SSV DAO Overview - The SSV Network

The core mission of ssv.network is to offer a decentralized and secure ETH staking infrastructure. The SSV DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) was created to decentralize ownership and governance of the ssv.network protocol and treasury, with SSV being the native token of the network.

ssv.network is an open-source, community-driven protocol that allows for the trustless distribution and operation of an Ethereum validator between independent staking operators (nodes). It is a response to limitations of the existing Ethereum staking ecosystem. Currently, ETH staking is concentrated in the hands of a limited number of service providers and validator clients, resulting in centralization. SSV makes staking more accessible with easy access to a variety of staking operators and configurations, resulting in improved security, fault tolerance, and validator performance.

Why a DAO?

Decentralized governance is a natural extension of a decentralized protocol. SSV introduces a more secure and decentralized infrastructure for ETH staking. The protocol permits any person or entity to become an operator and receive fees for running validators on behalf of stakers. In order for the protocol to remain agnostic, decision making is reserved for SSV token holders who have the ecosystem’s best interests at heart. Simply put, a DAO:

Is the optimal way to coordinate between independent parties in the ecosystem.
Allows the ecosystem to openly discuss and vote on protocol and network decisions.
Sets fair network fees (the portion of operator income collected by the DAO treasury).
Decides fairly on treasury use and allocation.

The only viable path forward for ETH staking is decentralization with zero usability compromises, and SSV technology, in combination with strong community governance, offers exactly that.

The Role and Responsibilities of a DAO Member

DAO members define the initial parameters of the SSV DAO and propose and vote for new initiatives, protocol changes, fees, and treasury-related decisions:

Setting and adjusting protocol fees – the percentage (%) of fees the DAO is entitled to receive.
Operator supervision – voting negligent operators out of the network.
Treasury decisions – DAO use of accumulated fees, grants, and investment income.
Roadmap and protocol improvement related decisions.

DAO – Native Token Symbiotics

The SSV DAO is for-profit , as its main goal is to increase the amount of assets held by the DAO treasury. SSV token, the native token of ssv.network, will comprise the majority of the DAO’s treasury assets. As more people stake ETH using ssv.network, more income from network fees will be generated for the DAO in the form of SSV tokens. Therefore, to maximize income for the DAO, members will need to contribute to:

Protocol development and decisions.
Determining protocol fees.
Supervising operator activity.
Assisting with growing the ecosystem (ETH at stake, # of operators, DAO members).

The native token treasury can be used to fund projects that will grow the protocol and ecosystem:

Grants for protocol development and network growth.
Revenue shared directly with SSV token holders.
Marketing and community incentivization (dMarketing).
Token swaps for treasury diversification.
Investments by strategic partners in exchange for SSV tokens.

Multi-Sig Committee

The DAO Multi-Sig Committee members (“signers”) are the “gatekeepers” of ssv.network.

The committee’s main responsibilities are to:

Execute transactions approved by the DAO.
Exercise veto power over proposals they determine to be poorly drafted or malicious in intent.
Reject ‘high-risk’ operators for the protection of SSV protocol users.
Force malicious and/or negligent operators to exit the network (i.e operators that do not perform their duties or have low performance rates over time).

Multi-Sig Committee Signers

At the current time, the multi-sig committee signers are:

Lakshman Sankar
Bitfly
Preston Van Loon
Thorsten Behrens aka “Yorick”
Sam Clarkson
Tim Beiko

Process for Submitting Proposals, Requests for Grants, and Voting

A proposal or request for grant should start its life as a discussion on the ssv.network forum to receive community consensus. However, anyone with 100 SSV tokens can submit a request, using the template on the forum. A submitted proposal must start voting within 1 month of submission.
Voting is done on snapshot, an off-chain voting dApp developed by Balancer 5. A vote on a proposal is 7 days long, requiring >50% of positive votes. The SSV token is used to vote on all ssv.network decisions. A minimum quorum requires 5% of circulating SSV supply, based on the total number of CDT converted to SSV and newly minted SSV tokens. The date and time in which a vote has ended is called the “vote expiry”.
Execution of any passed vote is done via the multi-sig committee according to the mechanical specifications of the proposals and execution will occur within 60 days of the vote expiry.

GRANT APPLICATIONS

We highly encourage those that are legitimately interested in actively growing ssv.network along with the Ethereum Foundation to apply for a grant to fund your project!

SSV DAO GRANT TYPES

Dashboard Development – building on top of the SSV protocol
Integrations – connection to other protocols and blockchains
Community building – social engagement & promotion
Localization – integrating communities and languages
Dapp Development
Liquidity Token

Links to Grants that have passed the DAO voting process:

Network Growth Grant
Formal Verification of SSV Protocol
Implementing SSV into the AUDIT.one ETH2-Staking Pool
Enabling next-gen staking with SSV <> Stader

Decentralized Marketing (dMarketing)

In addition to decentralizing staking, one of the goals of SSV is to decentralize the ownership of marketing efforts. However, this is easier said than done… The big question here is: could a group of ‘unknown’ individuals in a decentralized marketing machine outperform a group of people trained for the job? We believe that while they might not initially, the final result will better represent the community behind it. And, in the long run, we believe that an incentivized (i.e. compensated) community will be the outcome.

But, how do you find the right people to hand-off such an important job to? When you build a community, (Discord, Telegram or otherwise), after some time passes, a few dominant, well-respected users will stand out from the crowd. These selected few, (aka ‘ambassadors’) understand the vision of the project and represent the community, as their unofficial representatives.

Now, to make them official representatives, there has to be an autonomous, properly funded incentivization mechanism. For ssv.network dMarketing efforts, resources are being allocated periodically to the ‘ambassadors’ for them to manage. Think of it as a multi-sig committee or a grants program for marketing.

How is it working out? In short, it’s been great! The ssv.network ambassadors are leading the program as dMarketing is starting to take shape.

Some notable dMarketing activity:

✺ BenAffleck’s ssv.network Weekly Digest

✺ Fod’s ssv.network Reddit page

✺ SpookyG’s SSV Treasury Dune Board / Treasury overview

To keep things transparent, we’ve created a Shared Activity Board where the most important tasks and initiatives are listed and updated. Here, anyone can submit a request, and the ambassadors will add it to the task list.

Ambassadors are able to execute tasks in 3 ways:

DIY — An ambassador or community member completes the task
Delegated Bounty programs — The ambassadors will decide on the prioritization and monitor the allocation of the bounty.
Delegated Contracting / Tender — Long term provider (i.e influencer, newsletter, sponsorship), decided, prioritized and governed by the ambassadors.

Join the dMarketing Cause

It’s your community, so you call the shots. We invite you to help shape the program’s functionality, scope, and incentivization program. Join and make a difference!

Read more about dMarketing here: Phase I, Phase II

More helpful DAO-related links:

SSV Network DAO