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Community Council Elections Voting Guide

The election of the Nimiq Community Council is getting closer. Today, we’ll explain how the voting process works and how you can participate.

by

3 min

Nimiq Community Council Voting Instructions Blogpost Header

Quick heads-up before voting goes live, a few important notes:

  • Stakers: No need to un-stake. Your voting power is based on the NIM hold on your voting address at the final snapshot, including any staked NIM on that address.
  • Fees: Casting a vote submits an on-chain transaction that costs 1 Luna.
  • Eligible addresses: Exchange and third-party wallet addresses can’t vote, since you need control of the address to create the required on-chain public-message transaction, so have your official Nimiq Wallet accessible and ready

Two Luna Stakers Top-Up

If your address is fully staked and shows 0 available balance, don’t worry: every address that is staking at the start of the voting period will receive 2 LUNA, so everyone can still vote without needing to un-stake funds.

If your address wasn’t staking at the beginning of the voting period, you won’t receive this top-up and must have at least 1 LUNA yourself to be able to vote.

Prerequisites

  • Vote from a regular Nimiq address you control (not an exchange or third-party wallet) with NIM on it (available and/or staked). If needed, move funds to such an address first.
  • Make sure you have at least 1 LUNA to cover the voting transaction, or use the 2 LUNA top-up if your address was staking when the vote began. If you missed the top-up, you can also buy NIM directly in the Nimiq Wallet.
  • Make sure you can access your Nimiq Wallet, since you’ll sign the transaction with your login-file + password or your Ledger.

Step-by-step: cast your vote

  1. Visit nimiq.com/vote.
  2. Sort the candidates in your preferred order.
  3. Click Vote.
  4. You’ll be redirected to the Nimiq Wallet to choose the voting account.
  5. Sign the transaction with your password or Ledger.

To change your vote, submit another vote from the same address. Only the last vote from that address counts at the final snapshot.

How your vote is submitted

The Voting app sends 1 Luna (0.00001 NIM) to a preset burn address derived from the hash of the voting setup. Your vote is included as a public message recorded on the blockchain. The burn address tied to the setup hash makes the setup verifiable and immutable.

How votes are counted

  • Votes equal the NIM balance on your voting address at the final snapshot: 1 NIM = 1 vote, including staked NIM.
  • The snapshot is taken at the end, so moving funds away before then reduces the balance attributed to that address.
  • If you vote from another address, that address’s vote weight is based on its balance at the snapshot.
  • You need to cast one vote for each address in your account, not just one vote per Nimiq account.

Example: If you vote and then move your funds away before the voting period ends, your address balance at the snapshot will be zero, equivalent to no votes.

Don’t wait until the last minute, leave time to re-submit if needed!

Once you’ve followed the steps above, your vote will be recorded on the blockchain. If you need to make changes, simply submit another vote from the same address before the final snapshot. To view the interim results as well as the final results, visit nimiq.com/vote.

We’ll share the voting start and end dates, and reveal the nominated candidates in our next blog post. Stay tuned!

Pura Vida,

Team Nimiq


Disclaimer

None of the statements must be viewed as an endorsement or recommendation for Nimiq, any cryptocurrency, or investment product. Neither the information, nor any opinion contained herein constitutes a solicitation or offer by the creators or participants to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments or provide any investment advice or service. All statements contained in statements made in Nimiq’s web pages, blogs, social media, press releases, or in any place accessible by the public, and oral statements that may be made by Nimiq or project associates that are not statements of historical fact, constitute “forward-looking statements”. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual future results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expected, expressed, or implied by such forward-looking statements. The final decision of implementing any changes to the Nimiq protocol, including its parameters, always remains with the decentralized node operators who agree what version and parameters to deploy and support.