Skip to content

Update governance-faq.md post HIP 138/141 #1970

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
wants to merge 7 commits into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Update governance-faq.md post HIP 138/141 #1970

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
7 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
4586ad1
Update governance-faq.mdx AC
waveform06 Mar 5, 2025
588b137
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
598ee26
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
afb455c
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
818d446
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
d82e687
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
21dfb26
Update docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
waveform06 May 9, 2025
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
188 changes: 86 additions & 102 deletions docs/governance/governance-faq.mdx
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -8,35 +8,36 @@ image: https://docs.helium.com/img/link-image.png
slug: /governance/faq
---

import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl'
import LegacyContentBanner from '@site/src/theme/LegacyContentBanner'

<LegacyContentBanner />

## What Is veHNT?

veHNT represents the voting power of the Helium Network.
veHNT represents the voting power in the Helium Network.

In the Helium ecosystem, HNT holders can receive veHNT by locking their HNT on-chain for a specified
period in exchange for voting rights and voting power in the HeliumDAO as defined in
[HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/336).
In the Helium ecosystem, HNT holders can establish a veHNT position by locking their HNT on-chain for a specified
period in exchange for voting rights and voting power in all areas of the Helium Network as defined
in [HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/336).

Additionally, this provides other benefits, such as earning MOBILE or IOT tokens, if the holder
delegates their veHNT to those subnetworks, respectively. After the lock-up period ends, the same
amount of HNT is released back to the owner's wallet and is now transferable, if needed.
Additionally, this provides other benefits such as earning HNT tokens if the holder delegates
their veHNT to those subnetworks and regularly votes in Network proposals.
After the lock-up period ends, the same amount of HNT is released back to the owner's wallet and is
transferable or tradeable as before.

## What Are The Benefits of Staking HNT after the subnetworks launch?
## What are the requirements for earning HNT tokens with locked up HNT

Now the Solana migration has been completed, stakers can use their staked veHNT to vote on proposals
in the HeliumDAO and help the DAO make collective decisions, influencing the future of the Network.
People who lock up their HNT can use this staked veHNT to vote on proposals in the Helium Network and
help the Network make collective decisions influencing the future of the Network. It is a requirement
that owners of locked up tokens vote for at least 2 of the most recent 4 veHNT votes or lose staking
income, or alternatively they can assign a proxy to vote on their behalf.

Stakers will additionally be able to delegate veHNT to a subnetwork for token rewards. Delegating
veHNT to a subnetwork will count towards the DAO Utility Score, the `V` value referenced in
[HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0051-helium-dao.md#omni-protocol-poc-incentive-model).
Additionally, people who lock up their HNT are required to delegate their veHNT to a subnetwork to
receive HNT token rewards. Delegating veHNT to a subnetwork is now the sole variable affecting the Network
Utility Score that decides the split of HNT that gets distributed to the IoT and Mobile token emissions
recipients as described in [HIP 141.](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0141-single-token-governance-and-release-proposals.md)
Delegation of veHNT to a subnetwork earns the same for the staker no matter which subtoken they delegate
towards.

## Where Does My HNT Go if I Stake veHNT?
## Where does my HNT Go if I Stake veHNT?

If you lock up your HNT for veHNT, your HNT will become veHNT and remain entirely in your wallet's
If you lock up your HNT, you will see a veHNT value and it will remain entirely in your wallet's
custody. veHNT ownership is represented by a non-transferable Solana NFT held in your wallet. At the
end of the lock-up period, any received tokens need to be claimed, the position undelegated, and
then after a close position action is taken you will receive HNT back to your wallet 1:1 for the HNT
Expand All @@ -54,8 +55,8 @@ with shorter-term interests in the governance of the Network.

## What is Voting Power?

Voting power is the weight of your vote towards decisions made by the DAO or subnetwork. The more
veHNT you have, the more weight your vote has.
Voting power is the weight of your vote towards decisions made by the Network. The more veHNT you
have, the more weight your vote has.

You can only increase your voting power by staking more HNT or extending an existing veHNT lock-up
period for longer.
Expand All @@ -64,14 +65,15 @@ period for longer.

[HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0051-helium-dao.md#omni-protocol-poc-incentive-model)
defines that all subnetworks return a maximum of 6% of their earnings to their veHNT delegators and
is designed to be an equal maximum reward level across all subnetworks so that no subnetwork can buy
their way to a higher DAO Utility score.
was designed to be an equal maximum reward level across all subnetworks so that no subnetwork can buy
their way to a higher Network Utility score.

Returns can be lower than 6% in subnetwork tokens if the subnetwork votes to provide a lower token
return in return for other benefits or similar.
[HIP-141](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0141-single-token-governance-and-release-proposals.md) updated the operation of this score.

As more veHNT is delegated to a subnetwork, the DAO Utility Score improves, among other factors
defined in HIP-51, which drives greater earnings of HNT for the subnetwork.
As more veHNT is delegated to a subnetwork, the Network Utility Score improves, as defined in HIP-141,
which drives greater earnings of HNT for the subnetwork participants. But the income from delegation
of your veHNT now remains dependant on the total emissions and delegations and is no longer dependant
on which specific network you are delegated towards.

As more veHNT holders delegate to a particular subnetwork, individual holder earnings will reduce
the amount of net subnetwork token earnings as delegators share the 6% subnetwork token emissions.
Expand All @@ -85,40 +87,33 @@ veHNT delegated, the more veHNT holders the 6% will have to be shared between.
Anyone can stake any amount of HNT and lock it up for 1 day to 1461 days ( 48 months). You choose
your unstaking date at the time of lock-up or decide to keep it on a rolling lock-up period, called
"constant lock-up" before initiating the start or the veHNT decay process. The HNT staked is
exchanged for veHNT, which provides two benefits:

- Voting in the Helium DAO on new subnetwork proposals and Participating in the Governance.
- Receiving an income if the veHNT is delegated to a subnetwork.
exchanged for veHNT, which currently provides two benefits:

Anyone can delegate veHNT to a subnetwork, it's one component of a subnetwork's Utility Score.
Delegating veHNT to a subnetwork allows the holder to earn subnetwork token rewards proportionally
based on the subnetworks rules.
- Voting in the Helium Network on new proposals and Participating in the Governance.
- Receiving an income if the veHNT is delegated to a subnetwork and voter participation.

> For example: If I delegate some veHNT to MOBILE subnetwork, I proportionally earn MOBILE rewards
> allocated to veHNT stakers.
Anyone can delegate veHNT to a subnetwork, it's now the only component of a subnetwork's Utility
Score.

The Helium Network encourages your long-term participation in voting and governance. Those who stake
HNT for 1 day will exchange 1:0.06844627 HNT to veHNT. Those that stake veHNT for 48 months will
receive an exchange of 1:100 HNT to veHNT. Any period in between will be treated on a linear scale
from 0.0684462 to 100.

> For example, I choose to lock up 10 HNT for six months. I receive 125 veHNT. If I decide to
> unstake immediately, after six months, my veHNT decays to 0 until my 10 HNT unlocks and is
> unstake immediately, after six months, my veHNT decays to 0 until my 10 HNT is unlocked and is
> available to me for use in my wallet.

A combination of an amount of HNT locked up for a specified duration and the assigned veHNT is
called a "Position". It is possible to own multiple Positions in your wallet. Actions taken on a
Position - like e.g. on the lock-up duration, delegating the veHNT, voting with the veHNT - are all
or nothing options. If a Position owner would like to receive rewards from two subnetworks, then the
HNT-veHNT Position would need to be split into two Positions - by transferring some HNT to a second
position within the same wallet. Then each position could delegate to a different subnetwork.
Similarly, wishing to extend the lock-up duration on parts of a Position requires a similar split by
transfer.
or nothing options. Each position could delegate to a different subnetwork. Similarly, wishing to
extend the lock-up duration on parts of a Position requires a similar split by transfer.

## How Can I Obtain veHNT?

Staking HNT for veHNT will be done on [Realms](https://realms.heliumvote.com/dao/hnt) See the
[Staking veHNT on Realms](/governance/staking-with-helium-vote) documentation
Locking up HNT for veHNT can be performed in the Helium Wallet App under the Governance Icon.
Or at https://heliumvote.com/hnt and connecting your wallet.

## Is There a Staking "Genesis" Period?

Expand All @@ -141,22 +136,14 @@ For example:

## Will I Earn HNT by Staking For veHNT?

**No.** HNT staked to veHNT will not earn more HNT, it will only return what they staked at the end
of their selected lock-up period.

However, when you stake HNT into veHNT, you can delegate your veHNT into one or more subnetworks
(such as IOT or MOBILE), and the subnetworks allocate up to 6% of their token emissions to the veHNT
owners delegating to that subnetwork.

> For example: When you delegate your veHNT to the IOT subnetwork, you receive IOT every epoch that
> is claimable in your Helium Wallet. If you choose, this IOT can then be burned at the IOT
> subnetwork treasury for HNT, or you may hold your IOT tokens, or stake them into veIOT.
**Yes.** Since the implementation of HIP-141 rewards are now received in HNT and no longer in IOT or
MOBILE tokens.

## How much veHNT will I get for each lock-up period?

The table below shows the approximate HNT to veHNT multiplier for example months of staking

This value is multiplied by 3x during the first 10 days after the Solana transition and this
This value was multiplied by 3x during the first 10 days after the Solana transition and this
multiplier lasts as long as the last lock-up period selected in the first 10 days after the Solana
migration.

Expand All @@ -179,19 +166,18 @@ migration.
## Do I Have to Delegate My veHNT to a subnetwork?

No. You can hold your veHNT as is or delegate to a subnetwork at any time.
But you will NOT receive HNT for locking your position if you do not delegate and vote.

:::note

Changing delegation is allowed, but any delegation changes within a Solana Epoch will void any
delegation rewards within that Epoch. A Solana Epoch is 24 hours long and starts and ends at
00:00:00 UTC time.

Changing delegation is allowed, but you must be delegated at the end of an Epoch to earn
rewards for that Epoch. If you undelegate ensure you redelegate to continue earning rewards.
:::

## How Granular Is The veHNT Linear Decrease?

The veHNT decay countdown starts when initiated from the Wallet app/Realms, either immediately in
"decay" mode or after a "constant lockup" is unlocked and cooldown started.
The veHNT decay countdown starts when initiated from the Wallet app/Helium Vote, either
immediately in "decay" mode or after a "constant lockup" is unlocked and cooldown started.

veHNT quantity decay is granulated per second even though the Epoch period is 24 hours.

Expand All @@ -210,75 +196,73 @@ remaining 48 months until it hits zero.

Yes. You can increase your lock-up period by extending it to a maximum of 48 months at any time, and
the increase activates at the start of the next epoch. If the veHNT is delegated you must
undelegate, change the period, redelegate, and lose delegation rewards within that 24 hour Epoch. If
those three actions take longer than an epoch or are split over two epochs then delegation rewards
are lost for two Epochs.
undelegate, change the period, redelegate. This operation no longer loses a days rewards if the
undelegate/redelegate operation is performed within the same epoch period.

## Can I Decrease My Staking Period For Fast Access to My HNT and Take a Penalty?

No. You define your lock-up period at the time of staking and cannot unstake or decrease the lock-up
period for any reason.

## What do I need to do to close a decayed veHNT position?

To completely close a position the following is required:

- Claim all rewards - you may need to keep claiming until the claim button is disabled.
- Undelegate your position
- Close the position in the right epoch - You may need to wait until after the epoch has ended that the position closed in.
- Ensure there is a HNT account in your wallet - it is possible that the HNT account in the wallet has
been deleted. It can be recreated by transfering HNT into the wallet or swapping other tokens for any
amount of HNT.

## Can I Automate Re-Staking?

Yes, a constant rolling lock-up period is available called Constant Lock-up. The decay countdown
start point will need positive action to start the lock-up cooldown period.

> Staking 10 HNT for 4 years will get approx 1000 veHNT and this will be a rolling 4 year period and
> will remain at 1000 veHNT until the decay countdown is activated and this will then decrease
> linearly over 4 years to 0 veHNT and the HNT is returned.
> Staking 10 HNT for 4 years will get approx 1000 veHNT (10x100) and this will be a rolling 4 year
> period and will remain at 1000 veHNT until the decay countdown is activated and this will then
> decrease linearly over 4 years to 0 veHNT and then the HNT can be claimed back.

## Can I Transfer my veHNT or any of the veDNTs to Someone Else?

No. veHNT and the like are fully non-transferable and represent your voting power in the Network. It
is not a token. It is represented in the wallet by a non-transferable NFT.

## How Do I Buy veHNT or Any of the veDNTs?
## How Do I Buy veHNT

You cannot buy veHNT, veIOT, or veMOBILE. They are not tradable tokens. veHNT can only be obtained
by staking HNT with a lock-up period. Likewise, for veIOT or veMOBILE.
You cannot buy veHNT or move it between wallets. They are not tradable tokens. veHNT can only be obtained
by staking HNT with a lock-up period.

veHNT and veDNTs have no price in the larger crypto markets.

## What Is the DAO Utility Score?
## What Is the Network Utility Score?

The DAO Utility score is described in [HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/336) and was updated with [HIP-88](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/707)
The Network Utility score was described in [HIP-51](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/336) as the DAO Utility score and was updated with [HIP-88](https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/707), and was then reduced in complexity with [HIP 141](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0141-single-token-governance-and-release-proposals.md#migrating-to-a-protocol-score-based-only-on-delegation).

Every epoch, a fixed amount of HNT is allocated to all subnetworks. Each subnetwork receives a share
of this fixed amount. The sizes of the shares are determined by the Utility Scores of each
subnetwork of Helium.
Every epoch, a specific amount of HNT is allocated to all subnetworks. Each subnetwork receives a share
of this fixed amount. The sizes of the shares are determined by the Utility Scores (also known as the
Protocol score) of each subnetwork of Helium.

The higher the Utility Score of a subnetwork is in relation to the Utility Scores of all other
subnetworks combined, the higher its share of the total HNT allocated to all subnetworks. As the DAO
Utility Scores are calculated each epoch anew, the share of HNT a subnetwork receives may change
from epoch to epoch.
The new Protocol Score is derived from the share of veHNT delegated to each subnetwork (formerly
represented by the V component of the Utility Score), as a percentage of total delegated veHNT.
It determines the subnetwork’s percentage of total HNT emissions.

Delegating veHNT to IOT or MOBILE increases the `V` value in the
[HIP-51 DAO Utility Score](https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0051-helium-dao.md#omni-protocol-poc-incentive-model)
calculation.
All locked veHNT positions will receive a share in the 6% of HNT emissions allocated to locked
HNT holders based on the proportion of veHNT they have to the total of veHNT held by everyone.

The two other ways the DAO Utility score can be increased are:
They are calculated daily and assigned to the lock-up position per epoch - daily. But can be claimed
to the wallet as convenient.

1. Increasing the amount of data usage on the subnetwork, i.e., the Data Credits burned. This
increases the `D` value in the Utility Score.
2. Increasing the Data Credits used to onboard the number of Hotspots for that subnetwork. This
increases the `A` value in the Utility Score.

## Will My Subnetwork Earnings Remain The Same Over The Time Period Lock-Up?
They may decrease when:

No, they are calculated and paid to the lock-up position per epoch - daily. They may increase when:
- HNT emissions are halved at the regular 2 year period (Next is 1st August 2025).
- More HNT is locked up or HNT that is locked up is locked for longer increasing the total veHNT.
- The daily Net Emissions total of HNT is decreasing.

- More veHNT is delegated in the subnetwork you delegated to - your treasury gets more HNT.
- More Hotspot onboarding fees are burned in the subnetwork you delegated to.
- More data is transferred and burned in the subnetwork you delegated to.
They may increase when:

They may decrease when:
- Less HNT is locked up or HNT that is locked up is decaying decreasing the total veHNT.
- The daily Net Emissions total of HNT is increasing due to large HNT burns for data use.

- More veHNT is delegated in the subnetwork you delegated to - your share is reduced
- More veHNT is delegated to other subnetworks - other treasuries get more HNT.
- Your delegated veHNT decays over time after you entered the cooldown.
- More Hotspots are online in other subnetworks with a non-zero onboarding fee.
- More data is transferred and burned in other subnetworks.

Thus it can be observed that delegating more or all of your veHNT to a specific subnetwork has the
opportunity to both increase or decrease your subnetwork earnings from delegation.