What it costs to lose a vote on the Internet Computer The Internet Computer, built by the DFINITY Foundation (@dfinity), is governed by a voting system called the NNS. ICP holders lock tokens in “neurons” to vote on network changes, and a neuron that takes at least 6 months to unlock can also submit proposals. Each proposal carries a 25 $ICP fee, charged against the proposer’s neuron. If voters adopt the proposal, the fee is returned. If they reject it, the proposer loses the fee. The fee is meant to keep useless proposals from flooding the system. It has gone up over time, older versions of the docs had the fee at 10 ICP. The rule does not judge intent. An honest idea that voters turn down still costs the fee. Because the fee comes out of the neuron’s locked ICP, a neuron needs at least 25 ICP to submit anything.