How Does Quadratic Voting Fundamentally Differ from One-Token-One-Vote?

Quadratic voting (QV) ensures that the cost of an additional vote increases quadratically with the number of votes already cast. In contrast, one-token-one-vote (OTV) assigns voting power linearly to token holdings.

For example, under OTV, 100 tokens yield 100 votes. Under QV, to get 10 votes, a holder might need 100 tokens (102), but to get 20 votes, they would need 400 tokens (202).

This structure makes it prohibitively expensive for large holders to buy a majority of votes, giving smaller holders a louder collective voice.

How Do Governance Tokens Enable Participation in a DAO?
What Is the Economic Rationale for Increasing the Cost of Additional Votes?
What Is a Sybil Attack and How Does Quadratic Voting Attempt to Mitigate It?
What Is a ‘Governance Attack’ and What Are Its Potential Financial Consequences?
How Does a Proxy Vote Function in DPoS?
How Does the Concept of “Cost” Relate to Voting in a Quadratic System?
What Are the Trade-Offs of Using Quadratic Voting for Proposal Funding versus Simple Majority Voting?
Can Quadratic Voting Be Applied to Decisions beyond Funding, Such as Protocol Upgrades?

Glossar