Co-owners of decisions — not buyers of truth
VocalWitness is a public square for sealed reports. Day-to-day speech uses the Feed (like a normal social post). Hard rules and rare shared decisions use the DAO (quadratic votes). Money never buys voting power or a higher “truth rank.”
1. Three zones
| Zone | What you do | Money? | Governance? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed | Post, read, like / support signals, corroborate, report abuse | Optional tips only | Not DAO |
| DAO | Propose & vote on policy, appeals, features, process; rare treasury | Votes cost reputation budget, not cash | Yes |
| Operations | Keep servers up, legal minimums, security patches | Platform costs | Founder / stewards with transparency |
2. What belongs on the DAO table (co-ownership)
| Category | Examples | Bar |
|---|---|---|
| Policy | What counts as testimony; privacy defaults; safety rules | Normal quorum |
| Moderation appeal | Challenge a remove/purge on a specific post | Normal quorum + evidence |
| Feature | Product changes the community wants prioritized | Normal quorum |
| Process (governance) | Who may propose; quorum; voting seasons | Higher care |
| Treasury | How to use shared support funds (servers, legal, critical tools) | Highest bar — rare, public, detailed |
You co-own how the Square is run, not a corporate share certificate. Quadratic voting: stronger preference costs more (strength²), so one loud actor is expensive to dominate.
3. What stays out of the DAO
| Action | Why |
|---|---|
| Likes / support on a normal post | Engagement, not law-making |
| Corroboration (“I saw this too”) | Evidence signal |
| Report spam or abuse | Safety pipeline (mods + rules) |
| Personal tips to an author | Private support — must not buy votes or rank |
| Optional “Support the Square” or press credential | Keeps lights on — never sells trust tier or vote weight |
4. Money — highest bar, minimal surface
Hostile actors (including state-linked accounts posing as ordinary citizens) often target money and ranking. So VocalWitness keeps the money surface small:
- Personal tips / donations do not change vote weight or evidence rank.
- Shared funds (if any) move only through an explicit Treasury proposal with clear amount, purpose, and public outcome.
- Treasury proposals should be rare — running costs are mostly ops; governance is mostly rules and appeals.
- Paying for an optional professional credential never buys a higher truth score.
Reality: many people prefer paying for a clear product over pure donations. Optional paid tools are allowed for sustainability; they are not a path into government of the Square.
5. Defenses against bad-faith “citizens”
- Phone / tier checks reduce mass fake accounts (not perfect).
- Quadratic cost makes flooding strong votes expensive.
- Proposing is limited to higher-trust roles so the table is not pure spam.
- Vote tallies are server-checked; clients cannot invent totals.
- Sealed reports stay integrity-first; governance does not “edit truth” by popularity alone.
6. Safety layer (not the DAO)
Flagging synthetic media, steward consensus on removals, and testimony challenges are handled by the safety engine — separate from quadratic platform votes.