# Governance Canto introduces a new paradigm for governance called **unified governance** where governance of both the network itself *and* Free Public Infrastructure applications is controlled by network token stakeholders. At launch, this means that Canto stakers can participate in governance of the Canto Lending Market, the Canto DEX, and the network itself. Any new primitives built under the Free Public Infrastructure model will also leverage unified governance as appropriate. ## Overview Canto governance is based on the Cosmos SDK `x/gov` module with the addition of a custom-built module, `x/govshuttle`. The GovShuttle module is responsible for pushing passed proposal data from the governance module to a storage smart contract in the Canto EVM so that it can be read by DApps. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.canto.io/technical-reference/governance.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.