Governance
The decentralized architecture of the Vigilix AI supports its growing community of node operators, detection bot developers and the ecosystem built on top. The vision of Vigilix AI posits that only a community-based platform will be powerful enough to address the rapidly evolving risk landscape on blockchains, where every new smart contract deployed introduces novel risk vectors that could affect thousands of interconnected protocols and millions of users.
It is integral that governance over the architecture of the Vigilix AI is also decentralized, to ensure that Vigilix AI persists as an open, permissionless platform available to anyone who wants to use or build on it. Further, the Vigilix AI community should be able to influence the evolution of the Network alongside the evolution of Web3.
The Vigilix AI Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization (the “Foundation”) that holds certain assets (e.g. public and open source IP, Github repos, and VGXAI tokens) in the Network and will facilitate governance of Vigilix AI by its community members. To further decentralize governance over Vigilix AI, the Foundation introduced a community governance framework with two primary components:
Vigilix AI Proposal Process – a formal, yet flexible framework designed for the community to self-organize and advance proposals and signal support by VGXAI token holder voting; and
Vigilix AI Governance Council – decision making authority was delegated by the community to an initial council of representatives elected by VGXAI token holders, always allowing the community to provide input and share sentiment through the Vigilix AI Proposal Process.
Vigilix AI’s initial community governance is simple by design, shaped by key learnings from the current state of Web3 governance:
Complex governance systems can lead to voter fatigue and voter apathy
Radical democracy invites plutocracy and it takes time for tokens to become widely dispersed amongst a network’s users
Governance should be flexible enough to meet the unique needs of each community, as such needs emerge
The stakeholders of a network like Vigilix AI extend outside of token holders and should be represented
Proposals to alter the protocol should be public and permissionless and decision makers should be accountable to the community
Governance should minimize over time as the protocol hardens
The initial community governance framework should allow anyone to easily participate in shaping the evolution of Vigilix AI, allowing the Network to evolve naturally over time. It should also maintain the security and robustness of the Network needed for Vigilix AI to further its mission to monitor all transactions and protect all assets in Web3.
Vigilix AI Governance Council
The Council’s mission is to steward the continued evolution of the Vigilix AI by facilitating the collective action of its community. The initial council is a group of early Vigilix AI community members and ecosystem experts, elected by VGXAI token holder vote.
The Council reduces the need for individual voters to actively participate in every single governance matter. This saves an individual’s attention for when it really matters, mitigating the risk of community members feeling voter fatigue and apathy. Importantly, any community member can always share sentiment, make proposals, and/or signal support by voting with VGXAI tokens in the Vigilix AI Proposal Process on changes and issues that are important to them. This doesn’t preclude any other forms of community participation, including direct outreach to other members of the community or to the Council directly.
The Council Bylaws set out the Council governance authority and responsibilities, which in short allow the Council to:
Support initiatives that contribute to the growth and sustainability of Vigilix AI
Facilitate the development of features and changes in the Network, or adjacent products and services
Enable Vigilix AI security programs to ensure the long-term security of the Network and security procedures so Vigilix AI can react to potential vulnerabilities
Educate the Web3 ecosystem about the importance of decentralized runtime security and advocate for the vision of Vigilix AI and the decentralized web
Attract and retain node runners, bot developers, core developers and other community members through community-building and marketing initiatives
Carry out actions that would otherwise further the Council’s mission
The Council generally may exercise its authority under the Bylaws on a majority vote basis, although appointment or removal of other council members requires a two-thirds majority vote. If Council members do not stay aligned with the community and represent their interests well, the community may lobby the Council to remove a council member, through an FPP proposal or directly.
The Council also holds admin signing privileges on the Vigilix AI multi-signature wallets on a majority M-of-N basis, as well as authority over any Foundation custodial accounts.
The Council should help reduce the real problems that would be created by a more complex governance system introduced at the outset that requires VGXAI token holder voting on every single issue. An initial governance council should reduce the attention-taxing process of VGXAI holders needing to keep up with an ever-changing system, which provides them more time and attention that can be used to provide value in the Vigilix AI, furthering its mission to monitor all transactions and protect all assets in Web3.
Last updated