The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is a decentralized, infinitely scalable blockchain that  is capable of hosting smart contracts that serve webpages.  The Network Nervous System (NNS) is the system of governance that is used to actively make decisions on updates and automatically implement the updates that are adopted.

One of the basic principles of the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) blockchain is decentralization.  This is achieved in governance by having a large voter turnout and a high diversity of voters.  Since it is not practical for everyone to vote every day on all topics, the governance system is designed to allow liquid democracy.  This means that neuron owners are able to select Followees for specific topics in order to allow those individuals or organizations to vote for them. 

The Voting Members of the Synapse neuron are committed to voting in the long term best interest of the Internet Computer.  We are a balanced mix of well known IC enthusiasts, investors, developers, and DFINITY Foundation team members.  We each bring our own priorities and biases to this neuron and we unapologetically vote on each proposal with our own convictions.  We are independent thinkers with a diversity of principles.  Therefore, we have no unified ethos or principles that we can offer to the community.  If you need to know how our neuron will vote on any specific topic in order to follow our neuron, then we recommend you follow one of the many other named neurons in the NNS or some of the individuals named for the Synapse neuron.  We provide a service to the IC community as well educated, well respected, and active members of the community.  We are not asking you to follow us, but you are certainly welcome to if you believe that is in your best interest.  However, we are not responsible for your vote.  Please be intentional about who you follow and know that if you delegate your vote to a named neuron then they may occasionally vote different than your preferences.  This is a natural consequence of liquid democracy and you are responsible for making sure that your vote is cast in a way that is acceptable to you.  Our diversity of thought and background is intended to typify a cross section of the IC ecosystem and each voting member, at our individual discretion, has published personal voting tenets in the Voting Members section of this website.  Many of us routinely engage with the IC community in discussions about governance topics using a wide variety of social media platforms, but this is not a requirement to be a Voting Member.  

The Synapse neuron will be configured with up to 15 Followees for the Governance topic.  It is currently configured to follow DFINITY for All Topics Except Governance, and SNS & Community Fund, but we reserve the right to configure Followees for individual topics in the future when we determine that there are suitable experts in the ecosystem.  A core principle of this neuron is that it can be trusted to always vote on all proposals.  We actively monitor our participation in all Governance proposals to ensure the neuron votes.  Anyone can monitor our voting patterns as well using the CrowdGov.org website.