AMA: Meet Agora - Enabling Nearians to Vote on House of Stake

The Spaces focused on the development and implementation of 'House of Stake,' a decentralized governance initiative on the NEAR blockchain, led by the Agora Governance team. Key participants included Mr. Potato, Kent from Agora Governance, and Yuan from the NEAR community. Discussions revolved around the intricacies of building a comprehensive front-end for the protocol and the unique governance mechanisms such as veNEAR. Challenges mentioned included interface design complexities, transaction handling, and the progressive decentralization strategy. The conversation also highlighted the progress made with Meteor Wallet integration and the promise of improved UX as the project matures. Upcoming features and community engagement strategies were also explored, emphasizing the project's commitment to transparency and adaptability to user feedback.

Overview of the Recording

This recording from a Twitter Spaces session discusses the progress and future plans related to the development of the House of Stake governance platform on the NEAR Protocol. Various contributors involved in different capacities in the ecosystem discuss their roles and the technical work being undertaken to advance governance features within NEAR.

Key Participants

  • Mr. Potato: Host of the session and representative from the Near Community Squad.
  • Kent: Co-founder and CTO of Agora Governance.
  • Yuwen: Member of the Near Community Team and holistic delegate.
  • Kenny: Volunteer in the Near ecosystem, working on House of Stake-related matters.
  • Uthred: Participant in the discussion, asking questions about voting mechanisms.

Topics and Discussions

Introduction to Participants and Agora's Role

Kent introduced himself as the co-founder and CTO of Agora Governance. He explained Agora has been building governance solutions with the NEAR Foundation and Gauntlet, focusing on bringing decentralized governance to NEAR. Kent emphasized the significance of governance in bringing long-term success to blockchain protocols and discussed his enthusiasm for the potential of NEAR's technical capabilities.

Agora's Background and Expertise

Kent recounted the origins of Agora, which started with the Nouns Community, an NFT project on Ethereum, and expanded to support major projects like ENS, Uniswap, and Optimism. He highlighted some technical achievements, such as solving governance challenges for Optimism and developing a partially delegated ERC-20 token standard, which showcases Agora's broad involvement in governance and technical solutions.

NEAR Protocol's Distinct Features

Kent noted the differences between working in the EVM world and NEAR Protocol, expressing a positive opinion of NEAR's foundational features like named accounts and contract accounts. These features allow for innovative development methods, providing more flexibility and potential for improvements, unlike traditional EVM chains.

House of Stake Development and Challenges

The recording detailed the efforts being put into building a user-friendly and technically robust front-end for House of Stake. Challenges discussed included ensuring efficient transaction processes and integrating multiple wallets. The team is focused on simplicity and scalability while aiming to present a polished user experience.

Future Plans for Governance and Voting on NEAR

Kent mentioned future provisions that may include advanced voting schemes, such as rank choice voting, multiple choice voting, and more, with the initial focus being simple yes/no votes. He further elaborated that the current phase will employ signal-only votes, with plans to integrate more complex features into later versions.

Audience Interaction

Uthred raised questions about the type of voting mechanisms supported, to which Kent replied that the current version will support basic mechanisms, with an eye towards more advanced options in future updates. Interaction with the community was encouraged to fine-tune systems based on feedback.

Conclusion

Kent expressed excitement about ongoing development and the collective effort involved in rolling out the House of Stake. The recording closed with assurances of continued communication and support as the project progresses, emphasizing the role of the community in driving successful outcomes.