[Constitutional] Extend Delay on L2Time Lock

Description

Abstract

The ArbitrumDAO has on-chain governance via a suite of smart contracts. It allows the ArbitrumDAO to spend funds from its treasury alongside upgrading any smart contract that governs Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova. The on-chain smart contract suite includes a voting protocol alongside a series of contracts that will forward the proposal’s intended action to the correct destination before executing it.

This proposal focuses on extending the time delay between when the voting protocol has concluded and the time it takes for the successful proposal to be passed along by the system until it is in the right destination to be executed. The focus is on the L2 Core Time Lock contract that lives on Arbitrum One and proposes changing the delay from 3 days to 8 days which effectively increases the delay by an additional 5 days. Accordingly, the change only applies to constitutional proposals which require upgrades to smart contracts.

There are two benefits to increasing the delay:

• Security Council. The Security Council will have more time to act if a malicious proposal is passed by the ArbitrumDAO for whatever reason.
• Exit window. Users will have more time to withdraw their assets from Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova if they are worried or not satisfied with how a proposal intends to change the smart contracts that govern Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova.

Additionally, by increasing the exit window, it will also update the status of Arbitrum by L2Beat and replace a red slice with a yellow slice. This will help Arbitrum move one step closer towards a Stage-2 rollup.

Image: If this proposal passes, it would change Arbitrum ‘Exit Window’ slice from Red to Yellow, according to L2Beat

The downside of increasing the delay is that all constitutional proposals, primarily for upgrading the smart contracts, will be delayed by 5 days. It does not impact nor add an additional delay to any spending from the ArbitrumDAO’s treasury including ARB and ETH.

Time Lock Extension

Image: Overview of the Current Time Locks

All proposals voted on and passed by the ArbitrumDAO must pass through an L2 Time Lock before it can move onto the next stage.

There are currently two L2 Time Locks that are implemented via the on-chain governance smart contracts.

• L2 Treasury TimeLock. Delays all spends from the ArbitrumDAO’s ETH Treasury.
• L2 Core TimeLock. Delays any actions related to on-chain upgrades.

The proposal focuses on the Core L2 TimeLock. It is responsible for passing messages that contain executable code and it has the authority to upgrade any smart contract in the system including on-chain governance and the bridges (holding user assets) on Arbitrum One/Nova.

If you want to learn more about the governance of smart contracts, please check out this diagram and the docs.

Steps to Implement

The proposal is to change the value of _minDelay from 259200 (seconds) to 691200 (seconds) in the L2 Timelock contract. This will change the time delay from 3 days to 8 days, an additional 5 days.

The action contract is implemented and still pending an audit: https://github.com/ArbitrumFoundation/governance/pull/306

Additionally, we will need to update the following ArbitrumDAO Constitution text:

*Phase 4: L2 Waiting Period (3 days): After an AIP has passed Phase 3, a 3 day waiting period occurs. This gives users who object to the AIP time to initiate withdrawal of their funds or take other action on L2.

Phase 5: Initiate and Finalize an L2-to-L1 Message (at least 1 challenge period of the rollup protocol): After the 3 day waiting period in Phase 4 has passed, an L2-to-L1 message is sent indicating that the AIP was passed.*

The Constitution Text will be updated to the following:

*Phase 4: L2 Waiting Period (3 or 8 days): After an AIP has passed Phase 3, there is a 3 day waiting period for actions related to the DAO Treasury and an 8 day waiting period for an L2-to-L1 Message. This gives users who object to the AIP time to initiate withdrawal of their funds or take other action on L2.

Phase 5: Initiate and Finalize an L2-to-L1 Message (at least 1 challenge period of the rollup protocol): After the waiting period for Phase 4 has passed, an L2-to-L1 message is sent indicating that the AIP was passed.*

The new constitution hash: 0x28faf2acba9b3ff80ec484e3d5646931eeef40568b1b7c38dbe52b890bfd7938

Timeline

• Feedback Period: 23/8/24 to 29/8/24
• Temperature Check: 29/8/24 to 5/9/24
• ARDC Review: 5/9/24 to 16/9/24
• On-chain vote: 16/9/24

There is no cost to the ArbitrumDAO for the implementation of this proposal and an audit will be publicly available prior to the on-chain vote.