Exploring Soulbound Governance on IoTeX

Many industries are looking at Web3 as a promising solution to trust and transparency issues.

A core benefit of Web3 is decentralized governance—consensus-driven decision-making and community participation—as demonstrated in IoTeX Improvement Proposals (IIPs).

Decentralized governance can be challenging to manage as a blockchain network evolves, growing in size and complexity.

Enter Soulbound Tokens or SBTs.

SBTs are a new token standard that could improve governance models of blockchain networks, including IoTeX—we’ll explore how in this post.

What’s an SBT, really?

The short answer is: SBTs are non-transferrable NFTs—the crypto asset that took the world by storm in 2021.

SBTs are a new token standard, "soulbound" to a specific wallet address; SBTs cannot be traded or transferred to another wallet.

They’re like real-life achievement badges; think video game reward systems that award players for completing a series of quests or missions, often a considerable time commitment.

Naturally, it was World of Warcraft that gave Vitalik the inspired idea.

Soulbound governance

SBTs could represent voting power assigned to an individual or multi-signature wallet, like Safe.

They can represent the history, commitments, and affiliations of a Web3 user—establishing provenance and reputation.

SBTs on IoTeX

For IoTeX, our ultimate goal is to be the most reliable and secure platform for all connected devices.

And to do this, we continuously seek new ways to build momentum within our community and the larger ecosystem.

Strong governance ensures IoTeX remains secure and resilient to bad actors and would-be attackers.

An exercise in utility

This month, we distributed SBT badges to everyone who voted in IIP-13. And there’s more to it than meets the eye.

What do we have in mind? Let’s start with strengthening the backbone of IoTeX.

Delegates have a crucial role in maintaining the security and reliability of the IoTeX network by verifying transactions and adding them to the blockchain.

By issuing SBTs to those who help propose and implement new features or improvements, we could boost IoTeX governance by rewarding the delegates most active in governance decisions with greater voting power—creating a more democratic and decentralized governance framework to build from.

By rewarding delegates—and all stakeholders—based on their earned reputation (i.e., governance contributions), SBTs could increase engagement and investment in the success of IoTeX.

Transparency, accountability, security

Another way SBTs could improve IoTeX governance is by promoting transparency, accountability, and security in the governance process.

SBTs can improve transparency with a clearer record of all votes cast in the governance process, making it easier to understand the needs of the community at large.

With SBTs, individuals and groups could be assigned voting power based on reputation, which makes it clear who’s accountable for making certain decisions.

Thwarting vote manipulation

SBTs, combined with new user-friendly wallet experiences, could eliminate the possibility of an attacker taking control of a wallet holding a sizable number of governance tokens and manipulating the voting process.

Future-proofing the DePIN ecosystem

Soulbound Tokens can be a powerful tool for improving IoTeX governance.

SBTs could increase engagement and investment in the success of IoTeX by rewarding token holders' governance contributions.

By improving transparency, thwarting vote manipulation, and providing a more secure framework, SBTs offer a more democratic and decentralized approach to governance.

As a leading DePIN platform, IoTeX is among the first to explore SBTs in its governance model.

Be sure to weigh in on upcoming IIPs, and make Web3 history with us.