The role of the Root Key Holder is not to make subjective decisions - rather to act as an executor for decisions made by the community on-chain. The action space and power of Root Key Holders are also limited by design. Any deviation from this mandate will make the offending Root Key Holders immediately subject to removal through a FIP.
| Organization | Date Added | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol Labs | 15th Oct 2020 | active |
| Filecoin Foundation | 15th Jan 2021 | active |
| Ethereum Foundation | 15th Jan 2021 | active |
Root Key Holders are signers to a Multisig on chain with the power to grant and remove Notaries (and associated DataCap amounts). Root Key Holders are selected based on their reputation and alignment with the long term health of the Filecoin network. The responsibilities of the Root Key Holder are to:
- Exercise decisions made by the community governance on-chain.
- Take action on finalized decisions in a timely manner.
Root Key Holders should expect to meet on a regular cadence to process approved actions from the Governance repostiory. It is expected that every action taken by a Root Key Holder should be linked to a governance decision and require collective action by a substantial number of Root Key Holders in order to be processed.
Candidates will meet the following criteria:
- Root Key Holders are expected to have experience managing private keys.
- Root Key Holders should have experience acting in high trust roles.
While the individual identities of the Root Key Holders will not be made public for security reasons, the representative organizations will be made known and their actions are public on-chain. Given the limited space of action and ease of rotation, the sensitivity and significance of Root Key Holders have been drastically reduced.