The Technical Committee

Understanding Toto Chain’s Technical Committee

The Toto Chain is governed by a group of trusted individuals known as the Technical Committee. This body plays a crucial role in the chain's maintenance and evolution. This guide explains the committee's function, how its members are selected, and the responsibilities they hold.

What is the Technical Committee?

The Technical Committee is the primary governance body of the Toto Chain. Think of it as a board of directors for the blockchain. Its main purpose is to oversee and approve important technical changes, ensuring the network remains secure, stable, and up-to-date. The committee is designed to have a minimum of seven members and can expand to a maximum of 100.

How Are Committee Members Chosen? The Role of Reputation

Membership on the Technical Committee isn't arbitrary; it's earned through a system of Reputation. Reputation is a score that reflects a user's positive engagement and trustworthiness within the Toto Chain ecosystem. Users with the highest reputation scores are selected to become committee members.

A user's reputation is calculated based on several on-chain actions and real-world verifications:

• Digital Identity Attestations: The first step is establishing a Decentralized Identity (DID) by linking real-world accounts. Users can earn reputation by verifying credentials like an email address, social media account, or domain name.

• Referring New Users: Users are incentivized to bring new, active members to the chain. Each successful referral increases the referrer's reputation score.

• Participating in Handshakes: To build a "web of trust," the system encourages real-world, in-person interactions between users. These interactions, called "handshakes," are verified by a third-party attestation provider and significantly boost reputation.

• Collecting Full NFTs: Actively participating in the chain's economy by collecting a full set of fractional NFTs (fNFTs) to claim a full NFT also contributes to a user's reputation score.

The initial members of the committee are configured at the very beginning of the chain in what is called the "Genesis" file. Over time, as the network grows, these initial members are expected to be replaced by other users who have built up a high reputation.

Committee Membership and Rotation

The list of current Technical Committee members is publicly visible through tools like the Polkadot UI. While the chain itself doesn't send a direct notification, applications can be built to alert members of their selection.

To ensure the committee remains active and representative, members are rotated periodically. In a live environment, this rotation could happen every one or two weeks. This prevents votes on active proposals from being discarded when the committee's membership changes.

What Does the Technical Committee Do?

The Technical Committee's primary function is to govern the blockchain by managing and voting on proposals. These proposals are formal requests to make changes to the chain's code or its settings.

Functionally, only members of the Technical Committee can create and submit a proposal for a vote. The committee then uses tools like the Polkadot UI to review the proposed changes and cast their votes. For a proposal to pass and be implemented, it must receive a certain threshold of votes from the members.

The key responsibilities of the Technical Committee include:

• Approving Runtime Upgrades: This is one of the most critical functions, allowing for major software updates to the entire network.

• Setting Chain Parameters: Members can approve adjustments to the network's technical settings. Examples:

  • Manage Attestation Providers

  • Manage Credential Types

  • Manage the Reward Pool (via runtime upgrades)

Instead of a treasury, the chain uses a reward pool for distributing block production rewards. The committee does not manage these funds directly but governs the core rules of the blockchain's runtime. By approving runtime upgrades and changing chain parameters, the committee indirectly controls the logic that defines how this reward pool operates.