More voices, fewer bottlenecks, higher standards!

The Decentralized Voices (DV) project was launched in early 2024 with the intention of transferring the idle voting power of the Web3 Foundation to community members who truly think critically. As a result, OpenGov becomes harder to manipulate and can serve as a more transparent and learnable governance experimental ground. This core mission has not changed; we are just making a 'fine-tuning' of the system.

From September 2025 to January 2026, the fifth phase of DV will officially be launched, bringing two significant changes:

  • More seats, but each seat has less weight — allowing more people to participate while avoiding excessive concentration of power;

  • New 'DV-Light' track — specifically designed for domain guardians to allow them to play a professional role in a lighter manner.

This update includes the 'recalibration' proposal we discussed with the community earlier, with the goal still unchanged:

  • Expand community participation

  • Increase the system's resilience against manipulation

  • Ensure every influential vote can be clearly explained

It is worth noting that the fourth phase of DV officially ended on August 15. However, we have set up a transition period to ensure that important votes cast before this date will still be counted according to the original delegation relationship. If we switch to the new phase immediately, those ongoing referenda will suddenly lose their delegated votes, which we wish to avoid.

New highlights of DV Phase 5

DV-Light Guardians (individuals)

A small group of professionally verified voters. They only participate in voting on topics where they have expertise, and choose to abstain in unfamiliar areas. They will not receive advance payments, and if their work proves to have clear value, the community can retroactively fund them on-chain.

This batch also includes two experimental AI governance agents to document their methods, limitations, and the value of decision-making quality.

Scaled DV-DAO (team)

Overall, there will be more representative teams, but each team's delegation weight will be smaller to avoid any single group dominating the outcome.

Clear 'guardrail' mechanisms

  • One person is limited to one representative entity

  • Involvement in conflicts of interest must avoid voting

  • Two violations will result in the cancellation of the delegation. The community always has direct feedback channels ([email protected]), and we will review in a timely manner. If there are any suspicious situations, the community should be able to point them out and be taken seriously.

DV Phase 5 representative list

DV-DAO (in alphabetical order):

  • Le Nexus

  • Permanence DAO

  • Polkadot Poland DAO

  • REEEEEEEEEE DAO

  • Saxemberg

  • Trustless Core

  • PBA Alumni Voting DAO

DV-Light / Guardians (in alphabetical order):

  • Cybergov — AI Agent

  • Daniel Olano

  • FlezGoverNoun AI — AI Agent

  • The White Rabbit

These teams and individuals encompass influence from different regions and bring multidimensional perspectives such as technology and economics, even including two AI agents we are testing. The key is not whether they can reach a consensus, but whether they can reason publicly and choose to abstain when necessary.

How to follow up (and supervise us)

  • You can track their votes and reasoning on Polkassembly and forums. Whether in favor (Aye), against (Nay), or abstaining (Abstain), there should be a clear 'why'.

  • If you find overlapping or self-serving behavior, please send the relevant links to [email protected]; we will investigate within two weeks.

  • If you are more concerned about the overall perspective, you can check the background and intention of the fifth phase of DV published in our latest post.

Final words

We do not pretend this design is perfect.

  • Excessive concentration of power can lead to ineffective supervision;

  • Excessive dispersion of power can dilute responsibility.

The fifth phase of DV is a compromise solution we have found in reality — it is both an invitation for more voices to participate and sets higher standards.

If it doesn’t work well anywhere, please point it out directly. We will measure again and continue to refine.

Once again, welcome all representatives to join Decentralized Voices Phase 5. Let us truly create value in the next four months.

Original link: https://medium.com/@web3/decentralized-voices-cohort-5-announced-45fbf1c017ad

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