Governance Framework

Principle

CYRUS governance is staking-based, not token-balance-based. Holding tokens alone does not grant voting power. This filters out passive speculation from governance and rewards committed community members.

Vote-Escrowed CYRUS (veCYRUS)

To participate in governance, holders must stake their CYRUS tokens:

1. Deposit CYRUS into the staking contract
2. Choose a lock duration (1 month to 4 years)
3. Receive non-transferable veCYRUS proportional to stake × multiplier
4. veCYRUS determines voting power
5. Tokens are returned when the lock expires

Multiplier Schedule

Linear Decay

Voting power decays linearly toward expiration:

veCYRUS = staked × multiplier × (time_remaining / lock_duration)

This incentivizes re-locking and ongoing engagement rather than stake-and-forget behavior.

Proposal System

Types

Process

1. Submission — Meets threshold, includes description and requested action
2. Discussion — 3-day minimum for community review
3. Voting — 5-day on-chain voting period (For / Against / Abstain)
4. Execution — If quorum met and majority achieved, queued for execution
5. Timelock — 48-hour delay before execution

Anti-Whale Protection

Vote Weight Cap

No single wallet can represent more than 5% of total voting power:

effective_votes = min(veCYRUS_balance, 0.05 × total_veCYRUS)

Delegation

Holders can delegate their veCYRUS voting power to another address without transferring tokens.

Staking Rewards

Funded from the DAO Treasury (not inflation):

Rewards are claimable at any time without affecting the lock position.

Governance Evolution