How to Create and Submit Proposals?

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How to Create and Submit Proposals?

Creating and submitting proposals on Carbon is the first step in the Switcheo governance process for enacting change and improvements to the protocol. This involves bringing forward a topic for voting by submitting an on-chain proposal on Carbon.

Submitted proposals will go through 2 stages - the Deposit Phase followed by the Voting Phase. This article goes through the steps you should take prior to and after submitting a proposal on Carbon, detailing the entire proposal phase of the governance process.

For an overview and introduction to Carbon Governance, click here.

Gather Feedback from the Community

Before officially submitting a proposal on Carbon, you are highly encouraged to share your ideas with the community through the Switcheo Foundation forum and Discord channel.

Engaging with the community is beneficial to creating a proposal as you:

Receive unofficial votes (community signals)
Gain better idea of how receptive the community is to your ideas and
Make relevant tweaks and changes based on feedback received

It is important to understand community sentiment before submitting a proposal as a minimum deposit is required to send proposals into the Voting Phase and bears the risk of loss. This will be explained further in the Deposit Phase section below.

Here’s how you can propose ideas to the community;

Step 1: Log into the Carbon Governance Forum

Select “Ideas” under Categories and post your ideas or proposal suggestions by clicking on “New Topic”.

Enter your topic title and description of your proposal before clicking on “Submit"

Description can be made in the following format for clarity.

Step 2: Next, share your forum post and engage the Discord community about your new suggestion by creating a post in our “Governance” category under the #suggestions channel.

Once you feel that your suggestion has garnered enough support from the community and are confident in starting the official submission process, you may proceed to creating your proposal.

Crafting Your Proposal

Step 1: Decide on the type of proposal to submit

There are 3 types of proposals that can be submitted onto Carbon.

Parameter Change
Text Change
Software Upgrade (not yet available)

Currently, only “Parameter Change” and "Text Change" proposals are possible. Click here for more information on the 3 types of proposals and their functionalities.

Step 2: Format your proposal according to our proposal template available here.

Deposit Phase

When a proposal is first submitted on Carbon, it enters the Deposit Phase - where the proposal must reach the minimum deposit requirement of 10,000 SWTH within 2 days. Once the minimum deposit requirement is met, the proposal automatically enters into the Voting Phase.

So, for example, if Proposal A meets the minimum deposit requirement immediately upon submission, it will automatically enter into the Voting Phase.

This deposit measure ensures that only legitimate and well-thought-out proposals are submitted by stakeholders invested in the protocol, while preventing spam proposals.

Do note that if proposals fail to meet the deposit requirements after 2 days (expired proposals), all SWTH deposited will be burnt. Deposits will only be returned in the following circumstances:

Proposal is passed. Meets Quorum, Threshold and was not Vetoed.
Proposal fails because less than 50% vote ‘Yes’ (only fails Threshold)

More information about the 3 voting criteria used to pass a proposal can be found in “How to Vote for Proposals?”.

Step 1: To submit your proposal on Carbon, log into Switcheo Tradescan using your encrypted key and password.

Select the Governance tab. You will be directed to a page listing all proposals in their respective stages:

Proposals in Voting Period
Proposals in Deposit Period
Completed Proposals

Step 2: Click on “Submit a Proposal” and fill up the proposal form.

After selecting the relevant option for Topic, Parameter and Value (if applicable) on the proposal form, input the formatted proposal into the “Proposal Description”.

Step 3: Input deposit amount (optional)

Before submitting the proposal, you can choose to input a deposit amount which will be withdrawn from your Carbon account. This step is optional - you can input any amount of SWTH as an initial deposit (e.g. 0 SWTH).

Step 4: Submit your proposal by clicking “Submit”

A network fee of 1 SWTH will be deducted from your wallet. The proposal will be recorded onto the blockchain and enter the Deposit Phase. Do note that you will not be able to amend your proposal after you have submitted it, so do make sure to check it thoroughly before submitting.

How can others contribute SWTH to your proposal deposit?

Step 5: Bring attention to your proposal

At this stage, anyone can contribute to your proposal’s deposit if the minimum requirement to send the proposal to the Voting Phase has not been met.

To deposit SWTH, depositors must first select your proposal in Governance, under the “Proposals in Deposit Period” section and click on “Deposit”.

**please note that proposals listed in the image are examples

To deposit SWTH, the depositor will need to input the amount of SWTH he/she would like to contribute to your proposal and click “Deposit”.

Voting Phase

After the deposit period is over, proposals in the Deposit Phase will have 2 outcomes depending on the deposit amount acquired:

10,000 SWTH - Proposal is automatically sent into the Voting Phase
Less than 10,000 SWTH - Proposal is withdrawn and deposit is burnt

The Voting Phase is a 2 day period where stakeholders can cast their votes for proposals. The results are recorded on the blockchain. Click here to learn about how to vote for a proposal.

Share Your Proposal and Monitor Proposal Status

Once your proposal has entered the Voting Phase, share it with the community by posting it on the Carbon Governance Forum under the “Proposal” category. Link the post on Discord in the #discuss channel under the “Governance” category to allow the community to engage in discussions, and encourage them to vote.

Monitor the status of your proposal by locating it in “Governance” under the “Proposals in Voting Period” section. You will be able to view the percentage of each voting option and the amount of time left in the voting period.

**please note that proposals listed in the image are examples

When the 2 day voting period has ended, the voting results will be released and recorded on-chain. If the proposal is passed, it will be implemented automatically on the blockchain.

What happens when proposals do not get passed?

If proposals fail to meet the minimum voting criteria, the proposal will be withdrawn and the SWTH deposit will be burnt. Deposits are burnt in the following circumstances;

Expired proposal. The proposal does not meet the minimum deposit required within the stipulated time of 2 days in the Deposit Phase.
Does not reach quorum during voting. Less than 33.4% of the staking power voted on a proposal.
Proposal vetoed during voting. At least 33.4% voted No-With-Veto

Learn more about the minimum criteria that needs to be satisfied for a proposal to be passed in our “How to Vote for Proposals?”.