Q ♠ · Strategy · Draft
Secret Ballot
Members cast votes that stay hidden from everyone until the vote closes, so no one can be pressured.
How it works
A member encrypts their vote or submits a commitment (a hash of the vote plus a secret) instead of the vote itself. The chain records that they voted but not how. During the voting period, nobody can see a running tally. When the period ends, a key holder decrypts the votes, or the voters reveal them. The contract counts them and publishes the result. Some designs use zero-knowledge proofs so that even the tally is verified without exposing a single ballot.
Use it when
- You worry that members will not vote against a powerful person in the open.
- Stop early results from swaying late voters or triggering last-minute vote buying.
Watch out for
- Whoever holds the decryption key can peek early; a leaked key breaks the whole vote.
- Voters lose the public record they use to hold delegates to account.
Example
Snapshot. Snapshot launched shielded voting in July 2022, encrypting each vote with Shutter Network's keys until the proposal closes.