Diva Staking

Description

This proposal unlocks the Diva Staking DAO’s DIVA governance token. Currently, DIVA is non-transferable. This proposal allows holders to trade, swap, or use DIVA across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Motivation

On June 28th 2023, the Diva Staking DAO was created via a distribution and claim process which resulted in 4,553 distinct wallets holding DIVA.

The claim period ended on August 16th, 2023.

On August 19th 2023, [DCP-01] proposed an Early Staker program with a 365 days duration.

On September 15th 2023, [DIP-02] shortened the duration of the Early Staker program to 183 days, depending on the mainnet launch.

Also on September 15th 2023, [DIP-03] Commit to latest deadline for DIVA token transferability committed "to enable transferability for DIVA tokens, with the exact ETA to be determined, but at latest at the end of the Early Stakers’ initiative as described in DCP-01 and outlined in DIP-02".

Because the token is currently locked and non transferrable, the set of token holders has remained static for approximately 8 months at the time of this writing.

This has allowed the project and community to mature organically, prior to going live.

On April 1st, official audits started for Diva Staking including well known firms like like Trail of Bits, Spearbit, Thesis Defense, and Renascense.

On April 10th, members of the Diva Staking and Nektar Network team including Raúl, Prada, Kotler, and Niko made a surprise announcement of Nektar Network, a “Multilayered Restaking Network” built on top of Diva Staking. Existing Diva channels like its Twitter and Discord accounts were rebranded as Nektar Network.

Team members including Prada, Raúl, Kotler, and Niko provided some details on the project, with:

- Prada stating “diva staking is part of nektar network” (Apr 10th)

- Niko stating that “DIVA is the only token in the Nektar Network” (Apr 10th)

- Kotler answering “no” in response to “will Nektar Network launch a new token” (Apr 12th)

This suggests the possibility of the DIVA token and DAO playing a role in the future functionality of Nektar Network.

Prada has recently confirmed that Diva Staking is on track to being deployed to mainnet during Q2, leaving just a few weeks to discuss the final decisions.

Unlocking DIVA transferability prior to Diva Staking mainnet can be beneficial to allow the DAO to engage and make its voice heard during this critical period in a more inclusive and participative way.

Not unlocking DIVA transferability before mainnet would result in the exclusion of potential DAO members who would like to participate but were not part of the initial DIVA distribution.

Therefore, we recommend unlocking DIVA transferability with this vote.

Specification

This proposal requires a smart contract interaction to remove the transfer restriction on the DIVA token, which is done by [calling the `unpause` method from ERC20Pausable from the Diva Governor](https://github.com/staking-foundation/diva-governor/blob/2ad4b7a522d97228ea073c67eb094b19b46411ab/contracts/DivaToken.sol#L90-L97)

Rationale

The DAO has now reached a stage where the core functionality is established, there is a strong community, and a secondary market could benefit the DAO by enabling:

1. Fluid Memberships: Allowing holders to enter and leave the DAO by acquiring and disposing of tokens.

2. Increased Participation: Active token holders are more likely to be engaged in governance.

3. Liquidity: Allowing time for DIVA to be integrated in DeFi will facilitate swaps.

Furthermore, should there be a need for DAO resolutions prior mainnet deployment, the decision process will benefit from allowing token holders to enter and leave the DAO, resulting in higher participation and community alignment.

Unlocking transferability with this vote would allow for a few weeks of potential discussions and votes. Community discussions on the merits of unlocking DIVA have been carried on Discord and Reddit.

Furthermore, the DAO can contribute to inform and curate the development of Nektar Network as its design progresses.

Additional Considerations

• Backwards Compatibility: No impact, as token functionality is being added.
• Reference Implementation: See source code from Diva Governor.
• Classification: Medium (based on the Community Guidelines).

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0