Participating in governance

In decentralized organizations, users can directly participate in governance.

Why participate in governance?

User participation in governance helps create deeper alignment between protocol stakeholders. Some governance systems offer financial incentives for contributions such as voting, writing forum posts, or submitting proposals. Finally, decentralized governance offers the opportunity to pursue personal interests while having an outsize impact in a vibrant and growing ecosystem.

Best Practices

While the decentralized governance space is full of opportunities to contribute, as a new user it can be tough to know where to start.

The Education section of this Gitbook is a great entry point, offering general information about governance mechanisms and prominent decentralized protocols.

As you find projects and communities that interest you, the next step towards valuable participation is learning more about their systems and governance processes:

• Read the protocol documentation and blog

• Try using the system yourself

• Visit the community's forum to see current discussions and proposals

• Ask questions in the community chat, usually on Discord

Once you have a good understanding of how things work, you'll be able to follow each community's particular norms and procedures for contributing and making governance changes.