Governance Vision

The SKTL platform ecosystem is governed by a combination of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) controlled by SKTL token holders and a SKTL Advisory Council composed of individuals aligned to the interests of the community and the future of the platform.

Governance will develop over two phases.  During the first phase, the DAO will be in a nascent stage, being used primarily for voting.  Then over a period of two years, the SKTL Advisory Council will transition its elections and authority toward full fledged DAO governance with the ultimate goal to be governed and managed by token holders in the SKTL community.

Governance Structure

SKTL Advisory Council

The SKTL Advisory Council is a select group of individuals who have been granted authority to shepherd the development of the SKTL platform in the first two years after launch.  As a group, these individuals function to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem and to prevent bad actors from interfering with the governance process by monitoring the proposals and voting process for each year’s grants.  The Advisory Council will be composed of individuals who are aligned with the goals of the organization.   Initially, there will be seven Advisory Council members appointed by the founders group to serve the community for up to 2 years with the goal of transitioning to an autonomous system after that time period.  Advisory Council members will hold their positions for two year terms. The members on SKTL Advisory Council will receive no benefits from SKTLs for being on this council. 

During their tenure, the Advisory Council members will be responsible for overseeing the development of the SKTL platform, verifying space activity token awards as well as handling the proposal and election of Space Cleanup Fund recipients and ensuring the integrity of the process to distribute awards to the selected recipients. 

Founders

The Founders are a group of individual space enthusiasts who helped facilitate the startup of the SKTL platform and who have contributed either financially or intellectually in its development.  The founders of the platform will not receive special benefits (no initial token grants or extra voting rights other than those granted to every token holder) other than the ability to elect an initial Advisory Council who will oversee the project development in its first two years.

Space Cleanup Fund

The Space Cleanup Fund is an account set up to hold SKTL tokens for the purpose of supporting space cleanup efforts.  The Space Cleanup Fund is funded with a drop of tokens from the initial airdrop to be held in escrow.  A list of five entities to receive funds is selected annually via a nomination and election process by the stakeholders.  Distributions from the fund are distributed to the selected entities once a year on Space Day (May 6th).  Total annual distributions will equal 10% of the current fund balance (subject to governance action).  Any transfers of funds from the Space Cleanup Fund will only be released to recipients after going through a multiple signature authentication process for increased security.

SKTL DAO

The SKTL DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization of stakeholders holding the SKTL tokens that can be described as an open-source blockchain protocol governed by a set of rules, directed by its elected members for the first two years and then by the SKTL DAO and SKTL token holders, that can automatically execute certain actions without the need for intermediaries.  Stakeholders in the DAO are able to create and vote on governance proposals which can release bonus coins, modify voting parameters, propose and select beneficiaries of Cleanup Fund funds and influence parameters of SKTL smart contracts.  

Voting Governance System

Stakeholders who own SKTL tokens may participate in SKTL governance.  

To avoid high gas fees associated with full on-chain governance, SKTL DAO will incorporate off-chain voting mechanisms and a multi-sig wallet controlled by the Advisory Council to enact off-chain decisions on the blockchain. This method allows token holders to participate in the DAO governance without the need to pay fees every time a vote or proposal takes place.  A successful off-chain proposal will serve as authorization for corresponding on-chain actions.

Proposals

Governance votes may be proposed by token holders through a staking mechanism and may be passed via a token weighted voting mechanism.  The Advisory Council would be responsible for ensuring that proposals are enacted with a binding action until fully autonomous DAO mechanisms are set up.  

When a proposal is created, the proposal will remain open for a specified voting period.  A successful proposal requires a minimum of 50% affirmative votes with a certain quorum percentage of tokens being voted (excludes Space Cleanup fund tokens), initially set at 5%. 

Examples of governance proposals: 

• Change DAO voting parameters 
• Authorize release of bonus tokens (based on space activity) 
• Votes on token distribution to recipients of Space Cleanup Fund 

Voting Actions

A stakeholder can create a proposal by staking a certain threshold of tokens to begin the proposal creation process.   Additionally, a small proposal fee may be required if it becomes necessary to prevent spurious proposals from being spammed to the community to help ensure that only meaningful proposals were created. The governance structure will support an off-chain voting structure, such as Snapshot proposals, to allow a lighter-weight and flexible method of creating proposals.  Similarly, the selection and election of Space Cleanup awards will take place through an off-chain election and then be ratified via a vote.

Number of votes

Each stakeholder receives the number of votes equivalent to the number of tokens they hold/stake.

Voting process

The initial voting process will be set up by the SKTL Advisory Council.  Changes in the voting process (such as changing the quorum percentage) can be modified by a vote of the Advisory Council to allow flexibility in improving the voting process.  When governance transitions to full-fledged DAO governance, the Advisory Council will no longer be able to adjust the voting process.  Voting process changes and timing at that point may be subsequently modified by governance votes as is deemed necessary.   

Veto votes may be permitted by the Advisory Council during their initial tenure with a unanimous vote.  

Proposal results

The successful passage of a proposal will serve as authorization for the Advisory Council to enact the proposal for the first two years.  Through the use of a multi-signature wallet, multiple council members will be required to authorize any financial transactions that occur as a result of proposals.  These include distribution of bonus tokens based on space activity as well as distributions of rewards to recipients from the Space Cleanup Fund.

Token Creation

Besides the initial airdrop, SKTL tokens will be minted and distributed on a periodic basis (monthly) for space-related progress, such as satellite launches, rover missions, etc.   The number of tokens created will be based on the specific space activity that occurs during that time period.  The number of tokens generated for each specific space activity is listed below, with the value halving in each successive year.

Space Action Activity rewards

• 100 SKTL created for each satellite put in orbit around Earth 
• 10,000 SKTL for each astronaut above the Karman Line 
• 100,000 SKTL for any major piece of equipment landed on the moon 
• 1,000,000 SKTL for any human landing on the moon, or for any satellite put in orbit around a non-Earth-planet in our solar system or for any satellite sent out of the Solar System 
• 5,000,000 SKTL for any rover or major piece of equipment landed on any non-Earth-planet in our solar system or for any rover or major piece of equipment rendezvous on any asteroid or comet 
• 10,000,000 SKTL for any human landing on a non-Earth-planet in our solar system 
• 100,000,000 SKTL for any human sent out of our Solar System 

In the initial two years of governance, the Advisory Council will establish and vote on the amount of verified space activity that has occurred.   In subsequent years, the SKTL DAO will be responsible for calculating and verifying the level of space activity payouts. That is, the manner of verifying space activity for token rewards during the first two years will be set by the Advisory Council and thereafter by the DAO.

Space Action Activity token distribution

The SKTL Advisory Council determines which space actions merit token distribution and will determine the total monthly space action activity.  The tokens created based on space activity are distributed monthly on a pro-rata basis to existing SKTL.  The Space Cleanup Fund account receives as well a percentage share of these tokens based on the percentage of existing tokens the fund holds, to be added to its balance of tokens used for funding the removal of space debris and protecting space infrastructure. 

The token drops will occur monthly on a predefined schedule, voted on by the Advisory Council on the 15th of the month, and distributed on 17th of each month, regardless of business days.  

Space Cleanup Fund & Beneficiaries

The Space Cleanup Fund will hold minted tokens that are designated for supporting space clean up actions.  

Space Cleanup Initial Funding

The Space Cleanup fund will receive 100,000,000 SKTL tokens in the initial airdrop.

Space Cleanup Distributions

Each year 10% of the fund’s current holdings will be released to fund awards to space clean up beneficiaries who share a common goal of cleaning up space and protecting space infrastructure.  Beneficiary selections will occur on an annual basis.  The beneficiary rewards will be announced on May 6th (Space Day) each year.  Any release of tokens to award recipients will require a multiple signature authorization process for increased security.

Glossary

• ERC20: Standard token format for fungible assets on the Ethereum blockchain. STKL is an ERC20 token.
• SKTL: An ERC-20 token that designates the weight of a user’s voting rights. The more SKTL a user has in their wallet, the more weight their delegation or vote on a proposal holds.
• DAO: A Decentralized Autonomous Organization that is controlled by owners of its governance token via governance proposals and votes.
• Tokenholder: Any stakeholder that owns SKTL tokens in their wallet.  Tokens can be used in voting.
• Quorum: In order for a vote to pass, it must achieve a percentage quorum of all SKTL tokens voting in the affirmative. The purpose of the quorum is to ensure that the only measures that pass have adequate voter participation.
• Voting: Users can vote for or against proposals.  Votes can be cast while a proposal is active. If the majority of votes (and a prespecified quorum of SKTL) vote for a proposal, the proposal succeeds.
• Voting Period: Once a proposal has been put forward, platform  members will have a prespecified period of time  (the Voting Period) to cast their votes.
• Timelock: If a time lock is enabled, all governance and other administrative actions are required to sit in the Timelock for a set minimum number of days, after which they can be implemented.
• On-Chain: Interactions that happen on the blockchain which ensures that those activities are decentralized, transparent, and infallible.