Polkadot, an interconnected network of public blockchains, has announced the launch of Polkadot OpenGov, a streamlined governance model that allows voting on multiple issues to take place simultaneously. This new system abolishes the Polkadot Council and Technical Committee, which were previously responsible for proposing referenda and approving spending proposals.
Joe Petrowski, System Parachains Team Lead at Web3 Foundation, explained that the new system removes bottlenecks from the existing system. “The previous governance system could only take one referendum at a time with the default that each one lasted for 28 days,” said Petrowski. “That pace makes sense for sensitive things like system upgrades, but not for when somebody wants to make a treasury proposal or start a new option for a parachain.”
The new system, Polkadot OpenGov, is being directly controlled by the community and is replacing the Polkadot Council and Technical Committee with a new, elected body called the Polkadot Fellowship. This Fellowship has 45 members and is likely to keep growing as core developers submit their candidacy.
Polkadot OpenGov has been tested on Kusama for six months before being launched on Polkadot. This new system is a step forward for decentralized governance, as organizations like MakerDAO have been struggling to scale their governance models.