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Conviction Voting

Conviction Voting

TL;DR:

Conviction Voting is a mechanism where proposals gain eligibility for funding gradually, based on sustained community support. The longer support is held, the more “conviction” builds. Once a proposal’s conviction passes a threshold, it can be executed.


Unlike snapshot voting or funding rounds with fixed deadlines, Conviction Voting introduces a continuous, time-weighted process. Voters lock in their support for proposals, and the system tracks how long and how many people back each one. This creates a slow, thoughtful decision flow that favors proposals with broad and lasting support, rather than short-term hype.


Conviction Voting can be tuned to control how quickly funding flows—based on available budget, current proposal load, and the size of individual allocations. It’s particularly useful in always-on treasuries, liquid governance systems, or ecosystems looking to reduce proposal churn.


This mechanism was first developed by 1Hive and is used by communities seeking to make funding more gradual, participatory, and trust-based.

Best For

  • Always-on funding flows
  • Open, participatory ecosystems
  • Reducing governance fatigue
  • Filtering for deeply supported ideas

Good At

  1. Prioritizing sustained community interest
  2. Spreading decision-making over time
  3. Avoiding rushed or impulsive proposals
  4. Enabling governance without hard voting rounds

Dependencies / Requirements

  • Interface for continuous proposal listing and voting
  • Token-based or rep-based signaling system
  • Conviction thresholds and decay/growth parameters
  • Treasury or pool with flexible disbursement logic

Not Good At

  • Time-sensitive funding decisions
  • Situations with low voter engagement
  • Communities unfamiliar with continuous governance models
  • Low-trust environments where abuse of long-term signaling is possible

Who Should Use It?

  • DAOs that want to replace or complement formal voting rounds
  • Always-on ecosystems with many parallel proposals
  • Communities that prefer gradual consensus over winner-takes-all
  • Treasuries looking to fund proposals without deadlines

Example Use Cases

  • A DAO treasury uses Conviction Voting to fund proposals as they cross conviction thresholds over time
  • A community rewards public goods projects that continue receiving support over weeks or months
  • A contributor proposes a recurring budget, and it’s unlocked only when long-term conviction is achieved