xGov

The xGov program is the next step in the evolution of Algorand's governance and our journey towards responsible decentralization. The program aims to create an expert layer of governors who apply their acumen to funding decisions that align with our mission of growing the Algorand ecosystem, starting with grant applications.

Read the xGov Guide to learn about checking your xGov status and voting.

STEP 1

Commit

To become an xGov deposit and lock GP's governance rewards for a Term of 12 months.

STEP 2

Review

Review and shortlist grant applications.

STEP 3

Vote

Use your xGov votes to select grant applications to receive funding.

STEP 4

Receive

At the end of the Term receive your deposit + your share of the leftover Term Pool.

Interested Governors may opt in to the xGov Program during the Governance sign-up phase, at any quarter, for a twelve month Term. Once the governance period is completed, their rewards are deposited to the xGov Term address, where they are held for twelve months. That is when xGovernors receive voting power to be used to vote on grant applications submitted by the community through the xGov Proposals repository on Github.

Each xGov Term contains a minimum of 4 voting periods, running in parallel to the General Governance quarters.

At the end of their xGov Term, xGovernors who did not perform their duties forfeit their ALGO deposit, which remains in the pool. xGovernors who performed all their governance duties will receive their deposited rewards, plus their share of any forfeited ALGOs in the pool.

Upside

xGov vote on which grants applications get funded.

Warning

xGov may lose deposited rewards if xGov duties aren't fulfilled.

xGov, an example:

1

Alice signs up to Algorand Governance Period 7 (GP7) in April 2023 with 10,000 ALGOs.

2

During the sign-up process, Alice opts in to become an xGov in Q3 2023.

3

During GP7, Alice performs her governance duties by keeping the committed balance and voting. Alice also starts to analyze the xGov grant proposals coming through the Github repo and engages with the community and proposals’ authors. 

4

At the start of GP8, Alice is eligible to receive rewards and 50 ALGOs are deposited to the xGov Term 1 address.

5

Alice receives 50 voting credits. These voting credits renew at each voting session.

6

xGov Term 1 first voting session opens and Alice uses 50 votes across 3 proposals.

7

Alice has done her xGov duty for this voting session and waits for the next voting session to open, during this time Alice reviews new proposals on GitHub.

8

xGov Term 1 second voting session opens and Alice uses 50 votes across 7 proposals.

9

xGov Term 1 has four voting sessions in total and Alice performs her xGov duties perfectly.

10

At the end of the xGov Term 1, Alice withdraws her rewards to her xGov address.

Alice understands that if she didn't do her xGov duties, she would've lost the 50 ALGOs rewards deposited to the xGov Term 1 contract.

Bob and ten other xGovs didn't fulfill their xGov duties and 1000 ALGOs were left in the xGov Term pool. Therefore, Alice will also receive her share of the forfeited pool.

The ARC Process

The first iteration of the xGov program is launching in Q2/2023.  Created with community participation through the Algorand Request for Comment (ARC) process, this initial version of the program aims to test the framework and identify improvements early in the process.

ARC-33 Becoming an xGovARC-34 Submitting Proposals

ARCs 33 and 34 will remain "living" until the program and its processes are fully refined, if you have ideas and feedback, please reach out on Discord's ARC 33 and 34 channels.