Governance Proposal Authors: @Bitblondy, @Seiryuu, @kevinknielsen & Alex Sampson (Proxy)
Continuation of Delegate Incentives: This proposal launches the second iteration of the Governance Contribution Recognition (GCR) program to reward Scroll DAO delegates for their contributions from May 1st through December 31st, 2025. The 8 months will be split in two parts, with one retroactive period (reward structure included in this proposal) and one future part (rewards to be processed in December).
It follows the successful first GCR program that covered Oct 2024 – Apr 2025, extending Scroll’s commitment to recognize governance work. Here, we propose a 4-tier, performance-based scoring system (Tier 4 up to Tier 1). Delegates are scored on multiple criteria (onchain voting rate, forum participation, level of involvement in the Scroll ecosystem, etc.), producing a final performance percentage. Based on their total score, delegates fall into one of four tiers (60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%), with higher tiers earning greater rewards. This tiered approach attempts to balance between preventing gamification (this prevention can introduce a degree of subjectivity) and distinguishing the quality of contribution.
This proposal requests a total budget of 580,000 SCR for this 8-month period’s rewards (approx. ~$209,000 at $0.36 /SCR). As in the first cycle, rewards are denominated in SCR and allocated to delegates according to their tier following the passage of this proposal.
By financially rewarding meaningful governance work, this program aims to incentivize delegates to remain active and engaged, improve the quality of deliberation, signal that Scroll will continue to value long-term quality governance contribution, and fairly account for as many possible methods of contribution as possible. We expect to retain top-performing delegates and encourage new delegates to contribute meaningfully to Scroll’s governance ecosystem.
Having an active and knowledgeable delegate base is a critical step toward building a system of competent, decentralized governance. That said, it’s important for a DAO to recognize governance work and the delegates actively shaping Scroll DAO and its ecosystem. The first GCR program acknowledged this by retroactively rewarding those involved in Scroll’s governance after the DAO’s launch.
We now want to take that further, supporting the work done since then to develop Scroll DAO. This follow-up proposal (GCR Cycle 2) continues that mission for the next evaluation period, ensuring that active delegates are recognized for their efforts and contribute further.
While the first iteration successfully rewarded many contributors, some criteria could be optimized to promote quality over quantity. At the same time, we still want new contributors to be able to join; this proposal aims to strike a balance between inclusivity and standardization.
In this proposal, we refined the criteria to focus on meaningful participation and rewarding depth of engagement more than passive activity. Our aim is to encourage a higher standard of contribution, while also leaving room for future GCR cycles to reward deeper levels of engagement and professionalize the delegate role even further.
In the past five weeks, our Working Group has analyzed multiple delegate incentive models (including Optimism, Arbitum, Uniswap, and ParaSwap, among others). We attempted to aggregate as many learnings as possible across those different ecosystems to inform the criteria design for the GCR Cycle 2. We noted, for instance, that many successful programs set a minimum participation threshold for eligibility and use tiered rewards or points-based systems to differentiate performance. Drawing on these insights, we adapted relevant criteria to Scroll’s context.
Program Structure: The GCR Cycle 2 program will evaluate delegate activity over the period May – December 2025 and assign each eligible delegate a performance score (0–100%). This score is based on a weighted combination of criteria that capture both onchain and offchain governance contributions. We then categorize delegates into 4 tiers according to their score (Tier 1 = 90–100%, Tier 2 = 80–89.9%, Tier 3 = 70–79.9%, Tier 4 = 60–69.9%).
Only delegates who score at least 60% will receive a reward. This ensures a basic level of involvement is met, in line with other programs that require ~70% participation to qualify. Delegates below the 60% cutoff (i.e. with minimal engagement in this period) would not be compensated in this cycle.
Required Minimum Criteria: Delegates must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the GCR Cycle 2 program:
Scoring Criteria: The following criteria (decided by the working group after analyzing multiple DAO programs) will be used to calculate each delegate’s score. Each criterion will be measured quantitatively where possible, with data pulled from on-chain records and the Scroll governance forum. For qualitative factors, the working group performed a good-faith evaluation based on available evidence such as post history. We aim to be as transparent as possible with regards to any qualitative-based decisions. The criteria and their implementation are:
Voting Participation: Users that vote on proposals are given a percentage score equal to the percentage of proposals that they voted on during this time period. Users that voted 8/11 proposals, for example, are given a score of 72.72% for this criterion. We recognize that new delegates entering Scroll governance (e.g. through the Delegate Accelerator) may not have a deep voting history.
Rationale Rate: Users who post rationale for their votes on the governance forum are, similar to voting participation, given a proportional percentage score equal to percent of rationales that they posted. Users that posted 8/11 rationales in this time period would score 72.72% for this criterion.
Forum Engagement (Discussion & Feedback): Using Curia’s Forum Score, users are assigned a percentage score that is calculated through a formula which represents their total contributions to the Scroll forums. Users that earn a Forum Score of 82, for example, are given a score of 82% for this criterion. Teams with multiple Forum accounts, but one onchain identity, will receive an aggregated Forum Score.
The next two categories capture other positive contributions that aren’t covered above.
Community Involvement (Call Attendance): This category is only used for the second payout of GCR Cycle 2. Due to a change in the Google Meet transcripts, we were not able to track the call participants from May to August. The gov team will introduce another method of tracking call attendance in the near future, and this criterion will be considered for the second payout.
Community Involvement (Workshops & Ecosystem Initiatives): Delegates who participated in at least one workshop and at least one Harmonica session were given a 100% score in this category. Delegates who participated in either one workshop or Harmonica session were given a 75% score.
Tier Definitions and Rewards: All the above criteria are compiled into a single performance score for each delegate. The scoring process was handled objectively: the working group used on-chain data for voting history, Curia for forum engagement, and internal tracking sheets (e.g. workshop attendance) to calculate each component for every delegate. To illustrate, an exemplary top-performing delegate might have 95% vote participation, detailed rationales for each vote, multiple quality forum contributions, and attended most ecosystem initiatives, yielding a score in the ~95% range (Tier 1).
Rewards are funded entirely in SCR tokens from the Scroll DAO treasury (as was done previously). The Tiers are relative to each other (i.e., a Tier 4 delegate will receive 60% of the compensation of a Tier 1 delegate).
Final Score (first payout)
Each criterion was scored as a percentage from 0–100:
Weights: High = 0.8, Moderate = 0.5, Low = 0.3.
For this half-cycle, we use: VP (0.8), RR (0.5), FE (0.5), and WS (0.3).
Final Score (FS) = [(0.8 x VP) + (0.5 x RR) + (0.5 x FE) + (0.3 x WS)] / [0.8 + 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.3] = [(0.8 x VP) + (0.5 x RR) + (0.5 x FE) + (0.3 x WS)] / 2.1
Example FS Calculations:
A perfect-scoring delegate would receive a FS of 100:
[(0.8 x 100) + (0.5 x 100) + (0.5 x 100) + (0.3 x 100)] / 2.1 = [80 + 50 + 50 + 30] / 2.1 = 100
For a delegate who scored 100% for VP, 75% for RR, 75% for FE, and 50% for WS, their FS would be calculated as follows:
[(0.8 x 100) + (0.5 x 75) + (0.5 x 75) + (0.3 x 50)] / 2.1 = [80 + 37.5 + 37.5 + 15] / 2.1 = 80.95
This delegate would fall into Tier 2.
Final Score (second payout)
The same base formula from the first payout will be used, but with the added Community Call (CC) criterion.
For this half-cycle, we use: VP (0.8), RR (0.5), FE (0.5), WS (0.3), and CC (0.3).
Final Score (FS) = [(0.8 x VP) + (0.5 x RR) + (0.5 x FE) + (0.3 x WS) + (0.3 x CC)] / [0.8 + 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.3 + 0.3] = [(0.8 x VP) + (0.5 x RR) + (0.5 x FE) + (0.3 x WS) + (0.3 x CC)] / 2.4
Example FS Calculation (second payout):
A perfect-scoring delegate would receive a FS of 100:
[(0.8 x 100) + (0.5 x 100) + (0.5 x 100) + (0.3 x 100) + (0.3 x 100)] / 2.4 = [80 + 50 + 50 + 30 + 30] / 2.4 = 100
The execution of the GCR Cycle 2 will primarily involve the Governance Contribution Reward Working Group in collaboration with the Scroll Foundation’s governance team.
This 8-month cycle is split in two parts, allocating 70,000 SCR per month:
The total request is 580,000 SCR. The SCR allocation per Tier will be posted once we have the data finalized with the total number of delegates per category.
Any funds that are unused will remain in the treasury. There are no other costs associated with this proposal.
Please note: Eligible delegates will have to complete KYC/KYB in order to receive compensation. The distribution is not executed automatically. The verification is valid for 6 months; participants of the last retro payment in May won’t need to repeat it for now.
This is a preliminary breakdown for the first (retroactive) payout of GCR Cycle 2, covering May 1st - August 31st, based on the rules above. A second breakdown will follow after the end of the iteration in November or December.
Please note: These are not the final scores. The forum score (accounting for ~25% of the weight), will be provided by Curia by the end of August. We should be able to share the final scores and Tiers before the September voting cycle starts.
Here is a Google sheet version. Feel free to double-check the data and message us if you have any concerns or questions. If you cannot find yourself in the list, please check if you are a verified delegate and make sure your Agora profile is linked in your forum account or delegate thread.
We will measure the success of the GCR Cycle 2 program by the following outcomes and metrics. The evaluation will be posted to the forums together with the compensation of the 2nd half of this iteration in Nov/Dec, after the conclusion of Cycle 2, to help inform the design of Cycle 3.
We are looking forward to your feedback, particularly on the following aspects:
The Governance Contribution Reward Working Group proposes a structure and criteria for GCR Cycle 2. GCR Cycle 2 is a refined, tiered delegate incentive program to reward May-December 2025 governance contributions and to set the stage for sustained delegate engagement. We have preserved the spirit of the first GCR initiative, recognizing that “governance is work” and should be compensated while incorporating community feedback and cross-DAO best practices to improve fairness and impact. Key changes include a performance tier system (to reward quality over quantity and discourage gaming) and updated criteria that emphasize active, transparent, and thoughtful governance participation. By approving this proposal, Scroll DAO will disburse up to 440,000 SCR in rewards to those who have actively stewarded the protocol’s governance in the past five months.
The working group appreciates the community’s trust in allowing us to craft this proposal. We have strived to make the process and outcome as transparent and merit-based as possible.
Threshold 51%
EXECUTED