PoD governance mechanism upgrade on the testnet — Governance nodes will vote on the future of four proposals! Nebulas Follow Mar 6 · 6 min read

Since the launch of the Proof of Devotion (PoD) consensus mechanism on the testnet on January 8, 2020, over 60 nodes have joined this successful program. Today, we are happy to announce that the testnet portion of the consensus mechanism is complete and Nebulas will now conduct its first PoD governance cycle!

The testnet PoD governance mechanism will be launched on the testnet today, March 6, 2020(UTC+8) and will last for approximately 3 days (based on block height). After this 3 day period, the nodes that have generated the most blocks will participate in the first PoD governance voting cycle which will begin on about March 9th, 2020. Invited testnet nodes will participate in the decision-making of important proposals such as PoD penalty rules and the expansion of the technical committee.

What is proof of devotion (PoD)

Proof of Devotion (PoD) is a mechanism based on the contribution of community contributors. It consists of two parts: consensus mechanism and governance mechanism. Through the selection of nodes, a consensus committee is established to realize the decentralization of the main network nodes. The governance committee is composed of high-quality nodes to organize community governance in the form of a representative system.

Structure of the Governance Committee

Nebulas realizes the contribution of different roles to the ecosystem via decentralized collaboration. Nebulas’ governance committee is composed of 51 consensus nodes that are selected by the nodes who generated the largest number of blocks in a governance cycle (governance cycle is 820 polling cycles/about 30 days). The more blocks produced by a consensus node, the greater the contribution to the network thereby ensuring the stability of the mainnet.

Nebulas’ node ranking algorithm considers the amount of NAX pledged to a node (NAX is distributed through decentralized staking(dStaking)). The dStaking distribution algorithm considers the number of NAS and the duration of the dStake by the address. As a result, this is a direct reflection of the addresses contribution to the ecosystem. If a node receives more NAX support (either by community support or node operator), it is considered a greater contribution to the ecosystem.

The cycle of about 30 days also ensures the possible rotation of the members of the governance committee thereby ensuring quality network supporters are selected. The establishment of the Governance Committee prevents the situation where the node operator only cares about producing blocks and even hinders ecosystem development. At the same time, the governance committee, which is composed autonomously according to the contribution of each node, avoids the possible unfairness of the various candidates and is the most efficient and reliable way to organize them at present.

PoD governance scenario

Nebulas has been experimenting with decentralized collaboration for a long time. In March 2019, it launched the community collaboration platform go.nebulas.io, which is committed to reducing the threshold for community participation in the Nebulas ecosystem, injecting vitality into the community and exploring new blockchain application scenarios.

Community members can make their own suggestions on the Nebulas on this platform, participate in project development and operations and monitor the project development progress of the Nebulas team and other members of the community. Nebulas’ latest on-chain governance model innovation will also be launched on the community collaboration platform.

Over the past year, we have distributed more than 200 awards totaling 159,915.47 NAS to the community. This includes:

Daily community operations and content translation in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, Japanese and other language communities;

Wallets;

Browsers;

Wiki additions and improvements;

Various types of development tools, such as community ecological project development;

Bug reports;

Technical research;

Media and publicity, etc…

Various decisions, such as the destruction or use of community funds and modifications of main network parameters have also been completed via initiating proposals and have been decided from community voting.

In the future, the daily operation and project review of the community collaboration platform will be under the responsibility of the Nebulas Technical Committee. The approval of projects and proposals and the use of community collaboration funds will be determined by the governance committee. So far, the community collaboration platform has constructed a multi-dimensional ecosystem. Technological developers and community operators can earn income by submitting and claiming projects. Experts and members who have long contributed to the community and are familiar with the ecosystem situation can get a share of the reward by reviewing and organizing community productivity. Excellent consensus nodes will receive governance rewards through decisions on whether projects pass or fail.

At present, we are facing new application scenarios. Information interaction has evolved from a single, simple function to complex and diverse user roles are also increasing. We believe that the new direction of development cannot be produced behind closed doors, nor can it be created through single-individual stylized work. New ideas may arise from a discussion on the Internet and new partners may come from a multinational cooperative development or an occasional offline event.

We hope that through experiments on decentralized collaboration, we will try to give people who are interested in Nebulas’ vision of “Let everyone get values from decentralized collaboration fairly.” to participate in the co-construction.

Give dreams a chance, give yourself a chance, and change is insight.

How does the PoD governance mechanism work?

The governance mechanism uses on-chain voting as the main means to manage community collaboration and community assets. For details, see: https://wiki.nebulas.io/en/latest/node-strategy/governance.html

First PoD governance voting rules

Proposal being voted on:

Voting Details

The timeline for the first governance cycle on testnet: The specific date is based on the testnet block height when the new testnet launched. The beginning of the governance cycle is expected to start on the evening of March 6th and end the evening of March 9th, Beijing time — 3 days in total.

The specific date is based on the testnet block height when the new testnet launched. The beginning of the governance cycle is expected to start on the evening of March 6th and end the evening of March 9th, Beijing time — 3 days in total. PoD governance voting start date: The specific dates are based on the block height of the testnet but we expect voting to begin on the evening of March 9th, 2020, Beijing time. Additional details will be published on the node platform and we will notify all participating nodes via the Email address entered when joining the testnet program.

The specific dates are based on the block height of the testnet but we expect voting to begin on the evening of March 9th, 2020, Beijing time. Additional details will be published on the node platform and we will notify all participating nodes via the Email address entered when joining the testnet program. Governance committee selection: The top 51 active participating testnet nodes that meet the voting conditions will take part in the governance vote. The selection process is based on how many blocks a node generates during this 3 day governance cycle (the more, the better);

The top 51 active participating testnet nodes that meet the voting conditions will take part in the governance vote. The selection process is based on how many blocks a node generates during this 3 day governance cycle (the more, the better); Voting time: 72 consensus cycles, about 3 days;

72 consensus cycles, about 3 days; Voting platform: Node platform node.nebulas.io (testnet);

Node platform node.nebulas.io (testnet); Voting quota: 1 NAX testnet token per proposal. These testnet NAX tokens will be sent from the Nebulas team to all participating nodes;

1 NAX testnet token per proposal. These testnet NAX tokens will be sent from the Nebulas team to all participating nodes; Voting rights: Each node with voting rights has the opportunity to vote on all four proposals.

Each node with voting rights has the opportunity to vote on all four proposals. Voting method: Votes must be cast from the governance address that have been entered in the node management profile (for active nodes) and from the Nebulas Chrome extension. When voting, be sure to select the testnet in the Chrome extension when voting and only use 1 NAX per proposal.

Votes must be cast from the governance address that have been entered in the node management profile (for active nodes) and from the Nebulas Chrome extension. When voting, be sure to select the testnet in the Chrome extension when voting and only use 1 NAX per proposal. Voting options: Support, Oppose, Abstain;

Support, Oppose, Abstain; Passed votes: If a proposal receives more than a 50% support level, it will be passed, otherwise the proposal will not be approved;

If a proposal receives more than a 50% support level, it will be passed, otherwise the proposal will not be approved; Post-vote processing: After the voting is over, if the proposal passes, it will be executed immediately. The testnet NAX tokens will be destroyed. The testnet reward rules of the nodes remain unchanged and the final reward amount will be announced after the testing of the consensus mechanism and governance mechanism has been completed.

During the first public test of PoD governance vote, node operators and the community are also welcome to actively find loopholes and propose improvements. If necessary, adjustments can be made before PoD governance voting begins on the mainnet.

The first PoD governance vote on the mainnet will be held at the end of the first governance cycle after the mainnet goes live, which is expected to be in April of 2020.