# kaal:claim:6269518-023

**Claim.** Validators correcting citations should be permitted only to increase outward citations and never to decrease them, because a power to decrease would enable collusion to help allies under-cite competitors.

**Type.** design  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- two phase citation submission with validator correction authority

**Source quote.**

> In the second phase, validators can increase citations to others if they detect under-citation. Critically, validators can only increase outward citations. They cannot decrease them. Thus, preventing collusion to help allies under-cite competitors.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Citation Honesty Mechanisms in Weighted Directed Acyclic Graph Governance* (2026), IV.D. Solution 4: Mandatory Citation Minimums with Validator Override, page 11

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Citation Honesty Mechanisms in Weighted Directed Acyclic Graph Governance (2026). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6269518

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `f096ecf5b41bb9ae8642facd54b9149c7b594de53a1cc32718a4d806b772f88f` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202026%20-%20Citation%20Honesty%20Mechanisms%20in%20Weighted%20Directed%20Acyclic%20Graph%20Governance.pdf

**Topics.** citation-and-knowledge, consensus-and-security

**Keywords.** citation-minimums, validator-override, collusion-resistance, mechanism-design

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