Polkadot OpenGov Locks Explained

This post will explain the main differences between voting and delegating votes in Polkadot OpenGov.

Voting

Note that if you are a nominator, you can use the staked tokens to vote. This is not possible if you are a member of a nomination pool.

If you are a voter means that you will vote with your DOT on each single referendum.

In general, you can remove your vote:

• While a referendum is ongoing (your vote does not count)
• After a referendum ended (your vote counts)

If you voted without conviction, there's no conviction lock in either case. If you voted with conviction, you only get a conviction lock if the referendum ended and you voted with the winning side.

Voting without Conviction

If you vote without conviction, the referendum is ongoing, and you remove the vote, you can unlock your tokens immediately. If the referendum ended, you can remove your vote and unlock your tokens immediately, regardless of whether you are on the winning or losing side of the referendum.

Voting with Conviction

If you voted with conviction, the referendum is ongoing, and you removed the vote, you can unlock your tokens immediately. If the referendum ended and you are on the losing side, you can remove your vote and unlock the tokens immediately. However, if you are on the winning side of the referendum, you will get a conviction lock.

Conviction locks are calculated from the time the referendum ended but are applied when you remove the vote.

For example, if you voted with conviction 1x with 10 DOT, those 10 DOT will be locked for 7 days after the referendum ends (assuming you are on the winning side). If you remove the vote 3 days after the referendum ended, your tokens will be locked for 4 more days. If you remove it on the 8th day after the end of the referendum, the tokens can be unlocked right away (after you remove the vote). When you remove the vote, the lock expiration block is calculated and added to the chain state.

If you voted on multiple referenda, and you are on the winning side of all those referenda, you will get multiple conviction voting locks for all those referenda. Locks do not stack; the lock with the longest expiration date decides. This means that - assuming you used the same conviction - when the conviction lock on the latest referendum (see below, Ref 4) expires, you will be able to unlock your tokens. In the meantime, the previous locks (1 to 3) might have expired, and you can remove those locks (after removing the votes).

Delegating Votes

Note that if you are a nominator, you can use the staked tokens to delegate votes. This is not possible if you are a member of a nomination pool.

If you are delegating votes means that you will not vote on each single referendum. You will choose someone else to vote on your behalf.

Contrary to solo voting, with delegations, any conviction locks are applied as soon as you undelegate, regardless of whether your delegated votes were used for voting during that time. If your delegated votes were used in any ongoing referenda, they would be removed from those referenda when you undelegate. Alternatively, after undelegating, you can delegate to another person or modify your delegation. The only way to modify the delegation is to undelegate and delegate again. You do not have to do this yourself; wallets and extensions should have implemented UI to modify delegation without you knowing this.

If you delegate without conviction and you undelegate, you can unlock your tokens immediately. Alternatively, after undelegating, you can always delegate to another person or modify your delegation.

In the case you delegated with 1x conviction, you undelegate and re-delegate with 2x conviction; the time you undelegate again, you will have created two conviction locks: one for the 1x and one for the 2x conviction. If you re-delegate immediately with 1x conviction and undelegate, you will get a second 1x conviction lock, but the 2x conviction lock will be the one deciding when your token can be unlocked.

I hope you enjoyed this explanation about locks in Polkadot OpenGov. I would like to thank Michails at the Web3 Foundation for having reviewed this content. See you in the next post!