Parachains & Governance

With the inclusion of OpenGov on Polkadot, Parachains are forced to go through the Root Track to perform any activity (with the exception of opening HRMP Channels) on the Polkadot Relay Chain. To mention one particularly, if a parachain get's bricked and can't produced blocks anymore, they need to open a motion on OpenGov to be approved via the Root Track in order to set a new wasm file and a new header. - `paras` pallet [instance configuration on Polkadot](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/blob/ff5f602220fc4a04e259c3e0c72d95267dc45e80/runtime/polkadot/src/lib.rs#L1114). - `force_set_current_code` [requires root](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/blob/ff5f602220fc4a04e259c3e0c72d95267dc45e80/runtime/parachains/src/paras/mod.rs#L810C1-L810C25). OpenGov requires proposals to include a decision deposit in order for the community to be able to vote on these. For the Root Track proposers need to place [a 100.000 DOT](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/blob/ff5f602220fc4a04e259c3e0c72d95267dc45e80/runtime/polkadot/src/governance/tracks.rs#L74) decision deposit for voting to take place. What this means is that if a parachain stops producing blocks and it needs to set up a new wasm and/or header to their chain, they need to place a 100.000 DOT deposit. Current parachain teams don't have the means to do this. ## Potential Solutions ### New Governance track for Parachains Creating a new parametrized track just to execute changes directed to parachains, particularly those that are part of the [`paras` pallet](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/blob/master/runtime/parachains/src/paras/mod.rs). The parameters should take into account the following: 1. Parachains don't have a lot of DOT. The highest the requirement with the decision deposit, the lesser they will have available to vote. 2. Time-sensitive operations. Having a chain bricked for a long time will impact heavily on the operations of that chain and therefore the overall sentiment of Polkadot. One proposal to look into could be: - Decision deposit to be similar to that of the General Admin: 5000 DOT. - Support and Approval similar to Lease Admin. This would mean 0.5% support for a parachain related activity to be executed in ~15 days. ### Parachains Technical Fellowship Introduced for the first time at the last Polkadot Parachain Summit at decoded, this would be a means for teams to vote to unbrick a specific chain, therefore allowing for better and easier conditions to execute, whilst mantaining a good level of security on these very sensitive operatios. Currently this is progressing very slowly and still needs to be clearly scoped out. Discussions happening around this: - https://forum.polkadot.network/t/polkadot-summit-ecosystem-technical-fellowship-workshop-notes/3269 - https://forum.polkadot.network/t/technical-fellowship-manifesto/3226 ### Parity to help with DOT decision deposit Parity could provide the needed decision deposit DOT to perform these actions for Polkadot Parachains. This does not require Parity lending the DOT to a team nor making any transfer, but rather backing up these proposals. A particular game plan could be develop to clearly define under what conditions would Parity help with this. Main risk, although low, is that the referendum does not pass and Parity therefore loses the decision deposit.