Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative - Cycle 4
Authors: @Doo_StableLab @PGov @AranaDigital @seedgov
Summary
This proposal outlines the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative—Cycle 4, a compensation program designed to improve and sustain the participation quality and dedication among Uniswap delegates following the conclusion of Cycle 1, 2, and 3.
Background
In late February 2024, StableLab proposed the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative. After the GovSwap event in Denver, further research to plan and implement the Delegate Reward Initiative was highlighted, leading to the formation of the Uniswap Delegate Reward Working Group, composed of 8 members from different organizations. After extensive research for more than a month, the Working Group produced several findings, which can be found here: https://gov.uniswap.org/t/findings-from-uniswap-delegate-reward-working-group/23702
Incorporating these findings, the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative Cycle 1 was proposed and launched in June 2024. Cycle 1 was successful in that the 12 delegates selected maintained 100% voting participation rate for votes during this period. In addition, several new delegates joined the protocol due to the presence of incentives.
With learnings from Cycle 1, including how to make a points system to determine the top delegate applicants in a more fair and objective manner, along with a tier system to incorporate different participation levels of delegates, Cycle 2 was launched.
Cycle 2 was also positive as all 16 delegates in the program have maintained a voting and rationale qualification rate above 85% over the past three months, with 10 delegates achieving a perfect 100% in both categories. Their collective participation is essential; without them, quorums would not have been met. The program also attracted several participants to become delegates.
The primary change for Cycle 3 was an increased emphasis on voting participation, particularly onchain voting, which carries greater governance impact. In addition, tie-breaker criteria was updated. After the application process, the top 15 delegates were determined based on a point system.
Learnings/Challenges from Cycle 3
While Uniswap Delegate Reward Cycle 3 has continued to show strong participation and various proposals ideas from qualified delegates, Uniswap DAO recognizes that Uniswap Delegate Reward program itself is one of several joint Uniswap programs to ensure robust governance security and participation.
As the Uniswap Accountability Committee noted in the recent RFC , “voter turnout has steadily declined from an average of nearly 60 million UNI in its early years to approximately 45 million today.” This was also showcased by Andreessen Horowitz recently undelegating over 20 million UNI, which made passing the onchain proposals impossible with existing usual governance participants.
We are mindful that dramatically expanding the scope and increasing the budget of Uniswap Delegate Reward program in the current structure is not necessarily the best use of DAO’s resources. Therefore, the budget and the number of selected delegates remains the same. Voting participation and proposal authorships still remain as the main focus.
The significant change for Cycle 3 is an introduction of Delegate owned UNI token to reflect on requests from several Uniswap DAO members during the Cycle 3 debate (the debate on this topic) for experimentation. For this cycle, the basis will be 1,000 UNI token (<$10k of August 2nd price). Delegates who hold 1,000 UNI or more would be able to get a small additional point on the application and will be the basis for getting 100% of the Uniswap Delegate reward once accepted. Details on how UNI ownership is determined is explained below in “Uniswap Delegate Reward Cycle 4 Metrics.” We believe experimenting with such can potentially address the question of delegates having more “skin in the game.”
Another change we propose to include in this cycle (which was also discussed during the Cycle 3 debate) is to award an additional point in the application score to delegates who have demonstrated perfect participation over the past 6 months. Perfect participation is having voted in 100% of the proposals (both on Snapshot and on-chain), having submitted rationale for 100% of their votes in time, and having attended 100% of the community calls. In this way, the program prioritizes delegates who have shown consistent engagement.
In addition, in the application process for Cycle 3, the question of what qualifies as “Authored or Co-authored a proposal” as well as whether only one or multiple wallets of delegates are counted became an issue. So for Cycle 4 applications, we added additional definitions and criteria for each to make interpretation more clear and objective.
Cycle 4 Proposal Details
Application Eligibility
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There will be a week-long period for candidates to submit their applications. The top 15 delegates will be determined based on a point system outlined below.
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Delegates from Cycle 3 must apply again for Cycle 4–they will not be automatically included.
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Only delegates who have participated in onchain voting for at least three months prior to the application post are eligible for Cycle 4.
Uniswap Delegate Reward Cycle 4 Metrics
In case there are more than 15 eligible applicants, the top 15 will be chosen by the following objective metrics. The highest number of available points will be 13.
There will only be one wallet used for tracking for such metrics unless a Delegate has communicated on their delegate platform on the forum that the voting address will be changed at the time of change. In case of if the Delegate did not communicate such change on the delegate platform on the forum, the Delegate applicant can only choose one wallet to be used for evaluating for the metrics.
Applicants will also need to agree to follow Principles for Uniswap DAOto be eligible.
1. Voting Participation
Since a delegate’s primary role is to utilize voting power from delegators and vote in Uniswap’s best interest, active participation is essential to ensuring quorums are met and malicious proposals are thwarted. This category carries a total of 7 points, with onchain voting weighted more heavily due to its ability to directly impact governance contracts and direct treasury funds. The voting rate is evaluated based on the past six months.
Offchain Voting (Snapshot)
90% and above: 3
80% to 90% : 2
70% till 80% : 1.5
60% till 70%: 1
50% till 60%: 0.5
50% or below: 0
Onchain Voting
90% and above : 4
80% till 90% : 2.5
70% till 80%: 1.5
60% till 70%: 1
50% till 60%: 0.5
Below 50%: 0
2. Proposal Authorship
Contributing to proposal drafting for Uniswap DAO is valuable, but maintaining quality and preventing malicious proposals is equally important. As a result, only successfully passed votes are counted. This category is worth a total of 3 points, with onchain proposals receiving greater weight once again.
For non-binary proposals, if a “No” equivalent option was available and the final voting outcome was a choice other than “No,” the proposal qualifies for points in this category. For example, the Uniswap Treasury Working Group (UTWG) Election would not be eligible, as there was no “No” vote option. However, the [Temp] Uni Onboarding Package - BSC would qualify, since an “Against” option was present, and the final outcome was “$1M.”
Only the sole author or co-authors explicitly mentioned on the proposal will receive credit.
Authored or Co-authored a proposal that passed offchain (Snapshot) vote before.
Yes, 2 or more: 1
Yes, 1: 0.5
No: 0
Authored or Co authored a proposal that passed onchain vote before
Yes, 2 or more: 2
Yes, 1: 1
No: 0
3. Community Participation
The full point for this category is 1.
Community Calls (March - August 2025)
Attended at least 80% of calls: 1
Attended at least 50% of calls: 0.5
Attended less than 50% of calls: 0
4. Delegate Owned UNI Token
The full point for this category is 1.
Blockchain signatures are required so Delegate can prove that Delegate has ownership of UNI Token. In addition, UNI token delegate claims to own must be delegated to the applicant delegate. One needs to have 1,000 UNI or more and have blockchain signature that verifies ownership from the wallet that holds 1,000 UNI or more by the time the applicant applies to gain extra 1 point in applications.
Ex) If StableLab wants to receive full point for this category, StableLab needs to hold at least 1,000 UNI, share in the application the wallet address where 1,000 UNI is being held, sign blockchain signature that confirms that the wallet belongs to StableLab and from that wallet address must delegate to StableLab.
To qualify for this 1 point, the delegated owned 1,000 UNI must remain at least until the verification process is completed and the application results are announced.
Delegate owns 1,000 UNI and is delegated to Delegate applying
Yes: 1
No: 0
5. Perfect Participation
The full point for this category is 1.
Delegates with participation over the past 6 months: Voted in 100% of the proposals (both on Snapshot and on-chain), submitted rationale for 100% of their votes in time (7 days from the end of each vote), attended 100% of the community calls.
Yes: 1
No: 0
Tie Breaker
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Ties will be decided by the date of the first onchain vote that these applicants cast in order to reward delegates who have been contributing to Uniswap governance for an extended period. The tie-breaking value will be determined based on the end date of the vote in which the delegates participated, not the onchain date when the vote was cast.
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In the event of a tie with the first tie-breaker criterion, priority will be given to the delegate who has cast the most votes in the last 6 months.
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In the event that the tie persists further, the final decision will favor the delegate who was first to present their delegation platform—hence, priority will be given to the individual/entity who first publicly declared their intention to become a delegate.
Delegate Reward Eligibility
Once delegates have passed the application process, they must fulfill the following requirements to be eligible for up to $6,000 USD worth of $UNI reward per month.
Requirements
- Maintain a minimum of 80% participation in onchain and off-chain voting during the last 3 months to be eligible to receive up to $3,000 worth of $UNI per month, with the proportional payment based on each delegate’s participation in the total votes cast during the last 3 months (number of votes cast x 100 / total votes cast during the last 3 months). For example, if there were 10 votes cast in the last 3 months and a delegate voted on 8 of them, that delegate will receive 80% of the $3,000 USD, i.e. the delegate will be eligible to receive $2,400. If another delegate voted on 7 of those votes, that delegate will not be eligible to receive any rewards as their participation was 70% of the votes, below the 80% minimum.
Additional Rewards (the below are only available if the above Requirement of Voting Participation is fulfilled)
2a. Write rationale for the voting on their delegate profile.
-Deadline for writing rationale would be 7 days from the end of each vote.
2b. Attend Uniswap Community Calls.
2c. Maintain ownership of 1,000 UNI or more and delegated to the Delegate
Achieving these above will provide an additional up to $3,000 USD worth of $UNI. 2c must be met, meaning ownership of 1,000 or more UNI must be maintained and delegated to the delegate to be eligible. If 2c is met, for 2a, 2b, there will also be proportional payment. For example, if 2c is met, and if there were 4 votings and 1 community call, and a delegate missed writing a rationale of 2 of the votes, the delegate would be eligible to receive $1800 [3/5 * $3000].
Regarding 2c, once again, in case of less than 1,000 UNI, This proportion will NOT be applied. For example, even if a Delegate has 500 UNI and fulfill all of 2a and 2b, the additional rewards would be $0 worth of UNI. The Uniswap Accountability Committee will periodically check qualified Delegates’ wallets for their UNI amount.
Budget
We are requesting 540,000 [6000 USD *6 Months *15 Delegates ] USD worth of UNI for cycle 4 of the Uniswap Delegate Reward Initiative.
The total amount, once approved, will be sent to the Accountability Committee, which will be responsible for the monthly distribution of rewards to eligible delegates. Since the total budget of the Delegate Reward WG has not been fully used, administration of this reward program–including the creation of this proposal and the admin work behind verifying monthly delegate participation–will be allotted from that account, with no additional costs to the DAO. Therefore, the total budget request will be solely for the delegate pay.