DFINITY Foundation

Internet Computer Association

Summary
This proposal is intended to enable all neuron owners to vote on any NNS proposal with the topic called Governance with their own brains at any time within the voting period even if their Followees have voted. It also enables all Followees to cast their vote at any time.

Introduction
Currently, if a Followee neuron votes, then liquid democracy is executed immediately and all applicable votes for neurons that are following that Followee neuron are cast immediately. Since Difinity Foundation and Internet Computer Association are disabling default following for proposals on the governance topic and the voting rewards will be weighted based on the topic (see https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/proposal/34485), this means people will start looking for other organizations with neurons they want to follow for the specific proposal topic called Governance. It is impractical to expect that organizations will time their votes until the very end of a proposal to allow individuals to vote manually. Therefore, this proposal intends to enable Followee organizations to vote any time they want within the voting period. If individuals vote manually at any time within the voting period, then this vote is what counts and the votes that would be sent by following are disregarded on Governance proposals.

Proposal
1 - Do not execute Follower votes immediately…only include votes that are cast manually in the calculation of Current Voting Result.
2 - Create a new Projected Voting Result calculation that accounts for all manually cast votes and all Follower votes that result from liquid democracy.
3 - In the Wait for Quiet algorithm, define the “trend” and make algorithmic decisions based on the Projected Voting Result. (See Note below, which is intended to give Dfinity the ability to carefully think about whether the algorithmic decisions should be based on the Current Voting Result instead)
4 - At the conclusion of the voting period, execute Follower votes. Afterward, the Current Voting Result will match the Projected Voting Result.
5 - In the NNS app and on http://dashboard.dfinity.org/governance , display both Current Voting Result and Projected Voting Result
Note: During the realization phase of this proposal, it is acceptable to modify the details if needed to develop a better way to meet the objective of the proposal than what is outlined in the concrete proposal above.

Explanation
In this proposal, Current Voting Result will be based on votes that have been cast manually and are not reversible. Projected Voting Result will be a calculation of the result if all Follower votes were cast based on their Followee assignments. Simple Majority and Absolute Majority will still execute automatically according to Current Voting Results, but Wait for Quiet is based on Projected Voting Result (or possibly Current Voting Result, see Note). Projected Voting Result would change when a vote is cast manually if the vote is different than the Followee vote. This voting mechanism would not accept proposals before the end of the voting period unless the Absolute Majority is obtained by way of manual voting. This proposal enables voters who disagree with a Projected Voting Result to cast their vote manually even if the Projected Voting Result is an Absolute Majority. When they cast their vote manually, it will change the Projected Voting Result and may or may not change the “trend” as per the Wait for Quiet algorithm.

For the purpose of this proposal, the term voting period refers to the total time it takes to execute a proposal vote (inclusive of the Wait for Quiet algorithm) according to the applicable methodology for how the voting duration is determined. This means the voting period will be anywhere from 4 days to 8 days due to a recent proposal to extend the wait for quiet algorithm (https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/proposal/33658).

This proposal maximizes the time for which every voter can vote with their own brain on each proposal, while still ensuring that they can configure Followees when they prefer to allow others to cast their vote for them.

This proposal is only intended to apply to Governance proposals. Application to other types of proposals would be at the discretion of Dfinity if they think there is value.

Timeline
This proposal will be open for deliberation until after the new year before the formal proposal is submitted to the NNS. Comments are appreciated during this deliberation phase and actionable suggestions that improve the design intent of this proposal may be included with the proposal. If this proposal passes, then the desired outcome would be for Dfinity to develop the required code changes quickly, but also give due consideration to the need for a thorough security review. A strict timeline is not imposed with this proposal.

Background
This concept has been in deliberation in a forum topic for the last 3 weeks and can be viewed at… https://forum.dfinity.org/t/proposal-to-enable-manual-voting-throughout-the-entire-voting-period-of-governance-proposals/9815 
This concept was shaped by conversation in another forum topic… https://forum.dfinity.org/t/proposal-to-include-cycle-dao-icdevs-as-default-follow-target-neurons-to-the-nns/9363/31 
Please see the comment history or both topics for further background information.

Proposal to Enable Manual Voting Throughout the Entire Voting Period of Governance Proposals