A poll note is a nostr event type (kind 6969) for conducting valuation polls. A poll presents two or more voting options, which participants my vote on by sending zap events indicating a single chosen option. Poll results may be blinded, until after users have voted. Polls may specify a closing time, after which results should be unblinded, closed to new votes, and considered final. Polls may also specify a consensus threshold.
The purpose of poll notes is to conduct quantitative public opinion polls over nostr by requiring voters pay to participate. By tying vote amounts and counts to real satoshi valuations, nostr polls intend to provide superior signal compared with other free polling models. Imposing real monetary costs on participants should also discourage attempts at fraudulent result manipulation, by automated or other means.
A poll is a self-contained nostr event which MUST have a primary description along with a predefined number of voting options. A poll MUST include at least 2 unique voting options, and each option MUST contain a corresponding secondary description. A poll MUST specify a primary tally method ('value' or 'count') and SHOULD specify a closing time. Polls MAY also include a consensus threshold percentage.
Poll options are voted on by referencing a chosen option, using the 'poll_option' tag, within zap events sent to the original poll note. 'poll_option' tags MUST include exactly 1 option selected from the predefined choice of voting options.
Votes may be tallied either by value or by count. To avoid ambiguity of a winning outcome, a primary tally method MUST be specified as either 'value' or 'count'. When a 'count' tally method is specified, only a single vote (the most recent) per unique voter MUST be included in the tally, zap amounts MUST be ignored, and anonymous zaps MUST NOT be counted.
If a closing time is specified, after it is passed, a poll should be unblinded publicly and MUST be treated as closed (late votes must not be tallied). Once closed, the option associated with either the most satoshis (value) or the most votes (counts), depending on tally method, MUST be treated as the winning option; while the distribution percentages across all vote options MUST be considered respresentative of the distribution of opinion amongst participants.
Additionally, if a consensus threshold percentage is specified, and any single option's associated value (or vote count) percentage of the poll's total value (or vote count, respectively) exceeds the consensus threshold, then consensus MUST be considered attained.
Strict adherence to these requirements should enable a formal means of quantitatively assessing the distribution of opinion regarding a poll's content amongst poll participants, determining a winning outcome, and possibly acheiving consensus. However, until this protocol is further tested, refined, and proven robust, polls should probably not be considered authoritative nor binding.
