Staking system spec
QUANTATRADE AI
Staking System
Revenue-Funded Rewards • Lock Tiers • Safeguards • Circuit Breakers
CONFIDENTIAL
Table of Contents
1. How Staking Works
Audience: Smart Contract, Backend, UI/UX
Staking lets \$QTRA holders lock their tokens to earn a share of platform revenue. The reward pool is funded entirely by real business revenue --- not by minting new tokens or inflation. The system works as follows:
1. Revenue flows in: The platform earns revenue from exchange fees, subscriptions (automated trading + intelligence marketplace), trading profit, and licensing.
2. Revenue router splits it: An immutable smart contract automatically routes 50% of subscription revenue, 20% of exchange fees, and 20% of trading profit into the staking reward pool.
3. Stakers earn proportionally: Each staker receives a share of the pool based on how many tokens they\'ve staked and their lock tier weight. Rewards accrue continuously, per-second.
4. APY floats freely: APY = Pool Size ÷ Total Staked Value. No cap, no floor, no fixed rate. More stakers means lower APY per person. Fewer stakers means higher APY. The market finds equilibrium naturally.
Revenue source % to staking Y5 contribution pool
Subscriptions (AI + 50% \$18.33M Intelligence)
Exchange trading fees 20% \$2.32M
Platform trading profit 20% \$1.50M
TOTAL \$22.15M
CRITICAL: APY floats freely. The UI must show it as a live number: \'Current yield: 36.9% --- changes with platform revenue and staker count.\' Never promise or display a fixed rate.
2. Lock Tiers
Users choose how long to lock their tokens. Longer locks receive a higher weight multiplier, which gives them a larger share of the reward pool per token staked. All weights are immutable.
Lock period Weight Bonus vs Expected multiplier baseline sell rate
7 days (minimum) 1.00x Baseline 10.4%
30 days 1.05x +5% 7.8%
90 days (UI 1.20x +20% 6.5% default)
6 months 1.40x +40% 3.9%
1 year (maximum) 1.60x +60% 2.6%
How Weights Work
A user staking 10,000 tokens at the 90-day tier (1.20x weight) has an effective staking power of 12,000. A user staking 10,000 tokens at the 1-year tier (1.60x) has power of 16,000. The higher-weight user receives a proportionally larger share of the reward pool.
NOTE: The UI defaults to the 90-day tier (1.20x). This is a deliberate behavioural nudge --- most users will land here, which provides a good balance of lock commitment and reward share.
3. Staking Safeguards
Six protections are hardcoded into the staking contract. All are immutable --- they cannot be weakened or removed.
Safeguard Value What it prevents Immutable?
Min staked to 10,000,000 Single-staker exploit Cannot lower
activate \$QTRA --- prevents one
person draining the
entire pool
Min staker count 100 stakers Collusion --- prevents Cannot lower
a small group from
controlling rewards
Max wallet cap 2% of pool per Whale dominance --- no Cannot raise
epoch single wallet can take
more than 2% of
rewards
Min stake per 1,000 \$QTRA Sybil attacks --- Cannot lower
wallet prevents creating
thousands of dust
wallets to game the
system
Treasury floor \$5M annual Revenue collapse --- Cannot lower
backstop guarantees minimum
reward pool even
during downturns
Reward accrual Continuous Epoch timing arbitrage Cannot revert
(per-second) --- prevents jumping
in before payouts and
out after
How Safeguards Interact
The staking pool does not activate until BOTH the 10M token threshold AND 100 staker minimum are met simultaneously. If either drops below the threshold after activation, rewards redirect to the treasury until the condition is restored.
The 2% wallet cap and 1,000 token minimum work together. The minimum prevents dust wallets. The cap prevents whales. Combined, they ensure no single participant --- large or small --- can disproportionately extract from the pool.
4. Reward Claim Process
4.1 Claim Vesting
When a staker claims their rewards, the tokens do not arrive instantly. They stream linearly over 7 days. If the staker breaks the stream early (by unstaking or transferring), the unvested portion is forfeited back to the reward pool --- not burned.
Example: A staker claims 7,000 \$QTRA in rewards. Over the next 7 days, 1,000 tokens unlock per day. If they break the stream on day 3, they keep 3,000 and the remaining 4,000 returns to the pool for all other stakers.
4.2 Auto-Compound
The default option auto-compounds rewards --- restaking them into the same lock tier instead of claiming them. This means rewards earn more rewards. The system is stress-tested at only 25% auto-compound adoption (not 60%) to ensure the buyback engine works under pessimistic assumptions.
4.3 Sell Pressure Reduction
Mechanism Effect Stress-tested at
Rewards paid in \~35% lower sell rate vs Always applies \$QTRA stablecoin rewards
Auto-compound Restakes rewards --- never 25% adoption default hits market (pessimistic)
7-day claim Smooths sell pressure across Always applies vesting 7 days per claim
90-day UI default Nudges users to lower Behavioural sell-rate lock tiers
5. Circuit Breakers
Automatic emergency responses hardcoded into the contracts. These trigger without human intervention when specific conditions are met.
Trigger condition Automatic action Duration
Total staked drops Rewards accrue to treasury Until staking below 10M tokens instead of stakers restored above 10M
Staker count drops Rewards accrue to treasury Until 100+ below 100 instead of stakers stakers restored
Reward pool falls below Treasury automatically Until revenue \$5M/year tops up to \$5M floor recovers
Token price drops >50% L1 buyback doubles from 30 days then in 7 days 10% to 20% reverts
Any wallet claims >2% Excess above 2% forfeited Immediate of pool in epoch to pool
Zero revenue for 90 \$1.5M stablecoin Until revenue consecutive days emergency reserve resumes activates
NOTE: All circuit breaker parameters --- trigger thresholds, action types, and durations --- are immutable. They are hardcoded conditional logic within the smart contracts. No admin can change the triggers, modify the responses, or disable the circuit breakers.
6. Stress Test Results
APY formula: APY = Pool Size ÷ Total Staked Value.
At \~50% adoption (599M tokens staked at \$0.10 = \$59.9M staked value): \$22.1M ÷ \$59.9M = 36.9% APY.
APY self-corrects: high APY attracts more stakers, which lowers APY per person, until the market reaches equilibrium.
Revenue miss scenarios (Y5, \~50% staking adoption, \$0.10 token price)
Revenue Pool APY Status achievement size
100% (\$59M) \$22.1M 36.9% Sustainable
75% (\$44M) \$16.6M 27.7% Sustainable
50% (\$30M) \$11.1M 18.5% Sustainable
25% (\$15M) \$5.5M 9.2% Treasury backstop active
0% (total failure) \$5.0M 8.3% Emergency: \~12mo runway (floor)
NOTE: All APY calculations assume a constant \$0.10 token price. If deflationary pressure from buyback raises the price, staked dollar value increases and APY decreases --- offset by potentially lower adoption at higher prices. This table is a static equilibrium snapshot.
Annual Staker Pool Projections
Year Subscription Exchange Trading Pool (50% sub + revenue fees profit 20% exch + 20% trad)
Y1 \$3.25M \$1.62M \$0.75M \$2.10M
Y2 \$8.18M \$3.80M \$1.88M \$5.23M
Y3 \$17.58M \$6.91M \$3.38M \$10.85M
Y4 \$28.48M \$9.38M \$5.25M \$17.17M
Y5 \$36.66M \$11.59M \$7.50M \$22.15M
5-year \$57.50M total
7. Immutable Staking Parameters
All parameters below are enforced by absence of setter functions in the smart contract. The audit must verify no function exists that could modify them.
Parameter Value Constraint
Staking tier weights 1.00 / 1.05 / 1.20 / 1.40 / Cannot change 1.60
Min staked threshold 10,000,000 \$QTRA Cannot lower
Min staker count 100 stakers Cannot lower
Max wallet cap 2% of pool per epoch Cannot raise
Min stake per wallet 1,000 \$QTRA Cannot lower
Treasury floor \$5M annual backstop Cannot lower
Reward accrual Continuous (per-second) Cannot revert to epoch
Staking warmup 7 days Cannot shorten
Unstaking cooldown 3 days Cannot shorten
Claim vesting 7-day linear stream Cannot shorten
Early unlock penalty Revert to 7-day base rate Cannot remove
Broken claim forfeit Returns to pool (not burned) Cannot change
8. UI/UX Requirements
The following display requirements are mandatory for the staking interface:
Live APY display: Show current APY as a real-time number that updates with platform revenue and staker count. Format: \'Current yield: 36.9%\'. Never display as a fixed or promised rate.
Lock tier selector: Default to 90-day tier. Show weight multiplier and bonus percentage for each tier. Do not show estimated APY per tier --- show the weight bonus only.
Claim vesting progress: Show active reward streams as progress bars with countdown timers. Display the amount vested, amount remaining, and the forfeit amount if broken early.
Auto-compound toggle: Default to ON. Show explanation: \'Rewards are automatically restaked into your current lock tier. Turn off to claim manually.\'
Safeguard status: Show system-wide staking health: total tokens staked, number of stakers, pool status (active/backstop/emergency). Show circuit breaker status if any are active.
End of Document
CONFIDENTIAL --- QuantaTrade AI