The SushiSwap community is discussing a new update proposed by a core contributor of the protocol. The update called “Meiji Governance Rework” is being proposed to bring in some structural changes to the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that runs the network.
If approved by the community, it will bring about the wide range of modifications to Sushi’s DAO will include a change in ownership and governance. The DAO is currently collectively owned and governed by its members. With the change, it will be led by Meiji DAO, a new group that replaces the project’s governance body called Sushi DAO. The proposal came to light on 19 October.
SushiSwap is the seventh-largest decentralized exchange, with over $739 million in locked deposits as of 21 October 2022. That makes any such key changes to the platform’s DAO significant for the broader crypto community as well.
“The Meiji DAO will bring governance on chain, and kickstart the Meiji Restoration of Sushi, which will become a new phase of Sushi and a new grand vision to execute on,” the proposal read.
SushiSwap’s newly appointed head chef Jared Grey tweeted in favour of the proposal on the same day. In his view, the Meiji update could make the project’s governance “more equitable and decentralized.”
One of the most fundamental changes, if the proposal gets approved, is that the Meiji DAO body would vote using Sushi shares, which give the bearer non-transferable governance rights. The Meiji DAO will also be fully autonomous on-chain and allow the Sushi DAO to “explore a new era of on-chain governance and operations,” according to the proposal. Furthermore, the DEX’s native Sushi tokens may be locked in a smart contract to receive the shares, which shareholders can sell by forfeiting them.
The proposal also emphasized using Sushi shares to prevent Sybil actors, users that accumulate large amounts of Sushi tokens, from influencing the voting results of the DAO. If the proposal is implemented, Shares will not be issued immediately, and members will have to wait for double the voting period before they can vote on different proposals.
The move could also mean a “quadratic voting” system being brought in. This type of voting system allows voters to not just vote for or against an issue, but also express how strongly they feel about it.
