Using the IC

Voting on Proposals

By staking ICP tokens, you can participate in the Internet Computer’s governance. Here’s how you can vote on proposals to earn voting rewards

IC Academy » Network Nervous System » Voting on Proposals

Voting on Governance Proposals

Participating in the governance process of the Internet Computer

The Internet Computer’s Governance

The Internet Computer is governed by the Network Nervous System (NNS).

What is the Network Nervous System (NNS)?

The NNS is the controlling mechanism that governs the Internet Computer. It is a tokenized open governance system that manages decision-making in the IC ecosystem.

In order to participate in the governance process by either creating proposals or voting on proposals, you need to stake your ICP tokens.

The following covers how you can vote in the governance process of the Internet Computer. To do so, you will have to lock your ICP tokens in a neuron, which is explained here: Staking ICP Tokens.

Voting Options

Neuron holders can choose between the two following voting options:

Manual voting

Neuron holders that wish to review and vote on proposals themselves can opt for manual voting

Automated voting

Governance participants who want to maximize their voting rewards can automate their voting by following other neuron stakeholders

In practice, some governance participants may be manually voting on proposals in certain areas (such as node operations) while automating votes in other areas (such as data centers).

Manual Voting

Reviewing and manually voting on proposals

In order to access the Nervous Network System (NNS) dApp, you need an Internet Identity. For a guide on how to log into the dApp, see Using the NNS dApp.

Here are step-by-step instructions for manually voting on governance proposals:

  1. Log into the Network Nervous System (NNS) dApp
  2. Click on Login and then on Authenticate
  3. Authorize authentication by clicking on Proceed
  4. In the dApp, click on the Voting tab
  5. Scroll down to see the list of Open and Executed proposals
  6. Click on an open proposal you want to vote on to see its details
  7. In the section Cast Vote, select the Neurons you want to use for voting by ticking the checkmark
  8. Click on Adopt or Reject depending on how you want to vote
  9. Confirm your vote with Yes, I'm sure

Automated Voting

Maximizing your voting rewards by enabling automated votes

To maximize your staking rewards, it is recommended to enable automatic voting.

Enabling automatic voting

To enable automatic voting, simply do the following:

  1. Log into the NNS dApp
  2. Click on the Neurons tab
  3. Select your neuron
  4. Click on Add Followees
  5. Select the neurons whose votes you want to follow by either entering a neuron ID or selecting a neuron from the available options

You can always change the voting settings via Neurons and Edit Followees.

Automatic voting

Maximize your staking rewards by enabling automatic voting in the NNS dApp

Enabling automatic voting

Submitting a Proposal

Find out how you can submit a governance proposal to the Network Nervous System (NNS)

Submit proposal