Simple Summary
This proposal seeks to update three governance parameters on the dYdX Chain:
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Regular Proposals: extend voting duration from 48h → 72h
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Expedited Proposals: extend voting duration from 18h → 36h
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Expedited Quorum: increase from 33.4% → 50%
The goal is to improve validator participation across global time zones, allow more time for deliberation, and raise the legitimacy bar for expedited decisions without compromising chain security.
Abstract
Governance participation on dYdX Chain depends on validators and token holders spread across multiple continents and time zones. The current voting windows, 48 hours for regular proposals and 18 hours for expedited ones, can disadvantage participants in certain regions, effectively concentrating decision-making power in a narrower window than intended.
This proposal recommends extending both voting periods to give all stakeholders a fair opportunity to review, deliberate, and cast their votes. Alongside this, increasing the expedited quorum threshold to 50% ensures that fast-tracked proposals, which bypass the standard review timeline, carry a stronger mandate from the validator set before passing.
Motivation & Rationale
Broader timezone coverage: A 48-hour regular voting window may span only 2 full business days for validators in a given region, leaving less time for proper review and internal processes. Extending to 72 hours ensures at least 3 full cycles across all major time zones, meaningfully increasing the window for global participation.
Higher voting rates for validators: Validators operating with standard operating hours, on-call rotations, or multi-sig setups benefit from a longer runway. Extending voting periods reduces the likelihood of missed votes due to scheduling conflicts, weekend gaps, or brief operational outages, particularly relevant for expedited proposals, where 18 hours today can easily overlap with off-hours for large portions of the validator set.
More time for deliberation without compromising security: Extending periods does not weaken security, it strengthens governance quality. Longer windows allow validators and community members to review proposal specifications more carefully, raise concerns on the forum, and coordinate responses to complex or contested changes, reducing the risk of unintended consequences passing on-chain.
Raising the bar for expedited proposals: Expedited proposals are a powerful tool that bypasses standard review timelines. Increasing the expedited quorum from 33.4% to 50% ensures these fast-tracked changes require broader consensus before passing, better reflecting the intent of the expedited mechanism: genuine urgency with strong validator backing, not a shortcut for routine changes.
Specification
This proposal requests the following on-chain parameter changes to the x/gov module:
| Parameter | Current Value | Proposed Value |
|---|---|---|
| voting_period (regular) | 48 hours | 72 hours |
| expedited_voting_period | 18 hours | 36 hours |
| expedited_quorum | 33.4% | 50% |
No other governance parameters (deposit amounts, thresholds, standard quorum, veto thresholds) are modified by this proposal.
Next Steps
We invite the dYdX community to review and provide feedback on this proposal. If no significant objections are raised, we plan to submit the on-chain proposal on Monday, March 9, 2026.