Voting for new Project Proposals in Fund 9 is scheduled to kick off on September 5th, 2022, and will run through September 19th. There are over 1000 proposals in this round. More than half of these belong to first-time proposers. Hundreds more are from folks with only one proposal in the hat. Finally, there are many proposals from seasoned veterans - the experienced and invested all-stars who have been in the trenches for numerous rounds, working hard to build the future of Cardano. So with all of this to consider, you may have some questions!
Who should vote?
Anyone who holds at least 500 ADA is qualified to vote. If that doesn’t describe you yet, that’s ok - keep reading and see if participating more deeply in Cardano might be something that interests you.
Where do I vote?
Voting takes place via a free phone app. Download the “Catalyst Voting” app, and follow the on-screen instructions to register your staked Cardano wallet to vote. Part of the process will have you use and protect a QR code and PIN. The app will advise you to safeguard these, but it bears repeating: Take some screenshots and put them somewhere safe. Personally, I take the “Squirrel” approach and bury my QR and PIN in several places on my digital devices; I can never remember just one spot, but if I put them in enough places, I will probably be able to find them when I need it.
When do I vote?
Voting for Fund 9 is scheduled to run from September 5th-September 19th, 2022. If registered, now is a good time to start compiling your pick list for voting! Fund 10 is set to begin in early November. If you are not yet registered, do it now to be ready. In the future, check here at Lido Nation for Project Catalyst Dates and news updates, or reach out on Twitter @LidoNation.
Why should I vote?
- Learn amazing things. If you are not sure how blockchain technology can be used beyond cryptocurrency, or if you can name all the uses on one hand - prepare to have your horizons expanded. Is blockchain for farmers? Musicians? Students? Grocery stores? Can blockchain make fake meat? Ok, not every idea is a great idea - and that is part of the fun. If you invest some time in voting, I guarantee you will have a juicy tidbit to share at the next barbecue.
- Plan your next moves. Project Catalyst delivers the most concentrated dose of new blockchain initiatives on the planet. Projects that win funding will be building projects - some of which you may wish to participate in. For example, Lido Nation hopes to win funding for a blockchain survey tool and an $incentivized$ learning game. We hope people read our proposals and vote for us because they want to use what we build.
- **Get paid. When you vote, the network pays you for participating. It’s not a lot, but who doesn’t love seeing an incoming transaction in their ADA wallet? You are an influencer. Your vote counts in many ways. The obvious way is the direct weight of your ADA, helping to make community decisions. However, the influence of every vote goes beyond just calculating funding winners in one round. The community is paying attention to the number of voting wallets, their size, and voting habits. Decisions about what happens in the next round of the experiment are based on all of these factors. Moreover, each of us has circles of influence, big and small. When you vote, tell a friend.
- It’s your money. Project Catalyst is building the future of Cardano. Some projects are serious, and some are fun. Some projects are profoundly technical and seek to extend the utility of the technology in impactful ways. Others are more approachable and designed to onboard newcomers and diverse populations by lowering the barriers to entry. Some are probably frivolous or unrealistic - which is also important to notice. In the future, what will the Cardano network be known for? Will it succeed or fail? If you hold ADA, you are invested in that future.
What should I vote for?
The first time I logged into the Catalyst Voting app, I was a little dazed and confused. There, grouped under some Campaign headings, were more than 1000 proposals. I really could not commit to voting up or down on each one. Not only would my thumbs wear out, but I had no realistic way to make informed decisions about so many. The project summaries displayed in the app are no longer than a Tweet! Instead, I relied almost entirely on the Project Assessor “star ratings,” on searching for a few of my favorite people and topics, and of course, I voted for my own projects!
…surely there should be a better way?
Here at Lido Nation, we thought so. We created a “Voter Tool” that helps you make informed decisions quickly and easily. Using the tool, you can search for keywords that appear anywhere in the proposal text - not just in the micro-summaries! We’ve also built intelligent filters to help you zero in on areas that interest you. As you surf through various keywords and filters, you can quickly start building your picklist by clicking the thumbs up or down on each proposal that catches your eye. If you have questions about the track record of repeat proposers, our Catalyst engine has the full repository of past Catalyst results, including funding amounts and project completion. You can judge for yourself whether a repeat proposer is delivering value, or not. Your picklist data is stored in your browser - the Lido Nation website does not track any information about voter tool picks. Some people do wish to share their pick list with the world - like the “sample ballots” shared by political parties prior to elections. This can be a way to catalyze conversations and encourage others to vote your way! If you’d like to share your ballot, that’s up to you; by default, your choices are private.
How should I vote?
- You are allowed to vote for as many proposals as you want. Every time you vote, you are voting with the total value of your ADA; it is not diluted by voting for more things. You can vote YES or NO on any proposal. Most proposals get some of each. To win, a proposal must not only get more YES votes than others, but they must have a margin of more than 15% MORE “yeses” than “nos.” This means that even a proposal with a high “yes” count could still miss funding if it receives an equally high “no” count. It’s worth pointing out that in this scenario, to abstain is a meaningful vote choice.
An important element to remember is that all 1000+ proposals are not competing for the SAME pot of money. The money is divided among campaigns, so winners and losers will be decided within each campaign. Therefore, it makes sense to make sure you spend a little time voting within each campaign as well.
Some have pointed out that to make your vote count the most, it makes logical sense to downvote EVERYTHING that you don’t upvote! This voting pattern has something like the effect of doubling your voting power, by pouring the weight of your ADA into the YES bucket of the proposals you like and the NO bucket of everything else. I plan to apply this model in a modified way; I will vote YES for the projects I like, and I will vote NO on many other projects to magnify my vote. However, I will still abstain from voting on projects I don’t understand or don’t feel qualified to judge.
To get your votes in efficiently, we invite you to try our Voter Tool to assemble your picklist of Yes and No votes. After clicking up or down on all your picks, when you go to Bookmarks>Fund 9 Picklist, you will see your choices, organized by campaign. When you are ready, open the voting app on your phone, and you can breeze through each campaign, logging your votes.
Finally, be sure to SUBMIT your votes; it just takes a quick button click. We encourage you to submit each time you use the voting app during the voting period. If you don’t, you risk forgetting or missing the submission deadline! As an important note, it’s ok to submit your votes even if you think you might change your mind! You can re-vote on the same proposal, and when you submit your next choice, it will overwrite your previous selection. Only your most recent choice on a particular proposal will count. We’ll say it one more time - be sure to SUBMIT your votes to the blockchain! When the voting window closes, your submitted votes are final.
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