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LESSON 07 · Governance1 / 4

Votes help choose where rewards go

Staked xRAM gives voting power. You can assign that power to eligible pool gauges, which track rewards for liquidity providers.

Votes direct LP rewards.
Staked xRAM Your votes
More votesPool A LP rewards
Fewer votesPool B LP rewards
Separate stream
Pool fees + incentives
Eligible voters
Schematic. Actual emissions depend on vote weights and current rules. LPs and voters receive different reward streams.
LPs, voters, and teams offering vote rewards have different jobs.
Sources

← → Navigate · F Present · Esc Exit

Recap & examples
01
VotePool APool BDirect token rewards

Votes split rewards twice

A pool’s share of all votes helps set its emissions. Your share of that pool’s votes determines your eligible share of its voter rewards.

02
This weekVoteNext weekRewards

Votes apply to next week

Epochs start Thursday at 00:00 UTC. Votes placed now target the following week.

03
LP reward timerSeparate schedule

LP rewards have their own schedule

Some LP emissions have a protection timer. Claiming or changing protected liquidity early can forfeit affected rewards; deposited LP assets remain yours.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE

More votes share the same pot

A pool has 1,000 reward tokens. Your 200 votes out of 10,000 total votes give a 2% share: 20 reward tokens.

What this means

If total votes double to 20,000 while your votes and the reward pot stay fixed, your share falls to 1%: 10 tokens.

Key idea: Your share of a pool’s votes determines your eligible share of its voter rewards.

Advanced Risk Check
  • Confirm which reward week your vote targets before signing. Current votes do not change earlier rewards.
  • Read the live reward warning before claiming or changing protected liquidity. A liquidity change can trigger an early emission claim without pressing Claim.
  • The protection timer is configurable. Affected emissions can be permanently forfeited; waiting afterward does not restore rewards already lost.
  • A large reward pot does not promise a large payout to one voter. The number of votes sharing it also matters.
Full explanation & example

Voting has two denominators. A pool's fraction of system-wide votes helps determine its emission allocation. Within that pool, a voter's fraction of the pool's votes determines their share of eligible voter rewards. Those are separate calculations.

A displayed incentive amount is shared with other eligible voters. More votes can reduce the reward per vote even if the total offered incentive remains unchanged. Reward-token prices and actual fees can also change the estimated dollar result.

The weekly boundary starts Thursday at 00:00 UTC. Current voting records target the following period; a vote submitted this week should not be described as rewriting an earlier period's rewards. Read the target epoch before signing.

LP anti-Sybil protection is a separate mechanism. Changing a protected CL position can attempt an emission claim before resetting its timer. The user can forfeit affected rewards even without pressing a standalone claim button.

The reward denominator changes

Assume one pool has 1,000 units of an eligible reward token to distribute and your recorded votes are 200 out of 10,000. Your illustrative share is 2%, or 20 reward tokens. If total pool votes instead become 20,000 while your 200 votes and the reward pot stay fixed, your share is 1%.

The second case pays 10 reward tokens. A large reward pot by itself cannot establish the payout to one voter, and token quantities do not guarantee a dollar return.

Common mix-ups

“Voting for a pool pays me that pool's entire reward pot.”

Eligible voters share the pot according to the applicable recorded vote weights.

“After an early emission claim is slashed, I can wait and recover those rewards.”

The affected emissions are forfeited. Passing a future timer does not restore an already slashed claim.

Discussion question

Why can waiting until the last moment to vote create a different risk from vote dilution?

Show the answer

Later information may show more of the final incentives and votes, but transaction delays or a missed deadline can stop the intended allocation being recorded. The guide does not prescribe a universal last-minute strategy.

Sources