Cowrie Research

opengov-primary-sources-2026-05-22

2 min read

OpenGov primary sources — 2026-05-22

1) Polkadot OpenGov overview

Source: https://wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov/

Key points captured in this pass:

  • OpenGov is Polkadot’s public referendum system; proposals are initiated by the public rather than by a separate council gatekeeper.
  • Proposals are routed into specific tracks tied to origins with different privilege levels.
  • Each track has its own timing, capacity, approval curve, support curve, and enactment rules.
  • OpenGov uses submission deposits and origin-dependent decision deposits.
  • Voting uses conviction locking and supports multi-role delegation by track.
  • The Technical Fellowship can whitelist time-sensitive proposals into the Whitelisted Caller path.

2) Origins and tracks

Source: https://wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov-origins/

Key points captured in this pass:

  • The origins page lists materially different governance lanes including Root, Whitelisted Caller, Wish For Change, Staking Admin, Treasurer, Lease Admin, Fellowship Admin, General Admin, Referendum Canceller, Referendum Killer, and multiple spender/tipper tracks.
  • Each track has distinct parameters for maximum deciding capacity, decision deposit, prepare period, decision period, confirmation period, minimum enactment period, and approval/support curves.
  • The page explicitly ties certain extrinsics to compatible OpenGov origins.
  • The Whitelisted Caller path is root-forceful but faster, relying on Fellowship whitelisting before referendum approval.
  • Wish For Change is not a high-privilege execution lane; it is a signaling track for network desires expressed via remarks.

3) Treasury under OpenGov

Source: https://wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-polkadot-opengov-treasury/

Key points captured in this pass:

  • Treasury access is governed through OpenGov referenda on treasury-related tracks.
  • Treasury outflows are split across several tracks such as Treasurer, Big Spender, Medium Spender, Small Spender, Big Tipper, and Small Tipper.
  • Treasury funding flows are onchain and system-account based, but spending still depends on the governance pipeline.
  • OpenGov can also approve multi-asset treasury support and sub-treasury arrangements.

Why this note exists

OpenGov shows up in active corpus notes such as Snowbridge as a real control surface, not a branding detail. The point of this source dump is to preserve the concrete mechanism: public referenda, track/origin routing, deposits, conviction voting, whitelisting, treasury/admin lanes, and execution after enactment.

Graph View