Axelar has become one of the first cryptocurrency projects to implement quadratic voting, a step forward for the security of cross-chain communication and for all blockchains running proof-of-stake consensus.

Quadratic voting is a governance approach used in Byzantine systems, designed to prevent concentration of voting power among a subset of nodes. In a delegated proof-of-stake implementation, each validator has voting power equivalent to the square root of the amount of stake delegated to it.

In other words, validators' voting power does not increase linearly with the amount of stake delegated. In order for their voting power to increase, a validator's delegation must increase exponentially.

The security benefits of quadratic voting have been discussed by blockchain industry leaders including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. However, few have implemented it. Axelar is determined to advance security in blockchain, both in cross-chain communication and in proof-of-stake networks, in general.

Quadratic voting shipped on Aug. 29, part of a mainnet upgrade Axelar has code-named Maeve, after the Westworld character. Today, Axelar issued a press release, announcing the upgrade and describing the quadratic voting feature. A subsequent blog post describes Axelar's comprehensive security approach, and you can read more here about Axelar's view on quadratic voting and its potential implementations in DAOs, proof-of-stake (PoS) and delegated proof-of-stake (dPoS) systems.

Want to learn more? Join us this Friday at 1700 UTC for a live Twitter Spaces AMA with Strangelove Ventures' Jack Zampolin and Axelar co-founder Sergey Gorbunov. Set a reminder, here.