👨🔬 Governance Lab #082
Lab Report #082 - Polygon CGP Season 2, Compound Treasury Strategy, Lido Labs BORG Foundation, and more
gm frens 👋
Welcome back to the Governance Lab, your weekly source for all things StableLab, DeFi, and DAO Governance.
As always, we've filtered through the noise to bring you the governance signals (and drama) that matter.
At a Glance 👀
🥈 Polygon DAO announces Season 2 of Community Grants Program
💴 Compound DAO considers comprehensive treasury growth strategy
💧 Lido DAO discusses new BORG Foundation structure
Let’s dive in 🏊
Polygon
Polygon announces Community Grants Program Season 2 Strategy
The Polygon Community Grants Program is launching its second season with the distribution of 35m POL tokens, running from January 14 to April 15, 2025. The program introduces a dual-track approach, splitting funding between Independent Grant Allocators (15M POL) and a Direct Track (20M POL) managed by the Community Treasury Board.
Five Grant Allocators will begin operations at launch, with additional allocators to be announced in the following weeks. All grants will be denominated and distributed in POL on the Polygon PoS chain, ensuring alignment with the network's native token economy.
Compound
Compound DAO considers treasury growth strategy by Avantgarde
Avantgarde Finance has proposed a treasury growth strategy at Compound aimed at activating the protocol’s idle assets, helping improve capital efficiency through three core components: ETH staking, COMP yield generation, and USDC deployment. The proposal requests allocation of 3,000 ETH (~$9.5M) and 69k COMP (~$5M) to non-custodial Avantgarde vaults for yield generation strategies.
Community response has focused on the strategy's risk-reward balance and fee structure, which includes a 15% performance fee on the ETH vault, 15% on COMP strategy premiums, and a combined 0.5% protocol fee plus 7.5% performance fee on the USDC vault. The proposal represents a significant shift toward more active treasury management while maintaining non-custodial control of assets.
Lido
Lido DAO proposes establishment of BORG Foundation
Lido DAO is considering the formation of the Lido Labs BORG Foundation, a new Cayman Islands-based organization designed to support the protocol's core objectives. The foundation would operate as a Lido-DAO-adjacent entity, focusing on research, development, and maintenance of the Lido protocol.
The proposal outlines a comprehensive structure for managing various protocol functions, including oversight of multiple committees and multisigs such as the Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization, Gas Supply Committee, and Treasury Management Committee. Initial directors will include @konstantin, @EvgeniyEmelyanov, @skozin, and a Cayman Islands professional director.
Implementation is planned for early 2025, with funding expected to commence in April following a separate budget proposal in February-March.
Links
🚀 Launches, Deployments, Partnerships, and M&A
Introducing the Taiko DAO
Announcing Babylon Foundation's Delegation Program
Soneium Mainnet is live
Introducing Ronin Grants Program
Spark Liquidity Layer adds support for USDe
📑 Reads, Insights, and Reports
Ethena 2025: Convergence
Usual Money: a Valuation Framework
An Overview of Arbitrum's DeFi Ecosystem
🧗 Milestones & Updates
Optimism Completes S7 Elections
Synthetix leaves Arbitrum for Base
SafeDAO Governance Analytics Report: December 2024
Curve Finance 2024 Report
🔒 Security, Risk, & Hacks
🗞️ Everything Else
Polygon DAO: Community Grants Program: Season 2 Strategy
Maple Finance: MIP-013: Fee Buyback Mechanism
Compound DAO: Incentive Campaign Execution
Compound DAO: A Treasury Growth Strategy for Compound
Venus Protocol: Messari Protocol Services, Quarterly Research Renewal (2025)
Rootstock Collective: Request for Applications - Shepherds Group
Lido: Scaling Lido with Bitcoin: A Strategic for Treasury Growth
Morpho DAO: Morpho Blue License for Polkadot Parachains
📺 Podcasts, Presentations, & Listens
Michael Bentley: Euler, Credit, and Natural Selection on Into the Bytcode
Callen Van Den Elst (Wintermute) on Messari Protocol Services Podcast
Proposal Tracker™️
⏳ VOTE PENDING | Balancer DAO - Deployment of Balancer V3 on Arbitrum One
Summary: This proposal seeks to deploy Balancer V3 on Arbitrum One. The proposal includes liquidity provision mechanisms, market-making capabilities, and seamless protocol interoperability, scheduled for launch by end of January 2025.
💬 DISCUSSION | Rari DAO - Updating and Migrating Delegate Launchpad Program to RARI chain
Summary: This proposal introduces updates to the Delegate Launchpad program, moving it from Ethereum Mainnet to the RARI chain with a structured allocation of 2,000 RARI voting power per delegate across 15 recipients in each biannual cohort.
💬 DISCUSSION | Maple Finance DAO - Fee Buyback Mechanism
Summary: This proposal introduces a strategic fee buyback mechanism allocating 20% of Maple's Q1 2025 protocol revenue (~$5M ARR) for SYRUP token repurchases and staker distributions. The initiative establishes monthly market purchases and introduces combined rewards reaching ~5.0% APY through buyback yields and inflation allocations. It aims to strengthen holder alignment and increase staking participation while managing the protocol's $5M ARR against $6M operational expenses through 2025.
From the Lab
Introducing the Compound Delegate Compensation Program
In collaboration w/ Arana Digital and PGov, we've published an RFC proposal to introduce delegate compensation at Compound DAO. This initiative aims to allocate $300k over six months to enhance delegate engagement and improve governance processes.
▶︎ Read the full proposal HERE
Stake with us at Chromia
Since its Testnet launch in 2023, we've proudly help secure the development of the Chromia ecosystem. Chromia is an L1 blockchain that revolutionizes data handling with its relational tables.
▶︎ Stake and Earn HERE
Mel joins the Milestones and Metrics Council as Reviewer
Our team member mel.eth has been elected to the Milestones and Metrics Council for Season 7 at Optimism. A big thank you to everyone who voted. The Council is essential to ensuring grants achieve measurable, meaningful impact. Mel will serve as reviewer alongside v3naru from Curia and Takeshi from Tané Labs.
▶︎ See full results HERE
❲ Our Voting ❳
📆 Jan 9th → Jan 16th | 🗳️ Total Votes: 39
See our full vote history and detailed rationale HERE.
Meme
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