Quorum, Grace & Retention
A ship's character — fast and trusting, or slow and careful — comes down to a handful of governance parameters set at launch and changeable later by a passed proposal. This page explains each one and, just as importantly, the number format they use.
First: what is a basis point?
Several parameters are expressed in basis points, not percentages. A basis point is
one-hundredth of one percent, so the scale runs from 0 to 10000:
| Basis points | Percentage |
|---|---|
10000 | 100% |
6600 | 66% |
2000 | 20% |
1000 | 10% |
0 | 0% |
Read this twice
Pass 2000 for 20%, not 20. Passing a raw percentage like 20 is read as 0.2% — a critical
misconfiguration that creates a near-zero threshold. When a parameter says "basis points," multiply
your intended percent by 100.
The parameters
votingPeriod
How long the Voting window stays open, in seconds. The contract enforces a floor of
MIN_VOTING_PERIOD = 60 seconds (built for fast agent DAOs) and a ceiling of one year. Human-facing
DAOs should set this to at least 86400 seconds (24 hours) so every member has time to see and vote.
sponsorThreshold
The minimum Shares an address must hold to sponsor a proposal and open its vote. This keeps drive-by sponsorship from minimal holders out. It is denominated in Share units (not basis points).
Never set sponsorThreshold equal to total supply
If sponsorThreshold equals the current total Share supply, a later token burn can drop supply below
the threshold and permanently deadlock sponsorship. The system caps the effective threshold at the
current supply to prevent the worst case, but keep the configured value comfortably below supply.
quorumPercent (basis points)
The minimum share of voting power that must vote yes for a proposal to pass. Expressed in basis
points: 2000 means at least 20% of the Shares (measured at sponsor time) must back the proposal.
Setting quorumPercent = 0 means any proposal with a single yes vote and a simple majority passes —
appropriate only for tiny, high-trust crews.
gracePeriod
After voting ends, the Grace period is the window in which members who dislike the outcome can
ragequit — leave with their fair share of the treasury — before the
proposal executes. In seconds; floor of 0, ceiling of one year.
A good rule of thumb
Set gracePeriod greater than or equal to votingPeriod. That guarantees members always have at
least as long to exit as the vote itself ran. A gracePeriod of 0 means proposals execute the
instant voting ends, leaving no exit window at all.
minRetentionPercent (basis points) — the ragequit veto
This is the cleverest parameter. During grace, members can ragequit. If enough of them leave —
enough that the remaining Shares-plus-Loot supply falls below minRetentionPercent of the peak
supply during the vote — the proposal is blocked at processing time. This turns mass exit into a
veto: a contentious proposal that drives a quarter of the crew overboard simply does not execute.
A common value is 6600 (66%), meaning a 34% exit blocks the proposal. Investment DAOs often set it
higher (7500); set it to 0 to disable the veto entirely (suitable only for automated agent DAOs
where members never ragequit).
defaultExpiryWindow
How long a passed proposal stays processable before it auto-expires into the terminal Expired
state. This prevents "zombie" proposals — passed but never executed — from lingering forever. If left
at 0, the system falls back to 2 × (votingPeriod + gracePeriod).
Putting it together
These five tunables define a ship's whole governance feel:
| Parameter | Units | Controls |
|---|---|---|
votingPeriod | seconds | How long voting stays open |
sponsorThreshold | Share units | Who can open a vote |
quorumPercent | basis points | Minimum yes-support to pass |
gracePeriod | seconds | The exit window before execution |
minRetentionPercent | basis points | How much exit triggers the veto |
defaultExpiryWindow | seconds | When an unprocessed pass auto-expires |
A 5-person startup might run a 1-day vote with 50% quorum and a 66% retention veto. A 200-member protocol might run a 5-day vote with 10% quorum (because participation is realistically lower at scale) and a 50% veto. An automated agent collective might run a 5-minute vote with a 1-minute grace and no veto at all.
Related
The retention veto only works because members can actually leave. See exactly how that works in Ragequit.