Governance Controls (20%)
Governance reaction-window scoring (20%) based on immutability, timelocks, and depositor exit conditions.
Governance measures the depositor's reaction window: if protocol parameters change adversely, how much time exists to exit?
This vector is weighted at 20% because governance risk is partially depositor-mitigable — timelocks create response time — unlike core asset or platform risk, which is not directly controllable by the depositor.
Scoring Ladder
| Configuration | Score |
|---|---|
| Immutable contracts | 10 |
| Timelock ≥ 7 days | 9 |
| Timelock ≥ 3 days | 8.5 |
| Timelock ≥ 48 hours | 8 |
| Timelock ≥ 24 hours | 6 |
| Timelock ≥ 6 hours | 4 |
| No timelock / EOA admin | 1 |
| Unknown (data unavailable) | 5 |
The ladder is smoothed at the top end: the step from "≥ 48 hours" to "≥ 3 days" moves 0.5 points rather than an abrupt full-point jump, and the step from "≥ 3 days" to "≥ 7 days" adds another 0.5 points. This better reflects the diminishing marginal value of each additional day of timelock in the 2-7 day range — once a depositor has a business day to react, more time helps but at a slowing rate.
Unknown timelock configuration scores 5, a neutral mid-band value that neither rewards nor punishes missing data; a separate evidence-freshness path flags the missing information for follow-up.
How To Interpret
The score reflects the depositor's ability to react to adverse parameter changes:
- Immutable (10): No parameters can change. The code is the final word.
- Long timelock (8.5-9): Changes are announced days in advance. Depositors can monitor and exit comfortably.
- Moderate timelock (6-8): Some reaction time, but requires active monitoring.
- Short timelock (4): Minimal reaction window; monitoring must be near real-time.
- No timelock (1): Admin can change parameters instantly. Depositors have no warning.
Composite Interaction
- Governance is an active 20% component of the composite.
- Governance strength does not bypass asset-level hard caps, review caps, or fail-safe constraints. A vault with strong governance but a hard-failed asset is still capped by the asset hard-fail.
- If fail-safe mode is
fail_closed, risk output is withheld regardless of governance score.
Current Limitations
This vector does not yet fully differentiate:
- signer-quality nuances (e.g. a high-quality multisig vs. a weak multisig)
- DAO quorum and liveness guarantees
- governance token concentration dynamics
- emergency-controls quality beyond basic pausability signals
These nuances are captured qualitatively in analyst notes and are candidates for future quantitative coverage.
Thresholds Reference
Key governance-related thresholds used elsewhere in the system:
| Threshold | Value |
|---|---|
| Safe timelock | ≥ 7 days (604,800 seconds) |
| Moderate timelock | ≥ 2 days (172,800 seconds) |