Snapshots
Last updated
Last updated
In traditional polls we have a problem. How do we account for change over time? We have historically solved this by getting new votes to come in once every few years and see what's changed since the last vote. But what if we wanted continuous results so we could see emerging trends and proactively navigate them? This wouldn't normally be viable, because you'd need to get everyone to come out for a new vote to generate the new results.
What if we decoupled the action of voting from the result generation process? This allows people to not only vote whenever it suits them, but also allows continuous results without the need for continuous voting.
It may help to draw a crude analogy from blockchains. In Bitcoin and Ethereum, blocks are produced and added to the chain at regular intervals.
Similar to a blockchain, each MetaPoll produces a what's called a "snapshot" at regular intervals (we call the interval length between snapshots the ) and adds new snapshots to the chain of snapshots that came before it. Where each snapshot is like creating frames in a movie.
When first entering the MetaPoll, the latest snapshot will be displayed below the results tab.
In the example above, you will see the Snapshot number #93 and below that the exact date and time the snapshot was produced (auto converted to your local timezone).
You can move forward and backwards between snapshots with the arrow buttons on the right side.
If you're looking for a specific snapshot date, you can click the calendar icon to open up calendar view.
Inside calendar view a visual UI showing all snapshots will appear for you. Click any snapshot you want to move to.
All snapshots have a snapshot info button.
When the snapshot info button is clicked it will open up more detailed information about that snapshot.
This is all information that can change per snapshot.
Visibility is if the MetaPoll is publically viewable or private when this snapshot was created.
Creation Date is the date that the MetaPoll was first created.
Creation Time is the time converted to your local time zone, when the snapshot was created.
UTC timestamp is a ISO formatted UTC timestamp of the creation date of the snapshot.
Snapshot Number is the sequential snapshot number within this MetaPoll.
MetaPoll Version is the version number that this MetaPoll is currently at. Any change to the MetaPoll such as adding, removing or renaming options, changing voting tokens, and some other parameters will change the version number. All version history is saved so it can be audited by the community. Votes inside a MetaPoll also record what version number the MetaPoll was on when the voter cast their vote.
This information helps verify integrity, increase decentralization and enhance availability the of the snapshot data.
Owner Address is the address that currently owns this MetaPoll. (At a later date we plan to make ownership trackable by an NFT so it can be transferred to different addresses for decentralization purposes.)
As mentioned before, the entire aggregated result of the tree of options for a MetaPoll at a moment in time exists within that snapshot. When moving from one snapshot to the next, you may or may not see the rankings of options change depending on how the community was voting at the time of the snapshot generation.
Let's look at what "options" and "option trees" are next.
Each snapshot contains the full aggregated results from all voters in a MetaPoll at the time it was produced. If you'd like to learn more about the read the dedicated page. However, there is a major difference between MetaPoll vs blockchains. By using 3rd party compute cryptography, a single node can securely create each snapshot in a mathematically provable way .
Active Votes in Snapshot will be the same number that is displayed in the main card. It's the total number of votes in the last recorded snapshot. You can view the dedicated page on to learn how votes are calculated.
Voting Decay Cycle is the number of days until voting power decays in half. Please see
Snapshot Location is a link to the block on Arweave where the Snapshot is stored forever. Read the to learn more.
Voter Data Integrity Proof (VDIP) is a link to a Verkle proof that allows any voter to mathematically prove that their valid vote was included in this snapshot. Read the to learn more.
Voter Compute Integrity Proof (VCIP) is a link to a Zero Knowledge Compute proof that proves that all calculations, mutations to create the results were done completely, and correctly with no fraud. Read the to learn more.
Voting token and weight is a list of one or more tokens that are eligible to add votes to accounts that hold this token(s), additionally it shows how many votes each token receives. Read the to learn more.
