Announcing “oSnap:” Gasless Snapshot voting with on-chain execution by UMA

Tl;dr — Snapshot is a beloved governance tool that lets DAOs come to token-based consensus, but it does not have any native way to push results on-chain. oSnap is a joint effort between UMA and Snapshot to add this execution functionality, specifically for (formerly Gnosis) Safe multi-sig wallets. The result is that DAO tokenholders are able to propose and execute on proposals from start-to-finish, without any specific person’s signature required.

Ready to go? Adding oSnap to an existing Snapshot and Safe multi-sig is fast and free. It has been audited by Open Zeppelin. See the quick-start guide or reach out to integrations@umaproject.org.

Key takeaways:

• UMA announces oSnap: a Snapshot, Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe), and UMA solution for executing on-chain governance decisions.
• After a vote completes, anyone can submit the transactions to implement the proposal. If there is no dispute about the proposal’s accuracy during the dispute window, the transactions will go through.
• Optimistic governance offers tokenholders the power to go from proposal all the way to execution without any reliance on team multi-sigs to execute code.
• In the future, multi-sigs can be removed entirely.

Optimistic Snapshot Execution

oSnap is a tool for making on-chain transactions based on off-chain voting decisions. It uses Snapshot and Safe to execute the outcomes of DAO governance votes in a decentralized manner that requires no intervention by privileged signers. Put more simply, if the DAO tells someone they’ll get paid, the DAO can go ahead and pay them.

Optimistic governance is a pattern that verifies outcomes optimistically, meaning proposals proceed unless someone raises a dispute. UMA’s optimistic oracle can be used to verify any kind of data, including whether a proposal passed a Snapshot voting round.

“oSnap” is short for Optimistic Snapshot Execution. UMA’s optimistic oracle can verify any arbitrary data, as well as natural-language instructions about how to manipulate or constrain that data. In the case of oSnap, the arbitrary data is the transaction data. The instructions on how to process the transactions are simply to accept them if the Snapshot proposal passed, and reject them otherwise. Humans and bots monitor the network for opportunities to dispute.

oSnap takes DAOs from just having a voice to having direct access to the DAO’s treasury via governance.

What does that A in D-A-O stand for anyway?

Many DAOs use Snapshot voting to coordinate and reach governance decisions today. But Snapshot itself doesn’t offer a way to execute proposals. To execute, many DAOs rely on team multi-sig wallets. This introduces a gap where the DAO depends on the signatories on a multi-sig to execute on the vote’s outcome, and this has not always gone according to plan.

Using multi-sigs requires a handful of people to coordinate. If a key holder happens to be on vacation or in a different timezone, the execution of a proposal can be delayed.

Multi-sigs are also opaque with regard to individual OpSec. They do not offer transparency into how well key holders secure their keys. Poor key management has led to several multi-million dollar DeFi hacks in recent years. If a multi-sig is just a backup from an oSnap setup, then it can have much higher security requirements.

oSnap will be used alongside the multi-sig today, and will support removing the multi-sig entirely in the future.

If DAOs are to scale, they need to be able to coordinate trustlessly without facing security or waiting time hurdles. UMA envisions a world where DAOs can move quickly without sacrificing decentralization or voter UX.

oSnap makes this world possible.

How oSnap delivers trustless execution

oSnap combines Snapshot’s popular off-chain voting mechanism with Safe’s industry-leading multi-sig wallet infrastructure. It’s designed to let DAOs autonomously execute outcomes of Snapshot votes via a Safe wallet. oSnap uses incentives and game theory to accomplish this:

Anon has an incentive to submit the correct transactions for execution, and anon has an incentive to dispute if there is an error.

In the case of a dispute, no transaction is executed and it will need to be re-submitted. In the meantime, UMA tokenholders will review who was correct in the dispute, and reward that person from the other party’s bond.

In practice, it’s not hard to detect if the proposal is wrong — we would expect to never see a dispute short of a mistake. The cross-chain bridge Across Protocol already uses UMA’s OO in a similar fashion, with tens of thousands of calls each day.

UMA’s OO builds on a proposal first put forward by Vitalik Buterin, using game theoretical principles to incentivize token holders to vote on the correct outcome. Tokenholders who vote on the correct outcome to settle disputes receive rewards.

Using oSnap

oSnap is easy to turn on with the Quick Start Guide and docs, plus we’re here to help at integrations@uma.xyz. There is no fee for using oSnap.

It has been audited by Open Zeppelin.

oSnap should not require engineer time to set up. Across Protocol will soon become the first project to put forward a proposal to implement optimistic execution with oSnap.

The future of optimistic governance

Optimistic governance could transform the way DAOs operate in the future. While still a relatively new concept, a model that enables trustless coordination will help the DAO ecosystem thrive while still keeping the things that make snapshot so beloved in governance: free, fast, and programmable.

UMA is paving the way for DAOs to coordinate in a more efficient and decentralized way.

UMA is working with a host of launch partners to help them move towards optimistic governance with oSnap. If you are interested in integrating oSnap into your project or learning more about the product, please DM on Twitter, join the Discord, or reach out to integrations@umaproject.org.