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One of the most important aspects of a DAO is collective decision making. So for this stop on our DAO path, we’ll be participating in exactly that by voting on a proposal with Snapshot!

What Do I Need?

Before we get going, let’s make sure you’ve got everything you need. In order to vote with Snapshot, you will need:

• An Ethereum wallet, such as MetaMask or Rainbow
• Governance tokens from the project you want to vote on

If you need help getting your gear in order, head over to our YouTube Channel. There, you’ll find guides for setting up your wallet and purchasing crypto!

Voting & Snapshot

At its core, a DAO is a group of people with shared funds and assets who make decisions together. In order for a DAO’s contributors to make these decisions collectively, they will often submit proposals for a vote. These proposals could be anything from approving a new logo to investing in a startup. The go-to platform for conducting these votes is Snapshot.

Snapshot is a decentralized, gasless voting system. It allows DAO members to vote on proposals with governance tokens like $ENS and $LDO, NFTs like Doodles, and more. Thanks to Snapshot’s off-chain, gasless nature, it removes loads of friction from the voting process and makes it as easy as posting a Twitter poll. And because Snapshot connects to your wallet and requires tokens or NFTs for voting, you can be confident that the only people casting their vote are contributors with skin in the game.

Alright, let’s cast a vote!

The Guide

Step 1

Let’s begin by heading to snapshot.org. The homepage shows a list of DAO Spaces, such as ENS, Aave, and Uniswap.

Step 2

Connect your wallet with the button in the top-right corner.

Step 3

Once your wallet is connected, find the DAO whose proposal you wish to vote on. You can also hop into the RabbitHole Discord to ask questions, find information about other DAOs, and learn about important proposals to vote on!

In the DAO’s Space, you will see a list of current and past proposals. You will also see an information hub on the left with options to create proposals and delegate votes - more on that in the next guide. Finally, there is an About tab which contains information on the DAO, such as the blockchain network they are operating on, their voting strategies, admins, and authors. Admin, author, and voter accounts on Snapshot are simply wallet addresses, so they can be easily verified on a block explorer like Etherscan.

Step 4

On the Proposals tab, find an active proposal that you wish to vote on.

The proposal’s page will contain a summary of the proposal, the start and end dates for voting, an overview of the results, and a breakdown of all voters. It is also important to take note of the snapshot date. In order to vote on a proposal, you must have already held the DAO’s governance token or NFT before the snapshot date. If you acquired the tokens after the snapshot date, you will not be able to vote.

Step 5

After familiarizing yourself with the proposal, cast your vote and click Vote. You will be prompted to confirm your vote, and if everything looks good, click Vote again.

Step 6

Finally, confirm your vote by signing it with your wallet. Although you are using your wallet, there are no gas fees associated with voting!

Congratulations!

And that’s it! You have officially voted on a web3 proposal.

As great as voting is, sometimes you may not feel knowledgeable enough about a specific proposal to cast your own vote. This can be especially true when dealing with technical proposals regarding DeFi protocols, blockchain infrastructure, and other big brain stuff. For times like these, we can still contribute our votes by delegating them. Check out our guide on delegating governance tokens to learn how!