# Upvoting & Influence acquisition Users can sponsor the popularity of ToPs by performing Upvoting or decrease its popularity by performing Downvoting. When users Upvote any ToPs, they exchange their "attention energy" (measured in POPX) for influence votes (VOTs). At the moment of exchange, VOTs are minted. The exchange takes place according to the influence [vote acquisition formula](/v.-tokenomics-of-vots.md#vots-minting-formula) presented in the "[Tokenomics of VOTs](/v.-tokenomics-of-vots.md)" section. To promote any unique ToP, the community mints VOTs that can be used for voting only for that specific ToP. The exchange occurs by sending POPX to an "automated market maker (AMM)" voting smart contract. The AMM smart contract deposits all POPX liquidity and manages the exchange rate for VOTs. Minting new VOTs for voting becomes more expensive for new sponsors than for previous ones, while also increasing their influence. This property reflects the increase in demand for VOTs. Influence is measured as the cost of all VOTs minted by the sponsor. As the popularity of a ToP grows, so does the price of acquiring additional influence. The total influence of all sponsors of popularity for one ToP forms the ToP Influence Capitalization (ToP Cap). ToP Cap is equal to the total number of POPX coins received in the AMM voting smart contract for that ToP. Based on the ToP Cap of various tokens, their ranking in the Popularity Ranking takes place. --- # 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.popularex.com/ii.-popularity-game/how-to-play/upvoting-and-influence-acquisition.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.