TIP-095: Improve DAO Multisig Management

Vote Type

Token holder DAO via Snapshot

DAO-elected Sponsors

Ashley (@MrsNuBooty), @Eastban

Timeline

  • 9 days for comment / discussion on this proposal (given that we have a holiday break coming up) [December 17th - December 26th]
  • 5 days Snapshot vote [December 26th - December 30th]

Key points

The Threshold DAO utilizes multiple multisigs across its various guilds to facilitate essential operational responsibilities, such as treasury management, proposals execution, and resources allocation. However, keeping these multisigs aligned with governance changes—such as updating signer configurations after elections or membership transitions—has posed significant challenges.

This proposal aims to introduce a standardized, automated approach for managing these multisigs, reducing administrative burdens and minimizing the risk of outdated configurations. By leveraging Safe{RecoveryHub}, the DAO can establish a unified, secure, and transparent process for multisig updates, ensuring seamless alignment with governance decisions and enhancing the operational efficiency of all guilds.

Note that this is the initial step toward improving our Guilds’ multisig management tasks, with future iterations planned to enhance the Council multisigs and other DAO structures’ security .

Details

Guilds within the Threshold DAO manage specific operational functions (e.g., treasury allocation, project execution) through dedicated multisigs. These multisigs are critical for ensuring the smooth execution of tasks but require periodic updates to signer configurations following guild elections or membership changes.

The Threshold DAO Council Multisig will be designated as the Recoverer for the different Guild’s multisigs. This setup ensures that the Council can:

  • Update signer configurations seamlessly when guild committees change.
  • Respond to emergency situations, such as signers losing access to their private keys, signers resignations or signers behaving maliciously.

By enabling the designation of trusted Recoverers, Safe{RecoveryHub} distributes risk, ensuring operational continuity even in the event of lost access or signer turnover. Additionally, its transparent, on-chain process minimizes the likelihood of administrative errors and provides an immutable record of recovery actions, which is critical for maintaining trust and accountability in a decentralized environment, such as our DAO.

Implementation Steps:

  1. Safe{RecoveryHub} Integration:
    • Configure the DAO’s multisig Safe with the Threshold DAO Council Multisig as the designated Recoverer.
    • Set up a customizable delay period (e.g., 28 days) during which any recovery proposal can be vetoed by existing signers.
  2. Election-Based Signer Management:
    • After DAO elections, the Threshold DAO Council Multisig will submit a recovery proposal through Safe{RecoveryHub}.
    • The proposal will outline the new set of signers, thresholds, and any associated changes (e.g., minimum signers required for transactions).
  3. Veto Period:
    • Implement a veto window (e.g., 14–28 days), allowing the outgoing signers or DAO members to challenge malicious or incorrect recovery proposals.
  4. Execution:
    • After the veto window, the recovery proposal is finalized, and the new signer setup is activated on-chain.
    • Public announcements will document the process to maintain transparency.
  5. Periodic Audits:
    • Conduct biannual audits of recovery configurations, aligning with the Guilds’ election schedule, to verify adherence to DAO governance standards and uphold security best practices. These audits will ensure ongoing compliance and identify potential areas for improvement.

Risks and Mitigation:

  • Malicious Recovery Attempts: Mitigated by the veto window and the high trust threshold required for the DAO Council Multisig.
  • Delay in Execution: Addressed by clear communication of timelines and election outcomes.

Required Resources:

  1. Configuration of Safe{RecoveryHub} modules for the DAO Safe.
  2. Training for DAO Council members on using the recovery interface.
  3. Governance framework updates to document the new process - This forum post will serve as the official record to update the governance framework.

Additional Resources

We suggest to the Threshold Guilds and Council the use of this tool, that to its description, allows for the addition of multiple owners at once, as well as the setting of a new threshold. All while minimizing the number of transactions needed to achieve the desired state. By leveraging this tool, we can expedite signer swaps for the different multisigs in a secure way.

This, in conjunction with the Safe Recovery tool described above, can help improve our elections transition periods and help keep our multisigs properly updated.

Links to Relevant Documentation

4 Likes

This seems to be a really good upgrade for a critical function. Looking forward to implementing it. Thank you, Luna!

2 Likes