Snapshots
Why snapshots?
Traditional polling has a fatal flaw: time.
Every poll captures a single moment, like a photograph. Want to see how opinions evolve? You need a new photo - which means dragging everyone back to vote again. And again. And again.
This works fine for simple choices. It breaks completely when you need to track emerging trends, model long-term shifting sentiment, or navigate rapid changes in real-time.
What if you could see the movie instead of just a few frames? MetaPoll creates the movie.
How Continuous Results Work
MetaPoll decouples when you vote from when results update. You express your preferences once, on your schedule. The MetaPoll continuously generates fresh results as new information emerges and contexts shift.
Like Bitcoin producing new blocks at regular intervals, MetaPoll generates fresh "snapshots" of community preferences on a set schedule - daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever fits your community's needs.
Each snapshot captures where everyone stands at that moment, then gets added to the chain of previous snapshots. String them together and you see your community's preferences evolving over time, frame by frame.
The Result
Instead of wondering "What did people think six months ago?" you watch opinions shift, see trends emerge, and spot consensus forming before it's obvious to everyone else.
No more waiting years to discover your community's priorities have changed. No more organizing expensive re-votes. No more making important decisions based on stale data.
Imagine watching your community's collective mind change in real-time, seeing not just the destination but the journey itself. That's what continuous results deliver - the full movie of democratic decision-making, not just isolated frames. A single poll tells you where your community was. MetaPoll shows you where it's going.
Continuous insight. Minimal effort. Maximum relevance.
What's in a snapshot?
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 data structure of Snapshots read the dedicated page.
Snapshot Cadence
Snapshot cadence is how often MetaPoll updates your community's preference map.
Daily cadence means fresh results every 24 hours. Weekly gives you updates every seven days. Monthly refreshes every 30 days.
Think of it like the frame rate in a movie. Higher cadence (more frequent snapshots) creates smoother motion but uses more processing power. Lower cadence (less frequent snapshots) saves resources but might miss rapid changes.
Your community chooses the rhythm that fits your decision-making pace. Larger communities dealing with urgent issues might want daily updates. Stable communities focusing on long-term planning might prefer monthly snapshots.
The beauty is flexibility - you can adjust cadence as your needs change, speeding up during critical periods and slowing down during steady states.
Current Snapshot information
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).
Navigating snapshots within MetaPoll
You can move forward and backwards between snapshots with the arrow buttons on the right side.
Calendar view
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.
Snapshot info
All snapshots have a snapshot info button.
When the snapshot info button is clicked it will open up more detailed information about that snapshot.
Snapshot Information
This is all information that can change per snapshot.
Visibility is if the MetaPoll is publically viewable or private when this snapshot was created.
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 Voting Power to learn how votes are calculated.
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.
Voting Decay Cycle is the number of days until voting power decays in half. Please see Vote Decay for further information.
Verification Data
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.)
Snapshot Location is a link to the block on Arweave where the Snapshot is stored forever. Read the dedicated page on Arweave 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 dedicated page on VDIP 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 dedicated page on VCIP to learn more.
Voting Tokens
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 dedicated page on tokens and Voting power to learn more.
Snapshot Cadence
A snapshot cadence is the length of time between snapshots. Examples are Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.
Option trees within Snapshots
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.
Last updated