Crypto glossary
On-chain voting
On-chain voting is DAO governance in which votes are cast as blockchain transactions and an approved proposal is executed automatically by smart contracts.
In on-chain voting, each ballot is a transaction sent to a governance contract. The contract reads the voter's token balance or delegated voting power at a fixed block, tallies the results and, if quorum and approval thresholds are met, queues the proposal's code for execution. Frameworks such as Compound's Governor Bravo and OpenZeppelin Governor popularised this pattern, usually adding a timelock between approval and execution.
The appeal is that the result is binding: nobody has to trust a multisig to carry out what token holders decided. Large protocols use it for parameter changes, treasury transfers and contract upgrades, which is why on-chain results are closely watched by traders and risk teams.
Every vote costs gas, which discourages small holders and pushes participation toward large wallets and delegates. Because power follows tokens, an attacker who borrows or buys enough of them can pass a malicious proposal, as happened to Beanstalk in 2022. Timelocks, vote delays and guardian vetoes reduce that risk but add some centralisation back.
Example
A lending protocol's holders vote on-chain to raise a collateral factor; after the vote passes and a two-day timelock expires, the new parameter takes effect without any team member intervening.