Staking V2 & Governance Upgrade, leading to SUMR Transferability - Proposed Timeline and Actions

Strategy & Research Protocol Strategy
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Hey all,

There is a lot of progress being made by multiple parties now, and things are starting to get closer to SUMR being transferrable. This post is designed to outline what could be seen as an outline of how to get from where we are today (i.e. Gov and V1 Staking) to where we aim to be (SUMR transferable, and with it, Staking and Gov V2).

As has been discussed in many places, and in several calls, a major blocker for SUMR becoming transferable is real utility for the SUMR token. It was generally agreed within the working group and wider community that for SUMR to have utility, it needed an upgraded Gov and Staking module to allow real value to flow to the SUMR token, and for SUMR token holders to be able to receive that value through long term commitment to the protocol.

Today, I want to share a broad outline of the technical next steps, and approximate timeline of next steps, and what is going to be needed from several parties in order to ensure a smooth, safe and efficient transfer from Gov V1 to Gov V2, deployment of Staking V2 and finally, enabling the transfers of the SUMR token.

Summary of events
As a summary of the following timeline, I propose that initially the new Staking Contracts are deployed, and Governance votes to have these whitelisted prior to SUMR becoming transferable. Crucially, I also propose that Governance appoint the Lazy Summer Foundation Multisig as an additional Governor of the Protocol, so that as we transition from Gov V1 to Gov V2, there is a safety backstop, and that as voting power moves from one to the other, there is another governor role to assist should anything unexpected happen in a worst case scenario. It will also assist the protocol on more efficiently carrying out some operations without the timelock so that the process can be performed more efficiently,

Proposed Timeline

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DATES HAVE BEEN PUSHED BACK ONE WEEK FROM THESE DATES (as of 28/10). Details and updates dates can be seen here: Staking V2 & Governance Upgrade, leading to SUMR Transferability - Proposed Timeline and Actions - #7 by chrisb

  • Labs co → Deploy Governance V2 and Staking Contracts as instructed to by the Lazy Summer Foundation
  • Labs co → Put proposal to Governance V1 on-chain to do the following;
    • Appoint all governance related roles to the Foundation Multisig (this will be in addition to keeping SUMR Governance V1 Delegates still appointed and able to vote and control the protocol)
    • Whitelist the new Governance V2 and Staking Contracts on the SUMR token on Base Network.
    • Instruct the foundation, that should the vote be passed, they should setup and execute a MERKL rewards campaign to enable the SUMR Staking USD Rewards, based on an agreed % of the revenue from October to be assigned to SUMR Stakers.
  • SUMR Governors V1 → Delegates will now vote either for or against the proposals listed above through to Sunday 2nd November.

At this point, it should also be considered and confirmed how incentives should be setup and distributed for DEX markets, likely on Base. For this, there may need to be some votes which bridge treasury assets from the supported chains (Ethereum, Arbitrum and Sonic) back to Base.

  • SUMR Governance V1 → Assuming the proposals put to vote on the 29th pass, Governance (or anyone because it’s permissionless) can execute the proposals which will;
    • Appoint the Foundation Multisig as a governor with relevant governance roles and permissions
    • Whitelist the new Governance and Staking Contract.
  • Lazy Summer Foundation → Assuming the vote above has passed, the Foundation should now execute the MERKL campaign to setup the rewards as detailed in the initial vote, with the amount to be confirmed by the Labs Co.
  • Lazy Summer Foundation → Given the assets should now also be bridged back to Base, the Foundation, through the multisig, should convert any assets which are not USDC or ETH to both USDC and ETH to use on the incentives campaign.
  • SUMR Token Holders → Assuming the vote was executed above, SUMR token holders should now start to remove their SUMR from the existing V1 Staking Contract (if applicable) and stake in the new V2 contract, choosing a relevant lockup period.
  • Lazy Summer Foundation → From this date, once at least 25 wallets are now staking in Staking V2, with a total voting power of at least 50M SUMR, the Foundation should add Governance V2 to the Governor role within the Lazy Summer Protocol and revoke Governance V1 from any governance roles.
  • SUMR Governance V2 → A proposal will be put on-chain asking Governance V2 SUMR governors to ‘Enable SUMR Token Transferability’ across all supported chains.
    • As part of this vote, it should also transfer/setup the various incentive campaigns which will support DEX liquidity on the Base Network.
    • This vote would be open to voting until Monday 10th November.
  • Should the onchain vote, proposed for 6th November, be passed successfully, SUMR token trading will be enabled on just the Base Network initially, enabling trading of the SUMR token on Base DEX’s.
    • The execution of the vote would also setup the timelock queue on the other supporting chains (Mainnet, Arbitrum and Sonic)
  • Should the vote on the 6th November be passed succesfully, and the proposal executed and queued on the supporting chains, tranferrability and trading of the SUMR token will then be available on Mainnet, Arbitrum and Sonic too.
  • Should the governance votes, including cross-chain proposals all execute successfully and without issue, the Foundation will use the Multisig to revoke it’s governance roles from the Lazy Summer Protocol and leave the protocol with just Governance V2 contracts as the sole governor of the protocol.

All of the dates mentioned above should be considered the earliest possible dates, and should not be relied upon as the exact dates that everything will happen. There are still several technical factors which could result in this being delayed, including final audit report findings.

What I am asking the Summer community here to do is to review the above content, including the timelines and feedback anything that they think is important to consider, or any concerns or objections they may have.

Over the next 48 hours, I will be posting multiple RFC’s to start collecting comments on the initial parameters that should be set and go into some of the votes outlined above, for example the Staking Module rewards, lockups, caps etc. Governance parameters and proposed DEX incentives.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments and questions on the above proposed timeline and actions, and any questions at all, please ask.

Transferability is very close, let’s, as a community, ensure we make this launch as successful as possible.

Pinging @Recognized_Delegates for your input in particular

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[RFC] Staking V2 Launch Parameters incl. Revenue Share
When, and under what circumstances should SUMR transfers be enabled
SUMR TR-WG Checklist
SUMR Transferability Community Call #2
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Thanks for the detailed update and timeline.

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This is an excellent and much-needed overview, thank you @chrisb for posting this. I really appreciate you putting this together so comprehensively.

A couple of reflections from a governance process standpoint:

  • Regarding the temporary dual-governor setup (Foundation + Gov V1) and the upcoming proposals; it could be good to clarify what specific permissions are expected to transfer and the criteria for revocation once Governance V2 is live, just to ensure transparency.
  • I thought about how the community could benefit from a simple visual governance map or flow diagram showing how roles evolve across the transition — I can prepare this in order to make it easier for newer members to follow the process.

All-in-all, very aligned with the intent to make SUMR utility-driven from day one of transferability. Excited to see the RFCs roll out and help refine parameters where needed.

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Following up here is also the first of the RFC’s which I mentioned in the initial post.

Staking V2 initial parameters (Incl. Revenue share): [RFC] Staking V2 Launch Parameters incl. Revenue Share

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Here is a visual flow chart representing the proposed process:

Lazy Summer DAO_ Governance Flow (1)
Lazy Summer DAO_ Governance Flow (1)11264×2052 383 KB

Hope it helps with the overview!

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Thanks for the visual @jensei. You broke down the overall proposal really well.

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Hey all,

I want to provide a quick update re. timings.

Unfortunately we are still waiting for a final report on the audit, so will not be in a position to deploy the staking contracts today, with the first vote happening tomorrow as planned.

As such, we will delay the timeline detailed in the original post by 1 week for each activity. To keep things simple, I have provided an updated timeline below;

TLDR: SUMR transferability will now likely occur on the 18th November (instead of 11th) :sun:

TIMELINE

Tuesday 4th Nov (was 28/10) → Deploy Gov & Staking V2 Contracts.

–
Wed 5th Nov (was 29/10) → First vote to whitelist new staking contracts and add foundation as Governor.

–
Mon 10th Nov (was 3/11) → Staking V2 module goes live (if vote on 5/11 passes) allowing users to unstake from Gov V1 and move to Staking and Gov V2.

–
Wed 12 Nov (was 5/11) → Foundation to add Governance V2 as Governor of the Lazy Summer Protocol, removing Governance V1 as Governor.

–
Thurs 13 Nov (was 6/11) → Proposal put to SUMR Governors to enable SUMR token transferability.

–
Tues 18th Nov (was 11/11) → :sun::sun::sun: SUMR becomes transferrable on Base Network :sun::sun::sun:

–
Wed 19th Nov (was 12/11) → SUMR becomes transferrable on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Sonic.

As before, all the dates listed above should again be considered the earliest possible dates (as of the time of writing this post) and you will be kept updated on any other changes at the earliest opportunity.

Although unfortunate that we have a 1 week delay, I am very confident and excited for what is coming and I hope the community continues to make this launch as successful as possible.

Tagging @Recognized_Delegates for visibility of new timelines.

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When, and under what circumstances should SUMR transfers be enabled
[RECAP] SUMR Transferability Community Call #2
SUMR Transferability Community Call #3
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thanks for the update @chrisb! seems like the cause of this delay is really out of our hands, I appreciate your optimism and a prompt update on the timeline! I am super excited for whats coming!

Tagging @Recognized_Delegates to raise awareness of the slight delay, and adding an updated governance transition flow below:

Lazy Summer DAO_ Governance Flow (2)
Lazy Summer DAO_ Governance Flow (2)13056×2052 328 KB

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Hi all, I just want to give a couple of quick updates;

Timeline Update

Today we received back the final report on the recent Sherlock Contest for the new Staking and Governance module for the Lazy Summer Protocol.

We were of course expecting this a little earlier, and had previously been working on the assumption that it would be early last week. Given the delay, we propose deploying the contract next Monday, 17th November, and requesting the Lazy Summer Foundation whitelist the contract the same day. This will allow SUMR holders to start staking in the new contract, and the Transferability Vote could then happen from Thursday 20th November, when it is felt there is sufficient SUMR transferred from Governance V1 to Governance V2.

SUMR Token Launch Oppotunity

I also want to bring up another topic related to the transferability of SUMR.

At the end of last week, we were informed by the Aerodrome team that can take part in their new token launch program, Ignition. This provides a huge oppotunity for the Summer Community and the SUMR token launch to create incentives for the SUMR token and drive large amounts of liquidity to the SUMR token, take advantage of the Aerodrome <> Coinbase partnership by having SUMR available on Coinbase spot markets in the US from the moment it is transferrable.

The only downside (maybe not given the current unpredictable market conditions though at the moment) is that the earliest time we can do this is the second half of January 2026.

It should be noted that if the decision is to delay, this does not impact the launch of the new staking and governance modules, these would still be able to go ahead as planned, and and released next week as stated above.

So my question to the community is; do you want to wait until January 2026 for the token to start trading and take advantage of what is likely a very big oppotunity for the SUMR token launch, or go as soon as possible, likely now the 25th November.

I propose to @jensei @samehueasyou that we perhaps aim for a community call this Thursday to discuss this further in the open too.

I have put the poll below to gauge sentiment, which will run until Friday morning 9am UTC…

Should the DAO wait for Aerodrome Ignition in Jan 2026 to enable transferrability
  • Yes, I think it’s worth the wait
  • No, I think we should go now (Nov 25th)
0 voters

Thanks all, I look forward to a constructive conversation on this.

Chris

Tagging @Recognized_Delegates

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SUMR Transferability Community Call #4
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Thanks @chrisb for the update!

A few questions

  1. What is Ignition and what concretely do we get if we wait till January?
  2. Is it confirmed that SUMR would be available on Coinbase spot market once we go live? Is that in writing from Coinbase?
  3. Are there any other CEXs that SummerFi is connected to that will list be listing SUMR?

Thoughts on transferability in general

From SummerFi’s homepage: “Get effortless access to crypto’s best DeFi yields. Continually rebalanced by AI powered Keepers to earn you more while saving you time and reducing costs.”

For 30D APY with min $5m TVL*, according to vaults.fyi SummerFi’s top APY vaults are 14th for ETH and 47th (!!) for USD. This is not the best DeFi yields.

How can SUMR the token have a good narrative when we are failing to deliver on the core use case? What is going to drive TVL up when there are plenty of other higher APY options, with similar risk profiles?

I understand some of those vaults are higher risk, but I don’t think anyone can say all 13 and 46 vaults with higher ETH and USD yield, respectively, are truly higher risk. And even if they are, SummerFi should facilitate a higher risk option for those that want it. Or else that TVL will go somewhere else. like EtherFi’s Liquid ETH Vault with 5.15% APY (30D) and $500m+ TVL

* Also filtered to mainnet, base, arbitrum

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Thanks @chrisb for the update and interesting news.

First, I’d like to address @Brenner comments and emphasize my agreement wrt

Failing is perhaps a strong word, but I do agree that as I expressed in More growth please , being the best in class in terms of yield sources is JOB NUMBER ONE.

Now, I believe we are close here, and in my view this Iginition opportunity provides a brief window of time to rectify the protocols standing in terms of yield source availability. After which, I believe it makes sense to start to think about how to automate and productize the yield source process, as at the moment it is slowed by governance to a degree. (to be clear, this is good from a risk pov, but its a balance) - once again, this is expressed in More growth please .

Practically speaking that means first getting the approriate yield sources and networks onboarded ASAP via the following RFC and SIPs

@chrisb @Brenner @jensei @Recognized_Delegates @BlockAnalitica @halaprix

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To sum it up ; my 2 cents

Pros : Potentially deeper liquidity - since Ignition program requires incentivising veAero voters which in return vote for enabling emissions to the pool this could attract more liquidity

Better marketing ? -perhaps , would love to hear more about Coinbase spot

Less sell pressure - if the new staking module goes live soon and the only thing you’ll be able to do with your SUMR is to lock it up this might in turn reduce sell pressure at launch as some of the tokens will be locked

Cons :

Credibility risk- We already delayed the launch many times . Telling community “now we’re going to wait even more” can damage momentum/trust.

No guarantee- Being offered a spot to the program is good, but doesn’t guarantee everything will go smoothly (timing, conditions, competition for attention, terms might change). The world of crypto is full of “promised big things” that limp.

Market timing risk - If the broader market turns unfavorable in the meantime, we might lose the launch window. If we launch later we might face worse conditions (lower sentiment, higher competition).

Complexity / dependencies - Waiting for a partner program introduces dependencies (you’re reliant on the program’s team, schedule, maybe extra conditions) which could delay things further or increase costs

Honestly I have mixed feelings about this as I can see both good and bad about waiting for the ignition program ,would love to hear more people chip in and have their say . That said ,because we’ve had delays already I am perhaps in favour of launching sooner rather than later because marketing is great but in my opinion good product should speak for itself . If SUMR fundamentals are strong (e.g., meaningful utility in the Summer.fi ecosystem, sustainable yield sources, actual governance power, etc.) we shouldn’t rely on better marketing campaign

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Thanks @chrisb for the clarity on timelines and the context on Aerodrome opportunity and thanks @Brenner, @samehueasyou, and @crunchy_vertex for raising some important points that cut right to both narrative and fundamentals.

On the Ignition side, to clarify: Aerodrome’s Ignition is essentially a curated launchpad for Base-native tokens, where Aerodrome provides the infrastructure and marketing support for token launch, liquidity bootstrapping, and ongoing incentives. In practical terms, waiting until January would mean SUMR could launch as part of that program, with:

  • Joint marketing and launch visibility across Aerodrome + Coinbase channels,
  • Deeper initial liquidity support through strong Aerodrome LP incentives,
  • A cleaner on-ramp for new users discovering SUMR via Base ecosystem momentum.

See an example: https://x.com/AerodromeFi/status/1981788890748064192

However, the partnership is indirect (Aerodrome ↔ Coinbase Base, not necessarily SUMR ↔ Coinbase), so I’d treat that as an high likelihood opportunity, not a guarantee.

If we go ahead with a self-funded launch now (late November), we would still deploy staking and governance as planned, but would need to seed liquidity and drive attention ourselves likely with smaller initial volume and less external narrative pull. Important to note that Lazy Summer DAO has been keen on quite a larger marketing budget to support these efforts + growing DAO treasury, atm with over $200k.

On the bigger picture, I fully agree with @Brenner and @samehueasyou that SUMR’s long-term value comes from execution on core yield performance. Transferability and staking are catalysts, but they only sustain interest if vaults remain top-tier. The SIPs and RFCs under discussion (Xchain, Clearstar, Morpho, siUSD, etc.) are exactly the right direction; expanding and updating fleets faster to stay competitive while maintaining the risk discipline that sets Lazy Summer Protocol apart.

This should be the priority!

imho ignition = bigger stage, more visibility, slower start; independent launch = faster move, more control, smaller initial splash.

Either way, the narrative will hinge on vaults competitiveness and execution. So, my decision/vote would be simply based on ability/timeline of the Lazy Summer Protocol (with support of Labs Co) to deliver on:

  1. Governance v2 (17th November)
  2. Xchain (???)
  3. New Fleets/Arks deployment (???)
  4. Liquidity Seeding (???)
  5. Transferability of SUMR Token (???)

For me personally, it is much more important to deliver gov. v2 update, xchain offering, and the new arks to stay true to the core of the protocol - best defi yield, than “rushing” the token. With the extended time period (middle of January 2026) there should be plenty of time to build up the TVL further, build up the DAO treasury with additional ~$50k-$70k in assets, make sure that the marketing efforts are being spread and the hype is being built up sustainably, and mainly to deliver on the above mentioned items (+ in the meantime, already testing gov. v2, staking and lockups in production).

Looking forward to unpacking this in Thursday’s call (13/11/2025) and hearing where the broader community lands.

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As pointed out here, there are various pros and cons on either side of this decision and there are levels of uncertainty associated with each. For example, how big do we believe the risk is that the Ignition team change their mind and prioritise a different project for the end of Jan slot? Aligning on the main uncertainties involved would be helpful, and perhaps any data to help quantify these uncertainties where possible (for example performance of historic Ignition launches - https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/syndicate), but ultimately delegates will need to make a call on this with imperfect information.

There is a community call proposed for Thursday, perhaps this would be a good opportunity to align on assumptions and information we have re the pros and the cons. I’ll hold off on voting in the poll until after this call.

That being said, a decision to delay now does not necessarily mean a delay until the end of January. If circumstances change or more information comes to light then I believe a governance vote could still be proposed to activate transferability before the Ignition go live date.

One other consideration. If the expectation is that a meaningful amount of future TVL growth will come from institutional integrations, then a delay would also allow more time for the team to get these in place, perhaps with announcements aligned around transferability date. This could be a positive signal and support buy side demand for the token.

Agree this is a tricky question of trade offs.

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Yes, I think it is worth the wait; the benefits of Aero Ignition far outweigh the cons in my opinion. There will be superior distribution from the start, plus the added liquidity bootstrapping benefits from $AERO that will be directed to the SUMR pool. Given that it’s only about 8 weeks from now, I think this is an acceptable delay when it comes to ensuring that we have the best possible launch for all stakeholders involved.

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This is pure greed ,the date keeps moving further and further. You cannot predict the price of a token. What makes you think releasing in January will give it a higher price? If you don’t deliver the project on time, the token will lose its value. Just imagine traders moving their capital from this platform to other protocols, that will hurt the token’s price.

What makes you think Aerodrome’s Aero Ignition will even happen in January? They might postpone it. You guys need to stop being greedy. The previous transferability decision was reasonable, and I supported it. But waiting again for Aerodrome Ignition doesn’t make sense. You should be aware that there are a lot of worthless tokens on Aerodrome, it’s mostly a pump-and-dump scheme.

Why are you only focusing on Aerodrome? What about other protocols? The transferability decision up to now has been sensible, but waiting for Aerodrome Ignition is not worth it, there’s no guarantee it will boost the price, smart contract deployment takes time, they need to go through audits, and they might postpone due to bugs or other issues. It just keeps getting delayed. The risk here is that traders might move their capital to different platforms, or the token might lose value because of continuous postponement of transferability.

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these are great points and well warranted, I am in agreement with many of them but think there are sensible answers to all the questions you pose.

Many if not all of these questions will be addressed on the community call tomorrow which you should join!

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This is not a decision, it’s a discussion if the community wishes to.

–

Ignition is already live, there have been a couple of token launches already through it (as described in my top message) that have shown to provide solid and strong liquidity to the token launch. There is no reason to suggest they would delay the timeslot given. To be clear, Ignition is a special launch program that only a single token goes through every through weeks, selected by Aerodrome and supported through the process. I think it’s one every 3 weeks or so. This isn’t a permissionless thing where multiple tokens are going through it at a time and you get lost in the noise.

–

I think a big part of the discussions since June have been mentioning aerodrome. The token is permissionless and can be traded on any exchange, but Aerodrome specifically has shown time and again that its ve incentives model works as one of the best, if not the best, at providing strong liquidity, and the Ignition program boosts this even further.

–

As @samehueasyou as said though, it would be great to bring these points to the community call later today.

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