Delegates of the Uniswap DAO Approach a Voting Power Increase

A Wednesday temperature check vote brought a group of seven Uniswap DAO delegates, who vote more than 80% of the time but hold marginal voting power, closer to receiving an increase in voting power, according to Blockworks. A portion of 10 million uniswap, which is valued at approximately $60 million at present prices, would be distributed among 'underrepresented' DAO delegates who possess fewer than 2.5 million uniswap. Wintermute, a trading firm, and a DAO that emerged from the blockchain group at Georgia Tech were the two most popular delegates during the trial period. A vote on the blockchain is currently required prior to delegates receiving uniswap (UNI) from the treasury of the DAO.

To clarify, the UNI would not represent tradable or spending capital for the delegates; rather, it would increase their voting power in relation to future governance issues. Uniswap's DAO, similar to numerous others, grants token holders the option to vote independently or transfer their voting authority to an alternative wallet address. The proposal establishes the threshold of 2.5 million delegated ballots, which is exceeded by more than 30 delegates, as the definition of "underrepresented." With approximately 8 million tokens, Variant Fund general partner Jesse Walden is the second-largest delegate.

The delegation proposal was authored by the governance service provider StableLab, which, should it be approved, would also be granted governance tokens. This week at Rari DAO, StableLab also proposed and approved a delegation incentive programme. Doo Wan Nam, chief operating officer of StableLab, stated to Blockworks that delegates who failed to maintain 80% participation would forfeit the additional ballots, making the experiment in recognition for active delegates crucial for accountability. Wan Nam, nevertheless, recognised the challenge inherent in subjectively assessing the quality of an active voter as a voter. Wan Nam stated, "We must begin with something that is objective." As Uniswap's voting delegation has been gradually solidifying, this action is taken. According to a dashboard from Dune Analytics, the quantity of ballots cast per governance proposal has remained relatively stable in 2023, whereas voter participation has declined overall.