Nexus Mutual – the discretionary mutual – has released a range of new governance proposals for members to vote on. The mutual is known for its alternative insurance covers where users can protect themselves from smart contract attacks across a variety of prominent DeFi protocols and applications.
The new suite of governance proposals come following the bZx exploit and Maker‘s Black Thursday, two historical events for the Mutual as it drew some controversies among members on whether or not claims from the attacks were valid.
With Nexus Mutual finally processing claims, these new governance proposals aim to strengthen the claims assessment process along with more distinct wording surrounding what’s covered under the Mutual’s discretionary covers.
Community feedback suggested members wanted more time to vote on claims proposals and for us to update our cover wording document.
Members can now vote on governance proposals to address these concerns.
🗳 vote now! https://t.co/FQEUulVNS0
— Nexus Mutual 🐢 (@NexusMutual) March 25, 2020
In summary, changes to the mutual include:
- #41 – Increasing minimum period for claims assessment voting from 12 to 36 hours: The change will allow more time for claims assessors to vote. Importantly, this gives claims assessors more time to receive and digest information in the case that a claim is submitted soon after the event.
- #42 – Increase max claims voting period to 72 hours: Similar to #41, increasing the max claims voting period will mitigate time pressure on claim assessors and allow for more time for assessors to receive information which could be vital to accurate assessments.
- #43 – Decrease claims velocity period from 12 hours to 6 hours: The claims velocity limit is the parameter which determines how often assessors can vote on unique claims. The reduction in velocity will allow assessors to vote on more claims which is useful in the instance that multiple claims are submitted within a short period of time.
- #44 – Update Cover Wording to v1.1 The update clarifies cover wording for events that occur outside the smart contract system, such as oracles, miner behaviour and network congestion. Those interested in learning more about the changes to the cover’s word can view the document here.
Voting for all proposals will be open until around 10am GMT on April 1st.
All proposals have been deposited with a 100 NXM as an incentive for members to vote, totalling to 400 NXM in voting incentives or nearly $900 USD as of writing. With KYC required to become a Nexus Mutual member, the mutual is able to leverage equal voting power where 1 member is equal to 1 vote. This is a massive benefit over others as rather than relying on a plutocracy where voting power is weighted in terms of tokens held, Nexus Mutual is able to effectively democratize the voting power to the individual rather than the amount of money they have.
Signalling Votes
As a part of the governance process, Nexus Mutual opened up the ability for active members to signal their votes on Discord. This allows the community to get a better understanding of where others stand regarding certain changes surrounding the Mutual without having to go on-chain. If the Discord community is keen on certain changes, it will be followed up with a formal, on-chain proposal for the community to decide on.
As of now, mutual members are considering a range of new proposals including re-opening bZx covers again (which were closed after the exploit in February) along with granting new emergency powers to the Advisory Board. Nexus Mutual members who would like to participate in the discussion should join the official Discord here.
To learn more about Nexus’s past, present and future check out our interview with their CEO, Hugh Karp.
If you’re interested in becoming a Nexus Mutual member, you can start the onboarding process here. To stay up to date on all things Nexus Mutual, make sure to follow them on Twitter.
Analyst at Bankless – one of the leading resources for open finance. Lucas is an active contributor to the DeFi ecosystem with appearances in other notable DeFi outlets including The Defiant and Our Network. He has years of experience working with dozens blockchain and token startups where he focused on token economics, marketing, and growth.