HSP-013: State of HoS Governance – Assessment and Remediation Roadmap
Status: Draft
Authors: Blaze
Created: October 23, 2025
Discussion: [Link to forum thread once posted, e.g., HSP-013: State of HoS Governance – Assessment and Remediation Roadmap]
Abstract
This proposal provides a comprehensive critique of the ongoing issues in the House of Stake (HoS) governance rollout within the NEAR ecosystem, especially following the mainnet launch on October 13, 2025. It highlights systemic failures in delegate endorsement, leadership accountability, process legitimacy, and representation. Key problems include breaches of power, lack of community outreach, and inadequate thresholds for participation. To address these, this proposal proposes a corrective action plan: recommending interim deferrals for non-essentials, establishing competency thresholds, ensuring uniform representation, and ratifying foundational documents with community input. Implementation includes clear go/no-go gates to restore legitimacy and foster sustainable growth amid active sensing votes like HSP-002 (Validator Support Program) and HSP-003 ( veNEAR Holder Rewards Program).
Motivation
The NEAR ecosystem is at a critical juncture with the HoS transition and mainnet activation, yet recent events reveal deep flaws in governance design and execution. These issues risk eroding trust, centralizing power, and failing to deliver real utility for token holders. Drawing from community feedback, forum discussions, and observed behaviors (e.g., in HSP-010: Transition to an Elected HoS Screening Committee and Questions for Head of Governance Candidates), the following motivations underscore the need for immediate reform:
1. Inadequate Delegate Endorsement and Competency Thresholds
Community voices in the HoS Telegram chat have called for the removal of endorsed delegates to eliminate bias. Echoing candidate Paulo Fonseca’s proposal to eliminate ‘Endorsed Delegates’ for unbiased screening, if endorsements are retained, thresholds like at least 1 year of governance experience and a project with minimum 1M in revenue or a successful exit must be implemented. This mirrors issues raised in the NDC (NEAR Digital Collective) and feedback from NF (NEAR Foundation). Without removal or these standards, decision-making roles are filled by unqualified individuals, leading to biased or ineffective outcomes.
2. Execution and Professional Standards Gaps
- Website Design: The HoS website (gov.houseofstake.org/proposals) appears hastily assembled, resembling an MVP hacked together over a weekend—falling short of even basic professional standards, let alone an MLP (Minimum Lovable Product), potentially undermining credibility and missing key features like better governance forum integration and anonymous onchain comments on vote reasoning.
- Document Quality: The draft Interim Constitution v0.1.0 and Code of Conduct (CoC Draft) lack depth and appear AI-generated, focusing on insignificant details while failing to address core governance mechanics. They cannot be easily navigated (“failing the make it simple principle”), and there has been minimal outreach for community collaboration or ratification prior to rollout. This rushed approach bypasses essential review cycles, leading to shallow frameworks that fail to inspire confidence or adoption among diverse stakeholders.
3. Breaches of Power and Leadership Impatience
Undue influence and impatience for due process represent a significant breach, as seen in HSP-010 where unexpected positioning occurred in the screening/security committee without transparent justification. This raises questions about accountability, echoed in related calls like HSP-011: A Call for Illia Polosukhin to Step Down from conflicted roles. Additional breaches include overriding processes when progress doesn’t align with preferred timelines, pressuring for control.
4. Objectivity and Aligned Participants
NF/HoS payroll-aligned individuals must maintain objectivity, as demonstrated positively by nearone during upgrade discussions. Yet, ‘yes-man’ behaviors persist, eroding impartiality.
5. Lack of Legitimacy and Representation
- HoS remains on “life support” and illegitimate: foundational documents unratified, no uniform representation in the screening committee. No established thresholds for proposal passage.
- Constituents skew toward large institutions, not ecosystem founders or grassroots community—as clarified repeatedly in discussions. This imbalance fails to represent diverse stakeholders.
- veNEAR Lockup: Urgent communications are needed on the minimal 10M NEAR veNEAR lockup for legitimacy. A more appropriate threshold is 30% or 1/3 stake to ensure skin-in-the-game without excessive barriers, vs. current low delegation (~5-10% per NF dashboards). As of today (October 23, 2025), roughly 1M veNEAR has been locked (per HoS explorer snapshot, Oct 23) amid live proposals questioning legitimacy—highlighting the absence of thresholds for passage, rules of the road, or engagement guidelines. This enables voting without ratification and with minimal locked stake, further eroding process integrity.
Overall, HoS is in draft form, with processes rushed without gates. Future activities should align with a proper go-live plan, prioritizing community buy-in over speed, to resolve issues proactively without retroactive pauses.
Specification
To rectify these issues, the following corrective actions are proposed, structured as a phased plan with go/no-go gates:
Phase 1: Interim Deferral and Reset (0-30 Days)
- Recommend deferral of non-essential endorsements and committee actions.
- Establish accountability by reviewing and vacating non-elected roles, with shared transition timelines.
- Go/No-Go Gate: 51% quorum vote (on-chain/forum); below threshold prompts NF-led review.
Phase 2: Strengthen Foundations (30-60 Days)
- Co-develop and ratify constitution/CoC via workshops (100+ participants across channels), incorporating candidate ideas, e.g., Paulo Fonseca’s unbiased screening and feedback loops for iterative ratification; prohibit AI drafts, prioritize navigable structure, and define passage thresholds (e.g., 60% for HSPs).
- Roll out veNEAR communications targeting 30% stake; host NF-led AMAs.
- Redesign site (20K NEAR budget) for MLP usability with UX review, including immutable on-chain features.
- Go/No-Go Gate: 66% ratification; 70% workshop satisfaction.
Phase 3: Enhance Participation and Balance (60-90 Days)
- Enforce delegate thresholds (1-year experience + $1M revenue/exit), including education incentives for emerging delegates per forum discussions on capacity-building; retroactive grace period.
- Form screening committee with balanced seats (33% institutions, 33% founders, 34% grassroots) via stratified election.
- Mandate conflict disclosures and neutrality for aligned participants, with CoC enforcement.
- Go/No-Go Gate: >50% turnout; verified diversity via on-chain stake analysis.
Rationale
This roadmap targets root causes—competency via thresholds, stability via targeted deferrals, equity via representation—while honoring NEAR’s progressive decentralization and HoS’s live progress. Forum and NF insights underscore timeliness; proactive corrections prevent exodus or stagnation. Gates ensure adaptive refinement without overreach, fostering a resilient HoS that embodies NEAR’s progressive decentralization through balanced representation.
Backwards Compatibility
- Existing delegates: Grace period (30 days) to meet thresholds or step down.
- Upgrades: Optional migration path; no forced ejections.
- Documents: Versioned releases to avoid breaking references.
Test Cases
- Simulate delegate endorsement: Reject unqualified applicant.
- Mock screening election: Verify 33/33/34% distribution.
- Simulate veNEAR lockup at 30%: Verify participation uplift without LST depegs, per current sync issues.
Reference Implementation
- GitHub Repo: houseofstake/proposals – Fork and PR this HSP.
- Tools: Use NEAR’s governance contracts for voting; integrate with forum for discussions.
Security Considerations
- Power Breaches: On-chain logging of role changes to prevent unexpected shifts.
- Conflict Risks: On-chain disclosure for payroll-aligned participants to prevent bias.
- AI Drafting: Human verification workflows to avoid shallow content.
- Integrate dispute processes from HSP drafts for role-change appeals.
Copyright
This work is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication).
This draft is open for community feedback. Let’s collaborate to make HoS a success.