Layer 5: Decision Weight Matching

What this means

Not every decision deserves a constitutional amendment process. Fixing a typo shouldn't require a 14-day vote. Approving a Franchise name change shouldn't require a Council session. Most decisions are small, operational, and should be made quickly by the people closest to them.

This Layer solves a problem that Gitcoin and other DAOs have struggled with: over-governance. When every decision, no matter how small, goes through the same formal process, the result is decision paralysis and contributor burnout. People stop engaging because engaging is too expensive.

The solution is a tiered governance system. Each tier has process appropriate to the stakes. Operational decisions move fast. Policy decisions involve more voices. Constitutional changes are slow and deliberate. Matching process to stakes is how governance stays both democratic and functional.

Formal Text

Article I: Governance Tiers

Decisions on OLN are classified into four tiers based on stakes and scope. Process requirements scale with tier.

Article II: Tier 1 — Operational Decisions

Scope: Day-to-day platform operations, content moderation routine, tool configuration, minor feature adjustments, specific implementation details within established policy.

Examples: Approving a new Team member who meets criteria, moderating a specific piece of content against established rules, running a scheduled event, applying existing rubric to a specific contribution.

Process:

• Made by the relevant Team or designated operator
• No formal vote required
• Logged in operational records
• Transparent but not requiring deliberation

Reversibility: Decisions can be challenged and re-reviewed through normal escalation (bring to Team, then to Arbiters if unresolved). Most operational decisions are reversible without significant cost.

Article III: Tier 2 — Franchise Policy Decisions

Scope: Rules and policies governing a single Franchise. Changes to Franchise contribution weights within Network guardrails, canonical decisions with broad scope, Franchise-level disciplinary policy, budget allocations within the Franchise treasury.

Examples: Adjusting contribution category weights (within the 5%–40% band), approving a major canon addition, allocating treasury for a Franchise project, updating Franchise codes of conduct.

Process:

• 5-day discussion period on Franchise forum
• 3-day vote window
• Vote by Franchise Team members; simple majority sufficient unless Franchise Constitution specifies higher threshold
• Results take effect at start of next quarter (for category weight changes) or immediately (for one-time decisions)

Reversibility: Decisions remain in force until re-voted. Re-votes follow same process.

Article IV: Tier 3 — Network Policy Decisions

Scope: Platform-wide rules and policies not reaching Constitutional level. Changes to operational standards, Network-level budget allocations, creation or modification of Contributor Funds, cross-Franchise initiatives, API policy updates, advertising policy adjustments within Constitutional caps.

Examples: Setting the Credit-to-cash exchange rate for the year, creating a new Contributor Fund, approving a major partnership, adjusting platform fee percentages within caps.

Process:

• 7-day discussion period on Network forum
• 5-day vote window
• Vote by Power-weighted ballot, or by Council (delegated) for routine matters
• Simple majority of participating Power sufficient, with minimum quorum of 10% of eligible Power participating
• Results take effect 14 days after passage unless urgent

Reversibility: Decisions remain in force until amended. Amendment follows same process.

Article V: Tier 4 — Constitutional Amendments

Scope: Changes to the Network Constitution itself, including entrenched and amendable clauses per Layer 1.

Examples: Changing the Power curve parameters, modifying the absolute Power cap, restructuring the Arbiters, amending jurisdictional definitions.

Process:

• 14-day discussion period on Network forum
• 7-day vote window
• Must include full diff against current text and plain-English summary
• Power-weighted vote, with thresholds per Layer 1:
  • Standard clauses: simple majority + quorum
  • Amendable clauses: 2/3 of Power + simple majority of Franchise Teams
  • Entrenched clauses: 90% of Power + 3/4 of Franchise Teams
  • Unamendable clauses: not amendable
• Results take effect 30 days after passage

Reversibility: Constitutional changes require the same process to reverse. The 30-day delay after passage allows for the Arbiters to flag any procedural issues before the change takes effect.

Article VI: Emergency Procedures

6.1 In genuine emergency (platform security breach, legal compliance requirement, safety crisis), the Creator or Network operators may take immediate action without following tier processes, subject to:

• Immediate public notification of the action
• Within 7 days, presentation to the Council for retroactive ratification
• If Council declines to ratify, action must be reversed where possible

6.2 Emergency procedures cannot be used to bypass constitutional amendment processes. Rules themselves cannot be changed under emergency authority; only specific operational actions can be taken.

6.3 The Arbiters review any invocation of emergency procedures to confirm legitimate emergency basis. Abuse of emergency procedures is grounds for action per Layer 8.

Article VII: Jurisdictional Escalation

7.1 When a decision's tier is unclear, the default is to route to the lower tier. If a decision that should have been higher-tier is challenged, it escalates.

7.2 Decisions at any tier may be challenged by:

• Any contributor affected by the decision
• Any Franchise Team, if the decision affects their Franchise
• The Arbiters, on jurisdictional grounds

7.3 Challenged decisions are paused pending review. Review is by the Arbiters (for jurisdictional questions) or by re-vote at the appropriate tier (for substantive questions).

Article VIII: The Council

8.1 Routine Tier 3 decisions may be decided by the Council acting on behalf of the Network, rather than direct Network-wide vote. This prevents decision paralysis at platform scale.

8.2 The Council is composed of delegates from Franchise Teams, with seats allocated proportional to Franchise Team Power, rounded to minimum one seat per Franchise.

8.3 Contributors who wish for a Tier 3 matter to be decided by direct Network vote rather than by Council may petition for escalation, requiring signatures from contributors holding 5% of total Network Power. If petition succeeds, the matter is removed from Council and placed before the Network directly.

8.4 Constitutional amendments (Tier 4) cannot be delegated to the Council. They are always direct votes.

Article IX: Record-Keeping

9.1 All decisions at all tiers are recorded in a public decision ledger with timestamp, decision-maker(s), process used, and outcome.

9.2 Discussion periods are preserved in public forums. Discussion forum posts cannot be deleted by their authors once the discussion period has begun, except for pure typo corrections. Authors may edit posts only with visible edit history.

9.3 Vote records show who voted how (on non-anonymous votes) or aggregate results with the vote configuration (on anonymous votes). Whether a vote is anonymous is declared in the process rules for that vote type.