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Voting
A guide to the Porta voting system

Explainer

Referenda are simple, inclusive, stake-based voting schemes. Each referendum has a specific proposal associated with it that takes the form of a privileged function call in the runtime (that includes the most powerful call: set_code, which can switch out the entire code of the runtime, achieving what would otherwise require a "hard fork").
Referenda are discrete events, have a fixed period where voting happens, and then are tallied and the function call is made if the vote is approved. Referenda are always binary; your only options in voting are "aye", "nay", or abstaining entirely.
Referenda can be started in one of several ways:
  • Publicly submitted proposals;
  • Proposals submitted by the council, either through a majority or unanimously;
  • Proposals submitted as part of the enactment of a prior referendum;
  • Emergency proposals submitted by the Technical Committee and approved by the Council.
One proposal becomes a referendum every 7 days.
All referenda have an enactment delay associated with them. This is the period between the referendum ending and, assuming the proposal was approved, the changes being enacted.
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How you can increase your voting power

Porta utilizes a voluntary locking system that allows token holders to increase their voting power. Token holders can lock their tokens for up to 256 days to multiple their voting power by 6.
votes = tokens * conviction_multiplier
The conviction multiplier increases the vote multiplier by one every time the number of lock periods double.
Lock Periods
Lock Duration (days)
Vote Multiplier
0
0
0.1
1
8
1
2
16
2
4
32
3
8
64
4
16
128
5
32
256
6

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How voting is tallied

  • Super-Majority Approve
    A positive turnout bias, whereby a heavy super-majority of aye votes is required to carry at low turnouts, but as turnout increases towards 100%, it becomes a simple majority-carries as below.
  • Super-Majority Against
    A negative turnout bias, whereby a heavy super-majority of nay votes is required to reject at low turnouts, but as turnout increases towards 100%, it becomes a simple majority-carries as below.
  • Simple-Majority
    Majority-carries, a simple comparison of votes; if there are more aye votes than nay, then the proposal is carried, no matter how much stake votes on the proposal.
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Voting Terminology

'approve' refers to the number of aye votes
'against' refers to the number of nay votes
'turnout' refers to the total number of voting tokens. It does not take the conviction_multiplier into account
'electorate' refers to the total number of tokens issued in the network
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