SOP - PCP process

Standard Operational Procedure - Parameter Committee Process

This page is written on behalf of the Parameters Committee, the information contained is subject to change and amendment by the committee chairs at any time and should be used at your own risk

August 2023

Document owner and author: MBO - Joaquín López (Secretary)

Document Version Control

Ver	Summary of Changes	Date
IR	Initial Release	May 15, 2023
V.001	Revised version (Joaquín López & Cristina Echeverry)	June 30, 2023
V.002	Revised version (Alex Moser)	August 31, 2023

Ver

Summary of Changes

Date

Initial Release

May 15, 2023

V.001

Revised version (Joaquín López & Cristina Echeverry)

June 30, 2023

V.002

Revised version (Alex Moser)

August 31, 2023

1. Purpose of this document

This document describes the parameter committee process for meeting and give recommendations in the best interest of the Cardano network. The process also includes the template document were the committee recommendations are requested in a formal numbered document.

2. Parameter Committee Structure

2.1 Roles and Responsibilities

Chairs: Chair: Kevin Hammond Vice- chair: Alex Moser Vice- chair: Vijay Bhuvangiri

Advisory Group Heads: Network group: Neil Davies Economic group: Samuel Leathers Technical group: Markus Gufler

Advisory Group Members: Network group: Karl Knutsson, Matthias Sieber, Marcin Szamotulski Technical group: Ruslan Dudin, Michael Peyton Jones Economic group: Sergio Sanchez, Philip Lazos, Giovanni Gargiulo

Other: Communications: Tommy Kammerer, Nathaniel Acton, Addie Girouard, Matthew Capps Domain experts: Martin Lang, Andrew Westberg Secretary: Joaquín López

2.2 Remit

The purpose of the Parameter Committee is to provide technical advice and recommendations relating to the updatable protocol parameters, taking into account economic, security, network and other considerations, as appropriate.

3. Description of the process - Administrative Activities

Item	Responsibility	Action
1	Secretary	Meetings are held every 3 weeks on Thursdays To coordinate the agenda and set up the meeting cadence along with the Chair and vice chairs of the committee To update the agenda in the calendar invite
2	Secretary	Take meeting notes and reach consensus
3	Secretary	Post meeting notes in the Cardano forum
4	Secretary	Set up communication channels: Actual discord channel on the IO technical
4.1	Secretary	Request approval to the members in order to post their names on the forum (GDPR)
5	Secretary	Use voting tools such as google forms
6	Secretary	Create and post different notes along with the communications team: Blogpost about the committee and advisory groups Parameters reference guide
7	Secretary	Update Charter deck: This deck has all the structure of the committee, roles and responsibilities and a history of all the meeting agendas as well as link to the meeting notes

Item

Responsibility

Action

Secretary

Meetings are held every 3 weeks on Thursdays
To coordinate the agenda and set up the meeting cadence along with the Chair and vice chairs of the committee
To update the agenda in the calendar invite

Secretary

Take meeting notes and reach consensus

Secretary

Post meeting notes in the Cardano forum

Secretary

Set up communication channels:

Actual discord channel on the IO technical

4.1

Secretary

Request approval to the members in order to post their names on the forum (GDPR)

Secretary

Use voting tools such as google forms

Secretary

Create and post different notes along with the communications team:

Blogpost about the committee and advisory groups
Parameters reference guide

Secretary

Update Charter deck:

This deck has all the structure of the committee, roles and responsibilities and a history of all the meeting agendas as well as link to the meeting notes

4. SOP - Parameter Committee Process

4.0 PCP submission

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ArcX1mPMs1GqsTO4AnwWEhQMlGDWhFSnudLVbt5KN5E/edit?pli=1#slide=id.g2509f52ba96_0_23docs.google.com

Item	Responsibility	Action
0.1	Any Community member	Proposer starts a new discussion on Cardano Forum as a dedicated thread in specific area under Governance, not PC updates - eg Parameter Change Proposals
0.2	Any Community member	Proposer uploads draft PCP to thread with unique reference determined by them - eg PCP_Parameter_ProposerName
0.3	Any Community member	OPTIONAL: depending on the proposal, proposer polls SPOs (or other groups) on the change to gauge level of support
0.4	Any Community member	Following discussion/editing, proposer uploads revised PCP to thread, including link to disucssion
0.5	Any Community member	Proposer submits PCP request to Parameter Committee by notifying PC secretary
0.6	PC Secretary	PC recommendation links to original discussion and assigns final PCP number
0.7	PC Secretary	Thread is closed

Item

Responsibility

Action

0.1

Any Community member

Proposer starts a new discussion on Cardano Forum as a dedicated thread in specific area under Governance, not PC updates - eg Parameter Change Proposals

0.2

Any Community member

Proposer uploads draft PCP to thread with unique reference determined by them - eg PCP_Parameter_ProposerName

0.3

Any Community member

OPTIONAL: depending on the proposal, proposer polls SPOs (or other groups) on the change to gauge level of support

0.4

Any Community member

Following discussion/editing, proposer uploads revised PCP to thread, including link to disucssion

0.5

Any Community member

Proposer submits PCP request to Parameter Committee by notifying PC secretary

0.6

PC Secretary

PC recommendation links to original discussion and assigns final PCP number

0.7

PC Secretary

Thread is closed

4.1 Input funnel & Topic Selection

Item	Responsibility	Action
1.1	Any Community Member	Completes the PCP form template Filtering (by chairs/heads) may become necessary at some point when influx of PCPs is high or their quality is poor
1.2	Secretary	Announces the existence of a new PCP to the committee Chairs and ask to add them in the agenda for next meeting
1.3	Chair, vice-chairs and Advisory Group Heads	Vote to accept PCP in meeting: accept/decline/PCP needs adjustments Decline: e.g. topic is not valuable or time is not right, resp. another PCP is preferred. The committee should not keep a backlog. Good PCPs that get declined are resubmitted. Needs adjustments: example case: "This is the wrong question" . Meaning the PCP topic is valuable, but the questions need a different formulation. Approve: Move to 4.

Item

Responsibility

Action

1.1

Any Community Member

Completes the PCP form template

Filtering (by chairs/heads) may become necessary at some point when influx of PCPs is high or their quality is poor

1.2

Secretary

Announces the existence of a new PCP to the committee Chairs and ask to add them in the agenda for next meeting

1.3

Chair, vice-chairs and Advisory Group Heads

Vote to accept PCP in meeting: accept/decline/PCP needs adjustments

Decline: e.g. topic is not valuable or time is not right, resp. another PCP is preferred. The committee should not keep a backlog. Good PCPs that get declined are resubmitted.
Needs adjustments: example case: "This is the wrong question" . Meaning the PCP topic is valuable, but the questions need a different formulation.
Approve: Move to 4.

4.2 Topic Discussion with working groups

Item	Responsibility	Action
2.1	Committee Members	Collective decision on mode of working: parallel/serial
2.1.1	Committee Members	Parallel : Parallel: "All other teams" contains all members of the Parameter Committee. Everyone has the right for input through the invitation for deliberation in the committee meeting. At a later point, this may even be public.
2.1.2	Committee Members	Sequential: Serial: e.g. when a parameter has non-obvious functional limitations in networking, it may be required to address a PCP sequentially and determine boundaries to avoid unnecessary research in other domains.
2.2	Committee Members	Reach a result in each involved advisory group

Item

Responsibility

Action

2.1

Committee Members

Collective decision on mode of working: parallel/serial

2.1.1

Committee Members

Parallel :

Parallel: "All other teams" contains all members of the Parameter Committee. Everyone has the right for input through the invitation for deliberation in the committee meeting. At a later point, this may even be public.

2.1.2

Committee Members

Sequential:

Serial: e.g. when a parameter has non-obvious functional limitations in networking, it may be required to address a PCP sequentially and determine boundaries to avoid unnecessary research in other domains.

2.2

Committee Members

Reach a result in each involved advisory group

4.3 Final discussion & output

Item	Responsibility	Action
3.1	Chair, Vice-chair and AG Heads	Review the different recommendation results and reach consensus: This happens in a private, closed meeting for efficiency and sensitivity issues
3.2	All Committee Members	Presentation of PCP recommendation
3.3	All Committee Members	Invitation for deliberations on final recommendation
3.4	Committee Members	Reach consensus on PCP recommendation
3.5	Committee Memebers	Committee recommendation, advice, result is reached.
3.6	Communications	Communicate final recommendation on Cardano Forum

Item

Responsibility

Action

3.1

Chair, Vice-chair and AG Heads

Review the different recommendation results and reach consensus:

This happens in a private, closed meeting for efficiency and sensitivity issues

3.2

All Committee Members

Presentation of PCP recommendation

3.3

All Committee Members

Invitation for deliberations on final recommendation

3.4

Committee Members

Reach consensus on PCP recommendation

3.5

Committee Memebers

Committee recommendation, advice, result is reached.

3.6

Communications

Communicate final recommendation on Cardano Forum

5. PCP Standard Form - Parameter Committee Proposal

This form is used to initiate discussions in the parameter committee, an advisory group consisting of experts in the fields of Network, Technical and Economic principles and Cardano protocol parameters. Approved PCPs contain a clear description of the topic and questions formulated neutrally, enabling the committee to give a recommendation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G7jEKef0n1-LU5LCuc5CJzQJIM6fRKygYBY88b-X-Hk/edit

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