Pairwise Voting

Proposal Summary

Pairwise Voting is a project that aims to address the challenges of decentralized curation and the high cognitive burden associated with traditional voting systems. Pairwise Voting proposes a novel voting mechanism that allows users to signal their preferences and make informed decisions in a more intuitive and user-friendly way similar to Tinder or “Hot or Not” but for vote signaling. The mechanism involves a system that converts subjective inputs into objective outputs, minimizes the cost of input, and leverages the information in those inputs. Pairwise Voting will be implemented through a website and open-source code, and can be used by anyone to make decisions in a variety of contexts, such as community governance or project funding. The project is currently in development and will be compatible with all EVM chains. The development will be fully open source and will not have any proprietary aspects.

Proposal Description

Decentralized curation is a challenge in Web3. Current voting mechanisms often provide poor user experience and a high cognitive burden for users. This proposal presents a novel voting mechanism that aims to solve these issues making it easy for Web3 communities to signal their preferences and make more informed decisions.

To participate in voting, we need algorithms that can easily signal our preferences, much like the way Web2 algorithms recommendation engines work (for Amazon, Netflix etc.)… In the future, democratic processes may also evolve to incorporate more intuitive and user-friendly mechanisms for collective decision-making. These mechanisms may be integrated into everyday tasks and workflows, making it easy for individuals to contribute their preferences and opinions without feeling like they are doing “work.”

Pairwise aims to address the challenges of collaborative filtering and the high cognitive overhead associated with traditional voting systems. Pairwise allows individuals and organizations to make their own decisions in a more playful manner, with a fun UX where members only need to select which decision they favor more between pairs. The voting experience feels like a dating app. However, in this case users are not swiping right or left on a person, but rather choosing between their preference regarding a decision, project, proposal, or organizational direction… Afterwards, the user goes through the pairwise assessment the system will gather all the information across different users, while taking into account different Snapshot strategies, and giving the best solutions based on the gathered collective intelligence. This system can promote efficiency, fairness, transparency, and encourage innovation.

One key objective of this project is to develop a system that can effectively convert subjective inputs into objective outputs. The system will involve applying a mechanism designed by Colony, that can accurately capture the preferences and priorities of different actors, and that can then use this information to generate rankings that reflect those preferences. Transforming subjective inputs into objective outputs will require careful consideration of the various factors that can influence decisions, and involve the development of complex algorithms and other computational tools.

Another important objective of this project is to minimize the cost of input and effectively leverage the information in those inputs. This will involve finding ways to reduce the time and resources required to gather and process information about preferences and priorities, while still ensuring that the resulting rankings accurately reflect the inputs. Consequently, this process may involve the development of new technologies and techniques, such as machine learning algorithms to help automate and streamline the capital allocation process.

Overall, the goal of this project is to develop and implement a system that can effectively convert subjective inputs into objective outputs, while minimizing the cost of input and leveraging the information in those inputs. If successful, this system could provide a valuable alternative to traditional voting systems, and could help promote more engagement by the community in the decision making process.

Our tool is intended to be used by the Web3 community. The Pairwise mechanism makes it easy for communities to signal their preferences and assessments in a simple and intuitive way, without the hassle of traditional voting processes. Not only can Pairwise be used for governance with different snapshot strategies, but Pairwise can also be used to allocate budgets based on community signaling. And that’s just the beginning - we can’t wait to see how the community will discover and utilize all of the potential use cases for this tool. We believe Pairwise has the potential to greatly improve the decision-making process.

Pairwise will have its own website where users can interact and provide input on their preferences and assessments of various projects. The code for the mechanism will be open-source, meaning that anyone will be able to view the code, fork and build on top of the code. Thus, allowing anyone to use the underlying allocation algorithm on their platforms for the Pairwise assessment, with an easy to use, smooth UX experience.

Prototype demo, if this proposal passes we will make this prototype a fully open source product.

Funding Information

Milestone # Milesone Overview Amount Deliverable Expected Date
1 Platform development and implementation, including the improvement of the pairwise algorithm and interfaces for creating spaces, votes (with allowlists) and projects. 40k USDC 1)Interface for creating spaces, votes and projects. 2)Interface for voting through allowlists. 3)Interface for viewing pairwise rankings. 2.5 Months
2 Addition of weighted votes and integration with Snapshot strategies 20k USDC 4)Addition to add snapshot strategies to allow voters in addition to the allowlist. 5)Addition of weighted votes based on snapshot strategies. 6)Support for multiple snapshot strategies composed in the same pairwise vote. 1.5 Months
3 Integration with decentralized storage solutions and ENS 20k USDC 7)Storage of pairwise results on decentralized storage solution. 8)Generation of decentralized proof of votes (through IPFS or Arweave). 9)Creation and verification of spaces through ENS domains 2 Months
4 Creating a mechanism for incentivizing voting 15k USDC 10)Mechanism for distribution of voting. 11)Anti-sybil mechanism. 1 Month
5 Enhancing voting interfaces 30k USDC 12)Creation of new voting interfaces besides pairwise voting (such as list selection and ongoing updated voting). 3 Months

Our plan is to apply for funding for the first three milestones of our project, with the goal of creating a valuable resource for the community. After these milestones are completed, we will engage with the broader community and seek feedback on the Pairwise tool. If the feedback is positive, we will consider applying for the final two milestones to complete the project. We believe that this approach will allow us to create a product that meets the needs of our potential users and is well-received by the community.

Amount requested: 80,000.00 USDC on: 0xc8d65e1bd67f16522e3117b980e1c9d2caeb9dc3 (generalmagic.eth)

Team information

Our team at General Magic is unique because we offer a full-service product, governance, and crypto-economic systems designed for Impact DAOs. We have a wealth of experience working with public goods projects, including Giveth, Commons Stack, Token Engineering Commons, clrFund, DAppNode, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), and more. With our deep roots in the Ethereum ecosystem, our team has the expertise and skills to meet virtually any need your DAO has. Additionally, our commitment to delivering high-quality results with our strong communication and collaboration skills make us a valuable partner for any project. Visit our website at https://www.generalmagic.io/ or check out us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Generalmagicio to learn more about our team and what we can offer.

Hi there @Zeptimus ,

Thanks for posting this proposal on behalf of the GM team. As you know we are currently in the process of launching the new Aragon delegate voting DAO. It should be deployed shortly, after-which many different proposals will have to pass to align the DAO on its direction and its general guidelines. I believe re-proposing this around March would be better as a vote to terminate the experimental ANDAO charter has already passed including transferring the funds to the new DAO. You then will be able to see what strategy is voted in and better align the proposal around that DAO-wide strategy.

Thanks and have a wonderful holiday season!
-Anthony

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