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Voting Multipliers

Voting multipliers let DAOs recognize and reward their most valuable contributors with increased governance influence.

Why Multipliers?

Token-weighted voting has a problem: capital ≠ contribution. Someone who bought tokens yesterday has the same vote as someone who's been building for a year.

Multipliers solve this by letting DAOs boost the voting power of: - Founding members who took early risk - Bounty winners who improved prompts - Long-term supporters who stayed through tough times - Active contributors recognized by the community

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Base Votes (from delegated SXXX)                           │
│  User has 1,000 tokens delegated to self                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ×
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Multiplier NFT (from VotingMultiplierNFT)                  │
│  User owns "Founder" tier (2x multiplier)                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              =
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Effective Votes: 2,000                                     │
│  User's vote counts 2x in governance                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Multiple multipliers stack: 

Base: 1,000 tokens
Founder NFT: 2x
Contributor NFT: 1.5x

Effective: 1,000 × 2 × 1.5 = 3,000 votes

Key Properties

DAO-Scoped

Each multiplier NFT belongs to a specific DAO. A "Founder" NFT from DAO A has no effect on voting in DAO B.

This prevents whales from buying multipliers and dominating multiple communities.

Transferable

Unlike soulbound badges, multiplier NFTs can be sold or transferred. The multiplier follows the NFT, not the person.

This creates a market signal: if multipliers are valuable, people will pay for them.

Checkpointed

Multipliers are recorded at every transfer to prevent gaming: - You can't buy an NFT after a proposal is created and vote with it - Historical snapshots use the multiplier you had at proposal creation - No flash-loan attacks on governance

Capped

Maximum 5x multiplier per account, maximum 20 NFTs per account. This prevents extreme concentration.

Multiplier Format

Multipliers use basis points where 100 = 1x:

Value Multiplier Meaning
100 1x No bonus (baseline)
125 1.25x 25% boost
150 1.5x 50% boost
200 2x Double voting power
300 3x Triple voting power
500 5x Maximum allowed

Tier System

DAOs organize multipliers into tiers - categories of NFTs with different multipliers, supplies, and distribution methods.

Tier Type Typical Multiplier Distribution
Founding Member 2-3x Airdrop to early supporters
Contributor 1.5-2x Bounty completion, governance votes
Supporter 1.25-1.5x Public mint, auction
Auction Variable Daily Nouns-style auctions

Creating Tiers

Tiers are created through governance proposals:

# Create a governance proposal for a new tier
sage nft tier create \
  --dao 0x... \
  --name "Founding Member" \
  --multiplier 200 \
  --max-supply 50 \
  --price 0

Options: - --name - Tier name (visible in UI) - --multiplier - Basis points (200 = 2x) - --max-supply - Maximum NFTs in this tier (0 = unlimited) - --price - Price for public mint (0 = admin-only)

Auctions

For ongoing treasury funding, DAOs can use Nouns-style continuous auctions:

Day 1: Auction NFT #1 → Winner gets multiplier, treasury gets ETH
Day 2: Auction NFT #2 → Winner gets multiplier, treasury gets ETH
...

# Check current auction
sage auction status

# Place a bid
sage auction bid 0.5

# Settle ended auction (anyone can call)
sage auction settle

Auctions automatically mint the next NFT and start a new auction when settled.

Checking Your Multiplier

# Check if a DAO uses multipliers
sage multiplier status --dao 0x...

# See your voting power breakdown
sage multiplier calculate --dao 0x...

# Output:
# Base votes: 1,000 SXXX
# Multiplier: 2x (Founding Member tier)
# Effective votes: 2,000

When to Use Multipliers

Use multipliers when: - Recognizing founders who took early risk - Contributors earn lasting influence, not just token payments - Ongoing treasury funding via auctions - Reputation matters more than capital alone

Skip multipliers when: - Pure token democracy is the goal - Simplicity is paramount - DAO is very small (< 10 members) - You want to avoid any "privileged" voters

Contract Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  VotingMultiplierNFT                                        │
│  - ERC721 with multiplier values per token                  │
│  - Tiers: Founder (2x), Contributor (1.5x), etc.           │
│  - Checkpointed for historical queries                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  MultipliedVotes (per-DAO wrapper)                          │
│  - IVotes interface (Governor uses this)                    │
│  - effectiveVotes = baseVotes × multiplier / 10000         │
│  - Delegation happens on base token, not here               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  SXXX (ERC20Votes)                                          │
│  - Base governance token (delegated voting power)           │
│  - Delegate here to enable voting                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘