Governance Model

Laika has two layers of governance. veLAIKA steers what is shared across the protocol, and each project's veTOKEN runs that project's own DAO.

Who decides what#

• veLAIKA (protocol). Weekly votes on which tokens receive LAIKA emissions, Cabal launch curation (initially veLAIKA-only, with all ecosystem veTOKENs coming soon), and proposals in the LAIKA DAO.
• veTOKEN (project). Its DAO's treasury spending, incentives, ShillOS budgets, pool fee and fee routing, and its application for a veLAIKA gauge.

Protocol settings such as accepted incentive tokens, Laika's fee rates and gauge approvals are currently managed by Laika.

Mainnet locking parameters#

Staking 1,000 LAIKA without a lock gives 1,000 veLAIKA; locking it for 90 days gives 4,000 veLAIKA. Both veLAIKA and veTOKEN are non-transferable. No-lock stakes can be unstaked at any time. Fixed-term locks cannot be exited early, and their voting power does not decay during the lock. For fixed-term positions, power expires at the end of the weekly period in which the lock ends; you can stake again to keep voting. See StakeOS for the full rules.

Governance flows#

veLAIKA holders#

• Split their votes across up to 8 tokens to direct each epoch's LAIKA emissions.
• Vote in Cabal launch sessions, and get the voters-only window on winners they backed.
• Vote on LAIKA DAO proposals.
• Earn the incentives posted on the tokens they vote for, plus pool fees that projects route to their voters.

veTOKEN holders#

• Vote on their DAO's proposals: treasury payments, incentives, ShillOS campaigns and pool fees.
• Their DAO can post incentives or route pool fees to attract veLAIKA votes.
• Earn LAIKA emissions when their pool receives votes, plus any reward streams the project funds.
• Coming soon: all ecosystem veTOKENs will be able to participate in Cabal curation. Initially, Cabal sessions use veLAIKA only.

Rewards and distribution#

Staker rewards follow each staker's share of the pool:

user_reward = pool_rewards × (user_veTOKEN / total_pool_veTOKEN)

Rewards stream continuously and can be claimed at any time. Longer locks give more veTOKEN, so they earn a larger share.

Sealed curation (LaunchOS)#

Voting is initially open to veLAIKA holders. Coming soon: participation will extend to all veTOKENs across the ecosystem, with voting weights detailed separately.

• Ballots stay sealed for the 7-day commit phase. Only the total power committed is visible.
• Voters reveal during the following 24 hours, and every token with at least 10% of the revealed votes wins.
• Tokens that do not win still launch as non-curated tokens.
• Voters of a winner get a 5-minute voters-only window and can buy up to 50% of its raise target between them, shared by vote weight.

Vote-to-earn incentives#

• Incentives. Posted in LAIKA, the token itself, its quote token or another token Laika approves, and paid pro rata to the token's veLAIKA voters once the epoch is finalized.
• Cabal early access. The voters-only window on winning launches.
• Emissions. Tokens with more votes send more LAIKA to their stakers.