Q token mark QUADPublic Accountability

Chain-local authority

Governance Guide

Governance should be readable before it is powerful: which chain is touched, what action is requested, what machine gate still applies, and what public claim changes if it passes.

Governance can change policy only through the owning chain's published process. It cannot vote private desire into admitted state where machine law refuses by design.

Governance Experience Contract

Every proposal should show the authority it asks to use and the refusal boundary it cannot skip.

AreaWhat public pages should showWhat they must not imply
Proposal typeChain, module or surface, requested action, affected authority, threshold class, and whether execution is automatic, delayed, gated, or manual-public.A proposal title is not enough to infer scope, power, custody, or execution.
PreviewExpected machine consequence, public claim changed, route or parameter affected, rollback surface, and refusal condition.A preview is not execution, admission, settlement, or proof that the machine will accept it.
Voter viewQuorum, veto, bonded threshold, vote period, execution delay, affected public claims, and whether stronger evidence is still required.A passing vote is not permission to ignore hard-law gates or destination-owned authority.
Failure stateWhether failure came from vote, quorum, veto, threshold, machine gate, execution, post-execution proof, expiry, or refusal.A failed proposal should not be summarized as vague community rejection or hidden success.
Emergency proposalExtra caution label, evidence required, affected surfaces, fallback state, expiry, review path, and public downgrade behavior.Emergency wording must not reveal sensitive steps or imply panic, private override, or financial certainty.
Hard-law boundaryWhat cannot be changed by ordinary vote, what requires migration, and what remains impossible unless the owning chain publishes new law.Governance cannot vote past a chain's own refusal design merely because a crowd wants it.

Proposal Reading Order

Read proposals like state transitions, not campaign slogans.

1. Owner

Which chain, module, or public surface owns the authority?

2. Action

What exactly changes if it passes: parameter, route, role, treasury label, endpoint, or publication state?

3. Gate

Which vote threshold, machine gate, delay, proof, or review condition still applies?

4. Boundary

What remains impossible, refused, private, destination-owned, or not yet public?

5. Receipt

Which transaction, record, status update, or receipt proves the result?

Proposal Types

  • Parameter: changes a public parameter under the owning chain's process.
  • Upgrade: changes software or state transition behavior after published gates pass.
  • Endpoint: changes public route labels, fallback posture, or endpoint metadata.
  • Treasury or reserve label: changes public accounting labels only where source evidence supports it.
  • Route: changes Bridge, relayer, host, refund, or destination-handoff posture.
  • Service: changes Infra work class, proof class, retention, or provider posture.
  • Market: changes Liquid lane, wrapper, risk, settlement, or motion posture.

Vote State Labels

  • Draft: public idea, not an active proposal.
  • Submitted: proposal exists but is not passed.
  • Voting: vote period is active.
  • Passed: voting condition passed; machine and execution gates may remain.
  • Rejected: voting condition failed.
  • Executed: machine consequence is applied and public proof is available.
  • Refused: the chain rejected the action despite the surrounding process.

Failure Labels

A useful proposal page says how it failed. That matters more than whether it sounds dramatic.

Vote failed

The result did not meet its public voting condition.

Quorum failed

Participation did not meet the required threshold.

Vetoed

The veto condition blocked the proposal.

Machine gate failed

The proposal passed socially but could not pass the owning chain's execution gate.

Execution failed

The accepted action did not apply successfully.

Proof missing

The public result cannot be upgraded until proof or status evidence is published.

Expired

The proposal or its execution window passed without a valid result.

Refused

The owning chain or surface rejected the interpretation or action.

Emergency Proposals

Emergency governance needs stronger labels, not louder wording.

LabelRequired public informationBoundary
EvidenceWhat public evidence justifies urgency and which surface owns it.Do not publish sensitive exploit details or private recovery steps.
Affected areaChain, route, endpoint, module, service, market lane, or public claim affected.Do not imply stack-wide failure unless every owning surface says so.
FallbackPaused, degraded, refused, quarantined, rollback, recovery, or restored state.Fallback does not mean final repair or repayment unless proved.
ReviewWho or which process can publish the next status update.Do not rely on private chat as the only public record.

Community Boundary

Community channels can coordinate, ask, report, and review. They do not become governance authority by being busy.

Can do

Ask status questions, report bugs, review public docs, point to broken links, discuss proposals, and request clearer evidence labels.

Cannot do

Create allocation, reward eligibility, governance rights, custody, admission, redemption, or launch state.

Should preserve

Links to public pages, proposal ids, receipt ids, exact refusal labels, and owning surface names.

Should avoid

Private keys, seed phrases, payment details, private access routes, unsupported price talk, and entitlement framing.