Gasless Voting and Delegation (Relay)

Remove barriers to DAO governance participation with gasless transactions.

Every blockchain interaction - whether casting a vote, delegating voting power, or creating governance proposals - requires participants to pay transaction fees (commonly known as "gas fees") on the underlying blockchain network. These fees represent a significant barrier to participation, potentially excluding valuable contributors and skewing governance decisions toward those with greater financial resources.

Introducing Relay: Removing Financial Barriers to Participation

Relay is a sponsorship system where DAOs can cover the transaction costs for their members' governance activities like voting and delegating. DAOs can now cover the costs that would otherwise prevent members from participating in crucial decisions.

How Relay Works

The technical foundation of Relay rests on OpenZeppelin Defender, a trusted security framework in the blockchain world. When a DAO enables Relay, they set aside a specific budget for governance transactions. As members participate in governance activities, Relay automatically handles the complex process of paying transaction fees, making the experience seamless for users - they can simply focus on making thoughtful governance decisions.

Tally maintains this service through a small fee on each transaction, ensuring the system remains sustainable while keeping costs manageable for DAOs. This approach is similar to how payment processors charge small fees to maintain their infrastructure while providing valuable services.

Benefits

Tally has processed hundreds of thousands of governance transactions, with associated gas fees reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars. These numbers represent not just costs, but potential barriers to participation. Each transaction fee could have been a reason for a valuable member to stay silent instead of contributing their perspective.

When DAOs sponsor transactions through Relay, they're making a powerful statement about their values. They're saying that every voice matters, regardless of a member's ability or willingness to pay gas fees. This commitment to inclusivity strengthens the entire governance ecosystem in several ways:

1. Enhanced Participation Metrics: By eliminating financial barriers, DAOs can expect increased engagement across their membership base, leading to more representative governance decisions.

2. Demographic Diversification: The removal of transaction cost barriers enables participation from a broader spectrum of community members, including those in regions where gas fees might represent a significant expense.

3. Governance Efficiency: With reduced friction in the voting and proposal processes, DAOs can achieve quicker decision-making cycles while maintaining high participation rates.

4. Long-term Sustainability: By investing in their members' ability to participate, DAOs strengthen their governance mechanisms and ensure continued operational vitality.

For DAOs interested in implementing gasless voting and delegation with Relay, Tally's team can be reached at [email protected] to discuss specific needs and implementation details.

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