TL;DR

On Optimism, the Season 7 Chain Delegation Program is winding down after reaching its original target, with no new OP Chains qualifying in Season 9. All existing delegations will roll off as their 12-month terms expire between late January and April.

On Arbitrum, OpCo opened applications for the Firestarter Grant Program, a small, selective fund focused on early-stage exploration rather than execution. RAD results for November and December show improving delegate participation and more effective incentive alignment with high-quorum votes, feeding into planned program adjustments.

On ZKsync, a new tagging system on vote.zknation.io highlights active delegates and key ecosystem participants, improving governance navigability ahead of the ZKnomics Staking Pilot, where staking rewards depend on delegating to active participants.

Elsewhere, Polygon wants to shift its Community Treasury to a more execution-led model with the CTB moving into an advisory role, Uniswap discussed introducing a 90-day expiry for Temperature Checks to reduce governance stagnation, Starknet published a critical sustainability brief on governance and treasury risks, and Hop proposed prioritizing fast transfers during congestion based on HOP holdings.

Optimism

Chain Delegation Program (Wind-down Update)

Optimism clarified that no new OP Chains have qualified for the Chain Delegation Program in Season 9 and that the program has effectively reached its original target, with 15 chains having already participated as outlined in the Season 7 proposal.

As a result, all existing OP delegations made through the Chain Delegation Program will roll off naturally at the end of their 12-month terms. This wind-down will begin at the end of January and continue through the end of April, after which all delegations issued under this program will have been fully removed.

This update marks the practical conclusion of the Chain Delegation Program as a temporary onboarding mechanism, closing out a Season 7 initiative as Optimism’s governance framework continues to evolve in Season 9.

Arbitrum

Firestarter Grant Program - Info & Application

OpCo has opened applications for the Firestarter Grant Program, a small-grant initiative that funds early exploration and groundwork for potential DAO initiatives, rather than full execution. Grants target feasibility research or initial setup work in areas such as new Arbitrum revenue streams, builder support beyond DeFi (e.g., RWAs, DePIN, AI), ecosystem-wide coordination efforts, and an open track.

The total budget is $50,000, with grants capped at $10,000 per project. Applications are evaluated using a public matrix that weighs planning clarity, applicant expertise, strategic relevance, timing, and expected impact. OpCo plans to keep the program low-profile, prioritizing quality over volume, with progress tracked via a public dashboard and monthly forum updates.

L2BEAT’s Take

Firestarter adopts a deliberately selective approach, favoring small, targeted grants over broad exposure. This can help keep the program focused and reduce noise around low-quality applications.

However, minimizing outreach may also limit discovery, as wider visibility often increases the chances of uncovering strong but unexpected teams, especially in newer verticals.

Finally, the challenge will be ensuring that promising Firestarter outputs have a clear path to follow-on support, rather than stalling at the exploration stage.

Rewarding Active Delegates (RAD): November & December 2025 Results

SEEDGov published the November and December 2025 results of the Rewarding Active Delegates (RAD) program, covering a period with varying governance activity. In November, 33 delegates enrolled and 22 qualified for rewards, with participation reaching 79.55% across four off-chain Snapshot votes. A total of $26,000 was distributed, though several delegates failed to meet the minimum participation or voting power thresholds, highlighting early frictions in consistent engagement.

December showed a clear improvement. Of the 34 enrolled delegates, 29 qualified, bringing participation to 91.18%. Despite fewer proposals, RAD participants contributed significant voting power to a key on-chain constitutional vote, with nearly full participation. SEEDGov noted that incentives were more effectively allocated where quorum requirements were higher and indicated that lessons from these two months will inform adjustments to the program’s budget and design for the next quarter.

Upcoming Events

OpCo Operations - Office Hours - on 20.01 at 15:30 UTC.

Open Discussion of Proposals Governance Call - on 20.01 at 16:00 UTC.

Stylus Sprint Demo Day #1 - on 21.01 at 14:00 UTC.

ZkSync

Key Participants & Active Delegate Tagging: Advancing Enterprise-Ready Governance

ZKsync has launched a new tagging system on vote.zknation.io to make governance participation easier to navigate, particularly for institutional and enterprise users. The update introduces clear labels for Active and Inactive delegates, along with tags that identify key ecosystem participants, including ZKsync chains, apps, technical partners, Security Council members, and Guardians. By default, the interface now surfaces active delegates first, sorted by voting power, and highlights how key participants vote on proposals.

This change is positioned as an infrastructure upgrade ahead of the ZKnomics Staking Pilot, expected in Q1 2026, in which staking rewards depend on delegating to active participants. By improving visibility into delegate activity and roles, the tagging system aims to support more informed delegation decisions and reduce friction for larger, more structured participants engaging in ZKsync governance.

Starknet

Starknet DAO Governance and Tokenomics: Relational Sustainability Brief

INCA published a sustainability brief arguing Starknet DAO is progressing toward decentralized self-sufficiency with BTCFi, ZK tech, and multi-chain staking but still faces concentrated voting power, opaque emergency controls, low participation, inflationary emissions outpacing revenue, heavy treasury reliance on the native token, and limited public transparency, recommending stronger reporting, treasury diversification, clearer accountability, and optional commissioned due diligence to bolster long-term resilience.

Discuss with L2BEAT

You can find us to discuss everything related to Starknet’s governance, from current initiatives to high-level conversations, during our L2BEAT Governance Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Everclear

Everclear’s governance hasn’t seen any new developments over the last week. If you believe we might have missed something, please let us know.

Discuss with L2BEAT

You can find us to discuss everything related to Everclear’s governance, from current initiatives to high-level conversations, during our L2BEAT Governance Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming events

Everclear Delegates Call - on 22.01 at 14:00 UTC.

Uniswap

[RFC] Flow Application for Canonical Uniswap V3 Deployment

Protofire requests recognizing Flow as a canonical Uniswap v3 chain, proposing a live standalone deployment called Flow Swap with Axelar bridging, citing Flow’s high-throughput L1 with sub-second blocks, low fees, EVM-equivalence, MEV-resilience, and consumer app traction, aiming to attract NFT and gaming users to DeFi; current KPIs show about $111M DeFi TVL, $473K daily DEX volume, and $62.8M bridged TVL, contracts are deployed, and the production frontend is operational at flowswap.io.

[RFC] Governance Process Upgrade: Establishing a Statute of Limitations for Temperature Checks

Eren_Targ5 has published an RFC proposing a formal “Statute of Limitations” for Uniswap governance Temperature Checks. Under the proposal, any Snapshot vote that passes must be followed by an on-chain vote within 90 days. If it does not, the Temperature Check would automatically expire, requiring the proposer to restart the process with a new Snapshot to confirm that community sentiment is still relevant.

The motivation is to reduce governance risk and clutter caused by so-called “zombie proposals” that can linger indefinitely despite changing market conditions, protocol upgrades, or security assumptions. The proposal also introduces a lightweight reaffirmation process for long-running initiatives, allowing authors to refresh community approval without restarting from scratch. Similar expiration mechanisms already exist in other mature DAOs like MakerDAO and Optimism, and the RFC argues that adopting one would improve clarity, safety, and governance hygiene in Uniswap.

Discuss with L2BEAT

You can find us to discuss everything related to Uniswap’s governance, from current initiatives to high-level conversations, during our L2BEAT Governance Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Scroll

Scroll’s governance hasn’t seen any new developments over the last week. If you believe we might have missed something, please let us know.

Discuss with L2BEAT

You can find us to discuss everything related to Scroll’s governance, from current initiatives to high-level conversations, during our L2BEAT Governance Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.

Upcoming Events

Weekly DAO & Governance Call - on 21.01 at 15:00 UTC.

Hop

Proposal “Catalytic Staking”: Using HOP as Priority Tickets to ride the Hop Express Rails in times of volume stress

Enos proposed Catalytic Staking, a mechanism meant to manage congestion on Hop’s fast transfer rails during periods of high demand. With the expectation that tokenized RWAs and on-chain stocks could drive higher volume, the idea is to prevent bonder liquidity from being overwhelmed by dynamically prioritizing access to instant transfers.

Under this model, a user’s HOP holdings act as “priority tickets” when the system is under stress. In normal conditions, everyone keeps access to fast transfers, but as liquidity tightens, the protocol would scale down the maximum instant transfer size for users with low or no HOP, while users holding, staking, or providing HOP liquidity retain higher throughput allowances. The post frames this as a circuit breaker that preserves basic access for smaller users while limiting large flows, and asks whether implementation could rely on off-chain signaling or would require smart contract changes.

Upcoming Events

Hop Community Call - on 21.01 at 18:00.

Quiet corner

Some ecosystems didn’t see any meaningful governance activity over the past week.

This week, Polygon, Everclear, Lisk, and Wormhole had no proposal to vote on or notable governance updates. As always, if you think we missed something important, feel free to reach out; we’re happy to dig deeper.

Discuss with L2BEAT

You can find us to discuss everything related to these governance ecosystems, from current initiatives to high-level conversations, during our L2BEAT Governance Office Hours every Friday at 3 pm UTC.