Abstract

The Meta-Governance Working Group is responsible for providing governance oversight and supporting the management and operation of working groups through DAO tooling and governance initiatives as well as treasury management for the DAO.

This social proposal is submitted to satisfy the requirements set out in Rule 10.1.1 of the Working Group Rules (EP 1.8). If this proposal is passed, the funding request will be included in a collective executable proposal put forward by all three Working Groups.

Specification

This specification is the amount requested from the DAO treasury to the Metagov Multisig to fulfill anticipated budgetary needs through the next formal funding window in April 2026.

Amount Requested

This amount will cover all expected expenses outlined below while leaving a prudent reserve to ensure continuity if future funding is delayed.

Description

Current Metagov Wallet Balances

Also taken into consideration for this funding request are existing balances, their use cases, and the coverage they provide for the next term.

USDC — $164,850. Primary operating currency for Steward/Secretary/Scribe compensation (~$49,000/month) and other Meta-Gov spend (grants, tooling, discretionary). Provides ~3.4 months of compensation runway before other outflows. Additional near-term USDC commitments include Tally front-end services contract funded by Meta-Gov.

ETH — 58.63. Held as an operational buffer/liquidity backstop. Used during the term to smooth obligations (e.g., endowment payments, budget backfills) and converted via TWAP when appropriate. Treated as reserve rather than a source for new initiatives.

$ENS — 82.47k. Originally allocated for governance distributions and other programmatic uses. Given the current balance, no additional $ENS is requested in this proposal.

These balances provide short-term continuity and risk mitigation; they do not replace the need for additional USDC to ensure uninterrupted operations between funding windows.

Expenditures

Meta-Gov sets aside funds to ensure coverage for mission-critical initiatives. While we strive to estimate term expenditures accurately, the final spending depends on pending initiatives in current & future terms.

Expected Expenses through April 2026

(including November)

Description of Initiatives/Pods

Steward + Secretary + Scribe Compensation: Working Group Steward, Scribe, and Secretary compensation as required by the steward working group rules.

Contract Audits: Meta-governance maintains a balance to be used for contract audits. These audits are performed independently on contracts that are to be included in executable proposals if those contracts impact or affect any ENS protocol or ENS DAO contracts or processes.

DAO Tooling: Funding research and/or develpoment interfaces and dashboards to improve the governance process and increase transparency across the DAO.

Discretionary: Funds distributed at the discretion of stewards towards new initiatives + governance experiments.

Contract audits, DAO tooling, and discretionary funds are maintained for the next term's use.

Conclusion

With a target budget of $544K and existing USDC of approximately $165K, Meta Governance is requesting the differential for the next term.

+544K Expected -165K Existing =379K Requested

This funding request will allow the ENS Meta-Governance Working Group to continue its essential work in providing governance oversight, supporting the management and operation of working groups, and ensuring effective treasury management for the DAO. The requested funds will enable us to maintain our ongoing initiatives and develop new tools to enhance the governance process. We are grateful for the community's ongoing support and engagement, which is crucial to the success of the ENS DAO. The Meta-Governance Working Group remains committed to serving the ENS community and driving the long-term growth and sustainability of the ecosystem.

Thanks @daostrat.eth for drafting this proposal and @5pence.eth for the review.

For this social proposal to pass, the following quorum and voting requirements must be met:

Quorum: The proposal must receive a minimum of 1% of the total supply of $ENS (1 million votes) in the form of "For" and "Abstain" votes combined. "Against" votes do not count towards quorum.

Approval: Once the quorum is reached, the proposal requires a simple majority (>50%) of "For" votes among the "For" and "Against" votes to pass. "Abstain" votes do not count towards the approval calculation.