[Discussion] Recognized Delegates Program Renewal

[jengajojo]

The Recognized Delegates Program in the 1inch DAO has delivered notable value since its initial launch as a pilot (around 2023) and subsequent renewals, including the successful 12-month extension approved in April 2025 via [1IP-76]

Key Achievements

Professionalized and Sustained Governance Participation

The program has successfully attracted and retained five high-quality, experienced delegates with cross-DAO expertise. This includes continuing Tier 3 delegates DAOplomats and Anode (former StableLab), alongside additions like Curia, FranklinDAO, and Arana Digital. These entities consistently meet or exceed the program’s rigorous standards, providing reliable oversight even in periods of lower overall DAO activity.

Incentivized High-Quality Contributions

Delegates have actively contributed to forum discussions, provided detailed vote rationales, participated in working groups, and driven or supported key initiatives. Examples include treasury diversification/yield generation ideas, staking updates, liquidity enhancements, and revenue redirection proposals

Promoted Decentralization and Community-Led Governance

By incentivizing professional, independent delegates, the RDP has helped maintain governance quality and momentum amid broader 2025 trends of declining proposal volume, voter turnout, and increased concentration of power in professional actors. It has encouraged delegation of Unicorn Power (UP) to competent representatives & strengthening protocol health.

Cost-Effective Model

The structure has proven efficient compared to peer DAOs (e.g., far lower annual spend than Arbitrum’s ~$2.7M or Uniswap’s ~$1M programs), while delivering consistent, high-impact input at a fraction of the cost.

These outcomes have helped professionalize 1inch DAO governance, reduce collective coordination costs, and ensure diligent representation of token-holder interests.

As the current term progresses and we are nearing the next iteration, what are the community’s thoughts on next steps for the program?

• How has the RDP performed in your view over the past months—any specific contributions or areas of impact worth highlighting?

• Should we consider adjustments (e.g., tier thresholds, compensation levels, added qualitative metrics like proposal authorship or working-group leadership)?

• With ongoing treasury/revenue discussions, how might future funding tie into protocol revenue streams or other sustainability mechanisms?

• Are there emerging needs (e.g., more focus on certain working groups, encouraging smaller/new delegates, or performance transparency tools) that the program could address moving forward?

[jengajojo]

We suggest that the delegate tiers be updated for the renewal. On top of the metrics which have already been listed in previous programs:

Metrics	Tier 3	Tier 2	Tier 1
Voting Participation	80%	80%	80%
Communication	80%	80%	80%
Delegation Threshold	500,000	100,000	10,000

we suggest adding these to the upcoming program

Tier	Governance Calls	Working Groups (OPS/Legal/Incubator)	Product/Proposal Requirement
Tier 3	Active participation	Active Member in one or more	Pass 1 Proposal OR Deliver Tool/Service
Tier 2	Regular Attendance	Regular Participant in one or more	Not expected
Tier 1	Optional	Not expected	Not expected

• Upon the approval of this program, a delegate’s tier is determined by their performance from the previous year. New delegates enter a “Provisional Tier” for 3 months before being officially tiered based on their trailing performance.

• For Tier 3 delegates claiming a “Product or Service” contribution, the 1inch Core Team or the DAO must verify that the tool is actively integrated or provides ongoing value to the ecosystem.

We believe that this structure allows participation for more delegates & offers a clear contribution pathway for all delegates to climb up the ranks. By making the metrics backward looking, the 1inch DAO protects its treasury from paying for ghost participation & ensures that the RDP can consistently create top tier delegates with the right skills and talents necessary for the DAO to succeed.

[Curia_Lab]

Hi @jengajojo , thanks for putting together the RDP renewal discussion thread. The updated tiers and performance metrics feel like a reasonable evolution of the program, and the current evaluation table is really helpful.

One area where it would be useful to hear more from you and the wider DAO is the pathway into working groups.

Looking at how working group roles have been assigned recently, for example, the 1inch DAO Aqua Revenue Stream Incubator, where Anode leads as the program manager with DAOplomats and Arana Digital pre-selected as reviewer as part of their mandate as Recognized Delegates. It isn’t entirely clear how other delegates can put their hand up for similar opportunities, or how new members join existing working groups like Ops, Legal, or Incubator.

Since working group participation is now one of the key differentiators between tiers, it would help to have a bit more clarity on this - both on what the process looks like for delegates who’d like to join one of the existing working groups, and on whether future initiatives like the Aqua Incubator might have room to open reviewer seats more broadly, or if the expectation is that they stay with a core group.

Not trying to prescribe a specific answer here - just think a bit more clarity on this would make the tier structure easier to navigate for everyone.

[Arana_Digital]

The following is our suggestion on a points-based qualification system:

Eligibility & Tier Assignment
Tier placement is determined by a points-based scoring system evaluated across the following five metrics:

Metric	Criteria	Points
Governance Calls	Active	2
	Irregular	1
	Inactive	0
Working Group Involvement	Yes (member of one or more)	2
	No	0
Product/Proposal Delivery	Yes	2
	No	0
Trailing 12-Month Snapshot Voting Participation	90%+	3
	80%+	2
	70%+	1
Delegation Threshold (UP)	500,000+ UP	4
	100,000+ UP	2
	10,000+ UP	1

Maximum possible score: 13 points

Tier Thresholds:

• Tier assignment is based on total points accumulated across the five eligibility metrics.
• Tier 3: 10+ points, Tier 2: 6–9 points, Tier 1: 3–5 points.

Quarterly Evaluation
To remain in the program, each delegate will be evaluated quarterly against the following continuing-eligibility criteria. Delegates failing to meet these standards may be moved to a lower tier or removed from the program.

Criterion	Requirement
Governance Calls	Active participation in calls
Voting Participation	>80% of all votes in the quarter
Rationales	Rationales posted for >80% of votes in the quarter, published on the communication thread within one week of each vote

We believe that this setup is more representative of the existing responsibilities taken on by qualified delegates.

[jengajojo]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We have incorporated most of your opinions in the latest proposal [1IP XX] Recognized Delegate Program Renewal