Governance
Principals
Origin Protocol is developed and maintained by Origin Protocol Labs, a legal entity incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Origin Protocol Labs serves as a core contributor and operational steward of the protocol, acting in accordance with the direction of xOGN governance. Protocol upgrades, parameter changes, and strategy approvals are subject to the governance processes described below.
Origin products operate as decentralized protocols governed by a distributed set of stakeholders. Yield generation, fee collection, and fee distribution are executed entirely through smart contracts. Upgrades to these contracts pass through a timelock and can only be initiated through governance controlled by xOGN holders.
Although the initial contracts and strategies were developed by the Origin team, protocol evolution is open to the broader community. Governance participants can propose parameter changes, introduce new strategies, contribute code, or vote on active proposals. The expectation is that major decisions are made collectively, while limited day-to-day responsibilities may be delegated to trusted contributors who maintain the protocol’s operations.
Governance proposals require participation from at least 20% of the xOGN supply to reach quorum. There is no minimum requirement to cast a vote on existing proposals. All approved proposals are executed only after passing through a timelock, ensuring a delay between approval and implementation. This delay provides transparency and allows users to exit positions if a proposal introduces changes they deem unfavorable.
Proposal lifecycle
Changes to Origin’s smart contracts require onchain proposals to be created, approved, and executed by governance token holders. All pending and historical onchain proposals are visible on the governance page of the Origin Dapp.
Initiating this type of formal, binding proposal requires technical skills and knowledge of the protocol’s code. Onchain proposals also involve transaction costs (gas fees) necessary to update the state of the blockchain. As a result, most proposals go through an informal, off-chain process occurring on the Origin Protocol Snapshot Space.
Snapshot enables any eligible governance token holder to create a proposal or vote at no cost. This also reduces the complexity and expense required to make a proposal and allows for the community to signal its approval or opposition to a given change. We encourage everyone to propose improvements at any time.
To help stay up to date on Snapshot proposals, you can enable email notifications by visiting Snapshot V1, clicking on your username, and adding an email.
It’s natural for proposals to be accompanied by healthy debate or discussion regarding implementation, reasoning, methodology, etc. Discussions regarding new proposals now start in the Origin Governance Forum and are cross-posted to Origin's Discord server.
Timelock Contract
All approved proposals execute onchain through a timelock that enforces a mandatory 2-day delay (172,800 seconds) between governance approval and implementation. This window gives any user time to review an approved change and take action before upgrades take effect.
Contract address (Ethereum): 0x35918cDE7233F2dD33fA41ae3Cb6aE0e42E0e69F
The timelock uses role-based access control. The proposer role — held by the governance multisig — queues onchain proposals approved onchain by xOGN governance. The executor role runs them after the delay has elapsed. No single address can both propose and execute without the delay intervening.
Participating In Governance
Snapshot is Origin's off-chain, gas-free signaling venue, and it's where nearly every governance proposal starts. Here's how to participate in Snapshot governance:
Obtain OGN from a centralized exchange (Coinbase, Binance) or a decentralized exchange (Uniswap, Curve).
Stake OGN for xOGN using the Origin Dapp. xOGN is what grants voting power; the longer you stake, the more voting power is allotted per OGN staked.
Submit and discuss your proposal on the Origin Governance Forum, and share it in the #governance channel on Origin's Discord server for visibility. 1–4 weeks of discussion is typical before moving forward.
Submit the proposal on Snapshot for a signaling vote. Creating a Snapshot proposal requires at least 5,000 xOGN; voting on an existing one has no minimum.
Cast your vote, or delegate your voting power to another Ethereum address if you'd rather not vote directly yourself.
Feel free to use one of the templates as a guide when writing a proposal.
Onchain Governance Process
Once a proposal has clear community support on Snapshot, it can move to a binding onchain vote. Onchain proposals are formal, require gas fees to submit, and execute directly against Origin's smart contracts.
Hold at least 100,000 xOGN, then submit the proposal onchain through the governance contract: 0x1D3Fbd4d129Ddd2372EA85c5Fa00b2682081c9EC.
Voting opens 24 hours after the proposal is created, giving holders time to acquire tokens or delegate votes before the window begins.
The voting period runs for 48 hours. If quorum (20% of xOGN supply) is reached within the final 24 hours of that window, voting automatically extends by another ~1.6 days, so a late swing in quorum can't decide the outcome without giving the community time to respond.
If the proposal passes and quorum is reached, it needs to be queued in the Timelock contract.
After the 48-hour Timelock delay has passed, the proposal can be executed onchain.
Parameters
High-level criteria are required to vote and make proposals:
Hold sufficient xOGN tokens (Staked Origin Tokens)
No minimum to vote on existing proposals
5,000 xOGN to create a Snapshot proposal
100,000 xOGN to create an onchain proposal
(Note, you have the option to delegate your votes to another Ethereum wallet.)
Here are the parameters currently configured on the governance contract:
Voting delay
24 hours
How soon the voting period begins following the submission of a proposal - can be used to enforce a delay after a proposal is published for users to buy tokens, or delegate their votes
Voting period
48 hours
The window of time for votes to be cast following the end of the voting delay
Proposal threshold
100,000 xOGN
The minimum number of tokens required for an account to be eligible to submit a proposal
Quorum
20% of xOGN supply
The minimum number of votes needed for a proposal to succeed (assuming a majority of them are in support of the proposal)
Late quorum extension
11,520 blocks (~1.6 days)
The amount of time required to pass from when a proposal reaches quorum until its voting period ends
Timelock delay
172,800 seconds (2 days)
The minimum amount of time required after the end of the voting period before a proposal can be executed and take effect
Guardians
Guardian multisigs can act without a timelock delay for time-sensitive operations: depositing and withdrawing from strategies, adjusting vault buffers, pausing deposits and redeems, swapping collateral, and managing rebasing. These functions require the multisig threshold but not a governance vote or timelock period.
The Guardian multi-sig can perform the following actions on supported vaults:
depositToStrategy - deposit vault assets into an approved strategy.
withdrawFromStrategy - withdraw assets from an approved strategy back to the vault.
setVaultBuffer - adjust the amount of funds held in the vault for cheaper redeems.
setDefaultStrategy - set the default strategy used for automatic allocation and withdrawals.
withdrawAllFromStrategy - remove funds from a single strategy and return them to the vault.
withdrawAllFromStrategies - remove funds from all active strategies and return them to the vault.
pauseRebase - pause rebases.
unpauseRebase - allow rebases.
pauseCapital - pause capital movement, including mints, redeems, and allocation.
unpauseCapital - allow capital movement.
rebase - update vault accounting and OToken supply.
setRebaseRateMax - set the maximum rate at which yield can be streamed into rebases.
setDripDuration - set the duration over which yield is streamed.
Governance & Guardian Addresses
Admin
Ethereum
0xbe2AB3d3d8F6a32b96414ebbd865dBD276d3d899
5-of-8 Safe
Admin
Base/HyperEVM
0x92A19381444A001d62cE67BaFF066fA1111d7202
5-of-8 Safe
Admin
Base
0x92A19381444A001d62cE67BaFF066fA1111d7202
5-of-8 Safe
Admin
Sonic
0xAdDEA7933Db7d83855786EB43a238111C69B00b6
5-of-8 Safe
Admin
Arbitrum
0xfD1383fb4eE74ED9D83F2cbC67507bA6Eac2896a
5-of-8 Safe
Guardian
Multichain
0x4FF1b9D9ba8558F5EAfCec096318eA0d8b541971
2-of-8 Safe
Guardian
Arbitrum
0xfD1383fb4eE74ED9D83F2cbC67507bA6Eac2896a
5-of-8 Safe
Guardian
Sonic
0x63cdd3072F25664eeC6FAEFf6dAeB668Ea4de94a
2-of-8 Safe
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