Technical Whitepaper

Overview

Unity Chant uses a tiered elimination tournament where ideas compete in small groups called cells. Each tier reduces the number of ideas by roughly 5:1. Winners advance to the next tier, losers are eliminated, and the process repeats until one idea remains. That idea becomes the Priority—the group's consensus answer.

At scale, 1,000,000 participants producing 1,000,000 ideas would require approximately 9 tiers to reach consensus. The entire human population could reach consensus in 14.

Phase 1: Submission

A facilitator creates a Chant—a question or prompt for the group to answer. Participants join and submit ideas (one idea per person per phase). Submission ends via one of four triggers:

• Timer mode—facilitator sets a deadline
• Ideas goal—auto-starts when N ideas are submitted
• Participants goal—auto-starts when N participants join
• Manual—facilitator starts voting manually

If zero ideas are submitted, voting does not start. If only one idea is submitted, it wins by default.

Phase 2: Cell Formation

When voting begins, the system creates cells—small groups of participants who will evaluate a subset of ideas. The algorithm has three jobs: size the cells, distribute ideas, and assign participants.

Cell Sizing

Cells target 5 participants but flex between 3 and 7 to avoid tiny groups that can't deliberate meaningfully. The algorithm never creates cells of 1 or 2—remainders are absorbed into larger cells.

Idea Distribution

Ideas are distributed uniquely across cells—each idea appears in exactly one cell at Tier 1. Ideas are spread as evenly as possible. If there are more ideas than the ideal 5 per cell, some cells get 6–7.

Participant Assignment

Participants are randomly assigned to cells with one constraint: avoid placing a participant in a cell that contains their own idea when possible. This prevents authors from voting for their own submission. If conflict avoidance is impossible in small groups, the system accepts it as a fallback.

Priority order: (1) get every cell to at least 3 members, (2) fill remaining slots in the least-full cells.

Late Joiners

People who join after voting starts are added to the smallest active cell in the current tier, distributed across batches to keep them balanced. Cells are hard-capped at 7 participants. If all cells are at capacity, the latecomer sees a “Round Full” message and will participate in the next tier.

Phase 2b: Discussion (Optional)

If the facilitator enabled a discussion period, cells enter a deliberating phase before voting opens. During this time, participants read all ideas in their cell and comment on them. When the discussion timer expires, voting opens automatically. If no discussion period is set, cells go directly to voting.

Phase 3: Voting

Each participant receives 10 XP points to distribute across the ideas in their cell. They must allocate all 10 points—no more, no less. Each idea they vote for must receive at least 1 point. This weighted voting system lets participants express strength of preference, not just binary support.

Cell Resolution

When all participants in a cell have voted (or the timer expires), the cell completes:

1. Sum XP per idea across all voters in the cell
2. The idea with the most total XP wins and advances to the next tier
3. All other ideas are eliminated (single elimination)

Tie Handling

If multiple ideas tie for the highest XP, all tied ideas advance. This is intentional—ties represent genuine split support and both ideas deserve further evaluation.

Minimum Threshold

With only 1 voter, ideas need at least 4 XP to advance. This prevents a single person from advancing a throwaway pick with 1 point. With 2+ voters, there is no minimum threshold.

Zero Votes

If no one votes at all (even after a timeout extension), all ideas advance. The system never eliminates ideas without any human input.

Grace Period

When the last voter in a cell submits their vote, a 10-second grace period starts. During this window, participants can change their vote. After 10 seconds, the cell finalizes. This prevents strategic last-second voting while still allowing corrections.

Timeout Handling

Timed mode: The facilitator sets a voting duration per tier. When time runs out, all incomplete cells are force-completed with whatever votes have been cast.

No-timer mode: Cells complete naturally as all participants vote. Two safeguards prevent stalling:

• Zero-vote extension: If a cell has zero votes when timeout fires, it gets one extension (another full timeout period). If still zero after the extension, it force-completes with all ideas advancing.
• Supermajority auto-advance: When 80%+ of cells in a tier complete, a 10-minute grace period starts. After 10 minutes, remaining straggler cells are force-completed. Enabled by default; can be toggled off by the facilitator.

Phase 4: Tier Advancement

After all cells in a tier complete, the system collects advancing ideas and builds the next tier. All participants are redistributed across new cells—everyone participates in every tier, not just winners from their previous cell.

Normal Tiers (6+ Ideas)

Ideas are grouped into batches of approximately 5. New cells are created for each batch, and all participants are distributed evenly across them. Multiple cells within a batch vote on the same ideas, with one winner per batch advancing.

The Final Showdown (2–5 Ideas)

When 5 or fewer ideas remain, the system enters the Final Showdown:

• All participants vote on all remaining ideas (not just a subset)
• Participants are split into cells of 5, but every cell votes on the same set of ideas
• Votes are tallied across all cells (cross-cell tallying), not per-cell
• The idea with the highest total XP across all cells wins

This ensures the final decision reflects the will of the entire group, not just a small cell.

The Backfill Rule

If only 2, 3, or 4 ideas advance to the next tier, the system backfills to 5 by reviving the best-performing eliminated ideas from the previous tier, ranked by total XP.

If the last included runner-up ties in XP with excluded ones, all tied ideas are included (allowing 6–7 in the final showdown). If too many ties to include all, the system randomly selects from the tied group. This gives strong runners-up a second chance and prevents a bare 2-idea face-off with no alternatives.

Phase 5: Priority Declared

When a single idea remains—either by being the last one standing or by winning the Final Showdown—it becomes the Priority. At this point, the Chant either completes (one-time mode) or enters Accumulation (rolling mode).

Rolling Mode

If the facilitator enables rolling mode, the Chant continues after a Priority is declared. New participants can join and submit challenger ideas during an accumulation period. When the accumulation timer expires, a Challenge Round begins.

Challenge Rounds

1. Retirement: Ideas with 2+ losses are permanently removed, provided enough challengers remain.
2. Benching: Ideas with 2+ losses that can't be retired are held for a future round.
3. Tier 1 cells: Remaining challengers enter Tier 1 and vote normally.
4. Champion defense: The current Priority enters at a higher tier, skipping early rounds.
5. Resolution: If a challenger beats the champion, it becomes the new Priority.

If no challengers are submitted after 3 consecutive accumulation periods, the Priority is declared final and the Chant completes.

Continuous Flow Mode

An alternative to the standard batch model. In continuous flow, Tier 1 cells form as ideas arrive—every 5 ideas triggers a new cell. Voting starts immediately in each cell while new ideas are still being submitted. Winners advance as cells complete.

The facilitator must manually close submissions to stop new Tier 1 cells from forming. After submissions close, the system waits for all Tier 1 cells to complete before advancing to Tier 2. This mode is designed for large-scale, time-sensitive deliberations.

Comment Up-Pollination

Comments attached to ideas can spread virally across cells and promote to higher tiers:

1. A comment starts in its origin cell
2. At 3 upvotes, it spreads to ~3 nearby cells in the same tier
3. Each additional 2 upvotes spreads further (~9 cells, then all cells)
4. When a tier completes and an idea advances, the top comment for that idea is promoted to the next tier with a fresh start

Only comments attached to a specific idea can spread. Unlinked comments stay in their origin cell. This ensures the most insightful arguments travel with the ideas they support.

Key Parameters