Creating a treasury proposal — Step by Step guide

So, in the previous article we tried understanding the basics of the treasury and understood how its funded. While we discussed who can get funds from the treasury, let’s look at how one could go about making a treasury proposal.

First, formalize and document everything in detail. For help, you could read a few proposals on Polkassembly.

Now let’s go through the process in depth -

Step 1: Go to Polkadot-JS Apps website

Step 2: Now a user has 2 options:

• Option A: Use the extrinsics tab and select the Treasurypallet

• Option B: use the Treasury tab and submit a proposal using the Submit Proposal button

Need help decoding what to fill in these boxes? Let’s understand the Treasury proposal form

• Submit with account — This is the address of an account that will be making the proposal and submitting the transaction on-chain
• Beneficiary — This would be the wallet address of the account which will receive the full value if the proposal is passed by the council members
• Value — This is the amount of DOT that will be given to the beneficiary from the treasury, if the proposal is passed
• Proposal bond — To prevent spamming over the governance forum, the treasury requires the creator of the proposal to put 5% of the proposed value as a collateral. This amount is refunded to the creator if the proposal is passed. But if the proposal is rejected due to any reason like — lack of info, non-benefit to the network or invalid requirements; the bonded DOTs are burned
• Minimum bond — This is the minimum amount of DOT that needs to be bonded by anyone creating a proposal. This amount is currently set at 100 DOTs

Once you submit and approve the transaction(yes, eveyrthing that you do on chain is a transaction), your proposal will become visible in the Treasury screen and the Council can start voting on it.

But, where do you put details about the treasury proposal you just created?

To minimize storage on chain, proposals don't contain contextual information. When a user submits a proposal, they will probably need to find an off-chain way to explain the proposal. Most discussion takes place on the following platforms:

• Many community members participate in discussion in the Kusama Element (previously Riot) chat or Polkadot Element.
• The **Polkassembly discussion platform** that allows users to log in with their Web3 address and automatically reads proposals from the chain, turning them into discussion threads. It also offers a sentiment gauge poll to get a feel for a proposal before committing to a vote.

Now, let's walk you through the process of editing the proposal you just created on the polkadot.js

1. Head to the respective Polkassembly treasury page for your network
2. Under the on-chain treasury proposals, you will be able to find the proposal details that you just created on polkadot.js app

Note - Only the creator of the post will be able to see the edit option for the post.

3. While editing the post, a user can add the relevant details like - Title, Subtitle, Description.

• The description should be comprehensive enough for anyone to understand the context of the proposal just by reading the description. A few people also attach links to external documents(if in their case the external document helps them describe the proposal better)

4. Once all the relevant details are added, the user can save their post and it is ready for anyone in the community to discuss on the same.

Now that one has succesfully created a proposal, what should they do next?

Well, for a decentralized protocol, every action should be performed only after getting views from the community. If the community believes that the proposal is fair and would bring in value to the chain's ecocystem, the community will positively support the proposal and help it convert to a referendum.

How can I get more people to share their views on the proposal?

Spreading the word about the proposal's explanation is ultimately up to the proposer - the recommended way is using official Element channels like the Polkadot Watercooler and Polkadot Direction room. Often, proposers have used the polkassembly proposal link and shared them across social media channels like - twitter, discord and telegram, inviting the community to discuss and vote on the proposal.

Now that you know how to create a treasury proposal, it would be a good time, to sit back and think of what you would want to build in the substrate ecosystem. Anything that you feel is needed, discuss it with the community and/or council members and get on to it. Once you have the idea and plan in plase, you can create a proposal and get the treasury to support you in building the next useful product.

Wait…let’s say, we simplify this process and bring everything under one umbrella? Would people like it?

Just saying that you know… maybe… the entire process on Polkassembly? Let’s do this?

Hope you liked this and found it helpful. Subscribe for improtant updates & or any further queries or walkthrough of the entire process, feel free to reach out to us at hello@polkassembly.io. :)