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Technical Details & Architecture

Polity is designed to provide cryptographically verifiable transparency for public-interest media crowdfunding.

01. Abstracted Web3: Fiat-In, Crypto-Escrow

To provide a frictionless experience, Polity accepts standard fiat contributions (Credit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay) via Stripe. You do not need a crypto wallet to participate.

However, to guarantee financial transparency, Polity operates a Daily Batch Escrow. During our Beta, as fiat funds settle, the organizers manually bridge equivalent capital into a public USDC wallet on the Base L2 network. This provides a real-time, public audit trail of the treasury without exposing users to crypto complexity. In future scalable versions, this bridge and refund mechanism will be fully automated via audited smart contracts.

02. Sybil-Resistant Governance & Ranked-Choice Consensus

To prevent anyone from purchasing outsized influence, Polity strictly enforces a 1-person, 1-voice mechanism. By routing contributions through standard fiat payment gateways, we utilize institutional-grade anti-fraud and payment fingerprinting to verify unique human participants while preserving strict privacy. Regardless of whether a supporter contributes $10 or $1,000, each verified participant receives exactly one Voting Right and one Submission Right

Elections are decided using a Partial Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) algorithm. In traditional plurality ("first-past-the-post") voting, participants can only choose a single option. When multiple compelling designs share a similar message or artistic direction, they split the vote (the "spoiler effect"), frequently allowing an unpopular or polarizing candidate to win with a narrow plurality. Instant Runoff Voting eliminates this failure mode by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference (#1, #2, #3, etc.).

Why Partial Ranking?

Standard ranked-choice elections sometimes mandate that voters rank every single candidate on the ballot. However, for campaigns that attract a large number of submissions, forcing a complete ranking can be burdensome. Polity solves this with Partial Ranking: voters have complete agency to rank only the designs they genuinely support (minimum of 1). You can rank your top 2, top 5, or all candidates.

Active vs. Exhausted Ballots: If a participant only ranks a single candidate and that candidate is eliminated in an early round due to low community support, that ballot has no further preferences to transfer to and becomes "exhausted" (inactive). To ensure your voice continues to shape the final rounds, we strongly encourage ranking at least your top 3 to 5 preferred designs!

The Step-by-Step IRV Tallying Process

  1. Round 1 (First-Preference Tally): The system counts the #1 ranked choice on every active ballot cast by verified participants.
  2. Consensus Check (>50% Majority): If any candidate receives more than 50% of active ballots, that candidate is immediately declared the elected consensus winner.
  3. Lowest-Candidate Elimination: If no candidate hits the >50% majority threshold, the design with the lowest vote count across active ballots is eliminated from the race.
  4. Algorithmic Vote Transfer: Ballots that were allocated to the eliminated candidate are automatically reallocated to each voter's next-preferred active candidate. If a ballot has no remaining active choices listed, it becomes exhausted.
  5. Sequential Convergence: The algorithm updates the active ballot count, recalculates majority thresholds, and repeats the elimination and transfer cycle round-by-round until a candidate crosses 50% or stands as the final remaining choice.

03. Financial Transparency: Fees & Budget

When a contribution is made, the funds are strictly allocated according to the following protocol rules:

  • Billboard Media: The base contribution you select goes strictly toward purchasing digital billboard screen time. This is the only figure used to calculate the campaign's progress.
  • Payment Processing (At Checkout): Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for credit cards. We pass this cost through directly as a distinct line item to ensure it does not dilute the media buy.
  • Platform Operations (At Checkout): A 5% + $0.50 fee is added to subsidize servers, database hosting, and protect against processing losses in the event a campaign fails and refunds are issued.

If the campaign fails to hit its minimum threshold, you are automatically refunded 100% of your contribution (Polity absorbs the Stripe processing loss).

04. Community-Engaged Creative Direction

Any contributor with a Submission Right can submit a design proposal that matches the exact physical specifications of the targeted digital billboard inventory.

05. Overfunding & Extended Media Buys: Perpetual Seasons

Polity utilizes instant-capture payment processing to support real-time transparency and on-chain bridging. This eliminates the risk of dropped pledges and ensures that 100% of the funds shown on the ledger are secured.

When a campaign raises funds in excess of its Minimum Launch Target (MLT)—or continues receiving late contributions while live—a common misconception is that surplus capital is merely spent extending the display duration of the initial creative indefinitely. This is not how Polity operates.

Overfunding Powers Subsequent Seasons, Not Just Static Creatives

Displaying a single static creative for months creates visual message fatigue and prevents the community from responding to breaking news, regulatory developments, or cultural shifts. Therefore, overfunding (which happens when people contribute after the initial crowdfunding phase ends) extends the media buy into the next Season rather than locking the billboard to the current creative.

  • Season 1 (Baseline Flight): The initial MLT funds the baseline media flight (typically 30 days) and runs the creative chosen in the inaugural election.
  • Season 2+ (Overfunded Extension): 100% of surplus funds roll forward in escrow to finance subsequent flight periods, unlocking a new round of submissions and voting!

The Seasonal Refresh: Once an active media flight concludes, the campaign initiates a Seasonal Refresh. The design portal reopens for fresh submissions, and a new round of Ranked-Choice Voting takes place. Contributors from the original crowdfunding window and anyone who contributed after that window locked participate in electing the new creative. Because the treasury is already pre-funded by the surplus, the new winning creative is deployed immediately to the digital billboard without requiring a new 30-day crowdfunding cycle.