Neural Quorum Governance

Since October 2023, the Stellar Community Fund (SCF) utilizes a reputation-based voting mechanism to signal community sentiment in Award Allocation in the Community Vote phase of SCF Build. Neural Quorum Governance (NQG) is a novel voting-power attribution and delegation mechanism that was ideated, specified, and implemented in a joint effort between BlockScience and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF). The name is a juxtaposition of its two key constituents: Neural Governance, which enables modular, plug-and-play development and exploration of mechanisms for voting-power attribution, and Quorum Delegation, a new delegation scheme which allows users to delegate their votes without having to trust a single delegate.

Common issues across voting mechanisms include inaccurate sentiment of the larger community, voter fatigue, and apathy, as well as a lack of growth in the core group of voters. NQG aims to solve these issues in SCF by:

Distributing voting weight across community members in a fair, transparent, and decentralized way in alignment with the SCF’s objectives;
Fostering higher engagement by empowering members to grow their reputation within the community;
Providing greater flexibility on voting responsibilities when a voter has limited availability or expertise.
Making it more accessible for newcomers to join, which is necessary for the success of Stellar and Soroban.