What is a TIP?
TIP stands for TrueFi Improvement Proposal, it has been adapted from the EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal). The purpose of this process is to ensure changes to TrueFi are transparent and well-governed. A TIP is a design document providing information to the TrueFi community about a proposed change to the system. The author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.
TIP Rationale
We intend TIPs to be the primary mechanisms for proposing new features, collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions for changes to TrueFi.
It is highly recommended that a single TIP contain a single key proposal or new idea. The more focused the TIP, the more successful it is likely to be.
A TIP must meet certain minimum criteria. It must be a clear and complete description of the proposed enhancement. The enhancement must represent a net improvement.
Preliminary Steps:
Before you begin, vet your idea. This will save you time.
Ask the TrueFi community first if an idea is original to avoid wasting time on something that will be rejected based on prior research. It also helps to make sure the idea is applicable to the entire community and not just the author. Just because an idea sounds good to the author does not mean it will have the intended effect. The appropriate public forum to gauge interest around your TIP is the TrueFi Forum or the TrueFi Discord.
Your role as the champion of the proposal is to write the TIP using the style and format described below, shepherd the discussions in the appropriate forums, and build community consensus around the idea.
Following is the process that a successful TIP will move along
Life of a TIP:
Each status change is requested by the TIP author and reviewed by the TIP editors. If you are moving your TIP to a snapshot or governance portal, please include a link to where people should continue discussing your TIP. The TIP editors will process these requests.
- Work in progress (WIP) - Post has been made without adjustments from editors
- Proposed - Editor has assigned the TIP a #
- Approved - The TIP has passed community governance (at first this is just Snapshot, later on, this will be Snapshot + binding on-chain governance)
- Pending Implementation - While we are using Snapshot, we will need to wait for the development team to implement the change
- Implemented - The TIP is deployed to mainnet
- Rejected - The TIP failed to reach consensus
Template (What belongs in a TIP?):
Please include a clear, concise title beginning with [Proposal]. Additionally, keep in mind that simply suggesting āDo this thingā is not useful or a real proposal
Summary
āIf you canāt explain it simply, you donāt understand it well enough.ā Simply describe the outcome the proposed change intends to achieve. This should be non-technical and accessible to a casual community member.
Background
This section should include any relevant information that the community needs to know before reading the rest of your proposal, such as a short introduction to any concepts that will be discussed. Additionally, this section is an ideal place to clarify points that are within the scope of your proposal and those that are relevant but remain outside the scope of the present proposal.
Motivation
This is the problem statement. This is the why of the TIP. It should clearly explain why the current state of the protocol is inadequate. It is critical that you explain why the change is needed. For instance, if the TIP proposes changing how something is calculated, you must address why the current calculation is inaccurate or wrong. This section may also include why certain design choices were made over others and can include data from previous discussions and forum posts.
Specification
This section details how the TIP will solve the problem, and should clearly and succinctly describe how the new feature will be implemented.
Additionally, you should include clearly defined, unbiased For and Against options along with a poll to gauge sentiment.
For:
Against: (often times the āAgainstā will just be āno action takenā)
[Insert a Poll] with the options from the āForā and āAgainstā
History
The TIP document was derived heavily from the SIP Synthetix Improvement Proposal and the yEarn Improvement Proposal documents. In many places, the text was simply copied. In some places, it was copied and modified. Any comments about the TIP document should be directed to the TIP editors.