# Canto's Governance Explained

Governance plays a vital role in shaping the future of a network. This blog breaks down what you should know about Canto’s governance model, how it works, and how you can get involved. Shall we?

## What is the structure of Canto’s Governance?
Let's start with Canto's governance structure. Canto's governance structure is based on the Evmos governance model with the addition of the GovShuttle Module. The GovShuttle module was a novel addition, built to support Canto's new paradigm for governance known as ***unified governance***.

With the unified governance approach of Canto, core infrastructure DApps and blockchain applications are controlled by network token holders; whereas in other ecosystems, they are separate. This means that network token stakeholders can participate in the governance of both the core DApps and the Canto network itself.

Let's look at an example.

Looking at Canto specifically, the DEX and the Lending Market, which are public infrastructure DApps on Canto, are integrated into the governance of the Canto network itself. This allows the infrastructure DApps and the network to work synergistically together versus having them separate.

On Ethereum, the governance for DApps and the network governance are separate. For example, Uniswap and Compound, DApps built on Ethereum, have their own governance tokens. Any governance proposals for Uniswap or Compound take place on their platforms and are voted on using their governance tokens, despite being built on top of Ethereum. This means that holders of Ethereum don’t have any governance power over the DApps built on Ethereum.

In order for Canto to implement network governance control over applications deployed to the EVM, a method of transporting and verifying information from the Cosmos SDK governance is required. This is where the custom GOVShutte module comes into play by allowing proposal information from SDK governance to be read and implemented by applications on the EVM.

To learn more about how the GovShuttle works, go [here](https://docs.canto.io/technical-reference/governance/govshuttle-module).

## What is governance used for on Canto?
Canto’s governance allows the community to vote on changes that will directly impact the future of the network and public infrastructure DApps built on the network. Some examples of proposals to date include:
* Liquidity mining programs from Community Pool spend
* Setting gas fees
* Registering ERC20 tokens for bridge support

## How does governance work?
The governance process starts with a proposal. Any account can submit a proposal with the caveat that a user must submit a proposal with a deposit.

Why a deposit, you ask?

The intent behind needing a deposit is to prevent spam from being submitted. It is important to note that the account submitting the proposal does not have to put up the entire deposit. If a proposal is submitted without the full deposit, the proposal will sit in the inactive proposal queue. Other token holders have a designated time frame where they can contribute to the proposal deposit.

If the minimum deposit is not met within the established time frame, the proposal will be destroyed, and the deposits will be burned.

## The minimum deposit has been reached. Now what?

Once the minimum deposit is reached, the proposal moves to the active proposal queue, and the voting on the proposal begins.

## How long is the Canto voting period?
The Canto voting period is 1 hour. It starts when the minimum deposit for a submitted proposal is reached. Any proposal that moves to a vote will have one hour to be voted on by the community.

Why is the voting period one hour? As Canto is in its early stages, the shorter voting timeframe allows the network to act swiftly if it needs to. The 1-hour voting window may increase over time as the network matures.

## Who can vote on proposals?
Any community member that has staked Canto can participate in a proposal vote. Users who have not staked Canto cannot participate in governance votes even if they are token holders. However, they can submit a proposal and contribute to proposal deposits.

## What are the voting options?
When a proposal is in a vote, the following options will appear:

* Yes
* No
* NoWithVeto
* Abstain

Votes are counted on a 1 token 1 vote basis.

NoWithVeto counts as No but also adds a Veto vote. Abstain option allows voters to signal that they do not intend to vote in favor or against the proposal but accept the result of the vote.

Something you will see when a vote is underway is ‘Quorum.’ A quorum is defined as the minimum percentage of the voting power that needs to be cast on a proposal for the results to be valid.

## What happens if I am staking but fail to vote on something?
* If you are staking and fail to submit a vote before your validator, you will inherit your validator's vote.
* You will not inherit your validator's vote if you vote before or after your validator. If you submit after your validator has already voted, your vote will override the validator vote.

It is important to note that there is no punishment for a validator failing to vote on a governance proposal.

## How does a proposal pass?
For a proposal to pass, a few things have to happen:
1. A quorum must be met, or the percentage of voting power needed to be cast on a proposal for the results to be valid. The threshold is currently 34%.
2. The proposal has to reach a threshold of 50% Yes votes, excluding Abstain votes.
3. The proposal was not vetoed. (A possibility to veto exists if more than 1/3rd of all votes are NoWithVeto votes.)

## What happens after a proposal passes?
After a proposal passes, it will move into an implementation phase. The steps vary based on the proposal type. For more information, you can look at the technical documentation [here](https://docs.canto.io/technical-reference/governance).

## What happens to the deposit if a proposal passes or is rejected?
If the proposal is approved or rejected but not vetoed, each deposit will be automatically refunded to its respective depositor (transferred from the governance ModuleAccount).

Minimum deposits are burned in the following scenarios:
1. Minimum deposit period ends before reaching the minimum deposit.
2. During an active vote, a proposal is vetoed with greater than 1/3 of the votes.

## Helpful Links:

* If you would like to stake Canto to participate in voting, you can do so [here](https://staking.canto.io/).
* Proposals are posted on https://governance.canto.io/. Here users can view all the submitted proposals, their status, and the start and end time of the voting period.
* [Canto Public Twitter](https://twitter.com/canto_public)
* [Canto Public Mirror](https://canto.mirror.xyz/)