I wrote a blog post called Quadratic Funding, Bribery, and Collusion . The short answer is that by allowing anyone to co-own an idea or solution they support (and co-earn), you cut off collusion before it can start.
Updraft is an implementation of Attention Streams, which I designed in 2021 specifically to address bribery and collusion issues in public goods funding.
The post isn’t long, so I’ll paste the content below.
Background
As I was creating an Idea to enable Quadratic Funding in Updraft to help campaigns make better decisions, my thoughts turned to bribery and collusion–concepts I’ve wrestled with over the years while advising Gitcoin and working as a co-founder on CLR.Fund, which implements Vitalik’s MACI: Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure.
Updraft is an implementation of Attention Streams, which I first sketched out in Nov 2021, as a response to bribery and collusion problems we were seeing, which BrightID by itself couldn’t solve. Here’s an introductory blog post that explains the problem.
When unique individual accounts are used to make collective funding decisions–as is the case in Quadratic Funding–the system may be susceptible to bribery and collusion, and needs to address those problems.
Updraft’s advantage
The Updraft mechanism has an advantage over regular matching funds: Because all supporters earn from an Idea–not just a single designated recipient–the recipient of a bribe can simply keep the associated earnings. Bribery is less effective than simply telegraphing an intention to be a late supporter of an Idea, which is allowed within the rules of Updraft. Collusion isn’t a factor in the Updraft mechanism since every supporter earns their own share.
Be anonymous and be yourself
Other mechanisms may have different ways to defeat bribery and collusion. MACI, for example, has a complex protocol to allow the target of a bribe to generate a false proof of contribution to defeat a briber. The briber can never be sure if the target followed their orders. MACI relies on ZKP, which is great: anonymity can be very useful. Updraft allows that, too. I created a tweet thread showing how someone can use Updraft’s faucet to generate a fresh Ethereum account every week and fund it with gas without linking to any other account. If you want to grow your reputation, and be “yourself”–or mutliple “selfs,” you can do that too. I created an Idea for Updraft Scorecards, which I think will help participants make smart decisions.
A winning formula for Ideas
Updraft is a great host system for Quadratic Funding because of the simplicity with which it deals with collusion and bribery. Along with this comes the feeling of co-ownership of Ideas. No one has a monopoly on Ideas in Updraft; if you like my idea, come co-own it with me and let’s earn together. In doing so, we’ll put an end to bribery and collusion before they can start.