Quadratic Voting

1. What Is Quadratic Voting

Quadratic voting is a decision-making mechanism where the cost of additional votes increases quadratically — the nth vote costs n units. It dilutes the influence of large holders and better reflects preference intensity.

2. How It Works

Voters buy votes, with the cost of votes scaling quadratically (1, 4, 9, 16... credits for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th... votes). One voter with 100 credits can cast ~10 votes on one issue, while 100 voters with 1 credit each can cast 100 — favoring broad consensus over concentrated power. Quadratic funding applies the idea to public-goods allocation.

3. Why It Matters

Quadratic voting addresses the "one token = one vote" problem where whales dominate DAO governance. It creates a more democratic distribution of influence and is used in quadratic funding (e.g., Gitcoin Grants) to allocate matching funds based on community support breadth.

4. Key Facts

• Vote cost grows with the square of votes cast
• Quadratic funding matches small contributions broadly
• Sybil resistance is essential (many fake small voters could game it)
• Used experimentally in DAOs and public-goods funding

5. Related Concepts

• community-vote
• dao
• delegation-voting
• public-goods