Nouns DAO

Author: Nounlius TL;DR - reduce max quorum from 20% to 15%

Dynamic Quorum Parameter Updates As articulated in this detailed post, three parameters need to be set for dynamic quorum.

CURRENT SETTINGS Minimum quorum %: currently set to 10% Maximum quorum %: currently set to 20% Coefficient: currently set to 1, such that each against vote raises the quorum requirement by one vote, until the maximum quorum is reached.

PROPOSED SETTINGS Minimum quorum %: 10% (no change) Maximum quorum %: set to 15% Coefficient: 1 (no change)

RATIONALE

Prop 261 recently adjusted Dynamic Quorum to ensure only “Hell Yes” proposals are executed. The stated rationale was the following

1. Dynamic quorum was designed so that contentious proposals would require a higher degree of support.
2. Maximum quorum is currently too low to have changed the outcome of any recent proposals.
3. Increasing maximum quorum should increase the percentage of successful proposals that are “hell yes” initiatives.

What appears to be conveniently left out is the “Why” behind Dynamic Quorum: which was to protect the DAO from voter apathy as an attack vector in an effort to move the DAO one step closer to removing the veto.

The recent change is a misuse of this DAO parameter to serve a particular point of view. As Wilson Cusack pointed out, functionally speaking Dynamic Quorum serves to privilege against votes.

Generally speaking, contentious proposals lead to higher voter turnout. There may be a case to be made that setting Dynamic Quorum to 0 would incentivize higher voter participation and/or delegation—which would increase DAO health. The inverse may also be true, the higher the dynamic quorum the less incentive there is to participate on the margins given the increases barrier to successful proposals—which reduces DAO health.

This proposal will revert to Maximum Quorum’s original setting of 15%, meanwhile encouraging further discussion on whether or not to remove the Dynamic Quorum altogether.

PROPOSAL TRANSACTIONS _setDynamicQuorumParams: sets dynamic quorum params to:

Minimum quorum BPs: 10% (1000 basis points) (no change). Maximum quorum BPs: 15% (1500 basis points). Coefficient: 1 (1,000,000 in unsigned integer with 6 decimal places) (no change).