# How-To: Vault Gauges 1. To use gauges you must first acquire some V token, which is the governance token for The Vault. You can do this on a variety of platforms, and in this example we'll show the Jupiter swap aggregator which can be found at
2. Before purchasing please ensure that you have the proper smart contract for the governance token. That smart contract is `VAULTVXqi93aaq9FsyPKgdgp6Ge1H1HoSvNC4ZbqFDs`. If you type that contract into the token field the V token should pop-up with a verified green checkmark. After that you'll be able to swap for some V.
2. You will now be able to swap tokens for some V.
3. Once you receive the V tokens in your wallet you can visit Tribeca to find the page where you can lock your V for veV found at
4. To use your V in gauges you will first need to lock them for voting power. That voting power is called veV, and you are able to lock your V for a maximum of 5 years. The max lock of 5 years will multiply your voting power by ten. This means for every single V you hold you'll receive ten veV in return. Please note that the lock time does go down over time, and as the lock time is reduced so is your voting power. For best results in gauges you should periodically re-lock your V.
5. Once you lock your V you should be able to view your voting power on the Tribeca locker dashboard. You will now be able to use this voting power in gauges. The link can be found here
6. Now that you have veV you will be able to use the voting power in gauges. You can find that link here
7. At the bottom of "Your Gauge Votes," click on the "CAST VOTES" link.
8. The next page is where you will be able to cast your votes that can be found here
9. On this page you can decide what validator(s) you wish to cast your gauge votes to. The system is designed to be weighted, so you can divide your votes up evenly, weigh more to some validators, or simply choose one instead of many. Here are some examples. Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
10. At the very bottom of the page you'll be able to update the weights you have chosen with your voting power by clicking the, "Update Weights," button.
11. You will receive this pop-up once you have clicked the button. You may choose to individually execute each action, or you can select "Execute All," to do it all at once. Either way, you will receive several pop-ups and as each action is processed you'll receive a green checkmark notifying you it was done.
12. Once finished executing the actions you can re-visit the gauges page to view the votes you have cast. That link can be found here
13. You have now successfully cast your votes on validator gauges. Every Sunday a new epoch starts for gauges. If you have less than 50,000 veV you will need to re-cast your votes each week. If you have more than 50,000 veV your voting will remain every week, but you are able to adjust the weights.