![howto.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdSRSDxP3h59H8cw9iWi4HfLYKaFmMsaukE9y9obNwLVN/howto.jpg)
We are excited to be part of today’s EOS mainnet launch at 13:00 UTC. 
In this guide we will provide everything you need to know about the EOS voting process. 

**BitSpace EOS BP account: bitspacenode
BP.json : https://eos.bitspace.no/BP.json
Website: https://bitspace.no/eos/**

# Who to vote for?
There are a number of articles with Block Producer reviews out there. Here are links to some of them (we will keep updating the list as more reviews show up):

https://trybe.one/who-to-vote-for-in-the-eos-block-producer-candidacy-election/
https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/8nqwsb/best_21_eos_block_producer_research/
sonatasys.com/eosio.shtml#bp_evaluation (CAREFUL - no secure connection!)

# 15% vote threshold
Once voting for the initial Block Producers is available, you will see announcements from Block Producers you trust, and voting will be open for all EOS token holders. Once 150M tokens have been used to vote, the chain will be officially ratified as the EOS mainnet and will be unlocked to the community. At this point, tokens may be unstaked by token holders and reclaimed after the three-day waiting period. 

# Get informed!
Well-informed voters are vital to the ecosystem. There are hundreds of candidates that will be asking for your vote. Voting for the 21 active block producers will be an ongoing process. Each EOS gives you 1-30 approval votes. You can give all to one Block Producer or decide to spread your vote geographically to insure that the chain touches all continents and does not become centralized. Think carefully about to whom you decide to give your vote.

# Danger ahead!

**WARNING: Giving away your private keys to any website, secure or not, is very risky, and may result in that website or a malicious third party stealing all your tokens. Therefore, we strongly recommend **against** it.**

Even though we have a highly secure blockchain we advise extreme caution if you’re considering sharing your private keys on any website. Voting portals may become the weakest point in the EOS ecosystem. Hackers have incentives to make fake phishing sites or pretend they represent reputable parties. It is certain that there will be fake voting portals seeking to trick token holders into sharing their private keys. Most voting portals have **not** been fully audited by external parties.

Knowing all this, we want to help the community orient themselves. We have divided the voting methods into three levels of security.

## 1. Cleos - Commandline voting (The safest)
Cleos is the commandline voting tool provided by Block.One. It is the most secure voting solution and the only one audited by external sources. In order to use this tool, you will have to download the latest EOS repository code and compile it locally on your computer. Yes, it is not the most user friendly method, but by far the most secure.

Although it requires a certain level of technical know-how, we strongly recommend that you cast your approval vote using this tool: 
https://steemit.com/eosio/@chitty/eos-how-to-vote-for-bp-candidates-on-cleos


## 2. Scatter + Eosportal.io (Less safe)
Scatter is an extension for Google Chrome and Firefox. Eosportal is a community voting portal that utilizes scatter to securely interact with the voting portal without requiring that people type in their private on the website. BitSpace has supported the development of eosportal.io, but this method is still less secure than command line voting, as the code for both of these tools have not yet been fully audited. Scatter is a web interface used to connect securely to the EOS blockchain. Scatter protects your private keys when you use external voting portals. If you want to vote using Eosportal, we recommend using Scatter on Chrome and not Firefox, due to the fact that Chrome has a secure way of validating its extensions.

**Links**
https://scatter-eos.com 
https://eosportal.io/help
https://steemit.com/eos/@eosnewyork/your-vote-matters-4-how-to-vote-on-the-eos-mainnet

BitSpace and other Block Producers are in the process of auditing Scatter and Eosportal’s code to make sure that it is secure to token holders.

## 3. External voting portals (BE VERY CAREFUL)
There are numerable voting portals being developed, and even more to be announced in the coming days. We want to reiterate that external portals are not the most secure way to vote, especially when we do not know who is behind them and if their code has been properly vetted. All good portals should use Https and have secure connections. Make sure to carefully read the url of the voting portal site you are entering. Watch out for phishing sites. Only use methods recommended by your trusted block producers. Do not type your private keys on unsecure or unvalidated websites.

WARNING: Giving away your private keys to any website, secure or not, is very risky, and may result in that website or a malicious third party stealing all your tokens. Therefore, we strongly recommend **against** it.

### Thank you for taking an active part in the EOS ecosystem!

___

[Bitspace](https://bitspace.no/) is a Block Producer Candidate for the EOS.IO Blockchain

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmP9RLMtQibLLZCthgYVkjVkHSzf9QzDiVVkFxYNG4s86g/bitspace_logo_horiz_w500.png