How-To: Create an NNS motion proposal

This article explains one way to submit NNS motion proposals by using a few command line tools and a self-custody neuron.

Background

To properly follow what is going on, there are a few high-level points worth highlighting:

Only Neurons can submit NNS proposals

Neurons with at least 1 ICP and 6 months of dissolve delay can submit NNS proposals. So the first step is to create such a neuron.

The NNS Governance Canister accepts motion proposals

The Governance Canister is just a canister like any other, so it has a Candid file, it accepts messages, etc... This article describes a way where you can have your local computer send a message to the governance canister (signed on behalf of a neuron) that contains a motion proposal.

One-time setup

Install Tools

1. Install dfx

• dfx is the canister SDK and it will be used to send messages from your machine to NNS
• smartcontracts.org

$ dfx [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND>

2. Install keysmith

• keysmith will be used to generate a privat/public key pair for the IC
• https://github.com/dfinity/keysmith
• this article will assume that you execute quill on your local machine by running

$ keysmith [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND>

3. Install quill

• quill is a minimalist "governance toolkit". It is wrapper for crafting & sending messages to the NNS and manage one's neuron.
• https://github.com/dfinity/quill
• this article will assume that you execute quill on your local machine by running

$ target/release/quill [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND>

Create a neuron

1. Create a private.pem (private/public keypair) and Ledger account id

Before one starts, they need a private/public keypair.

// Create seed phrase
$ keysmith generate -o seed.txt

//Create private.pem
$ keysmith private-key -o private.pem

//Derive Ledger account from private key
$ keysmith account -i 0

2. Link this private/public keypair to dfx so you can use it as an "Identity"

In this case, the new identity is called "proposals"

$ dfx identity import proposals private.pem

• If you see “creating identity: proposals” in the terminal, this means it worked*
• further reading on dfx identities: dfx identity

4. Now that the account has the required ICP, spawn a neuron

Note: This section assumes you have Quill installed

4.1 Craft and send a message to spawn a neuron from the account

$ target/release/quill --pem-file private.pem neuron-stake --name $NAME --amount $AMOUNT > message.json

$ target/release/quill send message.json

• You should see a message with a neuron ID spawned

5. Increase neuron dissolve to at least 6 months

• Time is measured in milliseconds in the NNS
• One year: 31557600 milliseconds

5.1 Craft message to send the neuron

$ target/release/quill --pem-file private.pem neuron-manage 148885932052941245 --additional-dissolve-delay-seconds 31557600 > message.json

5.2 Send just-created message to the Governance canister

$ target/release/quill send message.json