Optimism Proposal Would End Security Council Cohort Elections

The Optimism Foundation has proposed ending direct elections for Security Council cohorts, giving an elected Council Lead power to nominate members while leaving Token House voters a threshold-based veto over each pick.

Token House voters would continue electing the Lead, but the proposed process would end direct approval-voting elections for Cohorts A and B. Each nominee would have one week for review and a second week for veto votes. A nominee would take a seat unless opposing votes reached 20% of active votable supply of Optimism (OP). That threshold measures voting power, not the percentage of individual tokenholders.

The current system uses three approval-voting elections a year: one for each cohort and one for the Lead. Under the draft, veto proposals would not need to meet the manual’s usual 30% turnout quorum, though the separate 20% veto threshold would remain. Active voting power is delegated OP used in a vote during the previous six months, and voting power is set at the start of each voting period.

The Foundation cited low self-nomination volume, campaigning that may deter qualified candidates and delegates’ limited capacity to assess candidates as reasons for the change. The proposed rules would require Foundation KYC/KYB screening before a nominee is submitted. At least half of council participants would have to come from outside Optimism Core Development teams, and no more than one participant per entity could be directly associated with that entity.

The Security Council has a role in carrying out approved upgrades. Under the proposed charter, the Lead would recruit, interview and nominate keyholders but would not hold a signing key or direct their substantive signing decisions. Token House voters would also retain the ability to remove the Lead through a Representative Removal proposal.

The ratification package covers Operating Manual v2.1.0, Security Council Charter v0.2 and Security Council Member Selection Criteria v0.1. A linked manual revision remained marked as a draft as of Oct. 27. If ratified, the changes would take effect with the next Security Council Lead election, and current signers would remain until replacements were confirmed.