Remove the length limit for proposal metadata

[larry0x]

UPDATE: didn't notice the limit is a configurable parameter

Currently, there is a 255 character limit on the governance proposal's metadata field:

cosmos-sdk/x/gov/keeper/keeper.go

Lines 222 to 229 in 22dfa11

	// assertMetadataLength returns an error if given metadata length
	// is greater than a pre-defined MaxMetadataLen.
	func (k Keeper) assertMetadataLength(metadata string) error {
	if metadata != "" && uint64(len(metadata)) > k.config.MaxMetadataLen {
	return types.ErrMetadataTooLong.Wrapf("got metadata with length %d", len(metadata))
	}
	return nil
	}

This forces proposals to be put off-chain (e.g. on IPFS) as any meaningful proposal would certainly require a description that's longer than a tweet.

I think this is a wrong decision. Users can decide to put proposals off-chain if they want to, but they should also have the option to put proposals on-chain. The SDK shouldn't force them one way or the other.

Personally, I consider governance proposals an important part of a chain's history and should be maintained as permanent on-chain records.

My suggestions:

• Simply remove the length limit. This would allow the metadata to be uploaded on-chain as stringified JSON.
• Take an Any as metadata instead of a string.

[julienrbrt]

Currently, it is a parameter, so chains can still increase the maximum metadata length. What is the advantage of completely removing that constraint?

[larry0x]

Ah I'm dumb, didn't notice it's a configurable parameter