Below is an introduction to a proposal followed by the proposal itself. There will be a two week discussion period before the proposal is put to a poll. Thanks to 
Gridcoin polls are a tool that help guide decision-making on the Gridcoin network. It is difficult to use this tool without clear polling definitions and validation parameters. This will become increasingly difficult as we continue to grow and decentralize as a network and community.
I propose defining requirements and validation parameters for polls. To do this I propose defining seven types of polls with appropriate requirements and parameters for each. I propose this split because a major protocol change, for example, is much different than a minor marketing proposal and should be held to a different standard. Additionally, a protocol change and a marketing initiative, for example, are going to have different aspects to their proposals. Lastly, the new GUI assets have the potential to set a poll type when making a poll. This will help organize polls in the client so participants can more easily see what is happening.
I am looking for feedback, concerns, questions, and suggestions during this discussion period. I think a particular focus should be put on AVW validation parameters and required poll times. As this is a fairly significant proposal, I think it is appropriate to use the poll time we decide on for this proposal as a standard across other major polls.
Please comment on the steemit or reddit threads, or reach out on slack or discord. Thank you!
Introduction and preliminary discussions on slack: Already done
Presentation to the larger community: Now
Discussion period: 2 weeks - Ends March 6th
Poll: 2-6 weeks depending on the discussion
Below are some notes based on the preliminary discussions that took place on slack.
Several weeks ago we spent some time discussing possible AVW values on slack in the #poll-definitions channel. The values in this proposal represent the outcome of those discussions.
AVW was introduced with the CBR poll. Since then I have been following as many polls as I can taking note of the AVW before and after whales enter their votes. It seems as though all major polls have breached 100% AVW (super-validation). Major polls without significant whale participation seem to break 30% AVW. Major polls with limited whale participation seem to break 60% AVW. We are going to need to continue to observe poll results as we get deeper into the CBR economy as CBR has stabilized the network difficulty at a higher level than under the APR model.
If anyone wants to break things down into real data, please do! All the information is in the blockchain and there are several explorers that might help break it all down. I used https://gridcoinstats.eu.
The goal with this proposal as it stands is to get things moving by setting AVW values and implementing a process to change these values in the future. A management poll is that process. Management polls are set at 30% AVW so they will be validated with relative ease. This should force us to have a conversation and make a decision when a change is proposed.
The two week discussion period on this proposal will hopefully give us time to discuss this concept and these values as a community before putting it to a poll.
The goal with this proposal as it stands is to get things moving by defining poll-types and requirements/validation parameters. We could poll each poll-type individually, however I believe that this will consume a significant amount of time with minimal return when compared to defining a foundation for all poll-types at once. We have much to do and since polls play a significant foundational role in guiding our decisions, I think we should get this over with as quickly as practically possible so long as there is a reasonable way to change things in the future.
Outreach in this proposal is seen as:
Legitimizing community representation - If someone and their proposal (documentation, presentation, talking points, etc) is voted as a representative at a specific event they can say they represent the network. If not, they are an individual that is part of the network.
Compiling, building, and maintaining proactive documentation - Shared presentation material, for example.
Maintaining channels of communication for those outside of the network and community - Contact with BOINC projects and exchanges, for example.
Allocating resources to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves - cross-community partnerships, for example.
If a poll is unvalidated it is not considered actionable. This means that the proposal would need to be reworked, ideally through collaboration, and presented again. This encourages collaboration and discussion from the start which in turn helps ensure quality proposals.
They exist and I believe there are solutions. I also believe AVW is a better metric than TVW. I detail this in the proposal. For now, I think the most important thing is to get these requirements and parameters defined so we can move forward with other developments. This proposal defines a process by which we can tweak the system as we grow.
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Gridcoin utilizes a protocol based voting mechanism to:
Any network participant with a balance of 100k GRC in a wallet can create a poll. A poll must meet all requirements for the appropriate poll type to be considered valid.
There are seven types of polls.
Vote-weight is the power given to a vote cast on the Gridcoin blockchain. It is measured as a modified sum of balance and magnitude. The formula for vote-weight is:
VoterBalance+VoterMagnitude((TotalMoneySupply/TotalNetworkMagnitude)/5.67)
Total vote-weight (TVW) is the total possible vote-weight of the network. It is calculated as a weighted sum of total minted coins and network magnitude. The formula for total vote-weight is:
TotalMoneySupply+TotalNetworkMagnitude((TotalMoneySupply/TotalNetworkMagnitude)/5.67)
Active vote-weight (AVW) is a calculated average of the coin weight actively securing the network for the duration of the poll, plus the network magnitude, less the magnitude of any crunching pools. The formula for AVW is:
AV-W = (Average Difficulty* 9544371.769) + ((TotalNetworkMagntiude- Average Pool Magnitude)* (Average MoneySupply/TotalNetworkMagnitude)/5.67)
AVW as a metric solves the validation problems of total vote-weight validation, including missing vote-weight due to lost and burned coins, coins in cold storage, coins held by exchanges, and vote-weight frozen by crunching pools.
AVW enables high weight validation via active network participants.
AVW enables super-validation. Super-validation is a validation percentage greater than 100%. Super-validation implies that inactive balances were brought online to vote on the proposal in question.
Note: TotalNetworkMagnitude = 115,000
Poll validation requirements are intended to ensure no proposal passes without significant network support. Each poll type has its own AVW validation parameter initially defined in this proposal. Validation parameters can be changed through management polls.
If a poll is not validated no action is taken.
Any proposal requesting reimbursement or funding from the foundation must be approved by a network poll.
Funding can be requested for all poll types except for Opinion/Casual and Whitelist polls. The following information is required if funding is requested in a proposal.
There are seven poll types. All poll types except for Opinion/Casual must use "Magnitude and Balance" as weight metrics.
Opinion/Casual polls are for early exploration of ideas or for fun.
NONE
NONE
Development polls include polls to change a protocol value or for proposing changes to the protocol at large.
Marketing polls include any proposal for marketing initiatives.
Outreach polls include any proposal which seeks to:
Management polls include any proposal which seeks to modify the management or organizational structure of Gridcoin.
Community polls include any proposal or initiative related to the Gridcoin community, but unrelated to any other department.
A whitelist poll is used to add or remove a project from the whitelist. The whitelist is a larger mechanism within the operation of Gridcoin. Each project considered for whitelisting must meet a set of requirements, and several actions must be taken before a poll for adding or removing a project can be considered valid. A project can be removed from the whitelist at the discretion of the whitelist admin if it ever fails to meet a requirement described below.
More information including discussion threads that informed the creation of the whitelisting and greylisting processes, information about each project's Work Availability Score and Zero Credit Days, and details on the greylist process are linked at the end of this section.
These are necessary only if a project meets all whitelist requirements, is not greylisted, and is otherwise functioning as intended
https://gridcoin.ddns.net/pages/project-list-process.php
https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Tasks/issues/194
https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Tasks/issues/213
https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Tasks/issues/201
