Signaling Proposal: Approve the Stride Delegation Process Cosmos Hub Advisory Council\r

\r For the past 3 weeks, Stride has been accepting applications for its host chain delegation program, the process by which Stride governance selects the validators to which it delegates ATOM liquid staked via the Stride protocol. \r \r As part of this process, Stride publicly solicited applications from Cosmos Hub community members to serve on the Cosmos Hub advisory council, a body of 5 members that will select the Cosmos Hub host chain validators according to preselected objective criteria. As one of many checks and balances in the Stride Host-chain Validator Selection Process, the Stride community brings this signaling proposal to ask the Cosmos Hub community to ratify the selected candidates for the advisory council.\r \r

Background on the Delegation Process\r

\r Stride protocol is designed such that STRD stakers vote to determine which host-chain validators receive delegations. At any time, anyone is free to make an onchain governance vote to add or remove validators from a host-chain validator set. But it is always STRD stakers who have the ultimate authority to approve or deny any changes.\r \r \r STRD stakers need a systematic, organized, and fair framework for selecting host-chain validator sets.\r \r \r Such a framework was developed and implemented in late 2022. Called the Stride Host-chain Validator Selection Process, it was used to select a set of thirty-six Cosmos Hub validators to receive delegations from Stride protocol. STRD stakers responded favorably to the Process, and voted to approve the new validator set. Since the Process was used in late 2022, several small optimizations have been made, to make it more organized and efficient.\r \r \r Much thought has gone into this Process, to make it as fair and responsible as possible, both from the perspective of Stride protocol and host-chains. \r \r \r Over the next few months, the Stride Host-chain Validator Selection Process will be used to select new validator sets for Cosmos Hub. Here's what the process will look like:\r \r \r

Step 1: Applications\r

\r \r To be eligible for a delegation, validators must meet these four minimum thresholds:\r \r \r

1. An uptime of greater than or equal to 99% in the last months\r
2. A commission less than or equal to 10%\r
3. Voted for at least seven of the last ten governance proposals\r
4. Has been in the active set for at least three months\r If a validator is eligible, then it needs to fill out an application to be considered for a Stride protocol delegation. On the application form, validators must answer two key questions. Their answers will be used by the advisory council to evaluate them. The two key questions are:\r
   • How have you contributed to your blockchain technically in the past six months?\r
   • How have you contributed to your blockchain socially in the past six months?\r \r \r Individuals who wish to join the advisory council need to fill out an application, too. The advisory council is a group of five people who evaluate validator applicants. Anyone is free to apply to join the council, but only individuals who are knowledgeable about the relevant blockchain and are well-known and respected by the relevant community will be chosen. Stride Labs has the executive role of proposing a five-member advisory council.\r \r \r

Step 2: Advisory council approved by host-chain\r

\r \r As a check on the power of Stride Labs, an onchain signaling proposal is then submitted to the relevant chain, asking stakers if they approve of the chosen advisory council. This is purpose of the current proposal.\r \r \r If governance approves the council, then it can move on to evaluating validator applicants. If governance disapproves, Stride Labs must change the members of the council, and the new council members must be submitted in a new signaling vote.\r \r \r

Step 3: Evaluation\r

\r \r Once the validator applications have been received and the advisory council has been approved by the relevant host-chain, then the council members independently evaluate validator applicants, giving each validator a score out of ten.\r \r \r The five council members' scores are then averaged out, giving each validator a final score out of ten. If a council member has a conflict of interest about a certain validator, they do not evaluate that validator.\r \r \r

Step 4: Ranking in quartiles and weighting\r

\r \r Once each validator has a final score, validators are separated into four quartiles, based on their existing delegations. For example, the top twenty-five percent of validators are in the first quartile, the next twenty-five percentiles are in the second quartile, and so forth.\r \r \r In each of the four quartiles, validators are ranked based on their final scores. The top eight validators in each quartile are chosen, resulting in a set of thirty-six validators from across the active set.\r \r \r Finally, each validator is weighted to determine the share of the total delegation it will receive.\r See full evaluation details here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19NfSHfUuXiwQ2e2NOx2PhK17Xpevp9r9SwxXXoUAVQM/edit\r \r \r

Step 5: Proposal submitted to STRD stakers\r

\r \r The resultant host-chain validator set is then presented to STRD stakers, who have complete authority to approve or deny the set. \r \r \r

The Current Proposal\r

\r We are currently in Step 2 of the Process. An advisory council of 5 members has been selected by Stride Labs, and the Stride community is seeking approval of this council by Cosmos Hub governance. The 5 member council is composed of the following members:\r \r

• Lexa (Hypha Coop) - https://twitter.com/LexaMichaelides\r
• Crypto Cakir (Stake and Relax) - https://twitter.com/CryptoCakir\r
• EffortCapital (Blockworks) - https://twitter.com/effortcapital\r
• Damien (SimplyStaking) - https://twitter.com/damobon\r
• Long (Notional) - https://twitter.com/mgl2150\r \r Should the following members be approved by governance, they will begin evaluating validator applications on August 21, and the validator set will be chosen no later than August 28. The selected validators will be put up for discussion on Stride's governance forum on August 30, and put up for an on-chain vote on the Stride blockchain on September 06. If this vote passes, the delegation process will be complete.\r \r Vote YES on this proposal to express approval of the selected 5 member advisory council\r Vote NO on this proposal to express disapproval of the selected 5 member advisory council\r \r