7 ♣ · Coordination · Draft

Quorum

The minimum share of votes or voters that must show up before a decision counts as valid.

The Quorum card: 7 ♣ of Coordination

How it works

The DAO sets a threshold, for example 4 percent of all tokens or 20 members. A proposal opens and members vote as usual. When the vote closes, the system first counts total participation, including votes against. If participation is below the threshold, the proposal fails no matter how the votes split. If it is above, the normal yes or no rule decides. Some DAOs count only yes votes toward the threshold, so a no vote cannot help a proposal reach it.

Use it when

  • You want to stop a handful of voters from passing decisions while everyone else is away.
  • Give big decisions legitimacy by requiring broad participation.
  • Protect a treasury from a fast, quiet proposal that few would notice.

Watch out for

  • Set too high, nothing passes and the DAO stalls; set too low, it protects nothing.
  • Opponents can defeat a proposal by simply not voting, which hides the real level of support.

Example

Compound Governor. Compound's Governor contract, live since 2020, needs 400,000 COMP voting yes, about 4 percent of supply, before any proposal can pass.

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