The initial Kusama governance system is known as ‘Genesis Governance’. This is how the community implements changes on a decentralized network. Such governance is made up of three chambers:

Referendum Chamber

All changes to Kusama’s logic must be approved by the chamber, which is made up of an assembly of KSM token holders. Each vote is weighted to the amount of tokens one owns. Each referendum has a specific proposal associated with it. All referenda have an enactment delay, which is the time between when a referendum has ended, approved, and changes implemented. Kusama allows seven days for token holders to vote on referendums followed by an enactment period of eight days, after which the referendum will be enacted on the chain.

Council Chamber

The council is composed of elected community members, which helps keep the network secure as they have a stake in the network. The council is voted in by Kusama token holders, meaning they are typically well-known community members. Kusama will have a fixed number of 19 seats for council members.

Kusama council members have control of the treasury, and have three primary governance-related responsibilities: proposing sensible referenda, canceling dangerous referenda, and electing the technical committee.

Technical Committee Chamber

The Technical Committee is made up of teams that have successfully implemented or specified a Polkadot/Kusama runtime or Polkadot Host. Along with the Council, Technical Committee members can produce emergency referenda, fast-tracked for voting and implementation. These are used for critical bug fixes or rapid implementation of new and battle-tested features into the runtime. Fast-tracked referenda mean that they can be active alongside other active referendums.

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