---
title: "Governance"
sidebarTitle: "Protocol Governance"
description: "Governance is the process of making decisions on behalf of a group of people or organization"
icon: "landmark"
---

The Demand is rooted from participation in the governance process, determining upgrades to the protocol or allocation of resources, and supply is the result of the tokens eligible to participate in the governance process.
On Sonr we will be leveraging a **delegate stake** mechanism in order to **optimize buy-in** for users in the network. It imposes an **excess opportunity cost** if **slashing** is implemented.

**Seven elements of economic design for governance**

1. Scope of Decisions
2. Stakeholders
3. Policy Research & Development
4. Proposal Process
5. Information Distribution Systems
6. Decision Making Procedures
7. Implementation & Property Rights

## Yearly Governance Cycle

- Two General Elections for proposals yearly
- Proposals need at least 20% of all validator approval to move into general election
- 51% of General Vote required for proposal to pass
- Emergency Voting sessions can be called if requested by 51% of Governance Participants

### ☀️ Summer Cycle

|                               | Start Date | End Date |
| ----------------------------- | ---------- | -------- |
| Validator Vetting             | 5/17       | 5/31     |
| Proposals Posted              | 6/1        |          |
| General Election of Proposals | 6/2        | 6/15     |
| Results Posted                | 6/16       |          |

### ❄️ Winter Cycle

|                               | Start Date | End Date |
| ----------------------------- | ---------- | -------- |
| Validator Vetting             | 11/17      | 11/31    |
| Proposals Posted              | 12/1       |          |
| General Election of Proposals | 12/2       | 12/15    |
| Results Posted                | 12/16      |          |

## First Rollout Phase

These are the measures the core Sonr team will be undertaking prior and during test-net deployment.

### Establish Community

Build a loyal community of token holders that represent our platforms stakeholder groups.

- All of our existing token holders (this includes our founder and early investors) will be staking their Sonr Token in order to be incentivized to hold tokens and participate in voting
- We will be actively networking with DeFi projects, blockchain service providers, and etc. in order to participate

### Build Dashboards

We are under the process of creating a [dashboard](https://sonrscan.io) in order to provide key metrics to our stakeholders

- **Technology**: Pricing, total fees paid, total storage used, uptime
- **Governance**: Identities, proposal outcomes, community participation

### Polling System

Our initial polling system will be token weighted and not enforceable, in order to build engagement.

- Users will submit qualitative updates to the system and have them up/downvoted
- The core team will then assess the submissions and select viable community suggestions into upgrades
  - Along side this, our team will locate and commission the development of a proposal for any technical upgrades without enforceable code proposals
  - We will be able to provide clarity, external security, and in applicable cases the economic evaluation from the impacts of proposals to the community.

## Second Rollout Phase

Phase 2 will be underway in the months prior to main-net deployment, along with an extensive security audit.

### On-Chain Execution

We will be introducing an on-chain, executable code-based governance system in stages with majority rule voting.

**Stage 1:** Grants Program

- Incorporate community voting for grant recipient selection
- Allow users to submit proposals for grant allocation

**Stage 2:** Subsidies and Rewards

- Proposals to update subsidies and rewards can be submitted by Core Sonr Team or third parties
- Core Team will be responsible for considering funding security, and economic audits for proposals

**Stage 3:** Technical Upgrades

- These include pricing, security, and bug fixes
- Proposals will be spearheaded by the Sonr Team and/or its delegates

### Maintenance

When on-chain governance has come to fruition, the core Sonr team will be also maintaining the polling-based system with subsidized development to minimize barrier to entry. This will be incorporating governance within the Motor Nebula Widget itself.
