Governance FAQ and Guides

GOVERNANCE FAQ

How does Kintsugi and Interlay governance work?
This is best described by 3 properties:

• Liquid. Token holders directly vote on what happens with the networks. There is no council.
• Optimistic. To keep governance dynamic and fast, proposals with low turnouts (i.e., not of great interest to the community) require less "yes" votes to pass. Disputed proposals with high participation require more than 50% "yes" votes.
• Staked. To be eligible for voting, token holders stake (lock for a period of time) their tokens. The more and the longer you lock tokens, the more voting power you have - because you have a larger investment in the success of the network (i.e., if you vote to break the network, your tokens will devalue without you being able to sell them). For staking, you earn staking rewards.

Read more here: https://docs.interlay.io/#/kintsugi/governance

Why do we need governance?
To decide on new features, treasury spending, kBTC/interBTC risk parameters. Basically, anything related to managing the Interlay network is controlled by community governance.

How do I stake my tokens to participate in governance?
Follow this guide to stake via the Dapps: https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/stake?id=stake-kint-or-intr

What are vKINT and vINTR?
vKINT and vINTR represent your voting power. It is a measure of how many tokens you staked for how long. They are not transferable.

Why does my vKINT/vINTR balance decrease?
1 vKINT = 1 KINT staked for 96 weeks (maximum staking duration on Kintsugi).

As time passes, the remaining time your KINT is staked becomes less - and so does the vKINT value. You can always extend your lock time to increase your vKINT amount again (up to the max.).

Works analogous for Interlay.
Read more here: https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/stake?id=important-considerations

How can I make a proposal?
Please follow this detailed guide: https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/governance

How can I vote?
Currently, the best way is to use the SubSquare platform. Follow this guide to set up an account https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/governance?id=governance-platform and this guide on how to vote https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/governance?id=vote-on-referenda

What does the Technical Committee (TC) do?
The only thing the TC can do is fast-track proposals, i.e., reduce the delay before a proposal goes to vote and make the voting period shorter. The goal of the TC is to asses and react to critical issues (e.g. bugs). Anyone can candidate to become part of the TC.

Is this really decentralized?
Yes! We take decentralization so seriously, we even modelled long-term voting power distribution here: https://docs.interlay.io/#/kintsugi/governance?id=voting-power-distribution . Team and investors only control 20% of the tokens and have their voting power reduced for the first years (2ys on Kintsugi, https://docs.interlay.io/#/kintsugi/governance?id=restricting-team-and-investor-voting-power).

My vote counts, how do I start?

1.Stake

• Kintsugi Dapp: https://kintsugi.interlay.io/staking
• Guide: https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/stake

2.Vote

• Kintsugi voting platform: https://kintsugi.subsquare.io/
• Guide: https://docs.interlay.io/#/guides/governance