances updated.
• Importance of Verification: Before calculating a proposal threshold, the contract verifies that all users have updated balances from the same round.