Launching the Aleo Foundation Governance Platform

As a community-driven platform, it’s important that the Aleo Network reflects the ideas and desires of the folks who dedicate their time and effort to building on Aleo. The Aleo Network Foundation team has developed the Aleo Governance Platform as a space for community members to elevate their ideas, vote on Aleo Request for Comments (ARCs), and improve the Network in the name of decentralization. 

What is the Aleo Governance Platform?

The Aleo governance system is a platform for making proposals and decisions about the Aleo blockchain and community. The governance platform enables users to submit ARCs, which are protocol-level, network-level, and application-level standards for the Aleo ecosystem. 

Introducing Aleo Governors

In an effort to streamline the governance process, we have introduced a new role in our Ambassador Program: the Governor. Governors will review all loose thoughts and proposals to ensure compliance with Aleo's Community Rules and Guidelines, actively support proposals, and moderate all channels under the Governance category.

How can you get involved?

Head to Aleo’s Discord and view all governance discussions in the Governance category. Anyone, no matter their role in the community, can view the discussions happening in the governance channels. 

There are two main channels below the Governance category: “Loose Thoughts” and “Proposals.” 

Loose thoughts are ideas that may eventually become ARCs, but are not fully developed yet. All Aleo Ambassadors (Maestros, Voyagers, Apprentices, and DevRel) are able to create a loose thought on Discord. These thoughts are managed by Governors. After a loose thought has been discussed, Governors can choose between declining and closing the discussion around the loose thought or promoting it to an official ARC. 

To create a new loose thought:

• Go to 💭┃loose-thoughts on Discord

• Create Thread

• Thread Name

• Submit

ARC proposals follow a more strict quality check than loose thoughts. Roles that can propose ARCs directly include the Aleo Team, Governors (who are elected by the community), and Aleo Grantees. ARCs are used to propose new features and functionalities according to predefined guidelines.

To create a new ARC proposal:

• Go to https://vote.aleo.org/

• Connect your Discord & Wallet

• Click on "+ New Proposal"

• Describe the new proposal based on the given instructions

• “Submit” or “Save Draft” to submit later

The author of the proposal sets the voting period and options, which can be customized individually based on each proposal's characteristics. After submitting the new proposal, a discussion with the same ARC number and name will be automatically created on Discord in the Proposals channel.

We’re excited to expand the Aleo Network’s governance as we move towards a more decentralized process for network improvements. We can’t accomplish this without the participation of our community, so head to the Discord and get involved today.