Staking and DAO Governance

Staking (SHARES)

Staking converts liquid VIZ tokens into SHARES (vesting shares). Staked tokens are locked and cannot be transferred directly, but they grant governance power proportional to the amount staked.

Every account has three vesting fields:

Field	Meaning
vesting_shares	SHARES owned by the account
delegated_vesting_shares	SHARES delegated out to others (reduces power)
received_vesting_shares	SHARES received via delegation (increases power)

Effective vesting shares — the governance power used in all weighted operations:

effective_vesting_shares = vesting_shares − delegated_vesting_shares + received_vesting_shares

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Staking Operations

Stake: transfer_to_vesting_operation (ID 3)

Converts liquid VIZ to SHARES. Can vest into another account's balance.

[3, {"from": "alice", "to": "alice", "amount": "1000.000 VIZ"}]

Unstake: withdraw_vesting_operation (ID 4)

Initiates gradual withdrawal over withdraw_intervals daily installments (chain-governed, default 28 days). Set to "0.000000 SHARES" to cancel.

[4, {"account": "alice", "vesting_shares": "1000.000000 SHARES"}]

Virtual fill_vesting_withdraw_operation fires once per interval as tokens are released.

Withdrawal Routes: set_withdraw_vesting_route_operation (ID 11)

Routes a percentage of withdrawals to another account, optionally re-vesting immediately.

[11, {"from_account": "alice", "to_account": "bob", "percent": 5000, "auto_vest": true}]

Up to 10 routes per account; total percent across all routes must not exceed 10000.

Delegate: delegate_vesting_shares_operation (ID 19)

Transfers governance power (not ownership) to another account. Set to "0.000000 SHARES" to remove.

[19, {"delegator": "alice", "delegatee": "bob", "vesting_shares": "500.000000 SHARES"}]

When removing delegation, SHARES enter a 7-day return window. Virtual return_vesting_delegation_operation fires when they return.

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Where SHARES Are Used

SHARES are the universal governance token. Every meaningful action is weighted by effective_vesting_shares.

1. Validator Voting (Fair-DPOS)

[7, {"account": "alice", "witness": "bob", "approve": true}]

Vote weight is divided equally among all validators the account votes for:

fair_weight = effective_vesting_shares / validators_voted_for

This prevents concentration — voting for 10 validators gives each 1/10 of your weight. Accounts may also set a proxy (account_validator_proxy_operation) to delegate all validator voting to another account.

2. Committee DAO Voting

[37, {"voter": "alice", "request_id": 42, "vote_percent": 7500}]

Vote weight: effective_vesting_shares × vote_percent / 10000.
Range: −10000 (strong oppose) to +10000 (strong support).

3. Awards (Social Reward Distribution)

[47, {"initiator": "alice", "receiver": "bob", "energy": 1000, ...}]

Reward size is proportional to:

rshares = effective_vesting_shares × energy / 10000

An account with 10× more SHARES creates 10× more reward for the same energy.

4. Chain Parameter Governance

Validators publish preferred chain parameters; the blockchain applies the median. Since validators are elected by stake-weighted votes, all chain parameters are indirectly governed by SHARES holders.

5. Transaction Bandwidth

Network bandwidth is allocated proportionally to effective_vesting_shares. Accounts below 500 SHARES get an additional 10% bandwidth reserve.

6. Account Creation via Delegation

New accounts can be bootstrapped by delegating SHARES to them at a 10× ratio (locked for 30 days), making account creation accessible without liquid tokens.

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VIZ as a DAO

Traditional DAO	VIZ Blockchain
DAO treasury	Committee fund + reward fund
Governance tokens	SHARES
Proposal voting	Committee worker requests
Board of directors	Elected validators
Director elections	Validator voting (Fair-DPOS)
Dividend distribution	Award mechanism (reward fund)
Bylaws / rules	Chain properties (median governance)
Proxy voting	delegate_vesting_shares + validator proxy

Governance Properties

1. Proportional representation: 1 SHARES = 1 unit of influence everywhere.
2. Bipolar voting: negative votes actively oppose, not just abstain.
3. Continuous governance: no fixed voting seasons — votes can be changed anytime.
4. Skin in the game: SHARES are locked; exiting takes 28 days. Long-term alignment.
5. No trusted intermediaries: all rules enforced by protocol code.
6. Delegation without custody: governance power can be lent and revoked at any time.

Governance Cycle

Stake VIZ → Get SHARES → Governance Power
    ├── Vote for validators  → Block production & chain parameters
    ├── Vote on committee    → Treasury spending
    ├── Award other accounts → Distribute value from reward fund
    └── Delegate to others   → Amplify allies' governance power

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Key Constants

Constant	Value	Description
CHAIN_VESTING_WITHDRAW_INTERVALS	28	Daily withdrawal installments
CHAIN_VESTING_WITHDRAW_INTERVAL_SECONDS	86400 (1d)	Time between installments
CHAIN_MAX_WITHDRAW_ROUTES	10	Max withdrawal routes per account
CHAIN_ENERGY_REGENERATION_SECONDS	432000 (5d)	Full energy regeneration
CHAIN_100_PERCENT	10000	Basis points denominator
CHAIN_MAX_ACCOUNT_VALIDATOR_VOTES	100	Max validators per account

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See also: Chain Properties, Committee DAO, Awards, Transfers.