This is a proposal to grant voting power for SD bonded by permissionless NOs, following the discussion held in Discord around unlocking SD collateral voting power, and gather more community feedback about it.
Node Operators are the most committed and engaged users, due to the long term nature of their investment.
Moreover, permissionless NOs are the foundations of ETHx, and the main reason behind its decentralization.
Therefore, them having a say in the DAO is mutually beneficial.
To be frank, being a Stader OG and perma-bull on the platform and the team, I would still have never in my wildest dreams imagined hitting 130 node operator count in barely just a month after launching.
This is a crazy milestone we should all be proud of.
So yes, those ~1m SD bonded by these 130 chads need to have gov power!
Absolutely agree 100% on all fronts. This aligns interests of node operators with the protocol. The one word of caution would be to watch out for putting too much power in the hands of the node operators. We want to make sure node operators wants and needs are balanced with those who stake.
I don’t think this would become an issue but you don’t want to see the situation where node operators are giving themselves outsized rewards at the expense of those staking eth for Ethx or another token.
This should be treated as a priority. Really easy to implement within the CLI, will boost governance participation, and give NOs their deserved say in the DAO.
This could also kick off a delegation program for the NOs that wouldn’t otherwise use their governance power. They can delegate it to active members in the governance most aligned with them.
In my view, endorsing this proposal is a straightforward decision. Node Operators (NOs) are among the most deeply invested stakeholders in the Stader ecosystem, dedicating not just capital but also significant time and effort. It stands to reason that they should have a voice in governance through the use of their bonded SD tokens. As far as I’m aware, there are no discernible drawbacks to empowering NOs in this way, especially considering they serve as the backbone of Stader ETH.
