How Polity Works
Polity allows communities to pool resources, propose designs, and democratically elect what message goes on high-visibility digital billboards. Here is a comprehensive guide to how our seasons, voting rights, and refunds work.
Phase 1: Crowdfunding (30 Days)
Every campaign launches with a strictly time-locked 30-day crowdfunding window and a Minimum Launch Target (MLT). The MLT represents the minimum funding needed for a campaign's outputs to go live. During the Beta, this number is set by Polity but in the future it will be determined through collective governance.
Voting Rights & Early Access
The 30-day window always stays open for the full 30 days, even if the funding goal is met early. Any contribution of $10 or more made during this window secures 1 Voting Right & 1 Submission Right for the upcoming election. These Rights are replenished during any subsequent Seasonal refreshes (see Phases 4 and 5).
Phase 2: Submissions
Once the 30-day funding window successfully closes, the Submission phase opens. Anyone holding a Submission Right can submit a creative design. Submissions must adhere to the physical dimensions of the billboard and pass a basic compliance check (no hate speech, illicit content, etc.) before being added to the ballot.
Phase 3: Ranked-Choice Voting
Voters review all approved submissions and rank their favorites using a Partial Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system. You only need to rank the designs you genuinely support (minimum of 1). The consensus design becomes the official campaign creative.
Phase 4: The Billboard Goes Live
The winning design is programmatically dispatched to the digital billboard vendor, and the media flight begins! The baseline flight is typically 30 days, while any excess funding raised beyond the MLT automatically rolls over into the treasury to extend the campaign's media buy into a subsequent "Season". Contributing while the billboard is live grants 1 Voting Right and 1 Submission Right for the subsequent Season.
Phase 5: The Seasonal Refresh
Polity campaigns are perpetual. As the billboard runs, the campaign remains open for "latecomer" contributions. Because the current flight's creative is locked in, late contributions do not grant any Rights for the current display. However, they are added to the voter registry for the Next Season.
Once the initial media flight completes, the campaign triggers a "Seasonal Refresh". The submissions and voting stages reopen, allowing the enfranchised latecomers (and previous voters) to elect a brand-new design for the next flight, powered by the continuously accumulating treasury.