How to Create a Telos Governance Proposal the Easy Way!

Telos Decide is the governance engine that powers the voting and decision-making process on the Telos Blockchain. It provides a user-friendly interface for creating, submitting, and managing governance proposals, called Telos Amend. In this section, we’ll walk you through the specific steps to use Telos Amend to propose changes to an existing Telos network governance document.

1. Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• A Telos Zero Account and Wallet: You must have a Telos Zero account. At this time, only Telos Zero accounts can create and vote on governance proposals.
• Stake TLOS Tokens: You’ll need a small amount of TLOS tokens in your Telos Zero account to stake for network resources and to pay a fee for creating the proposal (to prevent network spam). Tokens can be purchased from a variety of exchanges or bridged from your TelosEVM account to your Telos Zero account using Telos Wallet.

These two steps can be achieved by following the official Telos guide found here. You may need to purchase additional TLOS tokens which can be done through Uphold, Kucoin, or a DEX like Swapsicle.

Additionally, it is always in your best interest to socialize the intended proposal with the community in the official Telos Network Telegram and Discord channels to gather feedback from the various network stakeholders and to make adjustments that would result in a higher chance of acceptance prior to proposal creation and voting.

2. Creating the Proposal

a. Access Telos Amend Using EOS Authority Explorer

1. Log In: Navigate to your account by typing the account name into the top search bar. Sign in by using your preferred wallet supported by EOS Authority Explorer.
2. Deposit funds to Telos Amend Smart Contract: The fee to create a proposal is 10 TLOS. Send 10 TLOS to the “amend.decide” smart contract using the wallet or interface of your choice.

b. Create and Upload Amended Documents to IPFS

1. Download IPFS Desktop Application: IPFS Desktop allows you to upload to the IPFS network. The hash generated when you upload your file will be referenced in the proposal you submit to Telos Network.
2. Create Your Amendment as a Markdown File: Creating the amended markdown file should be relatively easy. You can copy and paste the original amendment into a new file in the text editor or IDE and make your desired changes. Make sure you maintain consistent formatting, such as “##” for clause headings. When finished, save your file in the following format “documentname_clause_version.md” where documentname is the “document_name” field in the “documents” table of amend.decide, clause is the 3 digit clause number, and version number follows the “major.minor” format. For example, if you wanted to amend the original clause 7 of the regproducer document, your file name would look something like “regproducer_007_1.1.md”.

3. Set the Public Gateway: Open IPFS Desktop and navigate to “Settings” on the left sidebar. Enter “https://ipfs.telos.net” into the “Public Gateway” field and hit submit.

4. Upload Your Amendment to the Telos Network IPFS Gateway: Next, navigate to the “Files” section on the left sidebar. Click the “Import” button in the top right corner and select file and follow the system prompts on your screen to upload the file you just created. Once uploaded, click the three dots next to the file and Copy the CID and paste it into a blank text file for use in the next step.

c. Proposal Creation

1. Navigate to Telos Amend Smart Contract: Type “amend.decide” in the search bar at the top of the page and click the “Contract Actions” button.
2. Fill in the Details & Create Draft Proposal: Click the “draftprop” action button in the smart contract section. The following fields will need to be filled out:

• Title: Enter a concise and descriptive title for your proposal.
• Subtitle: This field is treated more like a description and should contain an explanation of the changes the proposal seeks to make. The best practice is to list the links to a blog post explaining the changes and links to the current and amended clauses on the IPFS network.
• Ballot Name: Enter a short name identifier for your proposal.
• Proposer: The proposer should be the same account as the account submitting the transaction.
• Document Name: The name of the document you are amending from the “documents” table in the amend.decide contract. Make sure you grab the id of the correct document as there are various test documents that exist within the table at this time.

• New Content: The field name is slightly misleading here. The field is actually for updating existing sections of a governance document, or for adding additional sections. This field type is a “string map” so the input requires a little bit of additional formatting for the smart contract. The sectionIDs for a document can be found within the “sections” table of the smart contract. You will need to change the scope of the table to the document name and increase the limit to 100 to see all sections of a document.

• Example New Content formats:
  Single clause update or addition
  ​​[{ “key”:”sectionID”, “value”:”ipfsCID” }]
  Multiple clause update and/or addition
  [{ “key”:”sectionID”, “value”:”ipfsCID,” },{”key”:”sectionID”, “value”:”ipfsCID”}]
• Note: sectionIDs end in a “.#letter” format. If you are adding a section (not just updating an existing section) in your proposal and the document’s last section ends in “z” (Ex: “regprod.1z”) your new section will look something like “regprod.2a”.

3. Submit Draft Proposal to the Network: Click the “Push Transaction” button once satisfied and sign the transaction with your preferred wallet.

3. Beginning the Proposal Voting Phase

a. Proposal Creation

Once satisfied with the proposal, click the “launchprop” button within the amend.decide contract interface. Enter the Ballot Name you choose while drafting the proposal and fill the Telos account name that you used when creating the draft proposal in the actor field. Finally, click the “Push Transaction” button. You will be prompted to sign the transaction using your wallet.

Your proposal will now be viewable on https://app.telos.net where Telos users are able to vote.

4. Post-Submission

a. Promotion and Engagement

After submission, actively promote your proposal within the Telos community. Engage with members in the official Telegram group and Discord server, post to social media, and directly reach out to community members known to have large token holdings or who may have a particular interest in your proposal.

b. Voting Phase

During the voting period, monitor the status of your proposal. Be available to answer questions and provide clarifications that community members may raise. Voters will use TLOS tokens to vote “yes,” “no,” or “abstain” on the proposal. The total number of tokens voted must meet a quorum of at least 15% of the total votable tokens participating for the proposal to be valid and enforceable at the end of the voting period.

c. Voting Results

At the end of the voting period, the results will be tallied automatically. If the proposal meets the quorum and approval threshold, it will pass; otherwise, it will be rejected. The approval threshold is at least 10% more “Yes” than “No” votes.

5. Post-Approval Actions

a. Officially “End” and Amend the Governance Document

Once the voting period concludes, the proposing account must manually “close” the voting period, which broadcasts the final results of the proposal vote to the network. To do this, the proposer should navigate to the “endprop” action within the amend.decide smart contract. Simply input the proposal name from the previous steps and push the transaction.

If the proposal has met the quorum and voting threshold the document can officially be amended on-chain by using the “amendprop” action. Fill in the proposal name like with “endprop” and fill in the account that created the proposal and that is signing the transaction as the “amender.”

b. Implementation

Once the governance document is amended, proceed with the implementation plan if necessary. Implementations that require code changes can often take extended periods of time and will require verification by the Telos Core Developers. Keep the community informed about progress and any changes to discussed implementation steps.

Conclusion

Creating and submitting a governance proposal on the Telos Network using Telos Decide is a straightforward process. By following these steps and actively engaging with the community, you can increase the likelihood of your proposal being understood, supported, and approved. Remember, the success of governance in a decentralized network relies on clear communication, active participation, and a commitment to the Telos community’s best interests!