How On-Chain Governance Voting Works

Step 1: Proposal submission

A member (often required to hold a minimum amount of governance tokens) submits a formal proposal describing a specific proposed action, such as changing a protocol parameter or allocating treasury funds.

Step 2: Discussion period

Many governance systems include a discussion period before voting opens, letting members debate and potentially refine a proposal — an informal but often meaningfully influential part of the overall process.

Step 3: Voting

• Token holders cast votes, generally weighted by how many governance tokens they hold or have delegated to them.
• A proposal typically needs to clear both a minimum participation threshold (quorum) and a minimum approval threshold to pass.

Step 4: Execution

A passed proposal may execute automatically through a smart contract (a "trustless" outcome not requiring further human action), or may direct a team to carry out the approved action manually — the specific mechanism varies significantly between different DAOs and protocols.

What to remember

• Governance generally follows submission, discussion, voting, and execution stages.
• Votes are typically weighted by governance token holdings.
• Passing usually requires clearing both a quorum and an approval threshold.
• Low voter turnout is a common, genuine limitation across many DAOs.