Quadratic Funding

Created: 2020-11-05T21:17:26-06:00

tl;dr using a quadratic curve allows paying more to win but applies a harsh curve to make extreme spending less desirable.

also crowd funding public works by whales using a sponsor pool that pays to projects based on area of a triangle instead of straight 1:1 matching.

the quadratic sponsorship part is inferred by doing an n-pairwise analysis of how much each actor benefits from a good even if they opt not to pay for it.

Quadratic Payments: A Primer

People only buy goods if the perceived value is aligned with the value/cost.
The more money behind a public work, the more likely it will receive the rest of the funding it needs.
In a "public market" where everyone benefits if something is paid for, simulations predict funding comes primarily from whales.
Someone only donates to a public work when probability of success * value > 100%.
"One person one vote" favors voters with minimal concerns.
"One dollar one vote" favors the wealthy.
In quadratic buying/voting, the cost of each subsequent vote costs one more unit than the previous. Total cost of votes is {n^2}/2.

Your n'th unit of influence costs $n.

Quadratic elections

Take one or more candidates.
Give voters some number of points to distribute.
Can give positive or negative votes to any candidates desired, but the ballot line costs {n^2}/2 where n is the score given to the candidate.
Sum the points given to every candidate.

Vitalik also suggests making an entire ballot of propositions as the candidates.

Also a warning against currencies held between ballots; someone can keep re-posting the same petition to exhaust people's tokens on vetoing the measure.

Quadratic subsidies

To find out the amount of money a sponsor contributes:

Group and sum contributions by donor
Take the square root of each
Sum the square roots
The sponsor pays the square root of this sum

Quadratic ads

Highest score bidder gets the ad spot for $time
Each point costs more than the last ex. (score^2)/2 is total price paid

Other references

Quadratik (Github)

Open Drone Map