HIP 4 Amendment: Hop Delegate Incentivization Trial

Title: HIP 4 Amendment: Hop Delegate Incentivization Trial
Author(s): GFX Labs (@gfxlabs)
Contributors:
Status: RFC
Date Posted: 2022-12-17

Motivation

An edge case has been identified in how delegates self-report their participation under this trial. When a poll is open during two different reporting periods, it leads to confusion on whether that poll should be first counted for delegate compensation purposes. There has also been interest from delegates in a linear penalty vs a cliff for compensation.

Summary of Amendments

  1. Clarification that a poll is only counted for participation once that poll has closed (in the “Reporting & Administration” section).
  2. Removal of the preamble that is no longer relevant (prior the “Motivation” section).
  3. Inserted a link to a Dune query to help delegates calculate their HOP for a period; removed language stating that a query would be made after HIP 4 was approved (in the “Reporting & Administration” section).
  4. Added the exact date the delegation trial will sunset now that date is known (in the “Sunset” section).
  5. Lowered the threshold for minimum participation for delegates to be eligible from 90% to 70% on both voting and communication (in the “Eligibility” section). Added a penalty to delegates with participation or communication of at least 70% but less than 90% (in the “Specifications & Incentives Paid” section).

New Text For HIP 4 In Full (Additions In Bold; Removals In Strike Marks):

This is a request for comment (RFC), in line with current Hop governance processes 6, intended to provide a place for comment and feedback to be incorporated before moving it to a temperature check and requesting a sponsor to create a formal Hop Proposal.

As per the instructions in Phase I (RFC), the question posed is: “Should Hop governance incentivize participation by delegates under this trial program?”

GFX Labs, Flipside Crypto, and Franco Macklis are all under the 1 million HOP threshold to initiate a formal vote if the temperature check is successful.

Motivation

Hop’s governance is new, with a need to decentralize control and oversight of the protocol. This trial program aims to attract and retain both entities and individuals who will actively participate in governance on behalf of HOP token-holders.

Sunset

This program is intended to be a temporary trial and will end after 6 months unless it is extended through a governance vote, which is March 10, 2023.

Eligibility

Minimum Participation Requirement: To remain eligible for delegate incentives, a delegate must maintain at least a 90% 70% participation rate. Participation is measured as voting in any “temperature check” or on-chain governance vote.

Minimum Communication Requirement: To remain eligible for delegate incentives, a delegate must maintain at least a 90% 70% communication rate. Participation is measured as providing for any “temperature check” or on-chain governance vote a summary, voting position, and justification for that position. A missed vote will still require communication to avoid a lower communication rate.

Measurement Period: Both minimum requirements will be measured on a 6-month basis, which is also the intended length of this trial. If this program is renewed, participation and communication requirements will continue to be measured on a rolling 6-month (182-day) basis.

Minimum Delegation Threshold: To remain eligible for delegate incentives, a delegate must maintain at least 90,000 HOP voting weight.

Specifications For Incentives Paid

Delegate incentives increase with the amount of HOP delegated, but in a decreasing fashion. This means that a small delegate will receive a greater incentive per voting weight than a large delegate, but a larger delegate will receive more.

The formula for delegate incentives is:

I = (log(h)-4.55)*3500

I = Incentives to be received

h = lowest level of HOP delegated that month

If the lower of a delegate’s communication or participation metrics are at least 70%, but less than 90%, a penalty is applied to compensation.

The formula for the penalty is:

c = (.9 - p) * 3

c = Penalty to incentives, expressed as a percentage

p = min(participation, communication)

Example: A delegate has 82% participation and 100% communication. They would have been eligible for 100 HOP in compensation. Because their participation was only 82%, a penalty of 24% is applied. A 24% penalty would reduce the 100 HOP compensation to 76 HOP.

This formula targets ~1400 HOP for a delegate at the minimum threshold. At the time of writing, 20 delegates qualify for the minimum eligibility threshold.

For reference, a few benchmarks:

  • a delegate holding all 1 billion HOP would receive 12,075 HOP per month.
  • 10 million HOP, a delegate would receive 8,575 HOP per month.
  • 1 million HOP, a delegate would receive 5,075 HOP per month.
  • 100,000 HOP, a delegate would receive 1,575 HOP per month.

This formula’s slope was chosen to provide the targeted levels of minimum and maximum compensation and is open to revision at the close of this trial. In general, it was selected to provide a slower accumulation of incentives for larger delegates than smaller ones, while preserving a noticeable increase at all levels (under the maximum cap) for any delegate that can attract more delegated HOP votes.

This link provides a graph and visualization for those interested.

Reporting & Administration

Delegate compensation will be paid directly to delegate addresses (or their assigned alternative address) by the Community Multi-Sig.

For this trial, delegates must self-report that they have met the 90% participation and 90% communication thresholds each month to receive delegate incentives. Each delegate should also self-report the lowest level of HOP they were delegated that month and the number of incentives they are eligible to receive.

To ease this workload, Flipside Crypto will create a query where delegates can input their address and view an undisputed lowest level of delegated HOP that month.

To ease this workload, a Dune query has been created by @shanefontaine. The query can be found here.

If the delegate wishes the HOP to be sent to an address other than their delegate address, they should also specify that address in their monthly self-reporting. Delegates are reminded that HOP incentive payments will be public and on-chain.

This self-reporting will occur on the Hop Forum 2 under a thread dedicated to reporting delegate eligibility each month. In the event a community member disputes (with evidence) the self-reported metrics of a delegate, it is up to the Community Multisig to determine whether a discrepancy was in bad faith. The Community Multisig is authorized to exclude any delegate from this program for the remainder of the 6-month trial if such a dispute occurs.

For clarity, delegates should self-report using the following formulae:

Vote participation percent = (Number of proposals voted upon Ă· all proposals) * 100

Communication participation percent = Number of proposals referenced with voting position and reasoning for that position Ă· all proposals ) * 100

Proposals include all “temperature check” polls on Snapshot as well as formal on-chain polls. Only submissions after the date of approval of this program – for 6 months – are to be considered for this reporting. Only votes that have concluded are to be included at the time of reporting; any polls still open are not to be included in participation metrics.

Example: A Snapshot poll is open from December 3rd through December 11th, but the reporting period for delegate participation ends on December 10th. Under this amendment, it is intended that delegates would not report their participation in this poll for a period ending on the 10th of December. The poll would be reported in the following period.

If this program is extended in its current or revised form, it is recommended Hop governance advertise an RFP to automate the reporting and tracking functions.

2 Likes

Of these proposed changed, the fifth one in the list is the most important. A linear penalty has been added for those with at least 70% participation/comms, so that delegate compensation does not completely turn off for those who are below 90% minimum requirements.

This was based upon input from several delegates. Hop has a modest cadence of voting, so the intent is to continue to penalize incomplete participation, but not so strongly that a delegate is entirely cut off from HOP compensation while they rehabilitate their metrics.

1 Like

this is a well written and much needed amendment. i agree with all 5 changes. my only question is whether the move from a cliff to linear penalty between 70% - 90% applies retroactively or for the rest of the trial period. also, as an aside, we should start discussing process for formalizing the trial.

2 Likes

Also agreed, no problems with these changes. Ambivalent about whether the linear penalty should be applied retroactively–I’d be fine either way.

My only comment is that I think it can be made more clear that participation thresholds are cumulative. I thought it was on a per period basis until this most recent self-reporting thread. If we formalize delegate incentivization, would that cumulative participation percentage only be counted from when that person officially begins being a delegate?

2 Likes

What can be done to make this section more visible to participants?

Probably nothing, I’ll just work on my reading comprehension skills. If we do end up renewing/formalizing this past the trial period, we can probably address it then.

1 Like

Info is def there, but the same happened to me until Dec’s report.
I will take a stab at tweaking it a little bit. Please let me know if you think it helps, or feel free to modify it even further (I am not a native speaker, and so I may be missing something):

“Measurement Period: During this trial, both minimum requirements will be measured cumulatively. E.g. December’s report should include November’s participation and communication instances, January would include November and December, and so on until the first 6 months are concluded. If this program is renewed, participation and communication requirements will continue to be measured on a rolling 6-month (last 182-day) basis.”

On the compensation being retroactive, I am fine either way as well. I think it is ok if it isn’t retroactive, as it is an iteration for something that was clear for most of us (90% cliff).

Paraphrasing what I read just to ensure I got it right, and in case it helps anyone else: minimum compensation at 70% participation in either requirement translates into a 60% penalty and hence a 40% compensation, which is the minimum before being 0. As participation increases, compensation grows linearly to 100% at 90% participation (penalty decreases to 0%).

Thanks for putting this together @GFXlabs.

3 Likes

Thanks for amending this proposal, @GFXlabs.

I agree with all changes proposed. I will votes “yes” in Snapshot.

Like fourpoops and Sisyphos, I had the same confusion regarding cumulative participation, which was clarified when I saw other’s reports in the last Reporting Thread.

1 Like

This proposed amendment has moved to Snapshot. Voting will close January 9, 2023. If you hold HOP, please consider voting.

I agree with these amendments.

Thanks for the clarifications, will vote for this.

The snapshot for this proposal has passed with 99.21% of HOP voting in favor, and with 545 voting addresses. Thank you to everyone who voted.

Next steps: If HIP13 passes, which looks likely with less than a day left to vote, then this requires no further governance action under Category 2 of that HIP ( A simple snapshot vote will be sufficient for decisions involving larger values (greater than $5,000) from the multisig or for decisions that do not impact the core Hop Protocol.)

If HIP13 fails, then this proposal will need to advance to an on-chain vote.

1 Like