Governance voting is the mechanism by which holders of governance tokens or members of a decentralised organisation cast votes on proposals to direct a protocol’s decisions. Voting power is typically proportional to token holdings or delegated stake, and outcomes can execute automatically on-chain. It is the primary means by which token holders exercise collective control over protocol changes.
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- Common schemes include one-token-one-vote, quadratic voting to dampen whale dominance, and delegated voting where holders assign their power to representatives. Votes can be tallied off-chain via signed messages for gas efficiency or settled on-chain for binding execution behind a timelock. Design challenges include voter apathy, plutocracy, vote buying, and ensuring proposals are well-scoped and secure before execution.