Abstract
The Meta-Governance Working Group is ENS DAO’s sole Working Group for Term 7 (1 July 2026–30 June 2027), following the dissolution of the Ecosystem and Public Goods Working Groups (EP 6.44). It oversees DAO governance and core operations: reviewing proposals and governance upgrades and funding DAO-approved security audits; administering the SPP3 cohort, the marketplace award, and the two SPP2 streams that end in May 2027; representing ENS DAO across the wider ecosystem and giving builders time with delegates; running public calls, keeping records, and maintaining the Working Group Rules; and supporting the remaining endowment handover to the ENS Foundation.
This request asks for 201,559 USDC to cover expected expenses through the end of the term.
This Social Proposal is submitted under Rule 10.1.1 of the Working Group Rules. If it passes, the stewards will submit the executable proposal in the October 2026 Funding Window.
Specification
Amount requested from the DAO treasury to the Meta-Governance multisig (main.mg.wg.ens.eth) to cover expected expenses from 1 October 2026 through 30 June 2027.
This request covers the rest of the term, through 30 June 2027, where past requests ran only to the next funding window. The budget is relatively small and made up of fixed monthly costs plus two capped lines, so a single request, reported on at the April window and at term end, is simpler for delegates than two more social proposals in January and April for the same items. If a need arises that this budget does not cover, the Working Group will use the January or April window as usual.
| USDC | ETH | ENS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENS Meta-Gov Main Multisig | 201,559 | 0 | 0 |
This amount covers the expected expenses outlined below, net of the USDC already held.
Steward compensation: As Rules 11.2 and 11.3 require, the executable Collective Proposal that follows this vote will detail steward compensation for Term 7. It will ratify compensation paid from residual Term 6 funds from 1 July 2026 until execution, and authorize compensation from execution through 30 June 2027, at the EP 6.44 rates of $5,500 per month for the Lead Steward and $4,000 per month for each Steward. It will also authorize the Term 7 $ENS component, equal in USD value to twelve months of USDC compensation ($162,000), sized on the six-month TWAP, vesting over two years, and paid from ENS already held in the Safe.
Description
In Term 7, Meta-Governance covers DAO governance and operations. Grant-making has moved to the ENS Foundation, and growth programs now sit with the ENS Foundation and service providers, so this request carries no grant or program capital. Compensation drops from about $49,000 a month in Term 6 (nine stewards across three Working Groups, plus the Secretary and Scribe) to $13,500 a month for three stewards.
Term 7 Working Group Activities
Governance review and security: Stewards check social and executable proposals for scope and format and guide proposers from temp check to onchain vote. They coordinate review of governance upgrades, including ENSv2 changes and the SPP-funded Governor Nexus upgrade, and pay for DAO-approved security audits from the audits line, starting with Governor Nexus.
Service Provider Program: Stewards oversee the SPP3 cohort of Namespace, Unruggable, Fluidkey, and Goldsky (EP 6.49), the marketplace award to Nomentum Labs (Grails), and the blockful and eth.limo SPP2 streams through May 2027. They run the Superfluid streams, onboard recipients, and log changes in the transaction transparency index. They check each quarterly report against the provider’s funded scope and KPIs, starting with the first SPP3 reports due in October, and bring providers onto public calls to present them.
Representing ENS DAO: Stewards are ENS DAO’s representatives, working alongside ENS Foundation, ENS Labs, SPP Teams and other committed ecosystem teams and contributors. Contributors and SPP teams also represent the DAO, with travel costs covered where needed; on public calls, stewards give active contributors and builders time in front of the community and delegates.
DAO continuity and maintenance: Stewards keep public operations running through biweekly Thursday calls, forum discussion, meeting records, runbooks, and the transaction transparency index. They keep the Working Group Rules current and publish Term 8 steward compensation guidelines before nominations open. Ahead of those guidelines, a Rules update will anchor terms to 1 July and reconcile Rules 10.3 and 10.4 with the Meta-Governance Safe, which is 2-of-4 with the DAO Timelock in the fourth seat. They coordinate with the newsletter and social contributor and remain a contact point for providers and community members.
Endowment transition: Stewards host kpk’s endowment updates on public calls and, as Allowance Module delegate, trigger the monthly management-fee transfer from the Endowment Safe under the standing fee allowance, as updated by EP 6.2, until the fee payout moves to the Foundation. New endowment changes, such as kpk permission updates, now go from the Foundation multisig through a nine-day timelock the Security Council can veto; existing DAO-approved permissions, including the fee allowance, continue unchanged (Next Era proposal).
Meta-Gov Wallet Balances
| USDC | ETH | $ENS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENS Meta-Gov Main Multisig | 88,481 | 23.63 | 117,129 |
All asset amounts are accounted for as of 7 October. Up-to-date balance information can be found at enswallets.xyz, and every Term 7 transaction is documented with its purpose, nonce, and Etherscan link in the MetaGov Transaction Transparency (Term 7 Index).
Term 7 activity from this Safe to date: the signer rotation on 30 July; steward compensation of $13,500 a month for July, August, and September; the communications stipend of $2,060 a month for the same months; Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of the Delegation Incentives Program distributed 5,000, 5,000, and 8,000 ENS to 734, 541, and 697 recipients respectively, for a total of 18,000 ENS; the SPP3 stream transition on 1 August, which closed four SPP2 provider streams, opened or adjusted the SPP3 cohort streams, and opened four committee salary streams; the first installment of the SPP3 Marketplace RFP award to Nomentum Labs; and the monthly endowment management fee to kpk for July - September, triggered as Allowance Module delegate. SPP streams run from a separate stream Safe (stream.mg.wg.ens.eth), funded by a master stream from the DAO Timelock, outside this budget.
USDC: Operating currency for steward compensation and DAO communications, running at $15,560 per month. Residual Term 6 funds have covered steward compensation and communications since 1 July, so no emergency request under Rule 10.1.2 was needed.
ETH: Of the 23.63 ETH, 5 ETH was transferred under EP 6.47 to sponsor gas on delegations and votes over the long term. The remaining 18.63 ETH is held as an operational buffer and liquidity backstop. This balance is unaffected by the monthly endowment management fee paid to kpk: those transfers move ETH from the Endowment Safe directly to kpk under the standing fee allowance, as updated by EP 6.2, with the MetaGov Safe acting only as Allowance Module delegate. No additional ETH is requested.
ENS: Of the 90,000 ENS transferred under EP 6.47 for the Delegation Incentives Program, 18,000 has been distributed across Rounds 1-3, and 72,000 remains in the Safe. Round 3, the pilot’s last, closed on 30 September and paid out 8,000 ENS in early October. EP 6.47 provides that the remaining 72,000 ENS is returned to the treasury once the pilot concludes. The Safe’s other 45,129 ENS is unencumbered and covers the steward ENS component for all twelve months of Term 7 ($162,000) at any six-month TWAP at or above $3.59. ENS trades at ~$6.5 on 7 October. No additional ENS is requested. If the TWAP at the mid-term distribution is below $3.59, the stewards will request the shortfall in the next Funding Window.
Expenditures
Steward compensation and DAO communications are fixed monthly costs. The discretionary and audit lines are ceilings: actual spending depends on costs that come up during the term and on audits the DAO approves.
Expected expenses, 1 October 2026 through 30 June 2027 (plus Term 7’s 2-year vested ENS)
| USDC | ETH | USD-Equivalent $ENS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steward compensation (9 months, Oct 2026 to Jun 2027) | 121,500 | - | - |
| Steward vested ENS (over 2 years) | - | - | 162,000 |
| DAO communications (9 months) | 18,540 | - | - |
| Discretionary (governance and community related) | 50,000 | - | - |
| Contract audits (conditional) | 100,000 | - | - |
| Total | 290,040 | - | 162,000 |
Budget lines
Steward compensation ($121,500):
$13,500 per month across three seats: Lead Steward $5,500 and two Stewards at $4,000 each, the rates carried forward from Term 6 and codified in EP 6.44. The matching ENS component (equal USD value, two-year vest, sized on the six-month TWAP) is paid from ENS already held in the Safe; see ENS above.
DAO communications ($18,540):
Newsletter production, social distribution, and editorial support at $2,060 per month, a function previously funded through the grants process. Paid monthly from the multisig and recorded on the Term 7 transaction index.
Discretionary, governance, and community related ($50,000):
Covers governance-related costs that come up during the term and do not warrant their own proposal:
- Travel for contributors and service providers representing ENS DAO at events (see below).
- Discretionary costs for contributors beyond the monthly communications stipend.
Every disbursement is published on the transaction index with its purpose. This line does not fund grants, hackathons, growth programs, or new initiatives; those sit with the Foundation and service providers.
Travel is covered case by case, with requests made publicly on the forum. Priority goes to contributors and SPP teams already local to an event, which keeps the cost per representative low. Events are chosen against the ENS Labs DevRel calendar, so support goes where ENS would otherwise have no presence, or where community representation adds something on top of Labs’.
Contract audits ($100,000, conditional): Held for independent security audits of contracts headed for executable proposals that affect ENS protocol or DAO contracts, including work from service providers and the wider ecosystem. The first expected draw is the Governor Nexus audit: Blockful has received quotes from three firms (Governor Nexus implementation report), and the firm, scope, and price will come to the DAO for approval in the audit proposal, paid from this line with no separate funding request. The rest remains available for other in-scope contracts, including changes expected with the ENSv2 rollout. Funds are released only against a specific engagement the DAO has approved, and anything unused returns to the treasury at the end of the term.
Under Next Era, tokenholders keep protocol control, including smart contract upgrades, and ENSv2 will bring several of those upgrades to a vote. Holding audit capacity in advance removes the funding delay between spotting a security need and paying for the review. Meta-Governance requests have carried an audits line since at least Term 5.
Excluded from this request
- Grants of any kind, including hackathon funding and public goods. This mandate rests with the Foundation.
- Growth and distribution programs, like referral programs. Service providers, within their funded scope or through their own DAO proposals, and the Foundation undertake these tasks.
- Endowment management-fee payments: paid from the Endowment Safe under the standing allowance, not from Working Group funds.
Reporting
Every disbursement from this budget is posted to the Term 7 transaction index within a week of execution, with its purpose, nonce, and Etherscan link. The stewards will post a spending report against this budget at the April 2027 funding window and a final one at term-end, showing planned against actual by line, unused balances, and what returns to the treasury.
Conclusion
290,040 Expected expenses through 30 June 2027
- 88,481 USDC balance on 7 October 2026
= 201,559 Requested
This request funds the Meta-Governance Working Group to provide governance oversight and support DAO operations through the end of Term 7. We are grateful for the community’s continued support.
— Term 7 Meta-Governance Stewards