Governance

Governance is the process by which a distributed group of participants agrees on actions. Terp Network supports multiple governance layers.

Chain-Level Governance

Terp Network's on-chain governance module (x/gov) allows uthiol stakers to vote on proposals that control chain parameters, treasury spending, and upgrades.

Proposal Types

Voting Period

The standard voting period is 7 days. During this time:

1. Proposal submitted with minimum deposit (recovered if quorum met)
2. Voting period opens
3. Stakers vote: Yes, No, Abstain, or NoWithVeto
4. Votes tallied, proposal executed or rejected

Who Can Propose

Any account can submit a governance proposal by posting the required deposit (currently 1000000uthiol, governance-adjustable).

# Submit a text proposal
terpd tx gov submit-proposal \
  --title="My Proposal" \
  --description="Description of the proposal" \
  --deposit=1000000uthiol

# Vote
terpd tx gov vote <proposal-id> Yes

DAO Governance

Beyond the chain-level governance module, Terp Network supports DAO governance through CosmWasm smart contracts (dao-contracts). DAOs enable:

• SubDAOs — hierarchical governance structures
• Token-based voting — weight proportional to token holdings
• NFT-based voting — weight proportional to NFT membership
• Multisig voting — pre-configured signer thresholds
• Module-controlled DAOs — programmatic governance

DAO-DAO Framework

Terp Network uses the dao-contracts framework, which provides:

• Proposal creation and voting
• Treasury management
• Module execution
• Membership management
• Cross-DAO communication

Governance flow diagram scaffold — a visual showing the lifecycle of a governance proposal from submission through voting to execution. Include both chain-level and DAO paths.

Parameter Governance

Many chain modules have parameters that can be modified through governance:

Upgrade Governance

Software upgrades on Terp Network follow a governance-driven process:

1. Governance proposal — a SoftwareUpgrade proposal is submitted
2. Voting period — stakers vote on the upgrade
3. Pre-upgrade hook — if passed, the chain schedules the upgrade at a specified height
4. Cosmovisor — node runners can use cosmovisor to automate binary swaps
5. Execution — at the target height, the chain halts, validators swap binaries, and the new chain starts

# Submit upgrade proposal
terpd tx gov submit-proposal software-upgrade <version> \
  --title="Upgrade to v5.2.0" \
  --description="..." \
  --upgrade-height=12345678 \
  --deposit=1000000uthiol

Upgrade flow diagram scaffold — timeline showing governance proposal → voting → scheduled upgrade → binary swap → new chain start.

Further Reading

• DAO setup guide — deploying and configuring a DAO
• Governance module docs — detailed parameter descriptions
• Contribute to governance — join the community