Optimism is governed by a collaboration between the Optimism Foundation and the members of the Optimism Collective.

The core governing structure of the Optimism Collective is established as two co-equal chambers: the Token House and the Citizens’ House. These two houses are tasked with balancing short-term incentives with long-term vision in the pursuit of the Optimistic Vision (opens new window).

The upcoming Airdrop #1 establishes the Token House by distributing OP to thousands of addresses that have engaged in positive-sum, community-oriented behavior. Token holders will be able to vote on the distribution of project incentives as a part of a Governance Fund, protocol upgrades, and more.

Next, the Collective will establish a Citizens’ House to facilitate and govern a process to distribute retroactive public goods funding. Citizenship will be conferred by “soulbound (opens new window)” non-transferrable NFTs, and the set of citizens will grow over time. The mechanism for distributing Citizenships will be determined by the Foundation with input from the Token House.

What is described here is an initial experiment. The specifics of this system will evolve as the Collective grows.

For more information on governance, see the Working Constitution (opens new window).