Brand On-Chain Vote: Can I Vote With Any Wallet?

Any wallet that can make a remark call on Polkadot is able to be used to cast your vote. At the moment, only the Polkadot extension, Parity Signer, Ledger and any wallet that supports QR signing can be used to sign your call. Below are some instructions on how to sign using the different wallets.

Before You Cast Your Vote

Before you vote, you need to make sure the account you will be using to vote is added to the Polkadot extension. After installing the extension on your browser, make sure to follow these steps:

a. Voting Directly Using The Polkadot Extension

Before you start, if the account you want to vote with is not in the extension already you can restore it with its 12 words mnemonic phrase following these instructions. After you have imported your account, you are ready to vote.

b. Using Parity Signer

Before you start, make sure to import your account on Parity Signer in the Polkadot extension using the generated QR code from the account you want to vote with. For this, first click on the gear icon on the top right corner of the extension and enable “Allow QR camera Access”.

Then click on the + sign next to the gear icon and choose 'Attach external QR-signer account'.

Select your account in Parity Signer and scan the QR code on your screen to add the account to the extension: do not worry, your private keys will not be stored in the extension! After scanned, your address should appear listed in the extension:

And add the account by clicking on the orange button.

c. Using Ledger

Before you start, make sure to import your Ledger account in the Polkadot extension following these instructions.

NOTE FOR NANO S USERS: In order to participate in the vote you’ll need to have the XL version of the Polkadot app installed. Check this article for more information and how to install it. Also, please keep in mind that the XL version is not compatible with Ledger Live.

Cast Your Vote

1. Scroll down the voting website until you see the window to connect your extension to the application:

2. Click on Connect and authorize your extension to connect to the application.
3. Authorize the Extension to connect to the application:

4. Select the account you wish to vote with and distribute your votes to your preference:

5. Sign the transaction by clicking on Cast my Vote. A pop-up window from the extension will open up asking to sign the transaction.

a. If you’re signing with an account directly in the extension, all you need is the account's password.

b. If you’re singing with Parity Singer, scan the generated QR code with your Signer and present the generated QR code on your phone to your computer’s camera.

c. Finally, if you’re singing with your Ledger, you need to APPROVE the extrinsic on the device.

6. Once you have signed the transaction, the following window will appear:

You can confirm your vote using any block explorers to the left (for a list of all available block explorers, check this article. Continue voting with a different address included in your extension or leave some feedback!

How To Verify Your Extrinsic

It is always good practice to verify the extrinsic you’re about to sign before actually signing it. A remark call costs only a few cents in fees. But if you’ve found yourself on a phishing site, you could be sending all your funds to a scammer, if you don’t pay attention. So keep reading and if you want to learn more about verifying extrinsics, check this article.

How to verify the extrinsic in Polkadot Extension

On the pop-up window that opens up, pay special attention that the method of the call is the extrinsic system.remark along with the vote distribution you chose, as shown below.

If what you see in the extension is something different, DO NOT sign the transaction and contact [email protected]! It is possible you are on a fraudulent site or using a fraudulent extension!

How to verify the extrinsic when signing with Ledger

Like above, pay special attention that the method of the call is the extrinsic system.remark along with the vote distribution you chose. However, the information of the extrinsic is shown on the Ledger device as well. Verify on your device that the extrinsic is indeed system.remark, like in the picture below:

Then proceed through the following screens to APPROVE signing.

If the extrinsic call is not system.remark DO NOT sign the extrinsic! Proceed to the last screen to REJECT it and contact [email protected]! It is possible you are on a fraudulent site or using a fraudulent extension!

How to verify the call data on Ledger

Before reaching the “APPROVE” screen on your Ledger, the call data of the extrinsic is shown on the screen. At the moment, there is no straightforward way to verify that call data corresponds to the message shown in the extension window, but if you are a security-minded user, read below to learn an indirect way to verify it:

1. First select the text of the remark (without the quotation marks), right click on top of the selection and click Copy:

2. On Polkadot-JS UI, go to Developer > Extrinsics,
3. In the first field select your Ledger account,
4. In the second field, select “system” on the left and “remark” on the right,
5. Then in the field below paste the message you copied in Step 1,
6. The call data will correspond to the extrinsic’s details and you can cross-check it with what you’re seeing on the device:

On Polkadot-JS UI:

On the Ledger device (this is the first of three screens showing the call data):

How to verify your extrinsic when signing with Parity Signer

Unfortunately it’s not possible to verify your extrinsic when signing with Parity Singer. To learn more why that is, please check this article. So, double-check you are visiting https://vote.polkadot.network/, the padlock sign is shown in the address bar, you have installed the official Polkadot extension and that you have made the vote distribution you wanted before initiating the signing.