Uniswap’s first governance proposal has ended in defeat, despite the support of 98% of votes cast. Instead of this, it fell around 1% short of the 40 million vote threshold needed for approval by the close of voting.
It has been reported that the poll ended on October 20, with almost 39.6 million UNI staked in favor, compared to around 700,000 opposed.
DeFi blogger Danger ”Safetythird” Zhang described the vote as “the DeFi equivalent of winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college.”
This is the DeFi equivalent of winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college. https://t.co/0V9rF4NqZH — 𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗 (@safetyth1rd) October 19, 2020
However, the proposal sought to reduce the number of tokens needed to submit and pass proposals, as it was put forward by open-source lending protocol and major UNI token holder, Dharma.
The report said that currently, proposals can only be made by entities holding at least 1% of UNI’s circulating supply (10 million UNI, worth around $30 million), and need to surpass 40 million total votes (worth $130 million) to pass.
Ironically, Dharma’s proposal to reduce the number of votes needed to pass governance proposals for Uniswap, fell short of being approved by just 1% https://t.co/jY6M0XgTij — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 20, 2020
Dharma’s recommendations would lower the thresholds so holders of at least 3 million ($9 million) UNI could suggest upgrades, and only require 30 million supporting votes ($100 million) for a proposal to pass.
Responding to the vote’s conclusion, Nadav Hollander, the CEO and co-founder of Dharma, described the result as “a disappointing outcome that demonstrates the impetus for the proposal in the first place.”
A disappointing outcome that demonstrates the impetus for the proposal in the first-place: Despite the vote having 85+% turnout (!), >95% support, with 272 voting FOR and 48 voting AGAINST, the vote still failed. There is a silver lining, though… https://t.co/iXZgwxC5da — Nadav from Dharma (@NadavAHollander) October 19, 2020
Likewise, Dharma’s proposal was not welcomed by all within the DeFi space, with critics pointing out that if it passed just two entities, Dharma and blockchain simulation platform Gauntlet would almost have the number of tokens needed to find quorum between them.
Dharma currently controls 15 million UNI in a single address.
Thus, some onlookers hailed the vote as a success, with crypto developer Agustin Aguilar arguing that voter abstinence should be understood as a barometer of opposition to the proposal.
That's nonsense. The vote didn't pass because users learned about the issue and decided not to vote for it. This is how tokenized governance is *supposed* to work. Votes shouldn't just pass by default. — Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) October 19, 2020
Source: Cointelegraph