Skip to main content

The Year of Waste - The Year of Reforms

OpenGov's story of 2024 was one of both ambition and reflection. It was the first year that OpenGov was truly tested with highly engaged participation from all parties. At the same time, it marked the final year before the anticipated bull market, providing a crucial window to prepare for what lies ahead. While bold initiatives aimed to make Polkadot more relevant, they also showed gaps in execution and highlighted the need for better structures and reforms within the OpenGov framework.

Among the most debated attempts were the sponsorship proposals, which attracted attention due to their scale and substantial funding requests. These high-profile campaigns were designed to enhance Polkadot’s visibility and aimed for ambitious goals, though their outcomes were less clear than anticipated. Similarly, millions of dollars were allocated to crypto influencers on social media to drive adoption and engagement, but these efforts often failed to produce concrete results.

It is essential to reflect on these lessons without casting undue judgment. Spending does not inherently equate to waste, and sponsorships can play a valuable role when aligned with the broader strategy. For example, the e-sports sponsorship demonstrated the potential of product-market fit to generate meaningful brand recognition. However, high-cost awareness campaigns must always be scrutinized to ensure they deliver real value and measurable returns to the network.

The recurring argument that such initiatives account for a small part of the treasury is highly problematic. While seemingly negligible, this mindset risks normalizing inefficiencies and diluting the treasury’s ability to fund impactful projects. The token holders must find a balance between bold investments and fiscal responsibility and learn from past mistakes.

Meanwhile, the network demonstrated a willingness to address these issues through meaningful reforms. As OpenGov.Watch, we encouraged debates and proposed clear standards for proposals and departmental structures, with greater emphasis on transparency, predictability, regulatory compliance, and alignment with strategic goals. These reforms have begun to shift the culture toward more thoughtful and impactful spending.

Now, let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. We prepared this summary of key events to help you navigate through the most important developments of OpenGov in 2024. Whether you’ve been closely following or need a quick recap, this overview will bring you up to speed.

Decentralized Voices​

The Decentralized Voices (DV) program, launched by the Web3 Foundation in March 2024, was an important point of transition in Polkadot OpenGov. The foundation delegated 42 million DOT to selected community members and organizations for the program's first term, which lasted until May. This delegation aimed to encourage more informed participation and empower diverse community perspectives in decision-making processes.

The second term, beginning in May, has been criticized due to allegations of coordination among some participants and concerns over transparency as well as accusations of quid-pro-quo voting behavior. The criticisms had an impact on the design of the third term in September. With the latest term, strict rules were introduced, putting emphasis on organizational applicants over individuals, and included measures to prevent conflicts of interest. Despite facing growing pains, the DV program has set a precedent in decentralized governance and continues to evolve as a critical component of OpenGov’s decision-making framework.

Wish for Change Track​

In April 2024, the Wish for Change (WfC) track was introduced to expand the tools of OpenGov. This new track allowed token holders to suggest off-chain actions and create social contracts, moving beyond technical proposals and opening up new participation methods.

Some of the key WfC proposals from 2024:

Polkadot's Economics Parameters: This proposal suggested lowering Polkadot's inflation rate to reduce token dilution and re-balance the staking and treasury funding. It initially started as three different proposals, each proposing a different inflation rate and reduction strategy. The one selected among them was submitted as a Whitelisted Caller track proposal and enacted on-chain.

Bounty Compliance Standards: Focused on improving transparency and accountability, the proposal suggested bounty curators and beneficiaries provide detailed reports on how funds were used as well as standardization of certain practices. The standards provide a framework for OpenGov to audit, judge, and intervene in its departments to ensure responsible spending. If these standards are enforced by voters in 2025, it will allow the creation of a long-term budget for OpenGov.

Optimistic Project Funding: This proposal offered a dynamic, continuous funding method that incentivized organizations building on Polkadot. As a concept, it aims for token holders to nominate whitelisted projects which would then receive a proportional share of a fixed stream of funding derived directly from inflation. The funding mechanism also proposed conviction-based voting to amplify nominations. Although highly ambitious, the initiative remains in the conceptual stage with no implementation.

Event Organization​

One of the key discussion topics of OpenGov was events in 2024. The debates showed the importance of strong oversight, clear financial transparency, and efficient resource allocation when organizing community-led and flagship events.

The Events Bounty, one of Polkadot’s oldest bounties, faced criticism. Slow decision-making, delayed funding, and unclear operations led to calls for reform in the community. The Bounty was restructured with changes to the curator seat to oversee its operations. The restructured bounty received additional funding and expanded its scope to include event marketing and further business development activities. Transparency was also improved, with initiatives such as weekly office hours to increase communication and accountability with the community.

In July, the €1.3M Polkadot Decoded event in Brussels brought even more attention to event organization within the network. The flagship event received criticism as well as constructive feedback from multiple ecosystem agents. On the other hand, the ChaosDAO beer stand at the same event, which cost just €7K, showed how smaller, targeted efforts could engage the community effectively with far fewer resources.

The Sub0 event proposal, submitted during the summer for a planned fall event, was rejected due to concerns about repeating inefficiencies seen in previous events. In response, a new team presented Sub0 Reset, an alternative proposal that addressed these concerns and was subsequently approved. Sub0 Reset earned community appreciation for its cost-effectiveness, record participation, and alignment with community expectations.

Ambassador Program​

The Ambassador Program had several transformations over the years, with major changes in 2024. Previously, the program was based on voluntary participation, which led to concerns about inactive ambassadors, and a lack of results. These issues led to the introduction of a new ambassador program earlier in the year which required ambassadors to be elected through OpenGov and included a compensation structure. However, the process was poorly defined and caused disputes over the merit of elected people and the election framework itself. The situation escalated dramatically in September, when ten of the twenty head ambassadors proposed reducing the number of ambassadors, due to bureaucratic inefficiencies. This proposal caused heated debates, resulting in a series of follow-up proposals that ranged from canceling the halving proposal to demoting all ambassadors and sunsetting the program entirely.

The resolution came in October with the launch of Project Phoenix, a complete overhaul of the Ambassador Program. Project Phoenix introduced a rank-based membership system, performance-based rewards, and clearer role definitions as well as project-based funding. Although Project Phoenix addressed many of the program’s shortcomings, its long-term success depends on effective implementation and its ability to adapt to the evolving needs of the Polkadot.

Marketing Bounty​

The Marketing Bounty was by far the most controversial initiative in OpenGov in 2024. Initially launched to drive ecosystem growth, the first iteration of the bounty mostly failed due to overspending and a lack of quality assurance of the funded projects. Community backlash grew as significant amounts of DOT were allocated to marketing campaigns and influencers with little to show in terms of measurable results.

By mid-year, frustrations peaked, and the first Marketing Bounty was defunded with top-up proposals not getting approval one after the other. The bounty required a thorough restructuring with new people on the helm supported with stronger oversight. Community discussions highlighted the importance of setting clear objectives, transparent reporting, and accountability for any future initiatives.

In October, a revamped Marketing Bounty was launched, addressing many of the concerns raised in its earlier iteration. The new structure features stricter standards for proposal evaluation, increased transparency measures, and a focus on standardizing the initiative for the long-term establishment of the department. Curators were tasked with ensuring that projects demonstrated tangible value before receiving funds. OpenGov.Watch played a key role as a curator, advocating for accountability and standardized practices in the new system.

The new bounty still has issues. Although they are not even comparable with the previous one, there are problems yet to be resolved specifically around the stability of the new curator set and coordination problems However, we think these issues are very small in scale and could be resolved internally over time.

Looking Forward​

OpenGov.Watch will continue its work in 2025 with monthly and quarterly reporting, helping projects in need through bookable calls and weekly office hours covering the entire planet to ensure everyone has a voice.

Our strategy to support governance initiatives and departments will also remain active and even more engaged. We are currently involved in multiple bounties without receiving further compensation from the treasury on top of our W3F grant. We will leverage our neutral stance, leave departments we are no longer needed in, and assist in establishing or restructuring others where required.

Support the Watch​