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The Optimism Governor Walkthrough

The Optimism Governor is based on OpenZeppelin’s Governor, customized to support Optimism’s governance needs: signalling proposals, customizable voting rules, subdelegations, and so on.

In the long run, anyone should be able to propose changes, but safeguards like delegate approvals, quorum thresholds, and timelocks are required to ensure quality and protect against manipulation.

Some useful resources:

Architecture and Deployment​

The OptimismGovernor contract is upgradeable, following a proxy pattern:

  • Governor Proxy: 0xcDF27F107725988f2261Ce2256bDfCdE8B382B10
  • Alligator (subdelegations): 0x7f08F3095530B67CdF8466B7a923607944136Df0
  • ProposalTypesConfigurator: 0xCE52b7cc490523B3e81C3076D5ae5Cca9a3e2D6F
  • VotableSupplyOracle: 0x1b7CA7437748375302bAA8954A2447fC3FBE44CC

While proposals today are signaling-only for most types (i.e., they do not trigger automatic onchain execution), the system enforces the full governance lifecycle: Pending → Active → Succeeded → Queued → Executed. The key exceptions are Governance Fund (Missions) proposals and certain Security Council proposals, which do cause onchain token transfers, for example, transferring OP to fund a Mission or allocating ETH from the treasury.

Core Roles​

  • admin: Owns the proxy and controls upgrades. Does not vote or propose.
  • manager: Can create proposals, execute them, or update system parameters.
  • voters: Any address with delegated OP, either directly or through Alligator.

Inheritance​

contract OptimismGovernor is
    Initializable,
    GovernorUpgradeableV2,
    GovernorCountingSimpleUpgradeableV2,
    GovernorVotesUpgradeableV2,
    GovernorVotesQuorumFractionUpgradeableV2,
    GovernorSettingsUpgradeableV2

Each inherited contract contributes:

  • GovernorUpgradeableV2: Core lifecycle logic, proposal state machine
  • GovernorCountingSimpleUpgradeableV2: Vote tallying (for/against/abstain)
  • GovernorVotesUpgradeableV2: Gets historical voting power at a given block
  • GovernorVotesQuorumFractionUpgradeableV2: Legacy support for % quorum
  • GovernorSettingsUpgradeableV2: Configurable parameters (e.g. voting period)
warning

The Optimism Governor overrides some of these base contracts, notably quorum and proposal thresholds, using a ProposalTypesConfigurator and VotableSupplyOracle

Proposal Flow​

The Governor supports two proposal paths:

propose(...):               // Standard proposal
proposeWithModule(...):     // Proposal with custom voting module

Only the manager or timelock() can propose. Each proposal is assigned a proposalType, which maps to specific quorum/approval thresholds in the ProposalTypesConfigurator.

Voting is handled via:

  • castVote(): standard token-based voting
  • castVoteFromAlligator(): partial delegation via the Alligator contract
  • VoteCastWithParams: supports modules that require additional input (e.g., ranked or approval voting)

Proposals are executed via the Timelock contract, using execute() or executeWithModule().

The key Modules​

Alligator - Subdelegations​

The Alligator enables partial delegation; a user can split their voting power across multiple delegates using absolute or relative rules. These delegations can be chained (A → B → C) and validated onchain using authority[] arrays.

The key structures are:

  • subdelegations[from][to]: maps delegations
  • SubdelegationRules: define allowance, maxRedelegations, timing, and custom logic
  • Supports batched voting with castVoteWithReasonAndParamsBatched(...)

The contract validates that:

  1. Each delegation is valid and within limits
  2. The final sender is authorized
  3. No overuse or double-voting has occurred

It then forwards votes to castVoteFromAlligator() on the Governor.

ProposalTypesConfigurator​

Proposals can have different voting requirements depending on their type. This configurator allows each proposalType to define:

  • quorum (e.g. 5100 = 51%)
  • approvalThreshold (e.g. 7600 = 76%)
  • name, description, module (if any)

Proposal thresholds are stored with 1e4 scaling (10000 = 100%). The Governor calls proposalTypesConfigurator.proposalTypes(proposalTypeId) during voting and quorum checks.

Votable Supply Oracle​

Instead of the total token supply, quorum is based on votable supply — the total OP that has been delegated. This is retrieved at the proposal creation block and used to calculate thresholds dynamically.

  • Fallback: if votableSupply() returns zero, the Governor falls back to the total token supply.

Functions Summary​

Proposal Management

  • propose() / proposeWithModule()
  • setVotingDelay(), setVotingPeriod(), setProposalThreshold()
  • setProposalDeadline(): update deadline during voting
  • cancel(), cancelWithModule()

Voting

  • castVote()
  • castVoteFromAlligator(...)
  • increaseWeightCast(...): internal weight accounting for partial votes

Execution

  • queue(), queueWithModule()
  • execute(), executeWithModule()

Future Extensions​

We are working on an upgrade that is evolving toward permissionless proposals, enforced via DelegatesProposalValidator contract, which gates access to propose() based on delegate approvals and submission windows, allowing any qualifying participant to propose, while still preserving cycle alignment.