Could a marketplace for voting actually make governance more democratic? In this episode of Optimism Town Hall we explore LobbyFi’s approach to onchain lobbying that incentivizes governance participation, aims to increase voter turnout, and creates transparent price discovery for the market value of voting rights 🔍🏛️🔴
Date: March 6th, 2025
Table of Contents
- Timestamps
- Episode Summary
- Town Hall topics
- Community Shared Resources
- Optimism Discourse
- Related Posts
- OTH 35: Ethereum Gatherings
- OTH 34: Respect Game Mission: Fund Distribution Research & Blueprint
- OTH 33: Optimism Frаctal Respect Game Mission Proposal
Timestamps
0:00 Welcome to Optimism Town Hall!
3:25 Dan screen shares todays agenda using OP topic poll, top topics are Fractal ecosystem, Respect Game development, Dan gives details.
9:55 Dan reads out comments from Jacob and Rosmari , shares briefly events from Eth Denver
12:01 Rosmari interested in finding out more about LobbyFi
12:30 Kirill shares more info on LobbyFi, screen sharing as he gives details explaining how it works,
15:12 Dan thanks Kirill, comments it's impressive. Dan comments what he's heard about it to date. Dan asks about vote renting, sharing tweets that have been made. Commented on how it's attracting a lot of voting power, asks about security threats and measures.
20:31 Kirill responds to Dan about threat issue, shares screen explaining how it works. Details democratizing lobbyism on chain. , 100% non custodial delegation. Kirill goes into further detail. Talks about voting rights and power.
26:52 Dan comments on Kirill answer and looked his overall goal to improve the governance. Dan reads out shared tweet from Rosmari about Vitalik Buterin, shares it on screen. Dan goes over specific in the tweet. How system allows free market approach.
Dan continues comments on lobbyism as well.
32:54 Kirill comments on his thoughts on Vitalik’s article and his project being open to communication and prevent any threats.
35:36 Rosmari asks Kirill if there is a threshold for number of votes or are there any protection measures against bad actors. Also interested how price is decided.
36:45 Kirill responds to Rosmari's questions, currently they are adding proposals manually as it's not automatic yet, gives details. Currently setting price manually, cannot decide on communities on their own. Kirill goes in deeper on how pricing explanation is decided using protocols.
40:27 Rosmari comments on voting power limitations.
41:00 Kirill responds on current procedure, sharing screen how it works.
43:22 Dan asks Kirill where he sees LobbyFi going, shares screen with current Optimism voting power.
44:42 Kirill responds he's thinking optimistically, he thinks Lobby fi will be try to get positions on every dao. Shares LobbyFi pill system, and his vision.
46:44 Dan thanks Kirill, continues conversation on his project.
49:19 Dan begins closing meeting, thanks Kirill for sharing his project.
50:17 Kirill thanks Dan for the optimism fractal and town hall, thanks for the ability to share his project.
51:00 Dan gives dates for next Optimism town hall, encourages everyone to attend Optimism fractal and Eden fractal as well , Dan gives thanks and closes meeting.
Go Optimism!
Episode Summary
In this insightful episode of Optimism Town Hall, we dive into LobbyFi, an innovative protocol democratizing lobbyism on-chain. Kirill, representing LobbyFi, explains how their platform creates a marketplace for governance voting power, enabling token holders to rent their votes for financial compensation while making lobbying more transparent and accessible to broader communities. The discussion explores how LobbyFi has become the largest delegate on Arbitrum governance and is growing its presence on Optimism with nearly 300,000 delegated votes.
The conversation addresses potential concerns about LobbyFi's model, referencing both Pumbi's analysis and Vitalik Buterin's perspectives on vote markets in governance systems. Kirill emphasizes LobbyFi's commitment to preventing governance attacks through manual proposal review, close communication with foundations and delegates, and transparent reasoning for their voting decisions. The team aims to improve governance participation rates, which typically hover around 8-10% in most DAOs, by providing financial incentives for delegation while creating price discovery for the true value of voting rights.
Rosmari and Dan ask thought-provoking questions about protection mechanisms against bad actors, pricing models, and the long-term vision for LobbyFi. Kirill shares that proposals are currently added manually with a pricing model based on taking 1% of what proposal beneficiaries would receive, with funds distributed to delegates proportionally. Looking forward, LobbyFi aims to grow into a top delegate across multiple active DAOs while establishing a more decentralized governance structure for itself, ultimately improving the state of on-chain governance through increased participation and transparency.
Town Hall topics
In this episode, the community delves into an exciting new topic introduced at the event: Lobby Finance.
Community Shared Resources
- LobbyFi’s website
- Pumbi’s tweet and Vitalik’s response to Pumbi’s tweet
- LobbyFi’s Optimism Gov Forum Delegate Thread
Optimism Discourse
Related Posts
OTH 35: Ethereum Gatherings
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OTH 34: Respect Game Mission: Fund Distribution Research & Blueprint
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