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Governance

The Streamr project and network are governed by the DATA token holders. Token holders have a clear and direct impact on the direction of the project since decentralized governance allows anyone with a stake in the project to contribute to steering it, enabling the wisdom of the crowd to kick in and push the project towards the best long-term outcomes. Since February 2021, holders of DATA, the utility token that powers the Streamr ecosystem, have been able to vote on Streamr protocol governance decisions.

Streamr Improvement Proposals (SIPs)​

SIPs are the process for making meaningful decisions inside the Streamr project. A SIPs typical voting period is 5 to 7 days and they usually follow this format:

  • A description of the proposal
  • The case against the proposal
  • The case for the proposal

Voting options should be "for" or "against", though sometimes its suitable to offer a range of options, albeit at increasing the voter spread.

Types of SIPs​

The kinds of SIPs token holders decide on range from:

  • Technical network parameters,
  • Monetary/economic policies,
  • Strategic roadmap steering, and,
  • Ecosystem funding.

At the technical network level, aspects of the network such as node inspection parameters and node penalty parameters are decided by SIPs. For example, SIP-20: Modifications to planned 1.0 mainnet parameters. There are examples of all types of SIPs inside the Streamr Snapshot

How can I make a SIP?​

To combat spam/abuse, the Snapshot proposal gateway is currently in a restricted mode. To start your SIP, begin with a draft shared on the #governance Streamr Discord server.

Voter eligibility​

To be eligible to vote you must either be an Operator in the Network with a stake, or control an Ethereum account that holds DATA tokens on one of the supported chains, listed here:

  • Ethereum: 0x8f693ca8D21b157107184d29D398A8D082b38b76
  • Polygon POS: 0x3a9A81d576d83FF21f26f325066054540720fC34
  • Gnosis Chain: 0x256eb8a51f382650B2A1e946b8811953640ee47D
  • Binance Smart Chain: 0x0864c156b3C5F69824564dEC60c629aE6401bf2a

You cannot vote with tokens held on a centralized exchange or tokens that are providing liquidity on a decentralized exchange.

Voting through your Operator​

If you run an Operator on the Streamr Network, your voting power is your total stake of DATA tokens. Your total stake is the sum total of your funded amount, and the delegated DATA tokens. Delegating to other Operators gives those Operators your voting power.

Voting on a SIP​

The token balances at the SIPs “snapshot block” will determine your voting power. Right after the snapshot block you are free to move your tokens out of your wallet – this won’t affect your ability to vote.

Voting on Snapshot will not require any gas- only a signed message is required. We recommend the MetaMask wallet for interacting with the voting UI. Snapshot also supports WalletConnect, Fortmatic, Coinbase, and Torus.