OIP#3: Obol Collective 2025 Goals - Proposal -

Thanks @enti for the valuable feedback! To answer some of your questions:

You are right that some protocols require incentive but most of DeFi is actually permissionless. If we wish reach this SQUAD goal through incentivisation, a proposal can indeed be made or the Association can pursue at its own discretion.

We believe these goals to be optimistic for this first year. There is no rush on the optimisations as these goals are to be looked at with 1 year ahead vision. We can start optimising in a few month and that would still have us within 2025 or roughly.

There are a lot of macro uncertainties worldwide, even more so over the last few days. I would advise to keep in mind that this SQUAD framework is not a rigid prescription but a dynamic governance model that empowers the community to shape the Collective’s direction while maintaining alignment with its long-term mission. We will likely iterate and refine some points but we believe it still provides a scalable and resilient approach to decentralised governance.

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Hello @cp0x and thanks for the feedback !

This is indeed an ambitious goal but we have strong relations with some of the major protocols that we keep on reenforcing and our tech is starting to speak for itself. It also about remaining directionally aligned and keep pushing. A lot of efforts are also being deployed on the institutions front.

Due to other emerging priorities (e.g: institutions), we aim to find a balance and empower Techne to keep on growing while also invest enough resources on other opportunities now that Techne already has strong momentum. That being said, the target could be a little more ambitious, thanks for the feedback.

The important part here would be in the “At least” as this would be a minimum to achieve. As the fondations get stronger and stronger it will become increasingly easier to drive more participation. We are definitely seduced by what ArbitrumDAO has managed to achieve and it’s one of our sources of inspiration.

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Before diving in — a quick reminder that the purpose of OIP-3 is to define goals, not the full set of processes to achieve them.
These goals are meant to guide direction and coordination for the Collective in 2025. The mechanisms and tools to realize them will emerge iteratively — with your input.


Thanks to everyone who’s contributed feedback and questions on OIP-3 — especially around the “how” of executing these goals.
We’ve seen a number of great points raised across the forum and wanted to offer a collective response to address the recurring themes around processes, incentives, and decentralization. Here’s where we’re at today, and how we envision the path forward:


Step-by-Step: From Goals to Action

Before diving into specific mechanisms, it’s helpful to clarify the phased approach the Collective is taking:

  1. Goal Alignment First:
    The immediate priority is getting consensus around the SQUAD Goals via vote — this gives the Collective a shared direction and a framework to prioritize around.
  2. Grant Program Setup:
    Once goals are approved, we’ll formalize the Collective Grant Program. This will outline eligibility, review, and funding guidelines for contributors and squads.
  3. Proposal-Based Execution:
    Community members, including existing or new squads, can then submit proposals (with or without funding asks) aligned with a SQUAD Goal. These can include growth initiatives, governance tooling, technical bounties, and more.

This structure is designed to give autonomy and flexibility — and it reflects our view that the Collective isn’t a company with a rigid roadmap, but rather a community-led movement supported by modular tools and structures.

Boosting DV Adoption: How Will We Get There?

The “10% of protocol stake” goal is intentionally ambitious — and not something that any one group (including the Association) is expected to hit alone. Rather, it signals a North Star: that DVT becomes default infrastructure for Ethereum staking.

That said, here’s how we see this goal coming to life:

  • Delegates and community contributors can propose and lead integrations or outreach efforts — tapping into protocol partnerships, research initiatives, or ecosystem campaigns.
  • We’re already seeing traction with Lido, EtherFi, and others — and the Grant Program will create a path for growth working groups or service providers to build on this momentum.
  • We also love the idea of formal delegate referral incentives — especially when aligned with meaningful integrations. We welcome a concrete proposal here!

Evaluating Impact of Grants & Projects

Great callout. The Association will help bootstrap the grant infrastructure, but long-term evaluation and accountability should be decentralized.

Optimizing Decentralized Governance & Delegate Participation

One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we’ve received is: “How do we ensure participation is meaningful, not just performative?”

We’re aligned on this. While this goal doesn’t prescribe the exact mechanics, we’re looking at:

  • Adopting reputation or performance-based delegate frameworks, like those seen in Arbitrum’s DIP (Delegate Incentive Program).
  • Incentivizing deep contributions — not just votes, but thoughtful feedback, proposals, research, and community engagement.
  • Supporting tooling or analytics that make it easier to identify and support “active” delegates.

Ultimately, we’d love to see the community take the lead in designing this — and the Association can help coordinate early experimentation.

Contingency Planning

One final note: we’ve heard questions about “what happens if we don’t hit these goals?”

The short answer: that’s okay. These aren’t rigid KPIs with consequences attached — they’re intended to set a direction, not establish mandates. We’ll report transparently on progress, course-correct where needed, and iterate together.


In short: the Collective is designed to scale through coordination, not command.
We’re excited to see where the community takes these goals — and we hope this clears up some of the “how” behind the “what.”

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Thank you @Leo-ObolAssoc for addressing the final feedback in a timely manner.

As we believe all feedback has been addressed and the community is well aligned around these 2025 goals. We, as Obol delegates with sufficient voting power, believe that this proposal is ready to move to a vote.

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OIP#3 Obol Collective 2025 Goals is published on Tally. The onchain voting starts on Friday Apr 18, 12:16 pm GMT. You can vote onchain here.

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I appreciate the clarity of the 2025 goals and the structured approach through the SQUAD framework — especially the focus on decentralisation and scaling. Obol has made impressive technical progress, and while the proposal doesn’t include a full roadmap, the goal structure demonstrates strong strategic intent.

That said, there’s a structural challenge that I think deserves more direct attention. While DVT lowers the technical barrier for validator participation, the capital barrier remains a major bottleneck. In practice, most new DVT clusters are still dependent on ETH allocation through Lido’s Community Staking Module (CSM).

We’ve seen this ourselves and heard from others — the queue isn’t really moving. Some technically-ready operators have been sitting in that queue for months now, with no visibility into timelines or selection criteria.

This creates a difficult contradiction: the protocol aims to onboard more independent, community-based operators — but in reality, only those with access to capital or privileged allocation can currently move forward. That undermines both the Scale and Decentralisation parts of the SQUAD strategy.

Curious how the Obol team is thinking about this dependency. Are there ongoing discussions with Lido DAO to improve the activation pipeline?

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Thanks @lucetic.eth for this thoughtful feedback — and for highlighting this important challenge.

You’re right: while DVT significantly lowers the technical barriers to participation, the capital barrier remains a real constraint for many operators, especially those looking to join permissioned systems like Lido’s Community Staking Module (CSM).

That said, this is an area where Obol has limited control, but we’re doing what we can within the bounds of our influence:

  • We continue to work with protocols that offer delegated stake or permissioned activation pathways — including Lido SDVT, EtherFi’s Solo Staker Program, and others.
  • We’re also contributing to early ongoing discussions around a CSMv2 extension, which could lower the bond requirements and make the system more accessible to smaller operators. This is still ongoing research for now.
  • More broadly, we hope that as the ecosystem matures, more permissionless staking markets will emerge that recognize the security and resilience benefits of DVs — reducing reliance on a few centralized capital allocation gates.

In short: we share your concern, and while it’s not something that can be fully solved from the Obol side alone, we want to actively support pathways that can ease this constraint over time.

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