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Accountability Checklist

Accountability ensures that the community has the means to follow progress and hold proposers accountable.

Motivation​

Goals:

  • provide voters
    • with the necessary information to make a proper decision
    • with sufficient information to judge the background of the proposer
    • with an avenue to communicate with the proposer
  • ensure proposers
    • have thought their proposal through and can deliver what they propose
    • align their proposals along with OpenGov’s preference for open-source deliverables, transparency, reasonable market-conform pricing
    • state all costs, including expected follow-up costs for maintenance and future proposals
    • use funds responsibly, effectively, efficiently
    • to break up big projects into smaller milestones
  • allow auditors

Basic Accountability Checklist​

For "Spender" proposals (proposals above 10k DOT), we suggest to use the following accountability checklist when reviewing the proposal.

  • Scope
    • Objective: When is the project successful?
    • Measurement: How will success be measured?
    • Benefit: What is the (measurable) benefit for Polkadot?
    • Deliverables: Are deliverables clearly specified?
    • Deadline: By when is the final delivery of the project expected?
  • Reasonable
    • OpenGov responsibility: Is OpenGov the right partner for this proposal? Or should it be delegated to W3F, the Cayman Foundation, or a parachain?
    • Proposal type: Is the proposal in the right type? Should it rather be a bounty or a singular proposal?
    • Ticket size: Is the ask amount proper or should a smaller milestone be proposed first?
    • Proper scope: Is the scope reasonable and believable? Is the problem well-understood? Is the solution well-defined?
  • Declarations
    • Details on the beneficiary
      • Legal name
      • Registered Company or Individual?
        • If company: Registration number, address, insurance status
      • Domicile
      • Contact details
      • On-Chain Identity
    • Point of contact: (if different from above) Email, TG, Twitter (DMs open), Element, LinkedIn. For complex projects, this coordinating role should be filled by a person from within the ecosystem
    • Project updates:
      • Where, when, and how often will progress reports be posted? (we suggest monthly updates in the discussion of the referendum)
      • Where and when will the final report be posted? (we suggest in the discussion of the referendum)
      • How will the community be engaged in the case of problems that risk the timely delivery of the project?
    • Transparency: What level of transparency on spending will be provided? Where? (we suggest a dedicated Github folder)
    • Costs: Any expected costs outside of the scope of this proposal? Future proposals intended? Yearly recurring costs? Expected future maintenance costs?
    • Volatility: Intention to
      1. prefer an exact DOT amount
      2. prefer an exact USD amount;
        1. request USD via spend() extrinsic
        2. if payment is in DOT will refund overpayment or request one top-up in case of volatility
    • Refunds: How will excess funds be handled?
    • Conflict of Interests?
      • Declare any potential conflict of interests
      • Through for which other projects have you received or will likely receive funding, from Polkadot or other DAOs or similar funds, directly or indirectly. List them.
  • Risks
  • Previous accomplishments: If the proposer makes claims about previous accomplishments, proposer shall provide proof via links to official sources that can be independently verified (actual proof rather than claims)

Bounty Checklist​

  • Curators
    • Doxxed?
    • On which other multisigs over 100k USD in value are they?
    • What other jobs do they do?
    • How many hours per week/month does the curator role take?
    • What is the compensation per curator?

Software Development Checklist​

  • Qualitative value proposition
    • License: All contents published under open-source license? Which? (if not, the price should be significantly marked down)
    • GitHub repo?
    • Documentation requirements
      • Code docuementation
      • Architectural description
      • Operational instructions
    • Testing
      • Testbook and/or unit tests
    • Code
      • Expected to run as an application?
      • With UI?
      • will provide an API? Scope of the API?
      • consumes licensed code? which? which licenses?
    • Operational requirements
      • expected costs of operations?
      • hardware requirements?
      • personell/skill requirements?
      • How much effort and what resources are reuquired to run the application?
        • Docker/VM?
        • Prerequisites?
        • database/warehouse?
        • traffic?
    • Maintenance What amount of maintenance is required?
    • Security considerations
      • audit required? included?
      • which security practices are being followed?

Marketing Checklist​

  • License: Under which license will the media be released?
  • Scope: Does the project cover production? publication? distribution?
  • Transparency, depending on the project size (examples from the Kusamarian from Polkadot Ref 668)
    • 3rd party materials: Which externally sourced materials will be used? How are they licensed?
    • Content Report with links to all content pieces (example)
    • Raw Audience Data with views and watch hours, other engagement data (example)
    • Spending Report, balance sheets etc… (example)
    • Invoices, receipts (example, example from CultureDOT)
    • Treasury Movements (example - Notion page, need to be logged in)
  • Qualitative value proposition
    • Which audience is targeted?
    • Conversion target?
  • Quantitative value proposition
    • How many impressions? views? watch minutes?
    • CPM?
    • How many people will be reached? converted?