SDGP-80: Mandate to the Stake DAO Association to Engage a Curation Service Provider for the Curation Vertical

Tube · 19 October 2026 10:07

Author: Stake DAO Association
Category: A — Stake DAO Governance Proposal (SDGP)
Pursuant to SDGP-66 Related proposals: SDGP-58 (Curation Vertical), SDGP-66 (Governance Framework), SDGP-74 (Association Grant H2-2026)

Regulatory & Legal Notice

This proposal is a governance coordination document relating to the operation of a decentralised protocol and associated smart contracts. It is provided for informational and technical purposes only.

Nothing in this proposal constitutes or shall be construed as: (i) an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to purchase, sell, deposit, or hold any crypto-asset, token, or financial instrument; (ii) the provision of investment advice, portfolio management, asset management, or any other regulated financial service; or (iii) an invitation to engage in any activity that would qualify as a regulated service under applicable laws.

The Stake DAO protocol and the curated vaults operate through non-custodial smart contracts on public blockchain networks. Neither the Stake DAO Association nor any service provider engaged under this proposal custodies user funds, executes transactions on behalf of users, or acts as an intermediary between users and any third party.

This proposal does not create any contractual relationship, fiduciary duty, or legally binding obligation between the Stake DAO Association, token holders, delegates, vault depositors, or any other participants. Nothing herein should be interpreted as legal, financial, or tax advice.

Summary

This proposal grants a mandate to the Stake DAO Association (the “Association”) to select, engage and supervise one or more professional service providers (each a “Curation Service Provider”) to support the operation of the Stake DAO curation vertical established under SDGP-58, within the governance and risk framework set out below.

The proposal does not designate a specific provider. It sets out the scope of services, minimum eligibility standards, minimum contractual protections, a compensation framework, and conflict-of-interest, transparency and termination rules that any engagement must satisfy. Control over the curated vaults remains with Stake DAO governance at all times.

Context

Under SDGP-58, Stake DAO governance mandated the Association to develop a curation vertical curating lending vaults on established lending platforms such as Morpho. In its forum response to SDGP-58, the Association committed to execute the vertical within its non-custodial mandate, to conduct a legal review before proceeding, to require conflict-of-interest disclosure by curators, to report incidents promptly, to start with capped exposure and audited integrations, and to provide regular reporting to the community.

Since then:

the curated Morpho lending vaults have been launched, together with a user interface, a monitoring dashboard with automated alerts, and dedicated liquidation bots;
SDGP-66 introduced Category D — Lending Market Adjustment Proposals (LMAP), providing a dedicated, timelocked governance track for vault parameter changes;
SDGP-74 set “Growing the curation vertical” (M2) and the expansion of the curation vertical (M5) as milestones for H2-2026, and expressly allows the Association to engage suitable third parties as auxiliary persons to deliver its milestones.

Rationale

Curation is a specialised activity requiring continuous market and risk monitoring, quantitative modelling of collateral and liquidation risk, oracle and integration review, and operational readiness around the clock. Engaging a dedicated professional provider, rather than building the full capability in-house, is expected to:

increase the depth and continuity of risk management on the curated vaults;
accelerate the growth of the curation vertical in line with SDGP-74 milestones;
keep fixed costs flexible and aligned with the revenue generated by the vertical; and
maintain a clear separation between governance (which sets the framework and parameters), the Association (which contracts and supervises), and the provider (which performs defined operational tasks within on-chain permissions).

Because the curation market and the regulatory landscape are evolving quickly, this proposal deliberately sets standards and guardrails rather than naming a provider, so that the Association can select the most suitable counterparty, or replace it, without returning to governance for each operational decision, while the DAO retains full control of the vaults.

Specification

1. Mandate

1.1 The Association is authorised to select, negotiate, enter into, amend, renew and terminate one or more agreements with Curation Service Providers, in its own name and on its own account, in accordance with this proposal (the “Mandate”).

1.2 The Association may engage more than one provider, including for different vaults, networks or functions, and may engage a provider on a trial or pilot basis.

1.3 The Mandate does not authorise the Association or any provider to (i) transfer ownership of any vault, (ii) modify vault parameters outside the scope of Section 3, or (iii) commit Stake DAO treasury assets beyond the compensation framework in Section 6. Any such action requires a separate governance proposal under the applicable SDGP-66 category.

2. Scope of Services

2.1 The services that may be entrusted to a Curation Service Provider include:

(a) continuous monitoring of the curated vaults and their underlying markets, collateral, oracles, liquidity and liquidation conditions;
(b) risk analysis and modelling, including stress testing, collateral assessment, and recommendations on supply caps, loan-to-value parameters and market selection;
(c) preparation of draft Lending Market Adjustment Proposals (LMAP) for submission to governance under SDGP-66 Category D;
(d) execution of allocation and reallocation operations among markets already approved by governance, within approved caps and parameters, through the on-chain role granted to it under Section 3;
(e) incident detection and response support, including the use of emergency functions where expressly permitted under Section 3;
(f) technical and risk review of new integrations, adapters and markets prior to their submission to governance;
(g) research, analytics and periodic reporting; and
(h) business-development support for the curation vertical, subject to Section 2.2(e).

2.2 The following are excluded from the scope of any engagement:

(a) holding, controlling or having discretionary authority over the assets of any vault depositor or user, other than through the limited on-chain role described in Section 3;
(b) entering into any client relationship with, or providing individual advice or recommendations to, vault depositors or users;
(c) any representation or guarantee of returns, yields or capital protection;
(d) any activity requiring a licence, registration or authorisation that the provider does not hold, unless a legal assessment satisfactory to the Association confirms that no such licence is required; and
(e) any promotion or distribution of the vaults to any person or in any jurisdiction otherwise than in compliance with applicable law, including any restrictions on marketing, eligibility and onboarding (such as KYC/AML requirements for institutional access).

3. Governance and Control Architecture

3.1 Ownership. Ownership of each curated vault remains with the Stake DAO governance multisig (or the timelock controlled by it). No provider may be granted the owner role.

3.2 Provider roles. A provider may be granted only the on-chain role(s) strictly necessary to perform the services (for example, the curator and/or allocator roles on Morpho vaults), with permissions limited to the markets, caps and parameters approved by governance.

3.3 Safeguard role. The guardian (or equivalent veto or emergency) role on each vault may be held by the Stake DAO governance multisig, the Association, or an independent third party designated by the Association, such as a partner protocol, a security council or an independent risk provider. Any third-party guardian shall be disclosed under Section 8.1. The guardian role on a vault shall not be held by the provider exercising the curator role on that vault, or by any of its affiliates, so that every pending change remains subject to independent review. The appointment, replacement and removal of the guardian remain with the vault owner and may be exercised at any time.

3.4 Parameter management by the curator. Within the Risk Framework, the provider holding the curator role may, in its professional discretion and without a prior governance vote, enable and remove markets, set and adjust supply caps, and allocate and reallocate liquidity among enabled markets. The following matters remain reserved to Stake DAO governance under SDGP-66 Category D (LMAP): (a) the adoption and amendment of the Risk Framework; (b) vault fees and fee recipients; (c) the appointment and removal of the owner, curator, allocator and guardian roles; (d) any reduction of the vault timelock; and (e) any action outside the Risk Framework. All timelocked curator actions remain subject to the vault timelock, which shall not be shorter than [three (3)] days, during which the guardian may revoke them. Governance may at any time, through an LMAP, require the reversal of any curator action, without prejudice to the owner’s right to revoke the curator role under Section 3.6.

3.5 Risk Framework. Before any curator role is granted, the Association shall publish on the governance forum, and submit for adoption as an LMAP, a risk framework for the curated vaults (the “Risk Framework”), setting out the criteria and thresholds which will be used to select collateral assets and set the parameters of the vaults. In any event, the curator shall publicly disclose, prior to enabling it, any market involving assets or protocols in which the curator or its affiliates have a material interest.

3.6 Revocation. The Association, and the governance multisig, may revoke or suspend any role granted to a provider at any time, with immediate effect, including without prior notice where required for security, legal or regulatory reasons.

3.7 Key management. Provider roles shall be held through multisignature or equivalent secure key-management arrangements meeting the minimum standards in Section 4.

3.8 Relationship with SDGP-66. For any vault on which a provider holds the curator role, the scope of SDGP-66 Category D is limited to the matters reserved to governance under Section 3.4. In all other respects, SDGP-66 remains unchanged.

4. Eligibility and Selection Standards

4.1 The Association shall select providers in its reasonable discretion, through a competitive process or by direct engagement, provided that, at the time of engagement and throughout the term, the provider meets the following minimum standards:

(a) Professional capacity — demonstrable experience in DeFi risk management, lending-market curation or comparable activities, and sufficient personnel and operational capacity, including incident-response availability;
(b) Legal standing — duly incorporated legal entity in a jurisdiction that is not subject to comprehensive sanctions and is not identified by the FATF as a high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action;
(c) Regulatory status — holds all licences, registrations and authorisations required for the services it performs, or has demonstrated, to the reasonable satisfaction of the Association, that none are required for the services as structured;
(d) Integrity — satisfactory know-your-business, sanctions and adverse-media screening of the provider and its beneficial owners and key personnel;
(e) Security — documented key-management, access-control and operational-security practices, at a level the Association considers appropriate for the value at risk;
(f) Conflicts — adoption of a written conflicts-of-interest policy, including rules on personal and proprietary positions in markets the provider curates; and
(g) Reputation and track record — no history of material security incidents, misconduct or regulatory enforcement that the Association considers incompatible with the engagement.

4.2 The Association shall keep a due-diligence record for each provider and shall disclose the outcome of its selection under Section 8.

4.3 The Association may adopt additional or stricter criteria, which shall be applied consistently.

5. Minimum Contractual Terms

Each agreement with a provider shall include, at a minimum:

(a) Independent contractor — the provider acts as an independent contractor; no partnership, joint venture, agency, employment or fiduciary relationship is created with the Association, Stake DAO, token holders or vault depositors, and the provider has no authority to bind any of them;
(b) Non-exclusivity;
(c) Term — an initial term not exceeding twelve (12) months, renewable;
(d) Termination — termination by the Association for convenience on no more than thirty (30) days’ notice, and with immediate effect for cause, including breach, security incident attributable to the provider, loss of required authorisations, sanctions exposure, or revocation of the Mandate;
(e) Standard of care — performance with the skill, care and diligence of a professional curation provider, and in compliance with the governance framework and parameters approved by Stake DAO;
(f) Compliance — representations and undertakings on compliance with applicable law, sanctions, anti-money-laundering, anti-bribery and data-protection rules;
(g) Conflicts and market conduct — compliance with the provider’s conflicts policy; prohibition on using non-public information relating to the vaults for its own or third-party benefit, and on front-running or otherwise trading against the vaults;
(h) Confidentiality and protection of non-public information;
(i) Information and audit rights — access to the information reasonably required for the Association’s supervision and reporting;
(j) Incident reporting — notification to the Association without undue delay and in any event within twenty-four (24) hours of becoming aware of any incident, error, or breach affecting the vaults;
(k) Liability — liability of the provider for losses caused by its gross negligence, wilful misconduct, fraud, or breach of law or of the agreement, with an indemnity in favour of the Association; any limitation of the provider’s liability shall be proportionate and shall not apply to those cases;
(l) Subcontracting — no subcontracting of core services without the Association’s prior written consent;
(m) Transition — reasonable cooperation in an orderly handover upon termination, including role revocation and transfer of relevant records;
(n) Intellectual property — work product created for the Association vests in the Association, consistent with the IP and open-source principles of the Association grant proposals; and
(o) Governing law and forum — Swiss law, with jurisdiction of the courts of Zug or arbitration seated in Switzerland, as determined by the Association.

6. Compensation Framework

6.1 Compensation of a provider may consist of either or both of:

(a) a fixed fee not exceeding USD 20,000 per month per provider; and/or
(b) a variable fee not exceeding 75% of the performance and/or management fees actually received by Stake DAO from the vaults curated by that provider.

6.2 Compensation shall be funded (i) from the Association’s budget under the applicable Association grant (including SDGP-74, Milestones M2 and M5), and/or (ii) from net curation fees actually received by Stake DAO. No compensation may be paid out of vault depositors’ assets.

6.3 Any compensation in SDT or in any other token issued by or associated with Stake DAO, and any compensation exceeding the caps in Section 6.1, requires a separate governance approval.

6.4 Aggregate compensation paid to providers shall be reported under Section 8.

7. Conflicts of Interest and Related-Party Engagements

7.1 Where a prospective provider, or any of its affiliates, directors, shareholders or key personnel, is also a board member, officer, contributor, multisig signer or other related party of the Association (a “Related-Party Engagement”):

(a) the relationship shall be disclosed before the agreement is signed;
(b) the related person shall not participate in the Association’s selection, negotiation, approval or supervision of that engagement;
(c) the engagement shall be approved by the Association’s members or board members who have no interest in it; and
(d) the terms shall be no less favourable to the Association than those that would be agreed with an unrelated provider on an arm’s-length basis.

7.2 Each provider shall disclose to the Association, before engagement and on an ongoing basis, any material conflict of interest, including other curation or advisory mandates for markets or protocols in competition or interaction with the Stake DAO vaults.

8. Transparency and Reporting

8.1 Before any on-chain role is granted, the Association shall publish on the governance forum: the identity of the provider, the vaults and roles concerned, the relevant on-chain addresses, the term of the engagement, and the compensation structure (including any Related-Party Engagement disclosure under Section 7).

8.2 The Association shall include in its monthly activity report information on the curation vertical, including the providers engaged, curated assets, material parameter changes, compensation paid, and any incidents.

8.3 Material incidents affecting the vaults shall be disclosed publicly in accordance with the Association’s incident-disclosure practice.

8.4 The Association shall review each engagement at least annually and report the outcome to the community.

9. Risk Controls

The Association shall ensure that the curation vertical continues to operate under, at a minimum:

(a) phased deployment with capped exposure for new markets and new providers;
(b) integration only of audited smart contracts and adapters;
(c) review of oracle design and liquidity for each market before submission to governance;
(d) continuous monitoring and automated alerts, and liquidation infrastructure; and
(e) the ability to pause, cap or exit markets promptly through the governance and safeguard roles described in Section 3.

10. Duration and Revocation of the Mandate

10.1 The Mandate remains in force until revoked or amended by a governance proposal.

10.2 Revocation of the Mandate does not affect agreements already entered into, provided that the Association shall terminate them at the earliest opportunity in accordance with their terms.

10.3 This proposal does not limit the rights of the Association under SDGP-66, including its protective veto right.

Implementation and Timeline

Upon approval: the Association launches the selection process and due diligence.
Before engagement: publication on the forum of the disclosures required under Section 8.1.
Onboarding: grant of the limited on-chain roles described in Section 3, with initial capped exposure.
Ongoing: reporting through the monthly activity reports; parameter changes through LMAP.

Risk Disclosures

Lending and curated vaults involve material risks, including smart-contract vulnerabilities, oracle failure or manipulation, liquidation, illiquidity, market volatility, de-pegging of assets, counterparty and third-party protocol risks, and loss of funds. The engagement of a professional provider is intended to strengthen risk management but does not eliminate these risks.

Any yields, rates or figures referenced in connection with the curation vertical are illustrative, variable, and not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Users interact with the vaults at their own discretion and risk.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, neither the Stake DAO Association, its board members, contributors, delegates, multisig signers, nor any provider engaged under this proposal (except as expressly agreed in its contract with the Association) shall be liable to token holders, vault depositors, or any third party for any direct or indirect loss arising from governance decisions, the selection or performance of any provider, vault operations, smart-contract interactions, or reliance on governance outcomes. All actions are undertaken on a best-effort basis within a decentralised environment.

Snapshot voting is an off-chain signalling mechanism. Approval of this proposal authorises, but does not oblige, the Association to engage any provider. The Association may decline, delay, suspend or terminate any engagement for legal, regulatory, technical or security reasons.

Vote

For (Yes): Grant the Stake DAO Association the Mandate to engage one or more Curation Service Providers in accordance with this proposal.
Against (No): Reject the proposal.
Abstain: Take no position.

Proposal Specifications

Parameter	Value
Category	A — SDGP
Forum debate period	3 days minimum
Voting period	7 days
Debate and vote	Sequential (debate first, then vote)
Quorum	15% of total vlSDT supply
Approval threshold	Simple majority (>50% of votes cast, excl. abstentions)
Anticipated execution	If super-quorum is reached (SDGP-66, Section 3)

References

This proposal follows the Stake DAO Proposal Framework.