How to Delegate Your Tokens
# Why Delegate?
Participating in governance of the Optimism Token House can require a serious time commitment. For this reason, people are able to delegate the voting power of their OP tokens to a community member who has explicitly volunteered to play an active role in Token House governance. These volunteers are called delegates.
If you do not wish to delegate your voting power to a representative, you will still need to delegate to yourself in order to vote.
# How do I delegate my votes to a representative?
Choose a delegate (opens new window).
Take the time to read through delegate statements of interest, choosing your delegate is an important decision! A healthy governance system is good for Optimism and for all OP holders. Choosing a good delegate is in each OP token holder's best interest.
This delegate will vote on your behalf. You will not hold any voting power or execute your own votes but you will retain 100% ownership of your tokens, and can use them however you want.
View top delegates by voting weight on Dune (opens new window).
Go to the voting app (opens new window) to see that you’ve delegated your tokens as intended.
Please note that delegate voting power is measured at the start of every voting period, which is every three weeks.
Your delegate should write up the reasoning behind their votes in a Delegate Communications Thread (opens new window).
Delegation is always in your control. You can return to the voting app (opens new window) at any time to change your delegate selection.
# How do I delegate to myself?
Would you rather vote yourself? No problem, but you’ll have to delegate to yourself first! If you try to vote with your tokens but have not delegated to yourself, you will not be able to vote.
Delegate to yourself by registering via the Optimism Governance Portal (opens new window) by connecting your wallet then creating your delegate statement.
Go to the voting app (opens new window) to see that you’ve delegated your tokens to your own address.
Please note that delegate voting power is measured at the start of every voting period, which is every three weeks.
Once you’ve been added as a delegate in the next voting cycle, you can start voting (opens new window)! Go to the Optimism Governance Portal (opens new window), connect your wallet, and vote. There is no minimum OP holding voting requirement, but you will need to have the OP tokens you wish to delegate or vote with in your wallet when the voting measurement is taken. Tokens that are staked or LP’d at the time of measurement do not carry voting power.