SIP-424: Unstaked SNX voting for governance elections

Simple Summary

This SIP updates Spartan Council election voting so that all SNX holders can vote, not only SNX stakers. SIP-423 sUSD conversion entitlements yet to be claimed count as SNX voting power at the 4:1 conversion ratio.

SIP-423 retired the 420 staking system and deferred the replacement staking contract. Until that contract is live, staking is not a usable basis for election voting power. This SIP replaces staker-only election voting with holder voting for all subsequent council elections, or until a later SIP restores the staking model.

Abstract

Spartan Council elections currently restrict voting to SNX staked in the 420 pool. SIP-423 closed that pool, returned unencumbered SNX to wallets, and left SNX with remaining debt in Treasury custody pending Phase 4 staking reform, which remains unbuilt.

This SIP proposes that election voting power be derived from SNX economic ownership rather than from a staking-contract balance. Specifically:

1. Eligibility — any wallet that holds SNX, or that has a SIP-423 sUSD conversion entitlement yet to be claimed, at the election snapshot may vote.
2. Voting power — linear, 1 SNX = 1 vote. Each 1 sUSD of SIP-423 entitlement yet to be claimed counts as 4 SNX.
3. Balance sources — Ethereum mainnet SNX, Optimism SNX, SNX still held by the Treasury on behalf of former 420 participants with outstanding debt, and sUSD conversion entitlements yet to be claimed from the published SIP-423 holder snapshot.

Specification

Overview

Update the Snapshot strategy used for Spartan Council elections so that voting power is the voter’s SNX ownership at the snapshot block. Economic ownership includes liquid SNX, 420 SNX, and SIP-423 sUSD conversion entitlements yet to be claimed.

This change applies to elections for the four elected seats; three advisory seats and one treasury seat as defined in SR-2. It does not change SIP, SCCP, or STP voting by sitting council members. It does not change SIP-408 referendum rules, which already use holder voting.

Eligibility and voting power

For each election:

• The Snapshot block is the block at which voting opens, or an earlier block published with the election.
• A wallet’s voting power is the sum of:
  • SNX balanceOf on Ethereum mainnet (0xC011a73ee8576Fb46F5E1c5751cA3B9Fe0af2a6F).
  • SNX balanceOf on Optimism (0x8700daec35af8ff88c16bdf0418774cb3d7599b4).
  • SNX still custodied by the Treasury from the 420 wind-down and attributed to that wallet in the published 420 snapshot (SNX that had remaining debt and was not returned).
  • SIP-423 sUSD conversion entitlement yet to be claimed for that wallet, converted at 4 SNX per 1 sUSD from the published Phase 2 snapshot (Ethereum block 25473065, Optimism block 153868527). Maximum entitlement across all holders is 236,464,356 SNX.
• Voting is linear: 1 SNX = 1 vote.
• A wallet may vote in each election contest for which it has non-zero voting power (Advisory and Treasury remain separate votes, as in recent elections).
• Anyone may self-nominate. Nomination does not require a minimum SNX holding.

Election process

Unchanged except for the voting-power strategy.

Technical Specification

Configure the Synthetix elections Snapshot space as follows.

Strategies (summed):

1. erc20-balance-of — Ethereum, SNX 0xC011a73ee8576Fb46F5E1c5751cA3B9Fe0af2a6F.
2. erc20-balance-of — Optimism, SNX 0x8700daec35af8ff88c16bdf0418774cb3d7599b4.
3. A Snapshot strategy that applies the published 420 debt-SNX attribution list (address → SNX amount) while those tokens remain in Treasury custody. The list is the 420 wind-down snapshot already published under SIP-423. Protocol-owned addresses are omitted from this list.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.