cosmos-sdk/x/gov

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x/gov

Abstract

This paper specifies the Governance module of the Cosmos SDK, which was first described in the Cosmos Whitepaper in June 2016.

The module enables Cosmos SDK based blockchain to support an on-chain governance system. In this system, holders of the native staking token of the chain can vote on proposals on a 1 token 1 vote basis. Next is a list of features the module currently supports:

• Proposal submission: Users can submit proposals with a deposit. Once the minimum deposit is reached, the proposal enters voting period. The minimum deposit can be reached by collecting deposits from different users (including proposer) within deposit period.
• Vote: Participants can vote on proposals that reached MinDeposit and entered voting period.
• Inheritance and penalties: Delegators, by default, inherit their validator's vote if they don't vote themselves.
• Claiming deposit: Users that deposited on proposals can recover their <<<<<<< HEAD deposits if the proposal was accepted or rejected. If the proposal was vetoed, or never entered voting period (minimum deposit not reached within deposit period), the deposit is burned.

This module is in use on the Cosmos Hub (a.k.a gaia). Features that may be added in the future are described in Future Improvements.

deposits if the proposal was accepted or rejected. If the proposal was vetoed, or never entered voting period (minimum deposit not reached within deposit period), the deposit is burned (or refunded depending on the gov parameters).

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Contents

The following specification uses ATOM as the native staking token. The module can be adapted to any Proof-Of-Stake blockchain by replacing ATOM with the native staking token of the chain.

• Concepts
  • Proposal submission
  • Deposit
  • Vote
  • Software Upgrade
• State
  • Proposals
  • Parameters and base types
  • Deposit
  • ValidatorGovInfo
  • Stores
  • Proposal Processing Queue
  • Legacy Proposal
• Messages
  • Proposal Submission
  • Deposit
  • Vote
• Events
  • EndBlocker
  • Handlers
• Parameters
• Client
  • CLI
  • gRPC
  • REST
• Metadata
  • Proposal
  • Vote

Concepts

Disclaimer: This is work in progress. Mechanisms are susceptible to change.

The governance process is divided in a few steps that are outlined below:

• Proposal submission: Proposal is submitted to the blockchain with a deposit.
• Vote: Once deposit reaches a certain value (MinDeposit), proposal is confirmed and vote opens. Bonded Atom holders can then send TxGovVote transactions to vote on the proposal.
• Execution After a period of time, the votes are tallied and depending on the result, the messages in the proposal will be executed.

Proposal submission

Right to submit a proposal

Every account can submit proposals by sending a MsgSubmitProposal transaction. Once a proposal is submitted, it is identified by its unique proposalID.

Proposal Messages

A proposal includes an array of sdk.Msgs which are executed automatically if the proposal passes. The messages are executed by the governance ModuleAccount itself. Modules such as x/upgrade, that want to allow certain messages to be executed by governance only should add a whitelist within the respective msg server, granting the governance module the right to execute the message once a quorum has been reached. The governance module uses the core router.Service to check that these messages are correctly constructed and have a respective path to execute on but do not perform a full validity check.

Deposit

To prevent spam, proposals must be submitted with a deposit in the coins defined by the MinDeposit param.

When a proposal is submitted, it has to be accompanied with a deposit that must be strictly positive, but can be inferior to MinDeposit. The submitter doesn't need to pay for the entire deposit on their own. The newly created proposal is stored in an inactive proposal queue and stays there until its deposit passes the MinDeposit. Other token holders can increase the proposal's deposit by sending a Deposit transaction. If a proposal doesn't pass the MinDeposit before the deposit end time (the time when deposits are no longer accepted), the proposal will be destroyed: the proposal will be removed from state and the deposit will be burned (see x/gov EndBlocker). When a proposal deposit passes the MinDeposit threshold (even during the proposal submission) before the deposit end time, the proposal will be moved into the active proposal queue and the voting period will begin.

The deposit is kept in escrow and held by the governance ModuleAccount until the proposal is finalized (passed or rejected).

Deposit refund and burn

When a proposal is finalized, the coins from the deposit are either refunded or burned according to the final tally of the proposal and the governance module parameters:

• All refunded or burned deposits are removed from the state. Events are issued when burning or refunding a deposit.
• 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).
• If the proposal is marked as Spam, the deposit will be burned.

For other cases, they are three parameters that define if the deposit of a proposal should be burned or returned to the depositors.

• BurnVoteVeto burns the proposal deposit if the proposal gets vetoed.
• BurnVoteQuorum burns the proposal deposit if the vote does not reach quorum.
• BurnProposalDepositPrevote burns the proposal deposit if it does not enter the voting phase.

Note: These parameters are modifiable via governance.

Vote

Participants

Participants are users that have the right to vote on proposals. On the Cosmos Hub, participants are bonded Atom holders. Unbonded Atom holders and other users do not get the right to participate in governance. However, they can submit and deposit on proposals.

Note that when participants have bonded and unbonded Atoms, their voting power is calculated from their bonded Atom holdings only.

Voting period

Once a proposal reaches MinDeposit, it immediately enters Voting period. We define Voting period as the interval between the moment the vote opens and the moment the vote closes. The default value of Voting period is 2 weeks but is modifiable at genesis or governance.

Option set

The option set of a proposal refers to the set of choices a participant can choose from when casting its vote.

The initial option set includes the following options:

• Yes
• No
• NoWithVeto
• Abstain

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.

Weighted Votes

ADR-037 introduces the weighted vote feature which allows a staker to split their votes into several voting options. For example, it could use 70% of its voting power to vote Yes and 30% of its voting power to vote No.

Often times the entity owning that address might not be a single individual. For example, a company might have different stakeholders who want to vote differently, and so it makes sense to allow them to split their voting power. Currently, it is not possible for them to do "passthrough voting" and giving their users voting rights over their tokens. However, with this system, exchanges can poll their users for voting preferences, and then vote on-chain proportionally to the results of the poll.

To represent weighted vote on chain, we use the following Protobuf message.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto#L56-L63

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto#L202-L219

For a weighted vote to be valid, the options field must not contain duplicate vote options, and the sum of weights of all options must be equal to 1.

Quorum

Quorum is defined as the minimum percentage of voting power that needs to be cast on a proposal for the result to be valid.

<<<<<<< HEAD

Expedited Proposals

A proposal can be expedited, making the proposal use shorter voting duration and a higher tally threshold by its default. If an expedited proposal fails to meet the threshold within the scope of shorter voting duration, the expedited proposal is then converted to a regular proposal and restarts voting under regular voting conditions.

Threshold

=======

Expedited Quorum

Expedited Quorum is defined as the minimum percentage of voting power that needs to be cast on an expedited proposal for the result to be valid.

Yes Quorum

Yes quorum is a more restrictive quorum that is used to determine if a proposal passes. It is defined as the minimum percentage of voting power that needs to have voted Yes for the proposal to pass. It differs from Threshold as it takes the whole voting power into account, not only Yes and No votes. By default, YesQuorum is set to 0, which means no minimum.

Proposal Types

Proposal types have been introduced in ADR-069.

Standard proposal

A standard proposal is a proposal that can contain any messages. The proposal follows the standard governance flow and governance parameters.

Expedited Proposal

A proposal can be expedited, making the proposal use shorter voting duration and a higher tally threshold by its default. If an expedited proposal fails to meet the threshold within the scope of shorter voting duration, the expedited proposal is then converted to a regular proposal and restarts voting under regular voting conditions.

Optimistic Proposal

An optimistic proposal is a proposal that passes unless a threshold of NO votes is reached. Voter can only vote NO on the proposal. If the NO threshold is reached, the optimistic proposal is converted to a standard proposal.

That threshold is defined by the optimistic_rejected_threshold governance parameter. A chain can optionally set a list of authorized addresses that can submit optimistic proposals using the optimistic_authorized_addresses governance parameter.

Multiple Choice Proposals

A multiple choice proposal is a proposal where the voting options can be defined by the proposer. The number of voting options is limited to a maximum of 4. Multiple choice proposals, contrary to any other proposal type, cannot have messages to execute. They are only text proposals.

Threshold

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Threshold is defined as the minimum proportion of Yes votes (excluding Abstain votes) for the proposal to be accepted.

Initially, the threshold is set at 50% of Yes votes, excluding Abstain votes. A possibility to veto exists if more than 1/3rd of all votes are NoWithVeto votes.
Note, both of these values are derived from the Params on-chain parameter, which is modifiable by governance. This means that proposals are accepted iff:

• There exist bonded tokens.
• Quorum has been achieved.
• The proportion of Abstain votes is inferior to 1/1.
• The proportion of NoWithVeto votes is inferior to 1/3, including Abstain votes.
• The proportion of Yes votes, excluding Abstain votes, at the end of the voting period is superior to 1/2.

For expedited proposals, by default, the threshold is higher than with a normal proposal, namely, 66.7%.

Inheritance

If a delegator does not vote, by default, it will inherit its validator vote.

• If the delegator votes before its validator, it will not inherit from the validator's vote.
• If the delegator votes after its validator, it will override its validator vote with its own. If the proposal is urgent, it is possible that the vote will close before delegators have a chance to react and override their validator's vote. This is not a problem, as proposals require more than 2/3rd of the total voting power to pass, when tallied at the end of the voting period. Because as little as 1/3 + 1 validation power could collude to censor transactions, non-collusion is already assumed for ranges exceeding this threshold.

This behavior can be changed by passing a custom tally calculation function to the governance module.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/keeper/config.go#L33-L35

Validator’s punishment for non-voting

At present, validators are not punished for failing to vote.

<<<<<<< HEAD

Governance address

Later, we may add permissioned keys that could only sign txs from certain modules. For the MVP, the Governance address will be the main validator address generated at account creation. This address corresponds to a different PrivKey than the CometBFT PrivKey which is responsible for signing consensus messages. Validators thus do not have to sign governance transactions with the sensitive CometBFT PrivKey.

Burnable Params

There are three parameters that define if the deposit of a proposal should be burned or returned to the depositors.

• BurnVoteVeto burns the proposal deposit if the proposal gets vetoed.
• BurnVoteQuorum burns the proposal deposit if the proposal deposit if the vote does not reach quorum.
• BurnProposalDepositPrevote burns the proposal deposit if it does not enter the voting phase.

Note: These parameters are modifiable via governance. =======

Execution

Execution is the process of executing the messages contained in a proposal. The execution phase will commence after the proposal has been accepted by the network. The messages contained in the proposal will be executed in the order they were submitted. All messages must be executed successfully for the proposal to be considered successful. I

If a proposal passes but fails to execute, the proposal will be marked as StatusFailed. This status is different from StatusRejected, which is used when a proposal fails to pass.

Execution has an upper limit on how much gas can be consumed in a single block. This limit is defined by the ProposalExecutionGas parameter.

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

State

The governance module uses collections for state management.

Constitution

Constitution is found in the genesis state. It is a string field intended to be used to descibe the purpose of a particular blockchain, and its expected norms. A few examples of how the constitution field can be used:

• define the purpose of the chain, laying a foundation for its future development
• set expectations for delegators
• set expectations for validators
• define the chain's relationship to "meatspace" entities, like a foundation or corporation

Since this is more of a social feature than a technical feature, we'll now get into some items that may have been useful to have in a genesis constitution:

• What limitations on governance exist, if any?
  • is it okay for the community to slash the wallet of a whale that they no longer feel that they want around? (viz: Juno Proposal 4 and 16)
  • can governance "socially slash" a validator who is using unapproved MEV? (viz: commonwealth.im/osmosis)
  • In the event of an economic emergency, what should validators do?
    • Terra crash of May, 2022, saw validators choose to run a new binary with code that had not been approved by governance, because the governance token had been inflated to nothing.
• What is the purpose of the chain, specifically?
  • best example of this is the Cosmos hub, where different founding groups, have different interpertations of the purpose of the network.

This genesis entry, "constitution" hasn't been designed for existing chains, who should likely just ratify a constitution using their governance system. Instead, this is for new chains. It will allow for validators to have a much clearer idea of purpose and the expecations placed on them while operating thier nodes. Likewise, for community members, the constitution will give them some idea of what to expect from both the "chain team" and the validators, respectively.

This constitution is designed to be immutable, and placed only in genesis, though that could change over time by a pull request to the cosmos-sdk that allows for the constitution to be changed by governance. Communities whishing to make amendments to their original constitution should use the governance mechanism and a "signaling proposal" to do exactly that.

Ideal use scenario for a cosmos chain constitution

As a chain developer, you decide that you'd like to provide clarity to your key user groups:

• validators
• token holders
• developers (yourself)

You use the constitution to immutably store some Markdown in genesis, so that when difficult questions come up, the constutituon can provide guidance to the community.

Proposals

Proposal objects are used to tally votes and generally track the proposal's state. They contain an array of arbitrary sdk.Msg's which the governance module will attempt to resolve and then execute if the proposal passes. Proposal's are identified by a unique id and contains a series of timestamps: submit_time, deposit_end_time, voting_start_time, voting_end_time which track the lifecycle of a proposal

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto#L78-L134

A proposal will generally require more than just a set of messages to explain its purpose but need some greater justification and allow a means for interested participants to discuss and debate the proposal. In most cases, it is encouraged to have an off-chain system that supports the on-chain governance process. To accommodate for this, a proposal contains a special metadata field, a string, which can be used to add context to the proposal. The metadata field allows custom use for networks, however, it is expected that the field contains a URL or some form of CID using a system such as IPFS. To support the case of interoperability across networks, the SDK recommends that the metadata represents the following JSON template:

{
  "title": "...",
  "description": "...",
  "forum": "...", // a link to the discussion platform (i.e. Discord)
  "other": "..." // any extra data that doesn't correspond to the other fields
}

This makes it far easier for clients to support multiple networks.

<<<<<<< HEAD The metadata has a maximum length that is chosen by the app developer, and passed into the gov keeper as a config. The default maximum length in the SDK is 255 characters.

Fields metadata, title and summary have a maximum length that is chosen by the app developer, and passed into the gov keeper as a config (x/gov/keeper/config).

The default maximum length are:

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/keeper/config.go#L38-L47

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Writing a module that uses governance

There are many aspects of a chain, or of the individual modules that you may want to use governance to perform such as changing various parameters. This is very simple to do. First, write out your message types and MsgServer implementation. Add an authority field to the keeper which will be populated in the constructor with the governance module account: govKeeper.GetGovernanceAccount().GetAddress(). Then for the methods in the msg_server.go, perform a check on the message that the signer matches authority. This will prevent any user from executing that message.

Parameters and base types

Params define the rules according to which votes are run. If governance wants to change a parameter it can do so by submitting a gov MsgUpdateParams governance proposal.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto#L259-L348

Parameters are stored in the gov store under the key ParamsKey.

Additionally, we introduce some basic types:

type Vote byte

const (
    VoteYes         = 0x1
    VoteNo          = 0x2
    VoteNoWithVeto  = 0x3
    VoteAbstain     = 0x4
)

type ProposalType  string

const (
    ProposalTypePlainText       = "Text"
    ProposalTypeSoftwareUpgrade = "SoftwareUpgrade"
)

type ProposalStatus byte

const (
    StatusNil           ProposalStatus = 0x00
    StatusDepositPeriod ProposalStatus = 0x01  // Proposal is submitted. Participants can deposit on it but not vote
    StatusVotingPeriod  ProposalStatus = 0x02  // MinDeposit is reached, participants can vote
    StatusPassed        ProposalStatus = 0x03  // Proposal passed and successfully executed
    StatusRejected      ProposalStatus = 0x04  // Proposal has been rejected
    StatusFailed        ProposalStatus = 0x05  // Proposal passed but failed execution
)

Deposit

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/gov.proto#L65-L76

ValidatorGovInfo

This type is used in a temp map when tallying

  type ValidatorGovInfo struct {
    Minus     sdk.Dec
    Vote      Vote
  }

<<<<<<< HEAD

Stores

:::note Stores are KVStores in the multi-store. The key to find the store is the first parameter in the list :::

We will use one KVStore Governance to store four mappings:

• A mapping from proposalID|'proposal' to Proposal.
• A mapping from proposalID|'addresses'|address to Vote. This mapping allows us to query all addresses that voted on the proposal along with their vote by doing a range query on proposalID:addresses.
• A mapping from ParamsKey|'Params' to Params. This map allows to query all x/gov params.
• A mapping from VotingPeriodProposalKeyPrefix|proposalID to a single byte. This allows us to know if a proposal is in the voting period or not with very low gas cost.

For pseudocode purposes, here are the two function we will use to read or write in stores:

• load(StoreKey, Key): Retrieve item stored at key Key in store found at key StoreKey in the multistore
• store(StoreKey, Key, value): Write value Value at key Key in store found at key StoreKey in the multistore

Proposal Processing Queue

Store:

• ProposalProcessingQueue: A queue queue[proposalID] containing all the ProposalIDs of proposals that reached MinDeposit. During each EndBlock, all the proposals that have reached the end of their voting period are processed. To process a finished proposal, the application tallies the votes, computes the votes of each validator and checks if every validator in the validator set has voted. If the proposal is accepted, deposits are refunded. Finally, the proposal content Handler is executed.

And the pseudocode for the ProposalProcessingQueue:

  in EndBlock do

    for finishedProposalID in GetAllFinishedProposalIDs(block.Time)
      proposal = load(Governance, <proposalID|'proposal'>) // proposal is a const key

      validators = Keeper.getAllValidators()
      tmpValMap := map(sdk.AccAddress)ValidatorGovInfo

      // Initiate mapping at 0. This is the amount of shares of the validator's vote that will be overridden by their delegator's votes
      for each validator in validators
        tmpValMap(validator.OperatorAddr).Minus = 0

      // Tally
      voterIterator = rangeQuery(Governance, <proposalID|'addresses'>) //return all the addresses that voted on the proposal
      for each (voterAddress, vote) in voterIterator
        delegations = stakingKeeper.getDelegations(voterAddress) // get all delegations for current voter

        for each delegation in delegations
          // make sure delegation.Shares does NOT include shares being unbonded
          tmpValMap(delegation.ValidatorAddr).Minus += delegation.Shares
          proposal.updateTally(vote, delegation.Shares)

        _, isVal = stakingKeeper.getValidator(voterAddress)
        if (isVal)
          tmpValMap(voterAddress).Vote = vote

      tallyingParam = load(GlobalParams, 'TallyingParam')

      // Update tally if validator voted
      for each validator in validators
        if tmpValMap(validator).HasVoted
          proposal.updateTally(tmpValMap(validator).Vote, (validator.TotalShares - tmpValMap(validator).Minus))



      // Check if proposal is accepted or rejected
      totalNonAbstain := proposal.YesVotes + proposal.NoVotes + proposal.NoWithVetoVotes
      if (proposal.Votes.YesVotes/totalNonAbstain > tallyingParam.Threshold AND proposal.Votes.NoWithVetoVotes/totalNonAbstain  < tallyingParam.Veto)
        //  proposal was accepted at the end of the voting period
        //  refund deposits (non-voters already punished)
        for each (amount, depositor) in proposal.Deposits
          depositor.AtomBalance += amount

        stateWriter, err := proposal.Handler()
        if err != nil
            // proposal passed but failed during state execution
            proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusFailed
         else
            // proposal pass and state is persisted
            proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusAccepted
            stateWriter.save()
      else
        // proposal was rejected
        proposal.CurrentStatus = ProposalStatusRejected

      store(Governance, <proposalID|'proposal'>, proposal)

=======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Legacy Proposal

:::warning Legacy proposals (gov/v1beta1) are deprecated. Use the new proposal flow by granting the governance module the right to execute the message. :::

<<<<<<< HEAD A legacy proposal is the old implementation of governance proposal. Contrary to proposal that can contain any messages, a legacy proposal allows to submit a set of pre-defined proposals. These proposals are defined by their types and handled by handlers that are registered in the gov v1beta1 router.

More information on how to submit proposals in the client section.

=======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Messages

Proposal Submission

Proposals can be submitted by any account via a MsgSubmitProposal transaction.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/tx.proto#L64-L102

<<<<<<< HEAD

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/tx.proto#L229-L256

:::tip A multiple choice proposal is a proposal where the voting options can be defined by the proposer. It cannot have messages to execute. It is only a text proposal. This means submitting a multiple choice proposal using MsgSubmitProposal is invalid, as vote options cannot be defined. :::

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048)) All sdk.Msgs passed into the messages field of a MsgSubmitProposal message must be registered in the app's message router. Each of these messages must have one signer, namely the gov module account. And finally, the metadata length must not be larger than the maxMetadataLen config passed into the gov keeper. The initialDeposit must be strictly positive and conform to the accepted denom of the MinDeposit param.

Deposit

Once a proposal is submitted, if Proposal.TotalDeposit < GovParams.MinDeposit, Atom holders can send MsgDeposit transactions to increase the proposal's deposit.

A deposit is accepted iff:

• The proposal exists
• The proposal is not in the voting period
• The deposited coins are conform to the accepted denom from the MinDeposit param

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/tx.proto#L167-L180

Vote

Once GovParams.MinDeposit is reached, voting period starts. From there, bonded Atom holders are able to send MsgVote transactions to cast their vote on the proposal.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/v0.52.0-beta.1/x/gov/proto/cosmos/gov/v1/tx.proto#L125-L141

Events

The governance module emits the following events:

EndBlocker

Type	Attribute Key	Attribute Value
inactive_proposal	proposal_id	{proposalID}
inactive_proposal	proposal_result	{proposalResult}
active_proposal	proposal_id	{proposalID}
active_proposal	proposal_result	{proposalResult}

Handlers

MsgSubmitProposal

Type	Attribute Key	Attribute Value
submit_proposal	proposal_id	{proposalID}
submit_proposal [0]	voting_period_start	{proposalID}
proposal_deposit	amount	{depositAmount}
proposal_deposit	proposal_id	{proposalID}
message	module	governance
message	action	submit_proposal
message	sender	{senderAddress}

• [0] Event only emitted if the voting period starts during the submission.

MsgVote

Type	Attribute Key	Attribute Value
proposal_vote	option	{voteOption}
proposal_vote	proposal_id	{proposalID}
message	module	governance
message	action	vote
message	sender	{senderAddress}

MsgVoteWeighted

Type	Attribute Key	Attribute Value
proposal_vote	option	{weightedVoteOptions}
proposal_vote	proposal_id	{proposalID}
message	module	governance
message	action	vote
message	sender	{senderAddress}

MsgDeposit

Type	Attribute Key	Attribute Value
proposal_deposit	amount	{depositAmount}
proposal_deposit	proposal_id	{proposalID}
proposal_deposit [0]	voting_period_start	{proposalID}
message	module	governance
message	action	deposit
message	sender	{senderAddress}

• [0] Event only emitted if the voting period starts during the submission.

Parameters

The governance module contains the following parameters:

Key	Type	Example
min_deposit	array (coins)	[{"denom":"uatom","amount":"10000000"}]
max_deposit_period	string (time ns)	"172800000000000" (17280s)
voting_period	string (time ns)	"172800000000000" (17280s)
quorum	string (dec)	"0.334000000000000000"
threshold	string (dec)	"0.500000000000000000"
veto	string (dec)	"0.334000000000000000"
expedited_threshold	string (time ns)	"0.667000000000000000"
expedited_voting_period	string (time ns)	"86400000000000" (8600s)
expedited_min_deposit	array (coins)	[{"denom":"uatom","amount":"50000000"}]
burn_proposal_deposit_prevote	bool	false
burn_vote_quorum	bool	false
burn_vote_veto	bool	true
min_initial_deposit_ratio	string	"0.1"

NOTE: The governance module contains parameters that are objects unlike other modules. If only a subset of parameters are desired to be changed, only they need to be included and not the entire parameter object structure.

<<<<<<< HEAD

Message Based Parameters

In addition to the parameters above, the governance module can also be configured to have different parameters for a given proposal message.

Key	Type	Example
voting_period	string (time ns)	"172800000000000" (17280s)
yes_quorum	string (dec)	"0.4"
quorum	string (dec)	"0.334000000000000000"
threshold	string (dec)	"0.500000000000000000"
veto	string (dec)	"0.334000000000000000"

If configured, these params will take precedence over the global params for a specific proposal.

:::warning Currently, messaged based parameters limit the number of messages that can be included in a proposal. Only messages that have the same message parameters can be included in the same proposal. :::

Metadata

The gov module has two locations for metadata where users can provide further context about the on-chain actions they are taking. By default all metadata fields have a 255 character length field where metadata can be stored in json format, either on-chain or off-chain depending on the amount of data required. Here we provide a recommendation for the json structure and where the data should be stored. There are two important factors in making these recommendations. First, that the gov and group modules are consistent with one another, note the number of proposals made by all groups may be quite large. Second, that client applications such as block explorers and governance interfaces have confidence in the consistency of metadata structure across chains.

Proposal

Location: off-chain as json object stored on IPFS (mirrors group proposal)

{
  "title": "",
  "authors": [""],
  "summary": "",
  "details": "",
  "proposal_forum_url": "",
  "vote_option_context": "",
}

:::note The authors field is an array of strings, this is to allow for multiple authors to be listed in the metadata. In v0.46, the authors field is a comma-separated string. Frontends are encouraged to support both formats for backwards compatibility. :::

Vote

Location: on-chain as json within 255 character limit (mirrors group vote)

{
  "justification": "",
}

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Client

CLI

A user can query and interact with the gov module using the CLI.

Query

The query commands allow users to query gov state.

simd query gov --help

deposit

The deposit command allows users to query a deposit for a given proposal from a given depositor.

simd query gov deposit [proposal-id] [depositer-addr] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov deposit 1 cosmos1..

Example Output:

amount:
- amount: "100"
  denom: stake
depositor: cosmos1..
proposal_id: "1"

deposits

The deposits command allows users to query all deposits for a given proposal.

simd query gov deposits [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov deposits 1

Example Output:

deposits:
- amount:
  - amount: "100"
    denom: stake
  depositor: cosmos1..
  proposal_id: "1"
pagination:
  next_key: null
  total: "0"

param

The param command allows users to query a given parameter for the gov module.

simd query gov param [param-type] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov param voting

Example Output:

voting_period: "172800000000000"

params

The params command allows users to query all parameters for the gov module.

simd query gov params [flags]

Example:

simd query gov params

Example Output:

deposit_params:
  max_deposit_period: 172800s
  min_deposit:
  - amount: "10000000"
    denom: stake
params:
  expedited_min_deposit:
  - amount: "50000000"
    denom: stake
  expedited_threshold: "0.670000000000000000"
  expedited_voting_period: 86400s
  max_deposit_period: 172800s
  min_deposit:
  - amount: "10000000"
    denom: stake
  min_initial_deposit_ratio: "0.000000000000000000"
  proposal_cancel_burn_rate: "0.500000000000000000"
  quorum: "0.334000000000000000"
  threshold: "0.500000000000000000"
  veto_threshold: "0.334000000000000000"
  voting_period: 172800s
tally_params:
  quorum: "0.334000000000000000"
  threshold: "0.500000000000000000"
  veto_threshold: "0.334000000000000000"
voting_params:
  voting_period: 172800s

proposal

The proposal command allows users to query a given proposal.

simd query gov proposal [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov proposal 1

Example Output:

deposit_end_time: "2022-03-30T11:50:20.819676256Z"
final_tally_result:
  abstain_count: "0"
  no_count: "0"
  no_with_veto_count: "0"
  yes_count: "0"
id: "1"
messages:
- '@type': /cosmos.bank.v1beta1.MsgSend
  amount:
  - amount: "10"
    denom: stake
  from_address: cosmos1..
  to_address: cosmos1..
metadata: AQ==
status: PROPOSAL_STATUS_DEPOSIT_PERIOD
submit_time: "2022-03-28T11:50:20.819676256Z"
total_deposit:
- amount: "10"
  denom: stake
voting_end_time: null
voting_start_time: null

proposals

The proposals command allows users to query all proposals with optional filters.

simd query gov proposals [flags]

Example:

simd query gov proposals

Example Output:

pagination:
  next_key: null
  total: "0"
proposals:
- deposit_end_time: "2022-03-30T11:50:20.819676256Z"
  final_tally_result:
    abstain_count: "0"
    no_count: "0"
    no_with_veto_count: "0"
    yes_count: "0"
  id: "1"
  messages:
  - '@type': /cosmos.bank.v1beta1.MsgSend
    amount:
    - amount: "10"
      denom: stake
    from_address: cosmos1..
    to_address: cosmos1..
  metadata: AQ==
  status: PROPOSAL_STATUS_DEPOSIT_PERIOD
  submit_time: "2022-03-28T11:50:20.819676256Z"
  total_deposit:
  - amount: "10"
    denom: stake
  voting_end_time: null
  voting_start_time: null
- deposit_end_time: "2022-03-30T14:02:41.165025015Z"
  final_tally_result:
    abstain_count: "0"
    no_count: "0"
    no_with_veto_count: "0"
    yes_count: "0"
  id: "2"
  messages:
  - '@type': /cosmos.bank.v1beta1.MsgSend
    amount:
    - amount: "10"
      denom: stake
    from_address: cosmos1..
    to_address: cosmos1..
  metadata: AQ==
  status: PROPOSAL_STATUS_DEPOSIT_PERIOD
  submit_time: "2022-03-28T14:02:41.165025015Z"
  total_deposit:
  - amount: "10"
    denom: stake
  voting_end_time: null
  voting_start_time: null

proposer

The proposer command allows users to query the proposer for a given proposal.

simd query gov proposer [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov proposer 1

Example Output:

proposal_id: "1"
proposer: cosmos1..

tally

The tally command allows users to query the tally of a given proposal vote.

simd query gov tally [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov tally 1

Example Output:

abstain: "0"
"no": "0"
no_with_veto: "0"
"yes": "1"

vote

The vote command allows users to query a vote for a given proposal.

simd query gov vote [proposal-id] [voter-addr] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov vote 1 cosmos1..

Example Output:

option: VOTE_OPTION_YES
options:
- option: VOTE_OPTION_YES
  weight: "1.000000000000000000"
proposal_id: "1"
voter: cosmos1..

votes

The votes command allows users to query all votes for a given proposal.

simd query gov votes [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd query gov votes 1

Example Output:

pagination:
  next_key: null
  total: "0"
votes:
- option: VOTE_OPTION_YES
  options:
  - option: VOTE_OPTION_YES
    weight: "1.000000000000000000"
  proposal_id: "1"
  voter: cosmos1..

Transactions

The tx commands allow users to interact with the gov module.

simd tx gov --help

deposit

The deposit command allows users to deposit tokens for a given proposal.

simd tx gov deposit [proposal-id] [deposit] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov deposit 1 10000000stake --from cosmos1..

draft-proposal

The draft-proposal command allows users to draft any type of proposal. The command returns a draft_proposal.json, to be used by submit-proposal after being completed. The draft_metadata.json is meant to be uploaded to IPFS.

simd tx gov draft-proposal

submit-proposal

The submit-proposal command allows users to submit a governance proposal along with some messages and metadata. Messages, metadata and deposit are defined in a JSON file.

simd tx gov submit-proposal [path-to-proposal-json] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov submit-proposal /path/to/proposal.json --from cosmos1..

where proposal.json contains:

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "@type": "/cosmos.bank.v1beta1.MsgSend",
      "from_address": "cosmos1...", // The gov module module address
      "to_address": "cosmos1...",
      "amount":[{"denom": "stake","amount": "10"}]
    }
  ],
  "metadata": "AQ==",
  "deposit": "10stake",
  "title": "Proposal Title",
  "summary": "Proposal Summary"
}

:::note By default the metadata, summary and title are both limited by 255 characters, this can be overridden by the application developer. :::

:::tip When metadata is not specified, the title is limited to 255 characters and the summary 40x the title length. :::

<<<<<<< HEAD

submit-legacy-proposal

The submit-legacy-proposal command allows users to submit a governance legacy proposal along with an initial deposit.

simd tx gov submit-legacy-proposal [command] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov submit-legacy-proposal --title="Test Proposal" --description="testing" --type="Text" --deposit="100000000stake" --from cosmos1..

Example (param-change):

simd tx gov submit-legacy-proposal param-change proposal.json --from cosmos1..

{
  "title": "Test Proposal",
  "description": "testing, testing, 1, 2, 3",
  "changes": [
    {
      "subspace": "staking",
      "key": "MaxValidators",
      "value": 100
    }
  ],
  "deposit": "10000000stake"
}

cancel-proposal

=======

cancel-proposal

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

Once proposal is canceled, from the deposits of proposal deposits * proposal_cancel_ratio will be burned or sent to ProposalCancelDest address , if ProposalCancelDest is empty then deposits will be burned. The remaining deposits will be sent to depositers.

simd tx gov cancel-proposal [proposal-id] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov cancel-proposal 1 --from cosmos1...

vote

The vote command allows users to submit a vote for a given governance proposal.

simd tx gov vote [command] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov vote 1 yes --from cosmos1..

weighted-vote

The weighted-vote command allows users to submit a weighted vote for a given governance proposal.

simd tx gov weighted-vote [proposal-id] [weighted-options] [flags]

Example:

simd tx gov weighted-vote 1 yes=0.5,no=0.5 --from cosmos1..

gRPC

A user can query the gov module using gRPC endpoints.

Proposal

The Proposal endpoint allows users to query a given proposal.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Proposal

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Proposal

Proposals

The Proposals endpoint allows users to query all proposals with optional filters.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Proposals

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Proposals

Vote

The Vote endpoint allows users to query a vote for a given proposal.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Vote

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1","voter":"cosmos1.."}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Vote

Votes

The Votes endpoint allows users to query all votes for a given proposal.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Votes

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Votes

Params

The Params endpoint allows users to query all parameters for the gov module.

<<<<<<< HEAD

Using legacy v1beta1:

cosmos.gov.v1beta1.Query/Params

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"params_type":"voting"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1beta1.Query/Params

Example Output:

{
  "votingParams": {
    "votingPeriod": "172800s"
  },
  "depositParams": {
    "maxDepositPeriod": "0s"
  },
  "tallyParams": {
    "quorum": "MA==",
    "threshold": "MA==",
    "vetoThreshold": "MA=="
  }
}

Using v1:

=======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Params

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"params_type":"voting"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Params

Deposit

The Deposit endpoint allows users to query a deposit for a given proposal from a given depositor.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Deposit

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    '{"proposal_id":"1","depositor":"cosmos1.."}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Deposit

deposits

The Deposits endpoint allows users to query all deposits for a given proposal.

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Deposits

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/Deposits

TallyResult

The TallyResult endpoint allows users to query the tally of a given proposal.

<<<<<<< HEAD Using legacy v1beta1:

cosmos.gov.v1beta1.Query/TallyResult

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1beta1.Query/TallyResult

Example Output:

{
  "tally": {
    "yes": "1000000",
    "abstain": "0",
    "no": "0",
    "noWithVeto": "0"
  }
}

Using v1:

=======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

cosmos.gov.v1.Query/TallyResult

Example:

grpcurl -plaintext \
    -d '{"proposal_id":"1"}' \
    localhost:9090 \
    cosmos.gov.v1.Query/TallyResult

REST

A user can query the gov module using REST endpoints.

proposal

The proposals endpoint allows users to query a given proposal.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1

proposals

The proposals endpoint also allows users to query all proposals with optional filters.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals

voter vote

The votes endpoint allows users to query a vote for a given proposal.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}/votes/{voter}

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1/votes/cosmos1..

votes

The votes endpoint allows users to query all votes for a given proposal.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}/votes

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1/votes

params

The params endpoint allows users to query all parameters for the gov module.

<<<<<<< HEAD

Using legacy v1beta1:

/cosmos/gov/v1beta1/params/{params_type}

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1beta1/params/voting

Example Output:

{
  "voting_params": {
    "voting_period": "172800s"
  },
  "deposit_params": {
    "min_deposit": [
    ],
    "max_deposit_period": "0s"
  },
  "tally_params": {
    "quorum": "0.000000000000000000",
    "threshold": "0.000000000000000000",
    "veto_threshold": "0.000000000000000000"
  }
}

Using v1:

=======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

/cosmos/gov/v1/params/{params_type}

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/params/voting

<<<<<<< HEAD Example Output:

{
  "voting_params": {
    "voting_period": "172800s"
  },
  "deposit_params": {
    "min_deposit": [
    ],
    "max_deposit_period": "0s"
  },
  "tally_params": {
    "quorum": "0.000000000000000000",
    "threshold": "0.000000000000000000",
    "veto_threshold": "0.000000000000000000"
  }
}

======= Note: params_type are deprecated in v1 since all params are stored in Params.

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))

deposits

The deposits endpoint allows users to query a deposit for a given proposal from a given depositor.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}/deposits/{depositor}

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1/deposits/cosmos1..

proposal deposits

The deposits endpoint allows users to query all deposits for a given proposal.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}/deposits

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1/deposits

tally

The tally endpoint allows users to query the tally of a given proposal.

/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/{proposal_id}/tally

Example:

curl localhost:1317/cosmos/gov/v1/proposals/1/tally

<<<<<<< HEAD

Example Output:

{
  "tally": {
    "yes": "1000000",
    "abstain": "0",
    "no": "0",
    "no_with_veto": "0"
  }
}

Metadata

The gov module has two locations for metadata where users can provide further context about the on-chain actions they are taking. By default all metadata fields have a 255 character length field where metadata can be stored in json format, either on-chain or off-chain depending on the amount of data required. Here we provide a recommendation for the json structure and where the data should be stored. There are two important factors in making these recommendations. First, that the gov and group modules are consistent with one another, note the number of proposals made by all groups may be quite large. Second, that client applications such as block explorers and governance interfaces have confidence in the consistency of metadata structure accross chains.

Proposal

Location: off-chain as json object stored on IPFS (mirrors group proposal)

{
  "title": "",
  "authors": [""],
  "summary": "",
  "details": "",
  "proposal_forum_url": "",
  "vote_option_context": "",
}

:::note The authors field is an array of strings, this is to allow for multiple authors to be listed in the metadata. In v0.46, the authors field is a comma-separated string. Frontends are encouraged to support both formats for backwards compatibility. :::

Vote

Location: on-chain as json within 255 character limit (mirrors group vote)

{
  "justification": "",
}

Future Improvements

The current documentation only describes the minimum viable product for the governance module. Future improvements may include:

• BountyProposals: If accepted, a BountyProposal creates an open bounty. The BountyProposal specifies how many Atoms will be given upon completion. These Atoms will be taken from the reserve pool. After a BountyProposal is accepted by governance, anybody can submit a SoftwareUpgradeProposal with the code to claim the bounty. Note that once a BountyProposal is accepted, the corresponding funds in the reserve pool are locked so that payment can always be honored. In order to link a SoftwareUpgradeProposal to an open bounty, the submitter of the SoftwareUpgradeProposal will use the Proposal.LinkedProposal attribute. If a SoftwareUpgradeProposal linked to an open bounty is accepted by governance, the funds that were reserved are automatically transferred to the submitter.
• Complex delegation: Delegators could choose other representatives than their validators. Ultimately, the chain of representatives would always end up to a validator, but delegators could inherit the vote of their chosen representative before they inherit the vote of their validator. In other words, they would only inherit the vote of their validator if their other appointed representative did not vote.
• Better process for proposal review: There would be two parts to proposal.Deposit, one for anti-spam (same as in MVP) and an other one to reward third party auditors. =======

deec679f2 (docs: update gov docs (#22048))