We’re excited to introduce Delegate Compensation for the Obol Collective, the latest evolution of Tally’s integrated governance and staking platform. Earlier this year, Tally partnered with Obol to launch the OBOL token and governance system, followed by liquid staking (stOBOL) to combine rewards and governance into a single, unified interface. Delegate Compensation represents the next phase of OBOL governance, where active, high-quality contribution is rewarded over passive token holding. The system is an integrated incentive structure that rewards verifiable contributions, encourages long-term commitment by linking rewards to activity, and aligns token holder incentives with protocol success.

By measuring and rewarding quality governance contributions, Tally enables protocols like the Obol Collective to create predictable economic incentives that attract and retain high-quality participants to their governance processes.

Delegate compensation isn't about paying people to hold tokens or rubber-stamp votes. It's about rewarding those who consistently engage with care, post structured rationales, and help the Collective navigate complex governance questions with thoughtfulness and integrity.

Compensation distribution system: Building on Tally's stOBOL infrastructure that solves the tradeoff between staking and governance, the delegate compensation system adds an additional layer of stakeholder alignment. Only delegates maintaining a Delegate Reputation Score (DRS) of 65 or higher over the past five proposals on average are classified as active and eligible for delegate compensation.

Tally has started to distribute 165,000 OBOL from a dedicated reward pool over six months, independent from existing staking rewards, using a square root model based on delegated voting power to reduce centralization risk and create flatter reward curves that better compensate smaller but engaged participants.

Read the original forum proposal.

Implementation: Tally built delegate compensation using the Staker contract architecture that integrates with the DRS oracle for eligibility verification while maintaining the same security model as Staker. The system leverages Tally's existing staking infrastructure to distribute rewards proportionally based on the square root of voting power, using OpenZeppelin's Math library.

Delegates can check their eligibility status directly on their Tally profile, view accrued compensation, and claim rewards at any time with no minimum amount required. Tally's infrastructure handles the complete user experience from eligibility verification to reward distribution, coordinating with Obol for governance requirements and Curia for reputation calculations.

The system includes smart contract functions for claiming rewards, checking unclaimed balances, and verifying delegate eligibility, with voting power snapshots updating every 3 weeks and fallback mechanisms if the oracle becomes stale. New delegates begin earning DRS scores with their first vote and become eligible for compensation immediately upon achieving a 65+ score, regardless of tenure length.

Note: Scores update every 21-day governance cycle with a 6-day delay after submission windows close, ensuring all proposals complete their voting periods before recalculation. Learn more about Tally's delegate compensation infrastructure.

Obol's delegate compensation system illustrates how protocols can build economic structures that reward active contribution over passive token holding. By linking reputation scoring to delegate compensation the system establishes transparent reputational signals that align incentives with protocol success. Delegate compensation creates an incentive mechanism where protocols can reward both capital allocation and governance contribution, turning passive token holders into active protocol stewards.

If you’re interested in implementing staking, DRS, and delegate compensation, explore Tally’s best-in-class infrastructure → tally.xyz

Start earning OBOL → tally.xyz/gov/obol