This document constitutes the final report for Cycle 1 of the Delegates Program, which we committed to present in our Program Manager role prior to the 6 month Cycle 1 due date.
Since the cycle ends on August 31, this report has been prepared based on the first five and a half months of the period, from March to mid-August.
Background
Delegate Trial Program
After the DAO’s approval in November 2024, a 3-month delegate trial program was launched in December of that year with the aim of address a critical issue identified in ParaSwapDAO, as highlighted in our report, whereby despite ParaSwap ranking among the top 3 DeFi aggregators and demonstrating strong activity metrics, the DAO itself suffers from concerningly low participation levels and a high concentration of voting power.
Thus, the program addressed two primary objectives: to increase both the quantity and quality of participation and enhance diversity of voices. It also allowed token holders who are unable or unwilling to actively participate in governance to delegate their voting power to active delegates aligned with their vision, promoting a more balanced distribution of voting power.
We understand that these outcomes have been achieved, as reported here, and that they served as the starting point for Cycle 1 of the Delegate Program.
Delegate Program - Cycle 1 - Evaluation Report
Cycle 1 of the Delegate Program was approved and launched in March of this year and refined in June, with the primary goal of building on the success of the trial program by increasing both the quantity and quality of participation, as well as fostering a greater diversity of voices. This goal is reflected in the following KPIs:
We understand that the desired objectives have been far exceeded, as evidenced by the following observations and metrics:
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Participating delegates: An analysis of the “Delegation” section of the forum, the application thread for Cycle 1 of the Delegate Program, and the Delegates page on Velora’s Snapshot space shows that as of March this year, the DAO had 12 active delegates (ourselves included), of which only 9 met the participation requirements to join the Delegate Program.
As of today, based on the most recent participation tracking sheet, the DAO has a total of 19 active delegates (again, including ourselves) where 15 are officially part of the program, while 3 of the remaining 4 show varying levels of active engagement.
This means that in the last six months, the number of active delegates has grown from 12 to 19—a 58% increase—effectively fulfilling the second stated KPI of the program: to convene more individuals and organizations to become delegates within VeloraDAO.
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Delegate Participation: By analyzing the snapshot votes, the forum, the monthly DIP results and the Delegate sheet tracker (published in the ‘Delegation’ section of the forum), at the start of the Delegate Program Cycle 1 on March 2024 to the present, the following metrics emerge:
- 9 delegates participated from the start of the program in March;
- Since applications reopened in June, 15 delegates are currently participating in the program, with a 16th delegate who was unable to join because the maximum number had been reached, despite meeting all the requirements;
- There have been snapshot 21 votes since March 2025 after PIP-58 approving the Delegates Program to the present, the first one was PIP-59: Proposal for Returning 40.203 wETH to Bybit (After 10% Bounty Deduction) and the last one was PIP-68 - Upgrade VeloraDAO’s space to Snapshot Pro;
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Voting:
- 8 delegates have had 100% participation in the snapshot voting: , PGov, Jameskbh, Medhi, Arana Digital, Curia, sov, DAOplomats and Argonaut (and ourselves but we’re not part of the Program);
- 5 delegates have had 95.24% participation in the snapshot voting (only one vote missing): Ignas, Proxy/Boardroom, Avantgarde, 0xAlex and Tané;
- 2 delegate have had 90.47% participation in the snapshot voting (only two votes missing): Citizen42 and WakeUp Labs;
- As a result, 100% of the 15 delegates participating in the program have achieved over 90% participation in voting, demonstrating sustained engagement and alignment with the program’s primary objective.
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Rationales:
- 5 delegates have had 100% presentation of their voting rationale: Citizen42, PGov, Jameskbh, Medhi, and Arana Digital (and ourselves but we’re not part of the Program);
- 4 delegates have had 95.24% presentation of their voting rationale (only one rationale missing): Proxy/Boardroom, Avantgarde, Curia and 0xAlex;
- 3 delegates have had 90.47% presentation of their voting rationale (only two rationales missing): Ignas, WakeUp Labs and DAOplomats;
- 1 delegate have had 90.47% presentation of their voting rationale (three rationales missing): Tané, who joined the program in June, and since April has justified 100% of his votes;
- 1 delegate have had 76.19% presentation of their voting rationale (five rationales missing): Argonaut, who joined the program in July;
- 1 delegate have had 00.00% presentation of their voting rationale (all rationales missing): Sov.
- This means that 13 out of the 15 delegates in the program —representing 86.66% of the total— have submitted rationales for over 90% of their votes, demonstrating strong alignment and compliance with one of the program’s main objectives.
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Total Participation: Regarding Total Participation—understood as the comprehensive participation metric of the Delegates Program—we have aggregated and weighted each delegate’s TP from March to July, based on the DIP results posts and the accompanying monthly tracking sheets.
Delegate TP% Months Citizen42 94.10 5 PGov 91.20 5 Jameskbh 92.90 5 Ignas 87.93 5 Mehdi 93.40 5 Boardroom / Proxy 86.88 5 Arana Digital 92.00 5 Avantgarde 90.78 5 Curia 87.43 5 WakeUp Labs 84.49 2 0xAlex 75.69 2 Sov 62.00 2 DAOplomats 83.83 2 Tané 91.50 2 Argonaut 86.00 1 Cumulative TP% 86.67
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The metrics significantly exceed the initial KPI we set at the beginning of the program, which aimed for an average Total Participation rate above 80% among program participants. The cumulative average among all delegates reached 86.67%, with 13 out of 15 delegates (86.66%) exceeding 80%, and 7 of them (46.66%) surpassing 90% average TP.
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Forum Participation - Plurality of Voices: A simple review of the forum shows that DAO activity has continued to grow over the past six months. There are currently 15 delegates included in the Delegate Program, plus 4 additional active delegates not formally part of the program (including ourselves), with varying levels of engagement. In total, 19 active delegates regularly vote, participate, and contribute to discussions, reflecting a healthy diversity of viewpoints.
While this diversity is evident across most proposals and discussions, a defining moment occurred during the debate on the controversial PIP-59. The proposal sparked intense and polarized debate, culminating in a historic vote with record participation (over 532 million PSP) and an incredibly tight outcome: 49.56% vs. 49.54%, a mere 0.02% margin. This was a powerful demonstration of the DAO’s maturity—managing a heated debate with opposing views, resolved through the expected and civil mechanisms of DAO governance. A great example of the kind of participation we aim to encourage.
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Proposals submitted for a vote: In terms of hard metrics, and from the analysis of the VeloraDAO Snapshot Page and the VeloraDAO Governance Dune dashboard we have developed, the following conclusions can be drawn regarding DAO activity:
- The DAO consolidated the reactivation observed between October 2024 and February 2025, and has significantly increased its level of activity and votign VP per proposal from March 2025 to the present:
To further explore the evolution of governance activity and the changes in the concentration and distribution of voting power, we recommend reviewing our GTF First Quarterly Report - State of the VeloraDAO presented a few weeks ago in early July, which includes a detailed analysis of the current state of the DAO and its governance dynamics.
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Delegates Voting Power: Related to the previous point and analysing the Voting Power of each delegate participating in the Delegate Program and the rest of the delegates who have presented their delegation platform in the forum, whose public data is extracted from the Delegates snapshot page, the delegation wallets informed in the forum by each delegate, and the Dune Governance dashboard we developed we can list them as follows:
Delegate VP Citizen42 17,760,452.00 PGov 12,631,546.00 Jameskbh 5,288,645.00 Ignas 22,395,014.00 DAOplomats 5,181,989.00 0xAlex 5,187,560.00 SEEDGov 31,980,740.00 Mehdi 5,247,088.00 Proxy/Boardroom 12,686,630.00 Arana Digital 5,395,225.00 Avantgarde 94,205,096.00 Curia 15,872,528.00 WakeUp Labs 1,522,602.00 Proof of Growth 0.00 Sov 5,181,989.00 Argonaut 2,728,463.00 Tané 5,592,163.00 Venum 33,414,783.00 Today in DeFi Research 1,339,749.00 Beni 6,754.00 Total VP among all delegates 282,272,513.00
In March there were 15 delegates with their Delegation Platforms published on the forum, collectively holding 223.7M PSP in Voting Power. Today, there are 20 delegates with a combined total of 282.3M PSP in Voting Power, representing an increase of over 26% in the Voting Power distributed among all delegates.
Having 20 delegates with this amount of voting power, in addition to the remaining anonymous addresses with significant voting power, ensures that voting power is better distributed and that decision making is more broadly distributed, with more voices and more debate than before, making it more difficult and costly to carry out a governance attack, and thus strengthening the resilience of the protocol and its DAO.
Budget Execution Report
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Budgeted amount: According to PIP-58, the total budget approved for the six-month Cycle 1 of the Delegate Program was 180,000 USD in PSP tokens.
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Amount spent in the first five months: As reported in each monthly update—most notably in the July 2025 report—the actual amount spent and committed over the five month, from March through July, was 101,000 USD.
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Maximum potential remaining cost: Given that the theoretical maximum monthly cost of the program is 37,500 USD (assuming all 15 delegates qualify for Tier 1), the total maximum cost for the full six-month program period would be 138,500 USD, which is 41,500 USD under the approved budget.
As following the Cycle 1 trend all delegates not expected to reach Tier 1 in August, the final cost of the program will most likely be well below 138,500 USD, further distancing it from the initially approved 180,000 USD budget.
Once the August results of the program are reported, we will be able to confirm and disclose the final total cost of Cycle 1 of the Delegate Program.
