Quote from: Solarminer on December 16, 2015, 09:06:50 PM

Quote from: qwizzie on December 16, 2015, 07:55:14 PM

Thread also on Dashtalk forum : https://dashtalk.org/threads/how-to-strenghten-dashs-voting-system.7309/

How to strenghten Dash's Voting System

Problem : masternode budget proposal voting participation is currently too low, this can be observed on below overview's last column (Total Ratio).

Focus-point 1 :

How to reach more masternode owners with regards to budget proposals to vote on, taking into account the difference in location, language and use of forum ?

Possible solution :

Treat and publish every budget proposal the same way, regardless whether it is originating from the Dash development team or from someone in the Dash community. This means every single masternode budget proposal will need to get published on all available communication channels (Bitcointalk forum, Dashtalk forum, Dashwhale, Twitter and Reddit) and will most likely need to get translated on localized forums by local Dash representatives there as well.

Focus-point 2 :

Once we have reached the masternode owners with regards to new budget proposals, how do we keep them motivated to keep participating in the voting process ? Both for now and in the future ?

Possible solution :

Incentivize masternode owners to participate in the voting system. Current payment schedule is as follows :

45% of each block goes to Miners
45% of each block goes to masternodes
10% of each block goes to the decentralised budget fund

Lets say for sake of argument we lower the % of each block going towards masternodes from 45% to 40% and
create a piece of code or a spork that will randomly verify masternodes on whether they have voted
on all budget proposals or not.

If they have voted on a budget proposal it will pay them 5% of the block per budget proposal.
If they have not voted on a budget proposal or reached their max voting reward they get skipped for that 5% payout.

Process :

Code / spork checks random masternodes and finds one of the following conditions :

A : masternode voted on a budget proposal and has not been rewarded for it yet --> it gets 5% of the block as reward
B : masternode voted on a budget proposal but got rewarded already* --> it gets skipped for the 5% block reward
* max number of rewards = total number of budget proposals on which the masternode voted, this means if a masternode voted on 5 budget proposals it will be eligable for 5x 5% payouts, after which it reaches its max.
(this means each masternode will need to build up a voting score, so the system knows if it is eligable for the 5% block reward or not).
C : masternode did not vote on a budget proposal --> masternode gets skipped for that 5% block reward
D : network finds all masternodes voted on all budget proposals (100% participation, highly unlikely but a man can dream ) --> it will deactivate the spork and the 5% flow back to the masternodes

This all could both encourage masternode owners to vote on budget proposals and inspire people
to create new budget proposals.

I'm thinking of asking the oracle part of the masternode network for advice but for now lets first discuss and see where it leads....

I made a rough budget notifier script. Set it up on your masternode and it will email yourself when a budget is entered. There is some setup (and probably bugs) and moocowmoo will eventually make it super simple with dashman. Dashwhale should have email notifications for new budgets soon. A notifier is key to get the word out.
Details for the budget notifier are here.
https://dashtalk.org/threads/december-2015-budget-proposal.7210/page-3#post-75898

As for adding a fee if you don't vote(take and then reward back=fee).....that is a bit touchy. I would bet most nodes don't vote because their proposal is going to go through anyway, so why waste the time. I would rather increase the requirements to get a proposal to pass - like to 30% for more than one payout and 20% for a single payout proposal. Then nodes would be more likely to vote to get the outcome they want. A non vote is also a vote. The concept of voter turnout is not the desire....we want a fair system that only allocates funds to effective projects.

I think we can get better proposals too. Think about a decentralized exchange that would be fundamentally important, right? Something like that would get near the 100% votes. Once we have 1000s of people thinking up proposals some good ones will start flowing through. Evan is really hard to compete with now...Evolution....ground breaking stuff.

I think some kind of a notification system is the most important way to increase participation. We should NOT punish MN operators for not voting on items.

Refusing to vote on an item is just as valid as voting YES or NO. If you (as a MN operator) do not feel strongly on an issue either way, conflicted about an issue, or perhaps don't feel you know enough about a particular issue, then you should have the right to refuse to vote without being penalized.