7.1
Protocol DAO
The pDAO or protocol DAO is made up of Rocket Pool Node Operators with effectively staked RPL. There is currently debate as to if "effective" is meant to include those operators whose RPL falls below 10% of the value of their pETH (protocol, or borrowed, ETH). Below this value, Node Operators no longer earn RPL rewards.
The pDAO governance jurisdiction is assembled from various RPIPs (RPIP-1, RPIP-4, RPIP-5, RPIP-10, RPIP-22, RPIP-23, RPIP-25).
pDAO Tasks
Generally, the pDAO is meant to represent the community. Anyone with a node and staked RPL is officially pDAO, but all community can participate in governance debates, suggest ideas and participate in polls.
pDAO tasks are grouped into two major sections: protocol funding and managing protocol parameters as defined in the the RocketDAOProtocol
contract. Specific tasks include (as suggested in the RPIPs above, as well as, in Kane Wallman's onchain pDAO guardian1 governance upgrades):
pDAO Funding
To support protocol entities that need funding for Rocket Pool to operate, each year there is 5% inflation of RPL. Initially, this newly minted RPL was distributed as follows:
As the protocol matured, the community determined that funds could be better spent by the pDAO on protocol improvement at the expense of larger payments to the oDAO. The RPIP-25 vote introduced and approved a graduated shift of inflation RPL from oDAO to pDAO that will eventually bring the yearly distribution to:
Once funds are allocated to the pDAO as a whole, they are further distributed by the pDAO to various Management Committees. As of RPIP-10, incoming funds to pDAO are apportioned with the following split:
RPIPs
Rocket Pool Improvement Proposals (RPIPs) are the rules for Rocket Pool governance and can include protocol parameter or funding requirements as well as non-binding or signaling votes to the core team or oDAO.
Although anyone can begin debate in the discord and then the discourse forum, an official RPIP draft requires the help of one of the committee of RPIP editors. Once brought to a vote, an RPIP must reach quorum (> 50% of the available votes must be cast for any outcome) and it must get the majority of the vote.
If is the effective staked RPL on a node, the node's voting power is . The division by two is arbitrary and unnecessary.
RPIP voting is currently being redesigned to allow voting onchain rather than via snapshot.
1 Protocol parameters, such as inflation rate and deposit amounts, are currently controlled by the pDAO guardian. This was created to ease transition from core team control to pDAO control once the protocol was battle-tested and the DAO was established and functional. As of this writing, passing of guardian control is underway.