Proposal: Next Steps for $ANJ Holders

Summary

Now that the initial proposal to deploy Aragon Protocol with $ANT as its native token has passed, we would like to initiate the next steps as outlined in our initial proposal.

The first step is an ANJ signaling vote to determine what conversion price $ANJ holders would accept to lock and activate their $ANT for 12 months. After this, there will be two separate $ANT votes. The first will determine the price to be paid to $ANJ holders willing to lock and active their converted $ANT for 12 months. The second will determine the price to be paid to $ANJ holders unwilling to do so.

Motivation

  • The discussions over the past weeks have demonstrated the strength of the $ANJ community and its conviction in the Aragon Court thesis. While $ANT holders ultimately have governance power over the Court, we think it’s important to at least understand $ANJ holders’ views and use these to inform $ANT voting. From our perspective, the worst case outcome for both sides is a contentious $ANJ “fork” in which the community is split and Aragon Protocol now has a competitor with the same name (Aragon Court Classic?). Avoiding this outcome is crucial and, our research indicates, achievable with minimal dilution for $ANT holders. For reference, here is a table with the different dilutions and resulting conversion price premia:

  • We think $ANJ jurors who remain committed to the Court vision post merger are more valuable and are worth paying a higher premium, providing they convincingly signal this commitment. Projects such as Synthetix have exemplified the positive effects that locking up users can have on a community and on bootstrapping a supply-side and we feel there are lessons to be learned here. $ANJ holders who want to exit the system should still be allowed to do so and compensated for the upside they’re giving up, but this should entail a much lower premium.

  • As such, we seek to give $ANJ holders a chance to express their views and signal what premium they would require in order to convert and lock up their $ANJ to $ANT for 12 months. This data will inform the later $ANT vote which will determine the actual premium paid to $ANJ holders.

  • Our goal with this methodology is to avoid a splintered community, giving $ANJ holders an opportunity to voice their opinion and $ANT holders a chance to take this into account. We believe the goal here should be to ensure as much as possible of the $ANJ community remains a part of Aragon moving forward.

Specification

Part 1: ANJ Signalling Vote

On Monday November 16th at 16:00 UTC the Aragon Association will start a non-binding, informative poll on Snapshot asking $ANJ holders to vote for the proposal they like best. The snapshot will use $ANJ balances at the start of the poll to calculate voting power. Activated $ANJ will also be able to vote.

Given it is technically unfeasible for proposals to have multiple choice options, the “approval voting” method will be used, meaning that $ANJ holders will be able to vote for as many of the proposals as they like. Each proposal will be put to a separate vote with “Yes” and “No” as the voting options.

There will be 7 different ballots open for $ANJ holders to vote on representing different premiums:

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.02ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?”. Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.024ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?”. Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.028ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.032ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.034ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.0396ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.044ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

  • “Would you accept a conversion price of 0.048ANT/ANJ to lock up and activate your converted $ANT for 12 months?” Proposal spec

The poll will last for 48 hours, ending on Wednesday November 18th at 16:00 UTC. After this, votes will be tallied and the proposals with more yes votes than no votes will be ranked by the amount of yes votes. This will serve as valuable data for the next stage: the $ANT vote.

Part 2: ANT Vote On Locked Conversion

On Wednesday November 18th at 16:00 UTC the Aragon Association will start a binding vote on Snapshot asking $ANT holders to vote for the proposal they like best. The snapshot will use ANT balances at the start of the vote to calculate voting power.

Like the ANJ poll, each proposal will be put to a separate vote with “Yes” and “No” as the voting options. There will be the following options:

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.02ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.024ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.028ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.032ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.034ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.04ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.044ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.048ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who take the one-way conversion offer and lock the $ANT they receive and activate it in Aragon Protocol for a period of 12 months.”

The vote will last for 48 hours, ending on Friday November 20th at 16:00 UTC.

The proposal that has greater than 50% support as measured by ANT votes cast AND has the most “Yes” votes cast in its favor at the time the vote ends wins. A tie will be broken by a vote of the Aragon Association Board of Directors + one advisor. There is no minimum quorum.

Part 3: $ANT Vote On Non-locked Conversion

On Monday November 23rd at 16:00 UTC the Aragon Association will start a binding vote on Snapshot asking $ANT holders to vote for the proposal they like best. The snapshot will use ANT balances at the start of the vote to calculate voting power.

Like the previous $ANT vote, each proposal will be put to a separate vote with “Yes” and “No” as the voting options. There will be the following options:

*“Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.015ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who convert their $ANJ into $ANT with no lock+activation requirement"

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.0175ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who convert their $ANJ into $ANT with no lock+activation requirement"

  • “Mint new $ANT in order to offer a conversion price of 0.02ANT/ANJ to $ANJ tokenholders who convert their $ANJ into $ANT with no lock+activation requirement"

The vote will last for 48 hours, ending on Wednesday November 25th at 16:00 UTC.

The proposal that has greater than 50% support as measured by ANT votes cast AND has the most “Yes” votes cast in its favor at the time the vote ends wins. There is no minimum quorum.

Conclusion

Following this process, we hope that this entire matter can be resolved by the 25th of November such that the community can shift its focus to what matters: driving the success of Aragon Protocol.

Provided a reasonable outcome is reached that satisfies the community, we will work closely with the Aragon team and community in order to design some updated token economics. This will include a fee model, distribution plan and liquidity mining incentives for Aragon Protocol and the newly merged $ANT token. Our goal is to have a V1 of this by December so that a decision can be reached by the end of the year. This will be the first of many proposals we release, and we also have plans for a Protocol reputation system and new sub-court Architecture, among others.

5 Likes

I may have missed this, but will locked ANT holders be able to still vote during the locked period?

It has not yet been decided whether or not Aragon Protocol guardians will be able to also vote on Aragon Network governance proposals.

So in addition to being locked for an extended period, there will also be an inability to contribute to voting. I think this needs to be considered because it removes committed partipants from representation/participation in governance. That would need to be answered before I could choose an appropriate answer.

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Technically, it is relatively easy to include Protocol-staked ANT in the governance process (we will be including Court-staked ANJ as part of the ANJ votes). However, as the future governance process of the Aragon Network hasn’t been fully locked down, we can’t say with absolute certainty one way or another (and, in fact, this configuration may change through the governance process in the future).

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Yes I understand the hesitation here. On the one hand, making it so that guardians cannot vote would closely align with the way the court works today, where jurors do not have voting rights in the Aragon Network DAO and there’s no expectation that they ever will. On the other hand, with guardians also being ANT holders there might be good reasons to allow them to vote on Aragon Network governance matters as well. I think these nuances are worth discussing, but perhaps on a new thread so we can keep this thread focused on the proposal. Thanks for raising this question @jomarip!

Will the newly converted then locked ANTv2 that ANJ holders acquire be able to participate in the incentives (liquidity mining etc.) referred to in the conclusion of this proposal?? If not then compensation of 0.04782 per ANJ even seems on the lower end.

It says:

liquidity mining incentives for Aragon Protocol and the newly merged $ANT token

The tokens would be locked in Aragon Protocol, given that the liquidity mining program would appear to apply to those ANJ holders who take the lock + activate deal.

As anyone who has been frequenting the Discord knows, there is currently a lot of negative sentiment around the way $ANJ holders have been treated. Being $ANJ investors ourselves and having spoken to most of the top $ANJ holders, we feel that the situation is fixable provided an appropriate premium is paid that adequately rewards $ANJ holders for the risk they took and incentivizes them to remain committed to the future of Aragon.

While the signalling poll will is already providing valuable data, we would also like to publicly signal that Delphi Ventures will be voting for a 0.0396 ANJ/ANT conversion price for $ANJ holders willing to lock and activate their converted $ANT for 12 months. This represents a maximum of ~8% dilution for $ANT holders which we feel is a reasonable price to pay for the benefits of preventing a community split and acquiring a supply-side of long-term aligned jurors/guardians. Having considered this carefully, we feel this is the number that makes most sense and that has most community support among $ANJ holders.

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Considering making an exception in my current voting behavior and using my founder ANT and ANJ to vote on this proposal if necessary. Don’t consider this a firm commitment until you see a signed message.

Thanks Delphi and Jose Maria concretely for all their hard work and to the entire Aragon Court community and ANJ holders for pushing for a reasonable resolution

Onwards,
J :eagle:

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The results from the final ANT vote on The Future of ANJ and Aragon Court are in:

what’s next? when and where can we convert our ANJ?

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