Governance Participation

On VirtEngine, governance is not an occasional token vote — protocol operations route through it continuously. Validators who skip governance are skipping part of the job.

What comes up for a vote

Proposal type	Module	Example
Parameter changes	gov + target module	Validator-fee parameters, staking and issuance parameters
Chain configuration	x/config	Governance-managed chain parameters
Token issuance policy	x/issuancepolicy	Upsert or pause an issuance policy
HPC workload templates	x/hpc	Approving a provider’s custom template (with its security policy)
VEID verifier versions	x/veidregistry	Approving, cancelling, or retiring verifier versions
Software upgrades	upgrade flow	Coordinated binary upgrades

Two of these deserve emphasis because they are security reviews disguised as votes:

• HPC template approvals decide what code can run on provider infrastructure and with which sandbox policy — see HPC Workload Templates.
• VEID verifier approvals decide which verification software the identity layer trusts — and validators must then report readiness for approved versions to earn verification rewards.

The proposal lifecycle

1. Submission — a proposer submits the proposal with a deposit (e.g., --deposit=1000uvirt in the HPC template flow).
2. Deposit period — the proposal must reach the minimum deposit to enter voting.
3. Voting period — bonded stake votes yes, no, no_with_veto, or abstain.
4. Tally — quorum and threshold parameters decide the outcome; vetoes can burn deposits.
5. Execution — passed proposals execute their payload on-chain.

# Vote
virtengine tx gov vote <proposal-id> yes --from=validator

# Inspect
virtengine query gov proposal <proposal-id>

Voting power and delegation

Voting power follows bonded stake. Delegators inherit their validator’s vote unless they cast their own — which means a validator’s governance record is part of what delegators are buying. Publish your reasoning on contested votes; it is cheap and it compounds trust.

Practical guidance for validators

• Vote on everything. Abstain is a vote; silence is not.
• Review template and verifier proposals like the security-sensitive changes they are — check registries, digests, sandbox levels, and the proposer’s history.
• Track proposals programmatically so voting windows never lapse unnoticed.