# Secret Ballot Voting & Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns DAO
## TL;DR
Nouns DAO tried to get private voting in 2023. It didn't ship. We're going to ship it — along with sealed bid auctions — before the end of 2026. Full-stack: contracts, frontend, supporting services, and live governance proposals to activate both features on Nouns. Built on cryptographically sound, trustless infrastructure with no reliance on any single operator or trusted party.
**Ask: 1 Noun + 111 stETH**
---
## Note on Revision
Updated to address three common points of feedback:
1. **Ask amount:** There was strong objection to the size of the original proposal. This revision halves the ask.
2. **#breakevenmovement:** Nouns' approach and culture has evolved, shifting focus from raw grants to more mutually beneficial arrangements. This proposal makes the mutual benefit much more explicit by structuring it as an investment rather than a grant.
3. **Receipt-free voting uncertainty:** There is genuine uncertainty around whether receipt-free secret ballot voting is desirable for Nouns proper. We strongly believe that it would be a net improvement for Nouns, along with many other onchain orgs. However, we recognize that it is bold change. To address this, we propose that the stack could first be tested on a smaller Nouns derivative (existing or new) before being adopted by Nouns itself.
---
## Context
### The Unfinished Business of Prop 216
In early 2023, Nouns DAO funded a [Private Voting Research Sprint](https://nouns.wtf/vote/216) — one of the most forward-thinking governance experiments in the DAO space. Three teams received \~70K USDC each to research trustless, ballot-secret, on-chain voting. The sprint was genuinely valuable: it proved that private voting on Ethereum is *possible*, and produced real cryptographic research.
But the outcomes never became usable software. The deliverables were CLI-based proofs of concept — not market-ready, not audited, requiring developers to write code rather than click buttons. Key requirements like multisig support and weighted voting were explicitly excluded. The research sprint answered the theoretical question but left the practical one wide open.
The reasons are understandable: it was early, the tooling was immature, and the funding was sized for research, not production. The teams did what was asked. But Nouns never got private voting.
The same story has played out, quietly, with auctions. The Nouns auction is one of the most elegant on-chain mechanisms in existence — one Noun, every day, forever. Yet its bids are fully public, which creates well-documented dynamics: bid sniping, last-second manipulation, and strategic suppression of price signals. A sealed bid auction would directly address these issues and produce more accurate price discovery for Nouns and derivative DAOs.
### Why Private Voting and Sealed Bid Auctions Matter
**On voting:** Public on-chain voting creates a category of problems collectively known as "open ballot pathologies." When votes are visible in real time, holders experience last-minute vote changes driven by social pressure rather than conviction (the "11th-hour problem"), vote coercion from large token holders, and bandwagon effects where delegates wait to see how influential Nouners vote before committing. Secret ballot voting — the global default in virtually every democratic system for 150 years — eliminates these dynamics without sacrificing verifiability. The tally is publicly provable; the individual votes are not.
**On auctions:** Sealed bid auctions prevent bidders from strategically timing their bids to avoid driving up the price. When all bids are encrypted until auction close, the winner is determined by genuine valuation rather than gameable timing. For a protocol where a single auction determines who joins the DAO each day, this matters enormously.
### Why This Will Succeed Where The Sprint Fell Short
The 2023 sprint was a research exercise. This is an implementation engagement — and the conditions that made production impossible in 2023 have changed substantially.
The critical missing piece in 2023 was the absence of production-ready infrastructure for trustless encrypted computation. That infrastructure now exists. We will build on [The Interfold](https://theinterfold.com/) — an open-source protocol launching in mid-June 2026 that coordinates Encrypted Execution Environments (E3s) across a distributed network of staked ciphernodes. It combines three cryptographic primitives into a coherent, developer-accessible stack:
- **Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE):** Computation runs directly on encrypted inputs. Votes and bids are never decrypted individually — only final results are revealed.
- **Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs):** Voters and bidders prove eligibility and input validity without revealing their identity or choice. All computation is verifiably correct.
- **Distributed Threshold Cryptography (DTC):** No single operator controls decryption. Ciphernodes are selected via cryptographic sortition and must cooperate collectively to reveal results — eliminating any single point of failure or trust.
The Interfold already ships a complete reference implementation for secret ballot voting — including a React frontend, Rust coordination server, ZK circuits, and smart contracts — which this work will extend and adapt for Nouns. We are the team building The Interfold, and we are ready to begin on day one of its launch.
Where the 2023 sprint produced a CLI, this proposal produces a product. Where the sprint excluded multisig support, this implementation handles it natively. Where the sprint stopped at research, this proposal ends with **live on-chain proposals to activate both features on Nouns itself**.
---
## Deliverables
This engagement targets a **three-month timeline** beginning at The Interfold's launch in mid-June 2026, with a hard maximum of **six months**. All work is open source. All contracts will be audited prior to any live proposal to Nouns governance.
### Phase 1 — Secret Ballot Voting for Nouns (Months 1–3)
**Smart Contracts**
- A Nouns-specific private voting contract with NFT holder and delegate eligibility verification via Merkle proofs
- Weighted voting support with ballot batching to prevent vote-weight fingerprinting
- Multisig voter support
- Integration with the existing \`NounsGovernor\` contract — private voting is a drop-in augmentation, not a replacement
**Frontend**
- In-browser ballot encryption — votes are encrypted client-side and never exposed to any intermediary
- ZK proof generation in the browser for voter eligibility and ballot validity
- Real-time voting status and verifiable tally display
- Full MetaMask / WalletConnect support
- Deployable as a standalone interface or integrated into Nouns.wtf
**Supporting Services**
- Coordination server managing the full voting lifecycle (committee formation, key generation, compute triggering, result publication)
- Ciphernode committee configuration and operational documentation tuned for Nouns
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to activate secret ballot voting on a defined class of proposals
---
### Phase 2 — Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns (Months 2–4, overlapping)
**Smart Contracts**
- A sealed bid auction contract modifying the existing \`NounsAuctionHouse\` to accept encrypted bids during the auction window
- ZK bid validation: bidders prove their bid exceeds the reserve without revealing the amount
- Automatic winner determination and settlement upon computation completion, fully verifiable on-chain
- Parameterized for reuse by Noun-like DAOs (LilNouns, SharkDAO, etc.)
**Frontend**
- Encrypted bid submission UI integrated into the existing auction experience
- Status display reflecting auction lifecycle stages (bidding open → sealed → settlement)
- Bid confirmation and receipt flow
**Supporting Services**
- Compute provider configuration for auction-specific encrypted programs
- Settlement hook for automatic winner notification and NFT transfer
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to migrate the Nouns auction to the sealed bid mechanism, with a proposed rollout path and kill switch
---
### Phase 3 — Ecosystem Packaging (Months 5–6, if needed)
- A generalized private voting and sealed auction template package, documented and deployable by any Noun-fork DAO without custom development
- Developer-facing deployment guide and SDK documentation
- Public technical report and postmortem for the Nouns community
---
## Ask
| Item | Amount |
| ----- | --------- |
| Noun | 1 Noun |
| stETH | 111 stETH |
**111 stETH** at a **$30M valuation**. This funding will go towards full-stack engineering (contracts, frontend, backend, ZK circuits), security audit(s), ciphernode infrastructure costs, and comms for the activation proposals through Nouns DAO. This is structured as an investment with a **12-month holding period**, alongside a **24-month linear unlock** from TGE, aligning our long-term incentives with the DAO and mirroring terms for previous investors in The Interfold.
**1 Noun** aligns our long-term incentives with the DAO. We are not building a service for Nouns — we are becoming part of it. The Noun will not be sold or delegated away during the engagement period. It gives us a seat at the table and a reason to care about the outcome beyond the contract. We asked for 245 because some of us are coffee nerds.
---
## Why Now
The tooling that made this impossible in 2023 launches in June. The cryptographic primitives that the original sprint spent three months exploring are now packaged, auditable, and accessible. We are at the earliest moment when this work is actually executable, and we intend to begin on day one.
Nouns has a long track record of funding experiments at the frontier of on-chain governance. This is not a frontier experiment — the frontier work is already done. This is the moment to collect on that bet and actually ship the feature.
⌐◨-◨
---
*For questions or technical discussion, reach out on Discord or visit* *[docs.theinterfold.com](https://docs.theinterfold.com/).*
secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-dao@0x7f64...d6d2
Positioned as an investment partially in response to the feedback on the size of the proposal and partially in response to the #breakevenmovement. Valuation is based on previous venture rounds (same valuation as our seed round).
>
>
> Still unconvinced this is needed, a solution looking for a problem - its a good research project but it doesn't have viability at current scale of Nouns. Someone like OP , gnosis, golem, ARB Dao would be much more fitting given their scale and treasury size to warrant this.
>
> Secondly, I am puzzled why this is being positioned as an investment (why 30mil valuation? where is traction data of Interfold etc to command that number etc) VS a grant.
>
@0x2117...E42a
Open to approaching other DAOs with similar proposals. Although I'd be hesitant to make proposals contingent on one another. It's hard enough to coordinate within one DAO, let alone between multiple. 😅
We brought it to Nouns first because it's a somewhat unique fit in that voting and auctions (our two beach-head use-cases) are core mechanics of Nouns, and because Nouns has such a strong and unique cultural layer.
> In my era of being more onchain. This still seems a bit too rich for Nouns at this stage. If this is an investment then lets do a revnet.
>
> Have we explored going halfsies with ENS, Gnosis or other big DAOs? (either grant or investment). Happy to connect bridges if I know folks.
# Secret Ballot Voting & Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns DAO
## TL;DR
Nouns DAO tried to get private voting in 2023. It didn't ship. We're going to ship it — along with sealed bid auctions — before the end of 2026. Full-stack: contracts, frontend, supporting services, and live governance proposals to activate both features on Nouns. Built on cryptographically sound, trustless infrastructure with no reliance on any single operator or trusted party.
**Ask: 1 Noun + 111 stETH**
---
## Note on Revision
Updated to address three common points of feedback:
1. **Ask amount:** There was strong objection to the size of the original proposal. This revision halves the ask.
2. **#breakevenmovement:** Nouns' approach and culture has evolved, shifting focus from raw grants to more mutually beneficial arrangements. This proposal makes the mutual benefit much more explicit by structuring it as an investment rather than a grant.
3. **Receipt-free voting uncertainty:** There is genuine uncertainty around whether receipt-free secret ballot voting is desirable for Nouns proper. We strongly believe that it would be a net improvement for Nouns, along with many other onchain orgs. However, we recognize that it is bold change. To address this, we propose that the stack could first be tested on a smaller Nouns derivative (existing or new) before being adopted by Nouns itself.
---
## Context
### The Unfinished Business of Prop 216
In early 2023, Nouns DAO funded a [Private Voting Research Sprint](https://nouns.wtf/vote/216) — one of the most forward-thinking governance experiments in the DAO space. Three teams received \~70K USDC each to research trustless, ballot-secret, on-chain voting. The sprint was genuinely valuable: it proved that private voting on Ethereum is *possible*, and produced real cryptographic research.
But the outcomes never became usable software. The deliverables were CLI-based proofs of concept — not market-ready, not audited, requiring developers to write code rather than click buttons. Key requirements like multisig support and weighted voting were explicitly excluded. The research sprint answered the theoretical question but left the practical one wide open.
The reasons are understandable: it was early, the tooling was immature, and the funding was sized for research, not production. The teams did what was asked. But Nouns never got private voting.
The same story has played out, quietly, with auctions. The Nouns auction is one of the most elegant on-chain mechanisms in existence — one Noun, every day, forever. Yet its bids are fully public, which creates well-documented dynamics: bid sniping, last-second manipulation, and strategic suppression of price signals. A sealed bid auction would directly address these issues and produce more accurate price discovery for Nouns and derivative DAOs.
### Why Private Voting and Sealed Bid Auctions Matter
**On voting:** Public on-chain voting creates a category of problems collectively known as "open ballot pathologies." When votes are visible in real time, holders experience last-minute vote changes driven by social pressure rather than conviction (the "11th-hour problem"), vote coercion from large token holders, and bandwagon effects where delegates wait to see how influential Nouners vote before committing. Secret ballot voting — the global default in virtually every democratic system for 150 years — eliminates these dynamics without sacrificing verifiability. The tally is publicly provable; the individual votes are not.
**On auctions:** Sealed bid auctions prevent bidders from strategically timing their bids to avoid driving up the price. When all bids are encrypted until auction close, the winner is determined by genuine valuation rather than gameable timing. For a protocol where a single auction determines who joins the DAO each day, this matters enormously.
### Why This Will Succeed Where The Sprint Fell Short
The 2023 sprint was a research exercise. This is an implementation engagement — and the conditions that made production impossible in 2023 have changed substantially.
The critical missing piece in 2023 was the absence of production-ready infrastructure for trustless encrypted computation. That infrastructure now exists. We will build on [The Interfold](https://theinterfold.com/) — an open-source protocol launching in mid-June 2026 that coordinates Encrypted Execution Environments (E3s) across a distributed network of staked ciphernodes. It combines three cryptographic primitives into a coherent, developer-accessible stack:
- **Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE):** Computation runs directly on encrypted inputs. Votes and bids are never decrypted individually — only final results are revealed.
- **Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs):** Voters and bidders prove eligibility and input validity without revealing their identity or choice. All computation is verifiably correct.
- **Distributed Threshold Cryptography (DTC):** No single operator controls decryption. Ciphernodes are selected via cryptographic sortition and must cooperate collectively to reveal results — eliminating any single point of failure or trust.
The Interfold already ships a complete reference implementation for secret ballot voting — including a React frontend, Rust coordination server, ZK circuits, and smart contracts — which this work will extend and adapt for Nouns. We are the team building The Interfold, and we are ready to begin on day one of its launch.
Where the 2023 sprint produced a CLI, this proposal produces a product. Where the sprint excluded multisig support, this implementation handles it natively. Where the sprint stopped at research, this proposal ends with **live on-chain proposals to activate both features on Nouns itself**.
---
## Deliverables
This engagement targets a **three-month timeline** beginning at The Interfold's launch in mid-June 2026, with a hard maximum of **six months**. All work is open source. All contracts will be audited prior to any live proposal to Nouns governance.
### Phase 1 — Secret Ballot Voting for Nouns (Months 1–3)
**Smart Contracts**
- A Nouns-specific private voting contract with NFT holder and delegate eligibility verification via Merkle proofs
- Weighted voting support with ballot batching to prevent vote-weight fingerprinting
- Multisig voter support
- Integration with the existing \`NounsGovernor\` contract — private voting is a drop-in augmentation, not a replacement
**Frontend**
- In-browser ballot encryption — votes are encrypted client-side and never exposed to any intermediary
- ZK proof generation in the browser for voter eligibility and ballot validity
- Real-time voting status and verifiable tally display
- Full MetaMask / WalletConnect support
- Deployable as a standalone interface or integrated into Nouns.wtf
**Supporting Services**
- Coordination server managing the full voting lifecycle (committee formation, key generation, compute triggering, result publication)
- Ciphernode committee configuration and operational documentation tuned for Nouns
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to activate secret ballot voting on a defined class of proposals
---
### Phase 2 — Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns (Months 2–4, overlapping)
**Smart Contracts**
- A sealed bid auction contract modifying the existing \`NounsAuctionHouse\` to accept encrypted bids during the auction window
- ZK bid validation: bidders prove their bid exceeds the reserve without revealing the amount
- Automatic winner determination and settlement upon computation completion, fully verifiable on-chain
- Parameterized for reuse by Noun-like DAOs (LilNouns, SharkDAO, etc.)
**Frontend**
- Encrypted bid submission UI integrated into the existing auction experience
- Status display reflecting auction lifecycle stages (bidding open → sealed → settlement)
- Bid confirmation and receipt flow
**Supporting Services**
- Compute provider configuration for auction-specific encrypted programs
- Settlement hook for automatic winner notification and NFT transfer
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to migrate the Nouns auction to the sealed bid mechanism, with a proposed rollout path and kill switch
---
### Phase 3 — Ecosystem Packaging (Months 5–6, if needed)
- A generalized private voting and sealed auction template package, documented and deployable by any Noun-fork DAO without custom development
- Developer-facing deployment guide and SDK documentation
- Public technical report and postmortem for the Nouns community
---
## Ask
| Item | Amount |
| ----- | --------- |
| Noun | 1 Noun |
| stETH | 111 stETH |
**111 stETH** at a **$30M valuation**. This funding will go towards full-stack engineering (contracts, frontend, backend, ZK circuits), security audit(s), ciphernode infrastructure costs, and comms for the activation proposals through Nouns DAO. This is structured as an investment with a **12-month holding period**, alongside a **24-month linear unlock** from TGE, aligning our long-term incentives with the DAO and mirroring terms for previous investors in The Interfold.
**1 Noun** aligns our long-term incentives with the DAO. We are not building a service for Nouns — we are becoming part of it. The Noun will not be sold or delegated away during the engagement period. It gives us a seat at the table and a reason to care about the outcome beyond the contract. We asked for 245 because some of us are coffee nerds.
---
## Why Now
The tooling that made this impossible in 2023 launches in June. The cryptographic primitives that the original sprint spent three months exploring are now packaged, auditable, and accessible. We are at the earliest moment when this work is actually executable, and we intend to begin on day one.
Nouns has a long track record of funding experiments at the frontier of on-chain governance. This is not a frontier experiment — the frontier work is already done. This is the moment to collect on that bet and actually ship the feature.
⌐◨-◨
---
*For questions or technical discussion, reach out on Discord or visit* *[docs.theinterfold.com](https://docs.theinterfold.com/).*secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-daoUpdating to address common points of feedback.
Look forward to further discussion.
secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-dao@0xae47...5Fed
Opt-in private voting is somewhat nonsensical. From a coercion-resistance point of view it's critical that votes are receipt-free. If one can opt-in to creating a receipt, then private voting is moot.
In our voting solution, one would not only be unable to prove how one voted but also whether or not one voted at all. Which is critical for resisting forced-abstention attacks.
What would be revealed is the total vote weight for and against.
—
Not sure that this cost-per-user breakdown really makes sense either, given that this is evergreen and benefits everyone who might participate in future voting.
> typical voter turnout is 20-30, less for most props. realistic opt-in probably under half = ~10 users @ 222 ETH = ~$60k/user. and at that scale feels like the anonymity set is too small, defeating the purpose. assume we would see who is delegating to this thing?
>
> like the idea, could lead to more honest vwr instead of the sanitized reasons we get now... but big culture shift, and a drastic turnout increase from anon voting seems unlikely altho could lead to chaos who knows
secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-dao@0xFC53...6183
reposting a relevant reply from twitter
https://x.com/auryn_macmillan/status/2049495598970073236?s=20
———
I totally understand the inclination towards transparency, especially in something like Nouns. But the reality is that transparency and accountability are a double-edged sword.
We tend to think of transparency as enabling constituents or communities at large to hold representitives or whales accountable. In practice, however, transparency doesn't neutrally empower the broader public but rather empowers whoever has the organizational capacity to act on the information.
Generally, the actors best positioned to operationalize that accountability are organized interests and tightly coordinated minority factions.
Receipt-free secret ballots defang this collusive and coercive influence by making bribery, collusion, and coercion highly trustful, costly, and ultimately not scalable.
Where the broader constituency can effectively wield accountability is through transparency in the deliberation process and outcomes. Argue passionately in public debate, vote with your feet/wallet when outcomes consistently run counter to your values and interests.
>
>
> Heavy agree with this statement from krel on prop 216 when we funded research for this the first time:
>
> "Im a big proponent of nounsdao funding public goods, especially in the software/crypto/ethereum domain, so on the one hand, i love this initiative.But Ive come to the conclusion that private voting acts to further dehumanize nounsdao, and that, on net, we gain from having faces (or avatars) attached to votes for as long as possible.
>
> I believe nounsdao is better off in a world where voting comes with some social pressure to take responsibility and publicly stand behind voting decisions. I acknowledge social pressure also swings the other way (relationship costs, nepotism, etc) but Im willing to make that tradeoff vs cold, faceless PvP."
>
> [...also these props always seem to come up when (imo) bad actors and book value bois are lurking.]
>
@0x13eE...DA33
Here's an example application, the same underlying technology plugged into the Aragon stack: https://dao.theinterfold.com/
You can read more about the architecture in our docs: https://docs.theinterfold.com/CRISP/introduction
>
>
> interesting and something the dao should experiment with. i think for something like this to be valuable it needs to be some kind of product that can generate more governance activity. i think the days of pure research are long gone so i'd like to see your unique take on building a product around this
>
> mockups, videos, (anything you can provide to derisk your prop / pow helps)
>
> looking forward to updates
>
> ---
>
> "1 Noun aligns our long-term incentives with the DAO. We are not building a service for Nouns — we are becoming part of it."
>
> just buy it
>
secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-dao@0x749B...54Ce
Did you check the repo? We've been building the protocol since 2024. This proposal is to do the work necessary to implement and support a Nouns integration.
>
>
> auto-declining a request for 222 ETH (10% of nouns treasury) for an idea with no build.
>
@0xB875...3309
I totally get your perspective here, "what about social accountability?" is a pretty typical response to the idea of secret-ballot voting. And for good reason, intuitively we want to be able to hold our fellow constituents accountable to their inputs. However, history has repeatedly proven that transparent voting is much more susceptible to manipulation, bribery, collusion, and coercion. Simply because a coordinated malicious actor is almost always better able to hold voters accountable to their votes than the uncoordinated majority.
There is a good reason why every worthwhile democracy in the world uses a secret ballot.
>
>
> In a system like Nouns, where there is no legal recourse or traditional hierarchy, transparency is the primary mechanism for accountability.
>
> When voting is public, delegates and Noun holders are implicitly pressured to stand by their decisions. It forces a show your work culture.
>
> If a voter acts in bad faith, the community can see it and react to it. If voting is private, you effectively remove the ability for the DAO to collectively judge the character of its voters.
>
> This proposal asks the DAO to trade visible, human social dynamics for "cryptographically sound" infrastructure. While the math may be perfect, it replaces social trust with black box trust. Governance is fundamentally a social process, not a purely computational one.
>
@0xFC53...6183
Counter-intuitively, more privacy actually makes it harder for malicious actors to coordinate.
Receipt-free voting means that collusion, coercion, and bribery must be highly trustful interactions, they do not scale.
>
>
> lol -- so the anons can be more anon?
>
@0x2117...E42a
I do think there is a meaningful difference between shielded voting and secret-ballot voting. The former really only protects against bandwagoning and 11th hour voting, while the latter does that along with making collusion and coercion much less effective (more trustful and costly / less scalable).
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the Shutter team and they've done great work. But the affordances are quite different.
We can certainly workshop the cost if that's a sticking point.
One thing I'm really hoping for with this proposal is to reinvigorate Nouns somewhat. This would be Nouns pioneering a technology and pushing the whole space forward.
>
>
> I've been thinking about this for a hot minute. I recently went and chatted with the Shutter team (podcast episode incoming).
>
> I think we need some version of this. Human coordination overall is messy AF. Currently I am experimenting by being more onchain. Our group is small enough where biases and lines can get blurry. At scale you do have some level of anonymity (think cities). But for us its a bit too close to home.
>
> For example, I was recently told the only reason my prop passed was because people thought I would quit if it didnt pass. We should not be voting based favor trading or playing this level of politics. Fully homomorphic voting at this price might not be the answer like Mike said, making people more anon might not be the vibe.
>
> But something like what Shutter does at a lower cost seems appropriate or a worth while experiment. TDLR: private voting during voting period but reveal after voting is done. So you know where folks stand but people arent being influenced during voting period. This seems to be the best approach.
>
> Auryn is a respected builder in the space. And yeah 200+ ETH is a bit pricey for our current status but we should embrace him coming with an idea. Signaling for and willing to sponsor once this reaches a better state and solves some of the issues outline by others.
>
# Secret Ballot Voting & Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns DAO
## TL;DR
Nouns DAO tried to get private voting in 2023. It didn't ship. We're going to ship it — along with sealed bid auctions — before the end of 2026. Full-stack: contracts, frontend, supporting services, and live governance proposals to activate both features on Nouns. Built on cryptographically sound, distributed-trust infrastructure with no reliance on any single operator or hardware.
**Ask: 1 Noun + 222 ETH**
---
## Context
### The Unfinished Business of Prop 216
In early 2023, Nouns DAO funded a [Private Voting Research Sprint](https://nouns.wtf/vote/216) — one of the most forward-thinking governance experiments in the DAO space. Three teams received \~70K USDC each to research trustless, ballot-secret, on-chain voting. The sprint was genuinely valuable: it proved that private voting on Ethereum is *possible*, and produced real cryptographic research.
But the outcomes never became usable software. The deliverables were CLI-based proofs of concept — not market-ready, not audited, requiring developers to write code rather than click buttons. Key requirements like multisig support and weighted voting were explicitly excluded. The research sprint answered the theoretical question but left the practical one wide open.
The reasons are understandable: it was early, the tooling was immature, and the funding was sized for research, not production. The teams did what was asked. But Nouns never got private voting.
The same story has played out, quietly, with auctions. The Nouns auction is one of the most elegant on-chain mechanisms in existence — one Noun, every day, forever. Yet its bids are fully public, which creates well-documented dynamics: bid sniping, last-second manipulation, and strategic suppression of price signals. A sealed bid auction would directly address these issues and produce more accurate price discovery for Nouns and derivative DAOs.
### Why Private Voting and Sealed Bid Auctions Matter
**On voting:** Public on-chain voting creates a category of problems collectively known as "open ballot pathologies." When votes are visible in real time, holders experience last-minute vote changes driven by social pressure rather than conviction (the "11th-hour problem"), vote coercion from large token holders, and bandwagon effects where delegates wait to see how influential Nouners vote before committing. Secret ballot voting — the global default in virtually every democratic system for 150 years — eliminates these dynamics without sacrificing verifiability. The tally is publicly provable; the individual votes are not.
**On auctions:** Sealed bid auctions prevent bidders from strategically timing their bids to avoid driving up the price. When all bids are encrypted until auction close, the winner is determined by genuine valuation rather than gameable timing. For a protocol where a single auction determines who joins the DAO each day, this matters enormously.
### Why This Will Succeed Where The Sprint Fell Short
The 2023 sprint was a research exercise. This is an implementation engagement — and the conditions that made production impossible in 2023 have changed substantially.
The critical missing piece in 2023 was the absence of production-ready infrastructure for encrypted computation with a strong distributed-trust model. That infrastructure now exists. We will build on [The Interfold](https://theinterfold.com/) — an open-source protocol launching in mid-June 2026 that coordinates Encrypted Execution Environments (E3s) across a distributed network of staked ciphernodes. It combines three cryptographic primitives into a coherent, developer-accessible stack:
- **Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE):** Computation runs directly on encrypted inputs. Votes and bids are never decrypted individually — only final results are revealed.
- **Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs):** Voters and bidders prove eligibility and input validity without revealing their identity or choice. All computation is verifiably correct.
- **Distributed Threshold Cryptography (DTC):** No single operator controls decryption. Ciphernodes are selected via cryptographic sortition and must cooperate collectively to reveal results — eliminating any single point of failure or trust.
The Interfold already ships a complete reference implementation for secret ballot voting — including a React frontend, Rust coordination server, ZK circuits, and smart contracts — which this work will extend and adapt for Nouns. We are the team building The Interfold, and we are ready to begin on day one of its launch.
Where the 2023 sprint produced a CLI, this proposal produces a product. Where the sprint excluded multisig support, this implementation handles it natively. Where the sprint stopped at research, this proposal ends with **live on-chain proposals to activate both features on Nouns itself**.
---
## Deliverables
This engagement targets a **three-month timeline** beginning at The Interfold's launch in mid-June 2026, with a hard maximum of **six months**. All work is open source. All contracts will be audited prior to any live proposal to Nouns governance.
### Phase 1 — Secret Ballot Voting for Nouns (Months 1–3)
**Smart Contracts**
- A Nouns-specific private voting contract with NFT holder and delegate eligibility verification via Merkle proofs
- Weighted voting support with ballot batching to prevent vote-weight fingerprinting
- Multisig voter support
- Integration with the existing \`NounsGovernor\` contract — private voting is a drop-in augmentation, not a replacement
**Frontend**
- In-browser ballot encryption — votes are encrypted client-side and never exposed to any intermediary
- ZK proof generation in the browser for voter eligibility and ballot validity
- Real-time voting status and verifiable tally display
- Full MetaMask / WalletConnect support
- Deployable as a standalone interface or integrated into Nouns.wtf
**Supporting Services**
- Coordination server managing the full voting lifecycle (committee formation, key generation, compute triggering, result publication)
- Ciphernode committee configuration and operational documentation tuned for Nouns
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to activate secret ballot voting on a defined class of proposals
---
### Phase 2 — Sealed Bid Auctions for Nouns (Months 2–4, overlapping)
**Smart Contracts**
- A sealed bid auction contract modifying the existing \`NounsAuctionHouse\` to accept encrypted bids during the auction window
- ZK bid validation: bidders prove their bid exceeds the reserve without revealing the amount
- Automatic winner determination and settlement upon computation completion, fully verifiable on-chain
- Parameterized for reuse by Noun-like DAOs (LilNouns, SharkDAO, etc.)
**Frontend**
- Encrypted bid submission UI integrated into the existing auction experience
- Status display reflecting auction lifecycle stages (bidding open → sealed → settlement)
- Bid confirmation and receipt flow
**Supporting Services**
- Compute provider configuration for auction-specific encrypted programs
- Settlement hook for automatic winner notification and NFT transfer
**Governance**
- A live Nouns DAO proposal to migrate the Nouns auction to the sealed bid mechanism, with a proposed rollout path and kill switch
---
### Phase 3 — Ecosystem Packaging (Months 5–6, if needed)
- A generalized private voting and sealed auction template package, documented and deployable by any Noun-fork DAO without custom development
- Developer-facing deployment guide and SDK documentation
- Public technical report and postmortem for the Nouns community
---
## Ask
| Item | Amount |
| ---- | ------- |
| ETH | 222 ETH |
| Noun | 1 Noun |
**222 ETH** covers three to six months of full-stack engineering (contracts, frontend, backend, ZK circuits), security audit(s), ciphernode infrastructure costs, and a dedicated governance liaison to shepherd the activation proposals through Nouns DAO.
**1 Noun** aligns our long-term incentives with the DAO. We are not building a service for Nouns — we are becoming part of it. The Noun will not be sold or delegated away during the engagement period. It gives us a seat at the table and a reason to care about the outcome beyond the contract. We asked for 245 because some of us are coffee nerds.
---
## Why Now
The tooling that made this impossible in 2023 launches in June. The cryptographic primitives that the original sprint spent three months exploring are now packaged, auditable, and accessible. We are at the earliest moment when this work is actually executable, and we intend to begin on day one.
Nouns has a long track record of funding experiments at the frontier of on-chain governance. This is not a frontier experiment — the frontier work is already done. This is the moment to collect on that bet and actually ship the feature.
⌐◨-◨
---
*For questions or technical discussion, reach out on Discord or visit* *[docs.theinterfold.com](https://docs.theinterfold.com/).*secret-ballot-voting-&-sealed-bid-auctions-for-nouns-dao
# Support BrightID’s launch of Aura v2: An improved Privacy-first proof of human uniqueness using an anonymous social graph.
[Discord Forum Prost](https://discord.com/channels/1019622975705726986/1216603944260862032/1216603944260862032)
**TL;DR**
[Aura](https://github.com/Meta-Node) -- the new and improved verification method for BrightID, will eclipse "meets" verification in reliability and scalability, and is nearing a v2 beta launch and we are asking Public Nouns support for the development of this public good. BrightID is requesting a 10 ETH grant to support this work.
**Abstract**
Identity is a human right.
By building an alternative to nation-state and biometric identities BrightID allows anyone in the world to prove they're a unique person and own their digital identity.
How does it work?
BrightID is a social identity network that enables individuals to authenticate themselves as unique with control over a single account. We do this through the creation and analysis of a social graph by those who already know you. It requires no personal data from users other than the anonymous graph of connections.
Use cases:
- Distributing universal basic income.
- Enabling digital democratic voting.
- Improving polling, rating, and reviews.
- Combating bots on social media.
- Sharing anything equitably.
Aura is a new and improved decentralized verification protocol (built by BrightDAO--the community of BrightID) that will eclipse BrightID meets. Watch [Adam's EthDenver 2023 talk on Aura + BrightID](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT0Jg4X473E&ab_channel=ETHDenver). Some of the key features of Aura are:
- Anonymously find which friends are using BrightID--especially which are Aura players, so someone can be verified without using BrightID meets.
- Use a "Known Identifier" protocol, built with Waku (the same tech behind Status.IM) to fight small-scale sybil attacks with known identifiers - BrightID.
- Make BrightID nodes output Ethereum Attestations (for on or off-chain use) to expand our reach and make no-code integration even simpler.
**How does this initiative support Public Goods?**
BrightID and Aura are public goods that exist for the benefit of humanity. They are designed as nonintrusive, decentralized, and open-source technology seeking to reform identity verification--and lay the groundwork for a free and democratic society.
Currently, there is no equitable method to share resources with all people. BrightID empowers everyone to receive their fair share of opportunities while preventing exploitation and abuse beyond one's rightful portion. Enabling fairness & allowing some public goods to exist and thrive that couldn't otherwise. In other words, BrightID protects the access of unique individuals to public goods.
**How is it non-excludable?**
- Anyone in the world can access BrightID. They can get verified by any BrighID user. BrightID DAO hosts verification calls to make it easier for users who are not connected to other BrightID users. Aura is set to make it easier to get verified by Aura players.
**How is it non-rivalrous?**
- Not only is BrightID non-rivalrous, but BrightID's benefits actually increase when more people join the protocol. There are network effects in terms of advancing anonymous decentralized identity verification.
**Why does it need funding right now?**
BrightID is a mature product, but the core team has a backlog of critical features that have been on hold due to lack of funding. We have a protocol that can scale to world scale, but we need funding to support the launch of Aura V2 beta.
**Impact/Deliverables**
- Aura V2 beta launched with the following features:
- simplifying the sponsorship flow
- integrating with Ethereum Attestations
- launching "known identifiers" as an Aura tool
- improving the "find friends" feature in BrightID--especially to help BrightID users find Aura players so they can become Aura verified
- A tweet acknowledging Public Nouns support to launch Aura V2 beta.
**Feedback Loop**
Here is a list of the metrics, acknowledgments and accomplishments BrightID has reached and that can be considered feedback loop:
- BrightID was the first verification used by Gitcoin Grants, and helped develop the "trust bonus" which became Gitcoin passport.(https://passport.gitcoin.co/#/)
- BrightID is the only Sybil-resistant attestation used by CLR.fund for its MACI (<https://ethresear.ch/t/minimal-anti-collusion-infrastructure/5413>) protected Quadratic voting.
- BrightID has over 100,000 unique users.
- 15 Apps trust BrightID for Sybil-resistance.
- BrightID was exemplified as a Proof of Personhood solution in Vitalik's article: Moving beyond coin voting governance. (https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/08/16/voting3.html)
- Green Pill Podcast BrightID with Adam Stallard | Green Pill #35 - GreenPill | Podcast on Spotify
- Bankless Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3DbMFYGRoM
- Metrics are available at https://apps.brightid.org
- A visualization of the graph and more statistics are viewable from the BrightID graph explorer (https://explorer.brightid.org/). Link your BrightID to see a personalized view.
**Recipient Address**
`0x78e084445C3F1006617e1f36794dd2261ecE4AE3`
**Amount in ETH**
10 ETH
# Contribute 5 ETH to clrfund's DAC experiment.
Hey Public Nouns friends!
[CLRfund](https://discord.com/channels/1019622975705726986/1173090590146187314/1173090590146187314) is running [Dominant Assurance Contract (DAC) experiment](https://discord.com/channels/1019622975705726986/1173090590146187314/1173090590146187314) that feels super well aligned with Public Nouns.
Essentially, clrfund is crowdfunding a QF matching pool.
If the crowdfunding target is hit, then all of the funds go towards a QF matching pool for Ethereum public goods.
But if the crowdfunding campaign fails, all addresses that contributed funds are fully refunded and receive an additional 20% bonus.
Contributing a small amount to this feels like a win-win for Public Nouns.
Either it funds public goods, or it makes a 20% profit!
I'd like to propose that we contribute 5 ETH to this experiment. We'll need to move quickly as the crowd funding campaign only has a few weeks left.
{"projectName":"DoinGud","shortDescription":"To start, DoinGud is building an NFT marketplace where every transaction “does good” as creators choose verified charities to stream a minimum 5% of primary sale proceeds and 2.5% of secondary sale royalties. The beta-version is already live at [doingud.com](http://doingud.com/). \n\nNext, they are adding curation mechanisms allowing anyone (individuals, DAOs, collectives, brands) to curate NFTs from various creators for hosting exhibitions and drops. With this foundation in place, they are positioning themselves with a strong product and community to launch their DAO and native token that will have utility in the platform to reward contributors, incentivize participation, and provide governance when staked.\n\nThe ultimate vision is to create a token curated social cause registry that any other platform, marketplace or protocol can plug into and stream money to social causes. With that they intend to encourage every business model to be infusing social impact into its core by offering the easy plug into a curated social cause registry entirely on-chain.\n\nThey have also been building a strong reputation in the space working with reputable projects such as Gitcoin and IRL Art (hosted their NFT exhibitions at EthDenver), Giveth, Filecoin, Arweave, MME (top firm in switzerland that launched Ethereum, polkadot, etc), Ceremic Network. DoinGud also has a power packed group of advisors supporting them including Simona Pop, Griff Green, Scott Moore, Auryn MacMillan, Ben Lakoff, and more. \n\nThis is a suitable financial contribution from the CULT ecosystem as DoinGud is completely aligned with Web 3 principles of decentralization and community ownership. DoinGud is also innovative in its efforts to move the space forward and generate impact along with a sustainable value accruing protocol and tokenomics model. \n\nDoinGud is currently raising a target of $3m at a $50m valuation for the first $1m and then to be re-evaluated with remaining interest, with 2 years continuous vesting from the token distribution event planned for later this summer. At the token distribution event, all allocations (team, advisors, partners, financial contributors) will be diluted pro-rata depending on the new allocation for the Community / DAO treasury, etc. This proposal for CULT is under these same terms as the others in the round ($50m valuation, 2 year continuous vesting, dilutive), although at the question below the parameters below don’t allow for this level of detail.","file":"DoinGud Video Presentation: https://youtube/iCq0xnudkBQ Litepaper: https://bitly.com/doingudlitepaper1 Financial Contributors: https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ/status/1443294519873597440 Advisors: https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ/status/1445101310353633284","socialChannel":"[https://linktr.ee/doingud](https://linktr.ee/doingud)\n\n[https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ](https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://www.instagram.com/DoinGudHQ/](https://www.instagram.com/DoinGudHQ/)\n\n[https://discord.com/invite/MPhSjeajMx](https://discord.com/invite/MPhSjeajMx)\n\n[https://www.youtube.com/c/DoinGudHQ](https://www.youtube.com/c/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://t.me/DoinGudHQ](https://t.me/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://www.linkedin.com/company/DoinGudHQ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/DoinGudHQ)","links":"None","range":0.25,"rate":"0.13","time":"Day","checkbox1":true,"checkbox2":true,"wallet":"0xF7Dc27df79624303d78a5C944A342532701811Da","guardianProposal":"Auryn","guardianDiscord":"@auryn_macmillan","guardianAddress":"0xd714Dd60e22BbB1cbAFD0e40dE5Cfa7bBDD3F3C8"}
{"projectName":"DoinGud","shortDescription":"To start, DoinGud is building an NFT marketplace where every transaction “does good” as creators choose verified charities to stream a minimum 5% of primary sale proceeds and 2.5% of secondary sale royalties. The beta-version is already live at [doingud.com](http://doingud.com/). \n\nNext, they are adding curation mechanisms allowing anyone (individuals, DAOs, collectives, brands) to curate NFTs from various creators for hosting exhibitions and drops. With this foundation in place, they are positioning themselves with a strong product and community to launch their DAO and native token that will have utility in the platform to reward contributors, incentivize participation, and provide governance when staked.\n\nThe ultimate vision is to create a token curated social cause registry that any other platform, marketplace or protocol can plug into and stream money to social causes. With that they intend to encourage every business model to be infusing social impact into its core by offering the easy plug into a curated social cause registry entirely on-chain.\n\nThey have also been building a strong reputation in the space working with reputable projects such as Gitcoin and IRL Art (hosted their NFT exhibitions at EthDenver), Giveth, Filecoin, Arweave, MME (top firm in switzerland that launched Ethereum, polkadot, etc), Ceremic Network. DoinGud also has a power packed group of advisors supporting them including Simona Pop, Griff Green, Scott Moore, Auryn MacMillan, Ben Lakoff, and more. \n\nThis is a suitable financial contribution from the CULT ecosystem as DoinGud is completely aligned with Web 3 principles of decentralization and community ownership. DoinGud is also innovative in its efforts to move the space forward and generate impact along with a sustainable value accruing protocol and tokenomics model. \n\nDoinGud is currently raising a target of $3m at a $50m valuation for the first $1m and then to be re-evaluated with remaining interest, with 2 years continuous vesting from the token distribution event planned for later this summer. At the token distribution event, all allocations (team, advisors, partners, financial contributors) will be diluted pro-rata depending on the new allocation for the Community / DAO treasury, etc. This proposal for CULT is under these same terms as the others in the round ($50m valuation, 2 year continuous vesting, dilutive), although at the question below the parameters below don’t allow for this level of detail.","file":"DoinGud Video Presentation: https://youtube/iCq0xnudkBQ Litepaper: https://bitly.com/doingudlitepaper1 Financial Contributors: https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ/status/1443294519873597440 Advisors: https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ/status/1445101310353633284","socialChannel":"[https://linktr.ee/doingud](https://linktr.ee/doingud)\n\n[https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ](https://twitter.com/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://www.instagram.com/DoinGudHQ/](https://www.instagram.com/DoinGudHQ/)\n\n[https://discord.com/invite/MPhSjeajMx](https://discord.com/invite/MPhSjeajMx)\n\n[https://www.youtube.com/c/DoinGudHQ](https://www.youtube.com/c/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://t.me/DoinGudHQ](https://t.me/DoinGudHQ)\n\n[https://www.linkedin.com/company/DoinGudHQ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/DoinGudHQ)","links":"NONE","range":0.25,"rate":"0.137","time":"Day","checkbox1":true,"checkbox2":true,"wallet":"0xF7Dc27df79624303d78a5C944A342532701811Da","guardianProposal":"Auryn","guardianDiscord":"@auryn_macmillan","guardianAddress":"0xd714Dd60e22BbB1cbAFD0e40dE5Cfa7bBDD3F3C8"}
{ "post": { "type": "microblog", "text": "Since there had been so much talk about decentralized @Twitter lately, I'd like to share this little contact I wrote and deployed while back.
TL;DR - it has one function, newPost(string memory content), that emits the string in an event, along with an ID.
https://github.com/auryn-macmillan/poster" } }
ָI/ipfs/QmUXdhjBM4xAmb3hMoaf2yUqeg7obcZd2c7W7PdKTaRbES/ethdenver-padded.jpgyETHDenver is the largest Web3 #BUIDLathon in the world (formerly known as a hackathon) for Ethereum and other blockchain protocol enthusiasts, designers and developers. The 7 day event is open 24 hours a day with a wide variety of activities including talks and workshops by top blockchain influencers and experts. The purpose is to contribute to the global blockchain ecosystem, whether by #BUIDLing decentralized applications (dApps), contributing to or starting infrastructure level projects, writing documentation/tutorials/white-papers, designing UI/UX, or info-graphics. So bring your inner awesomeness and some friends. We’ll provide mentors, resources, and all of the educational content you can consume. Funds received via clr.fund will go towards prizes and event experiences for each ETHDenver installment. Our ENS name and ETH address can be confirmed on our Twitter profile.https://www.ethdenver.com/
/ipfs/QmNyiiJAtpx2XixiD2Sk8cAay5kB6ve9gDRc3vhz1z7dMT/mascots.svgEthereum development environment for professionals. (ETH address can be confirmed on the Hardhat gitcoin grants page https://gitcoin.co/grants/99/buidler-evm-solidity-consolelog-stack-traces, note that the project was formerly known as "Buidler")https://hardhat.org/
{"title":"MGP 42 (tranche 3/4): clr.fund MVP","description":"Requesting $5000 for tranche 3 of clr.fund MVP development. The requirements for tranche 3 have been met by clr.fund Round 0 on xDai, details can be found on the linked Moloch forum thread.","link":"https://molochdao.discourse.group/t/mgp-clr-fund-an-open-and-less-trustful-quadratic-funding-protocol-and-application/165"}
Ethereum Cat HerdersQ/ipfs/QmT68GiCDUadJNJVWTqsAFNadgWdezDEtLKg1JoKScLWpQ/1-jvbfamgyvi3wi0xsgzk9fg.pngZOur aim is to bring the minimum amount of order that chaos needs to move Ethereum forward.https://www.ethereumcatherders.com/
F/ipfs/Qmag2CefrFXhqACpmeDUqCmAtq7Eq17FCGoqjGtBCwUPm7/walletconnect.pngWalletConnect is an open protocol for connecting desktop Dapps to mobile Wallets using end-to-end encryption by scanning a QR code.https://walletconnect.org/
g/ipfs/QmbV3RyZECc7UL13eYRXC87MCcHWmPaUY2hMN1tN9N6PXb/qmdkofhsz4a8faqeqwljjmfhjjohynkstdujeqavanmkzd.png>Turbo-Geth is a fork of Go-Ethereum with focus on performance.https://github.com/ledgerwatch/turbo-geth
I/ipfs/QmWz29BhVgqi2LQoR9vDR6Z1miZN2CviNW5YeRMmSLDaC2/rotkehlchen-logo.pngEThe portfolio tracker and accounting tool that protects your privacy.https://rotki.com/
/ipfs/QmWqtc9qNKYdnNKjtEHJ1yKZ2xwAhgvnp4DZEbQwRYwX5A/clrfund.pngyClr.fund is a protocol for efficiently allocating funds to public goods that benefit the Ethereum Ecosystem according to the preferences of the Ethereum Ecosystem. Clr.fund strives for credible neutrality, decentralization, permissionlessness, trustlessness, and pseudonymity. Verification of clr.fund's receiving address: https://twitter.com/clrfund/status/1298695748989722624https://clr.fund
How many followers will @cooopahtroopa have on Twitter on October 1st, 2020?␟"< 5,000",">= 5,000 & < 7,500",">= 7,500 & < 10,000",">= 10,000"␟cryptocurrency␟en_US
Who will win Joe Lubin and Jimmy Song's bet about Ethereum dapp usage? (https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MnxnvWXYEwxO)␟"Joe Lubin","Jimmy Song"␟cryptocurrency␟en_US