How to vote on the DAO’s Proposals

Voting is surprisingly easy. Don’t feel like using your main account to vote on dummy proposals? Just transfer a few tokens to a fresh address and play with it first.

Note that for security reasons, the DAO tokens used to vote with will be not be transferrable until the voting deadline has passed, but they can still be used to vote on any other proposals, so vote and be heard!

You have three options:

Voting from a website

Voting on a website is the easiest way to vote:

• Go to a site such as MyEtherWallet
• Scroll through the proposals,
• Vote using the buttons
• You will be asked to input the Ethereum private key file holding DAO Tokens,
• Type in your password
• The site will then sign and broadcast a transaction with your vote attached. Simple.

However, this requires that you trust the website. Proper voting websites will have client-side only interfaces, meaning your key will never be uploaded anywhere. As part of the DAO Framework 1.0, we have developed such an open source interface for any website to use, so if you are a developer make sure to check out the github repo.

Please always err on the side of caution, and be conscious of the following: your connection might not be safe (public wifi), your computer might not be safe (malware/virus), or the website developer could be malicious (phishing). We encourage you to do your due diligence and ask the community for advice as to which sites are reputable.

Voting via Mist

Voting via Mist just very recently became possible. We’re breaking new ground here, and this is a glimpse of the future of Dapps and Web Three in general. There is no trust involved and the voting interface is entirely open source: the way the web should work (tm).

Downside: it’s a bit technical, and it’s certainly experimental for now:

Here is a great wiki written by @deskenny with screenshots of every step. A quick summary of the steps:

• First, install the Ethereum Wallet version 0.7.2 or above. Video tutorial here.
• Second, start the Ethereum-Wallet with --mode mist at the end of the run command. This requires you use the command line and is the hardest part of the exercise. :)
• Third, enter the URL of the DAOhub voting interface: https://vote.daohub.org
• Fourth, add the site as a dapp by clicking on the “+” right to the url-bar.
• Finally, choose the account that holds your DAO tokens, and press continue

And now you’re all set to vote, anytime you want, using the most secure interface possible… before it’s even out. ;-)

Warning: your mileage may vary as this is a bit of a ‘hack,’ for a full experience we will need to wait for a newer release of the Mist browser. If you’re having problems (and some do), please join the slack.

Voting using the Ethereum Wallet

This is one is for those who prefer to have full control over the voting process and trust no interface!

Please note that as of the 2nd of June 2016, the DAO has grown so large that the events it generates are enough to ‘freeze’ the Ethereum wallet and prevent it from acquiring new blocks. We hope a future release of the Ethereum Wallet will address this issue.

• Launch your Ethereum Wallet and go to your contracts tab to find The DAO’s contract, if its not there, this video will show you how to add it.
• Once in The DAO’s interface, select the Vote function on the right side of the page.
• Enter the proposal ID you want to vote for.
• If you want to vote against the proposal leave the “yes” box unchecked or to support the proposal, you can click the “yes” check box so that it is filled in.
• Choose the account that you would like use to vote with.
• Leave the Send Ether box empty and click execute.

This is the foolproof way to vote, but it’s a bit iffy (see note above), so it is unlikely anyone will ever need to use it when Mist is released.

That about wraps it up! Have fun testing voting, submitting proposals and as usual, don’t forget to join the Slack if you have any questions!