As previously announced, the Orbs project is in the midst of the process of formalizing its community governance.

Previous steps included the upgrading of the contributors guide on Github to streamline the process of outside developers contributing to the projects codebase and the introduction of community governance votes on Snapshot. The first two governance votes relating to the reinstatement of a minimum self-stake requirement for Guardians were successful beyond expectations, with high levels of engagement from the entire community.

The next step in this process is the introduction of a process for Orbs Improvement Proposals (called “OIPs”). OIPs are a platform for the community and the public at large, as well as the team, to suggest improvements and changes to the Orbs network. While the project has always been open to suggestions, OIPs will be a dedicated place where suggestions can be organized and publicized for discussions.

OIPs will be posted as issues to the OIP repository on Github, available here: https://github.com/orbs-network/OIPs

As a first OIP, the Orbs core team is proposing that there be ground rules for future OIPs. These include a standard template for OIPs and a defined process for OIPs to be open for community discussions, eventually converted into a governance vote and ultimately implemented in practice.

The team has drafted an OIP-0, setting out these ground rules. The draft can be found here: https://github.com/orbs-network/OIPs/issues/1.

Since the framework set out in OIP-0 will set the ground rules for future upgrades and changes to the project, it is important that everyone with an interest in the Orbs project has an opportunity to provide input. We welcome you to review the draft and make comments and suggestions, whether by adding comments in Github, or discussing on Telegram or in the governance page of the Orbs discord.

Once rough consensus has been reached on final language for OIP-0, the team will present the final draft as a governance vote on Snapshot for the approval of the entire Orbs PoS Universe.

We look forward to a great discussion!