# Hexagon Docs

:::warning
:warning: In line with the instructions we received, this comprehensive version has been prepared mostly with the full-featured Hexagon platform in mind.

**We will customize the content for the testnet and MVP versions now.**

Simplifying the [User participation](https://hackmd.io/zAeVi2llQ3iPPaSnvGm6rA#-User-participation) section and turning it into a proper **User Guide** will be our focus this week (Dec 12-16).
:::

[toc]

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# Overview
Created by the [Golem Foundation](https://golem.foundation/), Hexagon is an exciting new platform that lives in the heart of decentralized governance and creating a positive impact in the world. Users are given the option to claim rewards for themselves or, with larger incentives added, to donate to individuals and organizations that are building the open internet and a brighter future.

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## ⬡ Hexagon Key Features

- Users who time lock a minimum of 100 GLM for the duration of the epoch are eligable to receive a reward proportional to their GLM.
- Each epoch round will last approximately 90 days.
- Each epoch will have a different theme for potential recepients of funding.
- Hexagon's community can [get involved](https://snapshot.org/#/hexagonapp.eth/about) in the donation recipient process. The community process and involvement will grow further over time.
- We’re excited to give back to the community and to see how effective Hexagon will be in researching the mechanisms where community members are incentivized to donate to outside causes.
:arrow_right: If you want to jump right into the DApp, see the [User Guide]().

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## How it works
- Golem Foundation stakes 100,000 ETH and receives it's subsequent staking reward.
- Users time lock their GLM with a non custodial wallet compatible with the app.
- Time locking does not carry any commitment, as you can withdraw your funds anytime.
-
In general, decentralized governance is characterized by the absence of a central authority. Instead, the decision-making process concerning the state and future of a given project is controlled and managed by the project's participants. It's often facilitated by decentralized technologies such as smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), characteristic of web3. These mechanisms empower the users, strengthen their agency enabling them to set the rules, collaborate, and make consensus decisions without needing a central authority. This allows for more democratic and transparent operations and greater resistance to censorship and unwanted outside interference.

In the MVP stage of Hexagon, the governance model is understood as the community management of the distribution of ETH staking rewards and community influence on Hexagon's matching funding. All of it is to explore sustainable models for decentralized funding of public good projects.

In the beginning, however, the whole process will remain quite centralized. [Golem Foundation](#Leadership) will guide the initial crowdsourcing of ideas from Hexagon's community and the collective setting of the platform's rules. :arrow_right: Read more about [the role of our community]().

We aim to build a decentralized governance system that is powerful yet simple to use and tries to overcome some of the weaknesses of current solutions (low voter turnout and general apathy, decision fatigue, the influence of special interests, needlessly daunting complexity, or the lack of incentives to participate or act altruistically).

We will prioritize effectiveness, high-impact actions, and real changes so that Hexagon's participants know their involvement can have a significant impact.

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## Propose a recipient
### :moneybag: Funding
Golem Foundation stakes 100 000 ETH as part of Ethereum's switch to Proof-of-Stake and receives rewards as an Ethereum PoS validator.

We are pledging a portion of these proceeds, dependent on the percentage of the total GLM supply staked by the community in Hexagon, to fund the Hexagon reward pool. Golem Foundation retains control over staked Ether and the remainder of staking proceeds.

### Leadership
The initial stage of Hexagon operations, probably the first few epochs, will be more centralized than subsequent ones.

[The community will have a say]() in proposing causes to be funded, voting on UI/UX designs of the DApp, setting the rules for the community code of conduct, etc.). However, Golem Foundation will remain in control, curating and maintaining a list of potential donation recipients, initiating chosen experiments, and having the power to veto decisions it deems misaligned with values, vision, and mission of the foundation.

We strongly commit to full transparency and will follow the principle of increasing the agency of the Hexagon participants with a sensible progressive decentralization towards their independence.

### :microscope: Research
Hexagon operates at the intersection of decentralized technology and economy.

For Golem Foundation, it serves as a fruitful testing ground for new ideas and provides a unique opportunity to learn and grow.

We aim to gather useful empirical evidence on behavioral patterns with regard to economic incentives. This evidence will inform our search for meaningful innovations, further the development of Golem’s decentralized projects (especially [Wildland](https://wildland.io/)), and improve the utility of the whole GLM ecosystem. Read more about [Hexagon's connection with Wildland](#Connection-with-Wildland).

Such evidence can only be acquired in real-life environments with participants and stakeholders facing actual economic incentives. That is why, during the MVP stage of the project, we will focus on the real-world testing of hypotheses about sustainable community funding of public good projects while providing additional philanthropic benefits to the greater community of projects aligned with Golem Foundation's values, vision, and mission. We hope to learn what factors can influence users to donate rather than withdraw rewards.

Should you be interested in the resulting data or have an idea for an experiment, feel free to [reach out to us]() or read the [Research contributor agreement]().

### Upgrading smart contracts
Golem Foundation will be able to upgrade Hexagon's smart contracts.

However, there will be no upgrades concerning the funds accumulated by Hexagon.

There might be upgrades affecting the voting mechanism (e.g., introducing quadratic voting) or the distribution of matching funds (in the versions of the DApp beyond the MVP).

Learn more about Hexagon smart contracts in [Hexagon Paper](https://hexagonapp.notion.site/Hexagon-a-GLM-Governance-Experiment-e098d7ff9d55468db28b8b3584b5959c) and [Developer Docs]().

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# Choosing potential donation recipients
For every 90-day epoch, a range of public good projects will be chosen as potential donation recipients. Initially by the Golem Foundation, [with the help of Hexagon's community](), e.g., in suggesting recipients and eligibility criteria. Ultimately, the process should be completely community-driven, playing out in accordance with the rules set in the project's early stage, with Golem's guidance and leadership.

Potential donation recipients can be chosen using the following initial set of criteria:
- commitment to open-source technology and sharing results publicly;
- transparency about how exactly funding will be used;
- advancing values of freedom and privacy (no surveillance and handling of data);
- supporting decentralization in various fields, building web3;
- developing GLM/Golem Network-compatible projects;
- being a public good;
- having social proof, being recognizable in the area the project is being developed in;
- not receiving public funding.

The ultimate list of eligibility criteria will be co-determined with the Hexagon community.

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# :ballot_box_with_ballot: User participation
:arrow_right: If you want to jump right into the DApp, see the [User Guide]()

## :gear: The mechanism
The mechanism described below is repeated in every epoch.

It is important to remember that actions and events overlap in subsequent epochs.

:arrow_right: Read more about the math behind it all in the [Hexagon Paper](https://hexagonapp.notion.site/Hexagon-a-GLM-Governance-Experiment-e098d7ff9d55468db28b8b3584b5959c).

### Before the start of an epoch
1. The list of potential donation recipients is [discussed]() and [voted on]() within the Hexagon community.
2. Users decide how much GLM to stake in the upcoming epoch.

### During an epoch
1. The ratio of ETH rewards to ETH staking proceeds can be estimated at the beginning of the epoch.
2. Users who want to receive ETH rewards keep the GLM staked throughout the epoch.
3. Staking proceeds are accumulated during the entire epoch.
4. The list of donation recipients is fixed by the end of the epoch.

### During subsequent epoch
1. The total ETH rewards budget is determined at the beginning of the epoch based on the amount of GLM staked throughout the previous epoch and the actual amount of staking proceeds.
2. ETH rewards are transferred to the Hexagon contract.
3. Users determine their allocations in the decision window of the first two weeks of the epoch.
4. Claimed rewards are distributed.
5. Donations and matching funds are distributed to the recipients.
6. The remainder of ETH rewards (unallocated or below threshold) is transferred to Golem Foundation.

## Wallets
To use the Hexagon DApp, you'll need a cryptocurrency wallet. In the first iteration, only MetaMask will be supported. We plan to support other wallets in future releases.

For added security, we recommend a cold storage wallet compatible with MetaMask.

## GLM staking
Hexagon users are GLM holders. Participants are required to stake a minimum of 100 GLM into the Hexagon contract.

Staking in this context means time-locking (potentially combined with some additional conditions in the future).

Users can withdraw their tokens at any time. However, to be eligible to participate in the governance and ETH rewards distribution, they need to keep GLM staked for a whole epoch (90 days).

Staked GLM of Hexagon users is not pooled, and the staking mechanism is non-custodial - you retain complete control of your tokens.

You will never be at risk of losing any of the staked GLM (e.g. as a penalty for not participating in the governance).

If you don't own any GLM, you can obtain them (purchasing or swapping) using widgets on [Hexagon's website](). Moreover, GLM is widely available on most exchanges, decentralized and otherwise.

## ETH rewards
ETH rewards are earned by everyone who staked their GLM for a full epoch (90 days) and participated in Hexagon's governance. You can earn rewards for every epoch you have tokens staked.

For reasons beyond our control, before the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, rewards cannot be withdrawn. Therefore, the rewards for the first, possibly longer epoch will be higher because of its length.

### Claiming and/or donating
You have a choice of allocating 0-100% of the rewards to a chosen recipient. You will have the first two weeks of an epoch to decide who you want to vote for with your rewards.

Allocating 0% means claiming your rewards in full and being able to withdraw them.

In the first iteration, you can allocate funds to one project only.

In the DApp, beginning with epoch 2, you will see various metrics showing stats about the epochs that can help you make an informed decision on allocating rewards.

### Funding threshold
For allocations to become effective, they have to cross a predefined threshold.

In the MVP stage, it has been tentatively set as the quotient of one by the number of donation recipients in a given epoch.

### Influencing matching funding
Effective allocations will receive matching funding from Hexagon. It means that by donating, you will multiply the impact of your rewards compared to withdrawing them.

Actions of other Hexagon users affect the chances of a given recipient passing the threshold for effective allocations. You can influence matching funding, e.g., by [taking part in conversations]() in the community and convincing other Hexagon users of the value of your preferred donation recipient.

### Unallocated rewards and below-threshold allocations
If you don't perform any action by the end of an epoch (either choosing to allocate 0% of your rewards and thus claiming it all or voting for proposals allocating a portion or all of your rewards), unallocated rewards are transferred back to Golem Foundation.

ETH rewards allocated to projects that won't pass the funding threshold also will go back to Golem Foundation.

## Being active in the community
Influence what will be the focus of a given epoch.

# Leftovers

If you want to delve deeper into the high-level rationale right away, we encourage you to read the [Hexagon Paper](https://hexagonapp.notion.site/Hexagon-a-GLM-Governance-Experiment-e098d7ff9d55468db28b8b3584b5959c).

If you're here for the tech, feel free to take a look at our [Developer Docs]() and [GitLab repo](https://gitlab.com/wildland/governance/hexagon).