Skip to content

Voting with sdTokens

Meta-Governance

sdToken holders can participate in governance of the underlying protocol through vote replication. Stake DAO replicates each underlying protocol vote—both gauge allocations and protocol governance proposals—allowing sdToken holders to vote directly.

When you vote with your sdTokens, the Liquid Locker casts votes on the underlying protocol proportionally to sdToken holder preferences.

Vote Incentives

Protocols and DAOs use Votemarket to incentivize votes for specific gauge allocations. When you vote for incentivized gauges, you earn rewards based on your voting power contribution.

Stake DAO distributes these incentives bi-weekly according to your voting choices.

Vote Delegation

You can delegate your voting power to Stake DAO. When delegated:

  • For gauge votes with incentives, Stake DAO votes to maximize your rewards
  • For governance proposals, Stake DAO votes based on protocol interests

Delegating removes the need to actively participate in each vote while still earning vote incentives.

Anti-Manipulation: TWAVP

To prevent manipulation from users rapidly staking and unstaking around voting periods, Stake DAO uses Time-Weighted Average Voting Power (TWAVP).

TWAVP calculates your voting power based on how long your tokens have been staked in the gauge, not just your balance at a single point in time. Different vote types use different averaging periods:

  • Gauge allocation votes: 10-day TWAVP
  • Protocol governance votes: 30-day TWAVP

The longer period for governance votes ensures voting power is not influenced by short-term changes from gauge allocation activity.

Auto Voter

For users who vote for the same gauges each period, the Auto Voter automatically casts your chosen votes every period without manual intervention.

See the Auto Voter setup guide for configuration instructions.