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Feature Proposal Program

The Feature Proposal Program provides a workflow for activation of Solana network features through community vote based on validator stake weight.

Community voting is accomplished using SPL Tokens. Tokens are minted that represent the total active stake on the network, and distributed to all validators based on their stake. Validators vote for feature activation by transferring their vote tokens to a predetermined address. Once the vote threshold is met the feature is activated.

Background​

The Solana validator software supports runtime feature activation through the built-in Feature program. This program ensures that features are activated simultaneously across all validators to avoid divergent behavior that would cause hard forks or otherwise break consensus.

The feature and feature_set Rust modules are the primitives for this facility, and the solana feature command-line subcommands allow for easy feature status inspection and feature activation.

The solana feature activate workflow was designed for use by the core Solana developers to allow for low-overhead addition of non-controversial network features over time.

The Feature Proposal Program provides an additional mechanism over these runtime feature activation primitives to permit feature activation by community vote when appropriate.

Source​

The Feature Proposal Program's source is available on GitHub

Interface​

The Feature Proposal Program is written in Rust and available on crates.io and docs.rs.

Command-line Utility​

The spl-feature-proposal command-line utility can be used to manage feature proposal. Once you have Rust installed, run:

$ cargo install spl-feature-proposal-cli

Run spl-feature-proposal --help for a full description of available commands.

Configuration​

The spl-feature-proposal configuration is shared with the solana command-line tool.

Feature Proposal Life Cycle​

This section describes the life cycle of a feature proposal.

Implement the Feature​

The first step is to conceive of the new feature and realize it in the Solana code base, working with the core Solana developers at https://github.com/solana-labs/solana.

During the implementation, a feature id will be required to identify the new feature in the code base to avoid the new functionality until its activation. The feature id for a feature proposal is derived by running the following commands.

First create a keypair for the proposal:

$ solana-keygen new --outfile feature-proposal.json --silent --no-passphrase
Wrote new keypair to feature-proposal.json

Now run the spl-feature-proposal program to derive the feature id:

$ spl-feature-proposal address feature-proposal.json
Feature Id: HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA
Token Mint Address: ALvA7Lv9jbo8JFhxqnRpjWWuR3aD12uCb5KBJst4uc3d
Acceptance Token Address: AdqKm3mSJf8AtTWjfpA5ZbJszWQPcwyLA2XkRyLbf3Di

which in this case is HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA.

HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA is the identifier that will be used in the code base and eventually will be visible in the solana feature status command.

Note however that it is not possible to use solana feature activate to activate this feature, as there is no private key for HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA. Activation of this feature is only possible by the Feature Proposal Program.

Initiate the Feature Proposal​

After the feature is implemented and deployed to the Solana cluster, the feature id will be visible in solana feature status and the feature proposer may initiate the community proposal process.

This is done by running:

$ spl-feature-proposal propose feature-proposal.json
Feature Id: HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA
Token Mint Address: ALvA7Lv9jbo8JFhxqnRpjWWuR3aD12uCb5KBJst4uc3d
Distributor Token Address: GK55hNft4TGc3Hg4KzbjEmju8VfaNuXK8jQNDTZKcsNF
Acceptance Token Address: AdqKm3mSJf8AtTWjfpA5ZbJszWQPcwyLA2XkRyLbf3Di
Number of validators: 376
Tokens to be minted: 134575791.53064314
Tokens required for acceptance: 90165780.3255309 (67%)
Token distribution file: feature-proposal.csv
JSON RPC URL: http://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

Distribute the proposal tokens to all validators by running:
    $ solana-tokens distribute-spl-tokens --from GK55hNft4TGc3Hg4KzbjEmju8VfaNuXK8jQNDTZKcsNF --input-csv feature-proposal.csv --db-path db.8CyUVvio --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json --owner <FEATURE_PROPOSAL_KEYPAIR>
    $ solana-tokens spl-token-balances --mint ALvA7Lv9jbo8JFhxqnRpjWWuR3aD12uCb5KBJst4uc3d --input-csv feature-proposal.csv

Once the distribution is complete, request validators vote for the proposal. To vote, validators should first look up their token account address:
    $ spl-token --owner ~/validator-keypair.json accounts ALvA7Lv9jbo8JFhxqnRpjWWuR3aD12uCb5KBJst4uc3d
and then submit their vote by running:
    $ spl-token --owner ~/validator-keypair.json transfer <TOKEN_ACCOUNT_ADDRESS> ALL AdqKm3mSJf8AtTWjfpA5ZbJszWQPcwyLA2XkRyLbf3Di

Periodically the votes must be tallied by running:
  $ spl-feature-proposal tally 8CyUVvio2oYAP28ZkMBPHq88ikhRgWet6i4NYsCW5Cxa
Tallying is permissionless and may be run by anybody.
Once this feature proposal is accepted, the HQ3baDfNU7WKCyWvtMYZmi51YPs7vhSiLn1ESYp3jhiA feature will be activated at the next epoch.

Add --confirm flag to initiate the feature proposal

If the output looks good run the command again with the --confirm flag to continue, and then follow the remaining steps in the output to distribute the vote tokens to all the validators.

COST: As a part of token distribution, the feature proposer will be financing the creation of SPL Token accounts for each of the validators. A SPL Token account requires 0.00203928 SOL at creation, so the cost for initiating a feature proposal on a network with 500 validators is approximately 1 SOL.

Tally the Votes​

After advertising to the validators that a feature proposal is pending their acceptance, the votes are tallied by running:

$ spl-feature-proposal tally 8CyUVvio2oYAP28ZkMBPHq88ikhRgWet6i4NYsCW5Cxa

Anybody may tally the vote. Once the required number of votes is tallied, the feature will be automatically activated at the start of the next epoch.

Upon a successful activation the feature will now show as activated by solana feature status as well.