NNS Neuron Configurations

If your goal is to maximize your own NNS voting rewards by delegating your vote to a known neuron that is passionate and active in ICP governance, then a reliable strategy would be to follow the Wenzel known neuron on the All Topics catch all, the Governance topic, and the SNS & NF topic.

Please note that the 4 known neurons below are all configured by Wenzel Bartlett, who has been actively involved in NNS governance since the genesis of ICP about 4.5 years ago.  He is the founder for the Synapse and the CodeGov known neurons and has always held a management role in each organization to recruit voting members, establish work processes, and ensure that these known neurons cast reliable and credible votes according to the majority opinion of the Followees that are configured.  While there is a very diverse group of Followees that cast the votes for these known neurons, the control of these neurons is not decentralized.  Wenzel has the ability to change the Followee configuration or to vote manually on any proposal at any time.  Nobody is under any obligation to follow any of these known neurons.  If you are looking for a fully decentralized known neuron, then you will need to find it somewhere else.  However, Wenzel has a strong track record of managing neurons in a professional, credible, and reliable way.  Feel free to follow the Wenzel or the CodeGov neuron if you believe that is in your best interest.  

There are pragmatic reasons why each of these four known neurons were created over the years, but deregistering a known neuron was never an option until recently.  Moving forward these neurons will be consolidated into 1 or 2 known neurons (Wenzel and/or CodeGov).  This will be executed over a long period of time in a way that ensures current followers do not lose voting rewards while giving ample opportunity to learn about the planned changes and respond accordingly.  You can find more details on the Neuron Merger Plan page.  This page will be used to provide updates on how each neuron is configured.

The Wenzel (CodeGov | Synapse) known neuron is configured to follow a large number of people who are known to actively review the technical topics in which they specialize.  These Followees are chosen because they are known to be reliable, credible, and sensible in their voting decisions and having a large group cast the vote for the Wenzel neuron is in the long term best interest of the internet computer.  Wenzel actively monitors reviews and votes cast by the the Followee selections he makes for this neuron in the same way that he has always done for the last 4.5 years as the founder and manager of the Synapse and CodeGov known neurons.  The goal is to let a large group of people who are public about their governance decisions cast the vote for the Wenzel neuron and to actively manage the known neuron configuration to ensure reliability.

The CodeGov | Wenzel (see merger plan) known neuron is configured to follow our CodeGov team members for the topics where we have funding that enables incentives to be provided to experts for their proposal reviews.  It follows the Wenzel known neuron for all other topics.  This means the CodeGov neuron votes on all proposals, but with a specialization in the IC-OS Version Election, Protocol Canister Management, Subnet Management, and API Boundary Node Management proposal topics at this time.  We will always seek funding where it makes sense to add experts to our team so we can expand the topics that are covered.  The CodeGov neuron Followees are intentionally and actively managed on every proposal topic in order to ensure the CodeGov neuron casts educated votes on every proposal submitted to the NNS.  The vote for the CodeGov known neuron is typically cast by natural and automatic consensus of our reviewers.

The Synapse | Wenzel (see merger plan) known neuron is configured to follow the Wenzel known neuron.  It will be deregistered at the end of 2026, but any remaining followers will not lose rewards once the deregistration occurs.  The Synapse label that has historically been displayed will simply turn into a neuron ID in their Followee configuration, but the reliability of voting will remain since this neuron is configured to follow the Wenzel neuron on every topic.

The Arthur | Wenzel (see merger plan) known neuron is configured to follow the Wenzel known neuron.  It will be deregistered by mid 2026, but any remaining followers will not lose rewards once the deregistration occurs.  The Arthur label that has historically been displayed will simply turn into a neuron ID in their Followee configuration, but the reliability of voting will remain since this neuron is configured to follow the Wenzel neuron on every topic.