Delegation

Delegation is the act of assigning your governance voting power to another address — a person, team, or organization — who then votes on proposals on your behalf while you retain full ownership of your tokens. It is the standard answer to DAO voter apathy: most holders will never read every proposal, so protocols let them lend their weight to active, informed delegates instead of leaving it idle.

A concrete example: a UNI holder who lacks time to follow Uniswap governance delegates their voting power to a well-known delegate — perhaps a university blockchain club or a governance-focused firm — through a single on-chain transaction. From then on, that delegate's votes carry the holder's weight. The tokens never leave the holder's wallet, the delegation can be changed or revoked at any time, and delegating to your own address is how you activate your own voting power in many systems.

A common misconception is that delegation transfers custody or puts tokens at risk — it moves only voting weight, not the assets. The real risks are political: delegates may vote against your preferences, accumulate outsized influence, or go inactive, and a handful of large delegates can end up steering a protocol. Healthy governance ecosystems publish delegate platforms and voting histories so holders can choose — and re-choose — whom to empower.