Voting Power

What is Voting Power?

Voting power is the influence a DAO member has when voting on governance proposals. It is typically proportional to token holdings holding 1 percent of governance tokens means 1 percent of voting power.

How does Voting Power work?

1. The governance contract snapshots token balances at a specific block when a proposal is created.
2. Token holders cast votes weighted by their balance at that snapshot.
3. Voting power can be delegated holders keep their tokens but assign voting rights to a trusted party.
4. Once quorum and majority thresholds are met, the proposal passes.

Why does Voting Power matter?

Concentrated voting power undermines decentralization. A single whale with 50 percent of tokens effectively controls the DAO regardless of what other members want.

Key features of Voting Power

• Snapshot-based prevents last-minute accumulation to game votes
• Delegable without transferring tokens
• Fully transparent and on-chain
• Some DAOs use quadratic voting to reduce whale dominance

Examples of Voting Power

• In Uniswap, holding 2.5 million UNI is required just to submit a proposal.
• A whale with 10 million AAVE out of 13 million total supply can effectively veto any proposal.

Delegation lets small holders pool influence through trusted stewards.