Governance

ℹ️info

JMES's Governance module inherits from Cosmos SDK's gov module. This document is a stub, and mainly covers important JMES-specific notes on how it is used.

The JMES protocol is a decentralized public blockchain governed by community members. Governance is the democratic process that allows users and validators to make changes to the JMES protocol. Community members submit, vote, and implement proposals.

The governance module maintains the logic for all governance activity.

If you are an advanced user and want to learn about submitting or voting on proposals using JMESd, visit the Governance section of the JMESd Reference.

Concepts

The following concepts describe the governance proposal procedure.

Drafting and submission

Proposals start as ideas within the community on JMES's Discord. After gaining support and feedback from the community, a proposer drafts and submits a proposal.

To learn more about the different types of proposals, see the Proposal types section below.

Deposit period

After a proposal is submitted, it enters the deposit period, where it must reach a total minimum deposit of 512 bJMES within 7 days from the time of its submission. The deposit threshold is reached when the sum of the initial deposit (from the proposer) and the deposits from all other interested network participants meet or exceed 512 bJMES.

Deposits protect against unnecessary proposals and spam.

Deposits get refunded if all of the following conditions are met:

The minimum deposit of 512 bJMES is reached within the 7-day deposit period.
Quorum is met: all casted votes represent more than 30% of all staked bJMES.
The total number of NoWithVeto votes is less than 33.4% of the total vote.
A vote returns a majority of Yes or No votes.

Deposits are burned under any of the following conditions:

The minimum deposit of 512 bJMES is not reached within the one-week deposit period.
Quorum is not met: the number of total votes after the one-week voting period is less than 30% of all staked bJMES.
The number of NoWithVeto votes is above 33.4% of the total vote.

Voting period

If the minimum deposit has been reached before the end of the deposit period, then the proposal goes into a one-week voting period. While the proposal is in voting, holders of staked bJMES can cast votes for the proposal.

Voting options

The 4 voting options available are:

Yes: in favor.
No: not in favor.
NoWithVeto: not in favor, and the creator should lose their deposit.
Abstain: neither for or against. An abstain vote counts toward meeting quorum but does not count toward the threshold.

Delegators vote using their staked bJMES. One staked bJMES equals one vote.

If a delegator does not specify a vote with their staked bJMES, their vote defaults to the vote cast by the validator their bJMES is staked to. Delegators can override a validator's vote at any time during the voting period by voting with their staked bJMES.

Tallying

The logic for tallying votes can be found in the tally.go file of the Cosmos SDK.

For a proposal to pass, the following conditions must be met.

Voter participation must be at least quorum ( $Q$ ). The current quorum value is 30% of all staked bJMES.

\frac{Yes + No + NoWithVeto + Abstain}{Total Staked Tokens} \ge Q

The ratio of NoWithVeto votes must be less than veto ( $V$ ). The current veto value is 33%.

\frac{NoWithVeto}{Yes + No + NoWithVeto + Abstain} \le V

The ratio of Yes votes must be greater than threshold ( $T$ ). The current threshold value is 50%. Abstain votes are not included in the threshold tally.

\frac{Yes}{Yes + No + NoWithVeto} \gt T

If a proposal meets all of the previous conditions, it passes. If a proposal fails to meet any of the previous conditions, it fails. Proposals that get rejected with veto do not get their deposits refunded. The parameters quorum, veto, and threshold exist as blockchain parameters in the Governance module.

☢️caution

Deposits will not be refunded for proposals that are rejected with veto, do not meet quorum, or fail to reach the minimum deposit during the deposit period. Non-refunded deposits are burned.

Proposal Implementation

Once a governance proposal passes, the changes described are put into effect by the proposal handler. Generic proposals such as a TextProposal must be reviewed by JMES protocol developers and the community for decisions on how to manually implement them.

Although parameter changes get updated immediately, they generally are not put into effect until the next epoch operation. Epochs occur every 100800 blocks or roughly every 7.7 days, given a 6.6-second block time.

Data

Proposal

type Proposal struct {
	Content `json:"content" yaml:"content"` // Proposal content interface
	ProposalID       uint64         `json:"id" yaml:"id"`                                 // ID of the proposal
	Status           ProposalStatus `json:"proposal_status" yaml:"proposal_status"`       // Status of the Proposal {Pending, Active, Passed, Rejected}
	FinalTallyResult TallyResult    `json:"final_tally_result" yaml:"final_tally_result"` // Result of Tallies
	SubmitTime     time.Time `json:"submit_time" yaml:"submit_time"`           // Time of the block where TxGovSubmitProposal was included
	DepositEndTime time.Time `json:"deposit_end_time" yaml:"deposit_end_time"` // Time that the Proposal would expire if deposit amount isn't met
	TotalDeposit   sdk.Coins `json:"total_deposit" yaml:"total_deposit"`       // Current deposit on this proposal. Initial value is set at InitialDeposit
	VotingStartTime time.Time `json:"voting_start_time" yaml:"voting_start_time"` // Time of the block where MinDeposit was reached. -1 if MinDeposit is not reached
	VotingEndTime   time.Time `json:"voting_end_time" yaml:"voting_end_time"`     // Time that the VotingPeriod for this proposal will end and votes will be tallied
}

A Proposal is a data structure representing a petition for a change that is submitted to the blockchain alongside a deposit. Once its deposit reaches a certain MinDeposit, the proposal is confirmed and voting opens. Bonded bJMES holders can then send TxGovVote transactions to vote on the proposal. JMES currently follows a simple voting scheme of 1 Bonded bJMES = 1 Vote.

The Content of a proposal is the interface that contains the information about the Proposal, such as the title, description, and any notable changes. A Content type can be implemented by any module. The ProposalRoute of the Content returns a string that must be used to route the handler of the Content in the Governance keeper. This process allows the governance keeper to execute proposal logic implemented by any module. If a proposal passes, the handler is executed. Only if the handler is successful does the state get persisted and the proposal finally pass. Otherwise, the proposal is rejected.

Message Types

MsgSubmitProposal

type MsgSubmitProposal struct {
	Content        Content        `json:"content" yaml:"content"`
	InitialDeposit sdk.Coins      `json:"initial_deposit" yaml:"initial_deposit"` // Initial deposit paid by sender. Must be strictly positive
	Proposer       sdk.AccAddress `json:"proposer" yaml:"proposer"`               // Address of the proposer
}

MsgDeposit

type MsgDeposit struct {
	ProposalID uint64         `json:"proposal_id" yaml:"proposal_id"` // ID of the proposal
	Depositor  sdk.AccAddress `json:"depositor" yaml:"depositor"`     // Address of the depositor
	Amount     sdk.Coins      `json:"amount" yaml:"amount"`           // Coins to add to the proposal's deposit
}

MsgVote

type MsgVote struct {
	ProposalID uint64         `json:"proposal_id" yaml:"proposal_id"` // ID of the proposal
	Voter      sdk.AccAddress `json:"voter" yaml:"voter"`             // Address of the voter
	Option     VoteOption     `json:"option" yaml:"option"`           // Option from OptionSet chosen by the voter
}

Proposal types

Text Proposal

type TextProposal struct {
	Title       string `json:"title" yaml:"title"`
	Description string `json:"description" yaml:"description"`
}

Text Proposals are used to create general-purpose petitions, such as asking core developers or community members to implement a specific feature. The community can reference a passed Text Proposal to the core developers or community members to indicate that a feature that potentially requires a soft or hard fork is in significant demand.

Parameter Change Proposals

type ParameterChangeProposal struct {
	Title       string        `json:"title" yaml:"title"`
	Description string        `json:"description" yaml:"description"`
	Changes     []ParamChange `json:"changes" yaml:"changes"`
}
type ParamChange struct {
	Subspace string `json:"subspace" yaml:"subspace"`
	Key      string `json:"key" yaml:"key"`
	Subkey   string `json:"subkey,omitempty" yaml:"subkey,omitempty"`
	Value    string `json:"value" yaml:"value"`
}

Parameter Change Proposals are a special type of proposal which, once passed, will automatically go into effect by directly altering the network's specified parameter.

Software Upgrade Proposals

This type of proposal requires validators to update their node software to a new version at a specified block height.

🔥danger

Software upgrade proposals can be difficult to execute. Exercise caution when using this proposal type, as you may lose your deposit due to an incorrect proposal.

Transitions

End-Block

This section was taken from the official Cosmos SDK docs and placed here for your convenience to understand the Governance process.

ProposalProcessingQueue is a queue (queue[proposalID]) containing all the ProposalIDs of proposals that reach MinDeposit. At the end of each block, all the proposals that have reached the end of their voting period are processed. To process a finished proposal, the application tallies the votes, computes the votes of each validator, and checks if every validator in the validator set has voted. If the proposal is accepted, deposits are refunded. Finally, the proposal content Handler is executed.

for finishedProposalID in GetAllFinishedProposalIDs(block.Time)
	proposal = load(Governance, <proposalID|'proposal'>) // proposal is a const key
	validators = Keeper.getAllValidators()
	tmpValMap := map(sdk.AccAddress)ValidatorGovInfo
	// Initiate mapping at 0. This is the amount of shares of the validator's vote that will be overridden by their delegator's votes
	for each validator in validators
	tmpValMap(validator.OperatorAddr).Minus = 0
	// Tally
	voterIterator = rangeQuery(Governance, <proposalID|'addresses'>) //return all the addresses that voted on the proposal
	for each (voterAddress, vote) in voterIterator
	delegations = stakingKeeper.getDelegations(voterAddress) // get all delegations for current voter
	for each delegation in delegations
		// make sure delegation.Shares does NOT include shares being unbonded
		tmpValMap(delegation.ValidatorAddr).Minus += delegation.Shares
		proposal.updateTally(vote, delegation.Shares)
	_, isVal = stakingKeeper.getValidator(voterAddress)
	if (isVal)
		tmpValMap(voterAddress).Vote = vote
	tallyingParam = load(GlobalParams, 'TallyingParam')
	// Update tally if validator voted they voted
	for each validator in validators
	if tmpValMap(validator).HasVoted
		proposal.updateTally(tmpValMap(validator).Vote, (validator.TotalShares - tmpValMap(validator).Minus))
	// Check if proposal is accepted or rejected
	totalNonAbstain := proposal.YesVotes + proposal.NoVotes + proposal.NoWithVetoVotes
	if (proposal.Votes.YesVotes/totalNonAbstain > tallyingParam.Threshold AND proposal.Votes.NoWithVetoVotes/totalNonAbstain  < tallyingParam.Veto)
	//  proposal was accepted at the end of the voting period
	//  refund deposits (non-voters already punished)
	for each (amount, depositor) in proposal.Deposits
		depositor.AtomBalance += amount
	stateWriter, err := proposal.Handler()
	if err != nil
		// proposal passed but failed during state execution
		proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusFailed
		else
		// proposal pass and state is persisted
		proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusAccepted
		stateWriter.save()
	else
	// proposal was rejected
	proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusRejected
	store(Governance, <proposalID|'proposal'>, proposal)

Parameters

The subspace for the Governance module is gov.

type DepositParams struct {
	MinDeposit       sdk.Coins     `json:"min_deposit,omitempty" yaml:"min_deposit,omitempty"`
	MaxDepositPeriod time.Duration `json:"max_deposit_period,omitempty" yaml:"max_deposit_period,omitempty"`
}
type TallyParams struct {
	Quorum    sdk.Dec `json:"quorum,omitempty" yaml:"quorum,omitempty"`
	Threshold sdk.Dec `json:"threshold,omitempty" yaml:"threshold,omitempty"`
	Veto      sdk.Dec `json:"veto,omitempty" yaml:"veto,omitempty"`
}
type VotingParams struct {
	VotingPeriod time.Duration `json:"voting_period,omitempty" yaml:"voting_period,omitempty"`
}

MinDeposit

type: Coins
denom: ubJMES
amount: 512000000

The minimum deposit amount for a proposal to enter a voting period. Currently 512 bJMES.

MaxDepositPeriod

type: time.Duration (seconds)
"max_deposit_period": "604800s"

The maximum period of time for a proposal to meet the minimum deposit. Currently 1 week.

Quorum

type: Dec
"quorum": "0.300000000000000000",

The minimum number of votes needed for a proposal to be valid. As of JMES governance prop 3547, 30% of all staked bJMES must vote to reach Quorum.

Threshold

type: Dec
value: 50%

The minimum number of Yes votes needed for a proposal to pass. Currently, 50% of all votes must be Yes. Abstain votes are excluded from this tally.

Veto

type: Dec
value: 0.334

The minimum value of NoWithVeto votes needed for a proposal to be vetoed. If 33.4% or more of the total votes cast are NoWithVeto, the proposal fails, and the creator's deposit is not returned.

VotingPeriod

type: time.Duration (seconds)
"voting_period": "604800s"

The length of the voting period. Currently one week.

Governance

Concepts​

Drafting and submission​

Deposit period​

Voting period​

Voting options​

Tallying​

Proposal Implementation​

Data​

Proposal​

Message Types​

MsgSubmitProposal​

MsgDeposit​

MsgVote​

Proposal types​

Text Proposal​

Parameter Change Proposals​

Software Upgrade Proposals​

Transitions​

End-Block​

Parameters​

MinDeposit​

MaxDepositPeriod​

Quorum​

Threshold​

Veto​

VotingPeriod​