Open & Active Staking

The two mechanisms of Noon Staking: Understanding Active Staking and Open Staking

Executive summary: Noon staking is your gateway to governance. It is only by participating in staking, either Active Staking or Open Staking that you are able to vote in Noon’s protocol-level decisions. These two mechanisms are designed to distribute $NOON in a sustainable, rule-based, and long-term oriented way. Active Staking rewards users holding USN and sUSN. In parallel, Open Staking ensures that voting rights are not limited to USN and sUSN holders. Anyone should be able to participate in governing Noon, by holding and staking $NOON, and be rewarded for it.

Overview

Noon staking is structured around two distinct mechanisms: Active Staking and Open Staking. Both mechanisms are governed by clear rules and are designed to support long-term participation, but differ mainly in eligibility, how rewards are allocated, and how staking affects vesting and voting power. The following sections describe each mechanism end-to-end, starting with Active Staking.

Active Staking: where participation earns lasting ownership

Active Staking is the mechanism through which Noon distributes $NOON to users who participate in the ecosystem primarily through USN and sUSN holdings and deployment into partner protocols, with eligibility applying once $NOON has been awarded.

The accounting unit of Active Staking: ASP

Active Staking operates on a monthly cycle. During each month, you earn Active Staking Points (ASP) based on your USN and sUSN holdings and deployment into partner protocols. ASP is a points-based accounting unit that determines your percentage share of the monthly reward pool.

ASP balances are displayed in the Noon dApp during the month. ASP may be influenced by multipliers and, when applicable, specific activities. In practice, the more ASP you accrue relative to the total ASP across all participants, the larger your share of the monthly reward pool.

At month-end, this share is converted into your $NOON allocation for the month, i.e., your total potential reward before any claim or staking decision.

Maximising your allocation through Active Staking

Your $NOON allocation represents your total potential reward for the month. Once your allocation is determined at month-end, you can choose to claim a portion of it immediately, or stake it to be able to claim more of it over time. This is a familiar “vesting” mechanic to many digital asset users.

The vesting curve for your Active Staking allocation is described by the following formula:

10% + [ (t / T)³ * 0.73 + (t / T) * 0.27 ] * 90%, over 12 months

This vesting is conducted on a non-linear, accelerating schedule, as per the formula above. If claimed immediately, you receive 10% of your total monthly allocation (and the remaining 90% of $NOON is treated as intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking, and is rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool).

In order to increase rewards, your $NOON allocation can be staked for a defined staking period. To maximise your rewards, staking for 12 months, 2 years, or 4 years results in 100% of your monthly allocation vesting, while a shorter staking period (3, 6, or 9 months) results in only a portion vesting. Your allocation becomes a realised reward only as it vests, contingent on completion of the selected staking period.

The Active Staking rewards are vested over the following periods, based on your selected staking period:

Active Staking Periods, and corresponding vesting schedule:

For staking periods shorter than 12 months, the portion of the monthly allocation that does not vest is treated as intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking. These tokens never become claimable under Active Staking, and are instead rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool, and allocated instead to participants in that month’s Open Staking rewards pool.

At the end of the selected staking period, all vested $NOON associated with your monthly allocation become claimable. Once claimed, the $NOON is fully transferable and may be used at your discretion, including being staked in Open Staking.

Leaving early: what happens to rewards under Active Staking

Active Staking positions can be unstaked prior to completion of the selected staking period. When unstaking occurs early, rewards are limited to the amount corresponding to the last fully completed staking period.

Any remaining amount that would have vested after that milestone does not vest, is treated as forgone due to early unstaking, and is rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool.

Example: if a user selects a staking period of 12 months, and unstakes after 7 months, they will only receive the portion corresponding to the 6-month staking period (29.85%); the remaining amount (70.15%) of their month’s allocation is rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool.

Your Voting Power under Active Staking

Your Voting Power determines the weight of your vote in our community governance process, i.e., how much influence your vote has when the community contributes to make protocol-level decisions.

Under Active Staking, your individual voting power is calculated based on the amount of vested Active Staking $NOON you held at any point in time, and is then multiplied by our voting power curve:

10% + [ (t / T)³ * 0.73 + (t / T) * 0.27 ] * 90%, over 48 months

Leaving early: what happens to your Voting Power under Active Staking

If an Active Staking position is unstaked early, your voting power is reduced to zero.

Open Staking: participation for anyone

Open Staking is the staking mechanism available to any $NOON holder, regardless of how $NOON was acquired (including tokens bought on the open market, tokens after completion of Active Staking or that opt out of Active Staking).

We want to make sure voting rights are not limited to USN and sUSN holders, as anyone who holds and stakes $NOON should be able to contribute meaningfully to our protocol-level decisions. Whereas Active Staking allocates rewards based on Active Staking Points, Open Staking does so based on your share of the Open Staking pool each month.

Open Staking follows a two-step flow:

1. First, you place a stake request, choosing how much $NOON you want to stake and for how long. Until your stake begins, you can modify or cancel this request at any time.

1. Second, your stake begins at the start of the next month. Open Staking starts monthly so that rewards calculations remain consistent. From then on, your $NOON is staked and begins earning Open Staking rewards.

Maximising your allocation through Open Staking

Your rewards are allocated based on your share of the Open Staking pool each month. The larger the proportion of the pool you stake, the larger the proportion of Open Staking rewards you can receive. The Open Staking rewards pool is set at the start of the month and is fixed.

However, the Open Staking reward pool can be increased by rule-based rollovers from the previous month, which are:

• Intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking

• Intentionally unvested tokens from Open Staking

• Forgone tokens due to early unstaking from Active Staking

• Forgone tokens due to early unstaking from Open Staking

The vesting curve for your Open Staking allocation is described by the following formula:

10% + [ (t / T)³ * 0.73 + (t / T) * 0.27 ] * 90%, over 12 months

Staking for 12 months, 2 years, or 4 years results in 100% of your Open Staking rewards vesting, while a shorter staking period (3, 6, or 9 months) results in only a portion vesting. Your Open Staking rewards become a realised reward only if you complete your selected staking period.

Open Staking Periods, and corresponding vesting schedule:

For staking periods shorter than 12 months, the portion of Open Staking rewards that does not vest is treated as intentionally unvested tokens from Open Staking. These tokens are then rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool.

At the end of the selected Open Staking period, your Open Staking rewards become claimable together with the initial $NOON staked into the Open Staking pool (at the start of the staking period).

Leaving early: what happens to rewards under Open Staking

Open Staking positions can be unstaked prior to completion of the selected staking period as well. However, unlike Active Staking, early unstaking in Open Staking means all rewards are forfeited, and treated as forgone due to early unstaking from Open Staking.

You receive your initially staked $NOON back, and those forfeited rewards are rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool.

Example: if a user staking for a 6-month period, unstakes $NOON after 4 months, the rewards roll over to the Open Staking pool in month 5.

Your Voting Power under Open Staking

Under Open Staking, your individual voting power is calculated based on the amount of initial $NOON you stake into the Open Staking rewards pool, and is then multiplied by our voting power curve (based on your selected staking period):

10% + [ (t / T)³ * 0.73 + (t / T) * 0.27 ] * 90%, over 48 months

The key distinction from Active Staking is that your voting power here is calculated from your initial staked amount rather than vested rewards.

Leaving early: what happens to your Voting Power under Open Staking

If an Open Staking position is unstaked early, your voting power is reduced to zero.

Suggestions: Should we incorporate a “timeline” in the end of both Active Staking and Open Staking: something like “How it works TLDR”, and bullet-points summarising the process? This may be useful as a design as well