Optimism proposes Token House-only voting during the Citizens' House pause

What happened

The Optimism Foundation proposed updating the Operating Manual to remove references to the paused Citizens' House and Joint House voting, leaving the Token House as the voting body during the pause.

What changed

If approved, the documented governance process would consolidate voting in the token-weighted Token House while the Citizens' House remains paused. The proposal states that removals require Token House approval at a 51% threshold.

What did not change

The June 25 candidate did not establish approval or merger of the manual update. It did not change bridge contracts, Security Council permissions, upgrade keys, pause roles, or withdrawal mechanics.

Confirmed

• The Foundation had decided to pause Citizens' House operations.
• The proposed manual would remove references to the Citizens' House and Joint House voting.
• Only the Token House would vote while the Citizens' House is paused.
• The proposal states that removal of important manual provisions requires approval at a 51% threshold.

Still open

• The vote outcome and manual merge after the June event boundary.
• The duration and reactivation criteria for the Citizens' House pause.
• How the revised process changes stakeholder checks on canonical-bridge and shared protocol upgrades.
• Whether any separate charter, constitutional, Security Council, or on-chain authorization changes were required.

What it means for an advisor

• Review the Optimism bridge memo's governance and upgrade-authorization map if the manual change becomes effective.
• Distinguish Token House voting-process changes from on-chain Security Council, pause, and upgrade-key authority.
• Monitor whether reduced non-token stakeholder participation alters the diligence assessment for future bridge upgrades.