DAO Structure

Status: Governance structures are defined in the protocol specification. Full on-chain voting execution is being finalized for an upcoming release.

We believe governance should be structured, not monolithic. Citrate's governance is organized as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) with multiple specialized bodies. Rather than a single monolithic voting mechanism, the DAO uses a layered structure where different governance bodies handle different types of decisions. This design prevents governance fatigue, ensures domain expertise in decision-making, and creates checks and balances between bodies.

Governance Bodies

The DAO consists of four primary governance bodies, each with distinct authority and composition:

1. General Assembly: All SALT stakers (validators, delegators, model hosts, oracle operators). The General Assembly votes on major protocol decisions including constitutional amendments, large treasury expenditures, and network upgrades.

2. Technical Council: Nine elected members with demonstrated technical expertise. The Technical Council reviews protocol upgrade proposals, audits smart contract changes, and provides technical recommendations to the General Assembly. Members serve 6-month terms.

3. Council of Oracles: Holders of Legendary-tier $SNAP NFTs. This body has advisory authority over bridge operations, fee parameters, and cross-chain integrations. Their votes carry special weight on bridge-related proposals.

4. Ethics Board: Seven elected members drawn from the broader community (not limited to SALT holders). The Ethics Board reviews AI model registrations for ethical compliance, audits the network's bias metrics, and can flag proposals that conflict with the Code of Ethics.

General Assembly (all stakers)
  ├── Technical Council (9 elected members)
  ├── Council of Oracles (Legendary $SNAP holders)
  └── Ethics Board (7 elected members)

Working Groups

Below the council level, the DAO organizes operational work through Working Groups. Each Working Group has a specific mandate, a budget allocated through governance proposals, and a lead coordinator elected by the group's members.

Working Group	Mandate	Budget Source
Protocol Development	Core client and precompile development	Treasury quarterly allocation
Ecosystem Grants	Funding dApp developers and researchers	Treasury quarterly allocation
Security	Bug bounties, audits, incident response	Dedicated security fund
Documentation	Maintaining docs, tutorials, and guides	Treasury quarterly allocation
Community	Events, education, outreach, onboarding	Treasury quarterly allocation
Bridge Operations	Cross-chain integration and monitoring	Bridge fee revenue share

Working Groups operate with significant autonomy within their mandate and budget. They report to the General Assembly quarterly and can request additional funding through standard governance proposals.

Treasury Management

The DAO treasury holds SALT tokens allocated at genesis (100 million SALT) plus accumulated protocol revenue from fee burns and unclaimed rewards. Treasury funds can only be spent through governance proposals that pass the required quorum and approval thresholds.

# View treasury balance
citrate-cli governance treasury-balance --rpc https://rpc.cnidarian.cloud

# View pending treasury proposals
citrate-cli governance treasury-proposals --status active --rpc https://rpc.cnidarian.cloud

Treasury spending categories and their approval requirements:

Category	Maximum per Proposal	Quorum	Approval Threshold
Small grants (<10K SALT)	10,000 SALT	5% of staked SALT	Simple majority (>50%)
Medium grants (10K-100K)	100,000 SALT	10% of staked SALT	60% supermajority
Large grants (100K-1M)	1,000,000 SALT	20% of staked SALT	67% supermajority
Exceptional (>1M)	No limit	33% of staked SALT	75% supermajority

The treasury contract implements a time-locked release mechanism. After a proposal passes, funds are not released immediately -- there is a 48-hour delay during which the Technical Council can flag security concerns.

Multi-Sig Setup

Critical protocol operations (client upgrades, bridge parameter changes, emergency pauses) are controlled by a multi-signature wallet that requires signatures from multiple governance bodies.

The protocol multi-sig configuration:

Multi-sig: 5-of-8 signers required

Signers:
  - 3 from Technical Council (rotating monthly)
  - 2 from Council of Oracles
  - 2 from General Assembly delegates
  - 1 from Ethics Board

Timelock: 48 hours for standard operations
Emergency: 3-of-8 with no timelock (for critical security incidents only)

The emergency path (3-of-8 with no timelock) can only be used for specific pre-defined actions: pausing the bridge, pausing inference routing, and halting new model registrations. It cannot be used for treasury spending or protocol parameter changes.

# View current multi-sig configuration
citrate-cli governance multisig-info --rpc https://rpc.cnidarian.cloud

# View pending multi-sig transactions
citrate-cli governance multisig-pending --rpc https://rpc.cnidarian.cloud

Governance Participation

Any SALT staker can participate in governance. Voting weight is proportional to staked SALT, with specific accommodations:

Delegated voting: If you delegate your SALT to a validator, you can still vote independently; your vote overrides the validator's vote for your portion of stake
Conviction voting: For certain long-term proposals, voting weight increases the longer you commit your vote, rewarding participants with long-term alignment
Quadratic voting: Used for community sentiment polling, where voting power scales with the square root of tokens committed, giving smaller holders proportionally more influence