# Active Staking

## <mark style="color:orange;">**Where Participation Earns Lasting Ownership**</mark>

<mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> is the mechanism through which <mark style="color:blue;">**Noon**</mark> distributes <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> to users who participate in the ecosystem primarily through <mark style="color:purple;">**USN**</mark> and <mark style="color:purple;">**sUSN**</mark> holdings and deployment into partner protocols, with eligibility applying once <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> has been awarded.

### TL;DR

1. To be eligible to Active Staking, you need to hold <mark style="color:purple;">**USN**</mark> / <mark style="color:purple;">**sUSN**</mark>, or deploy into partner protocols
2. Throughout the month, you earn <mark style="color:red;">**Active Staking Points (ASP)**</mark>, which determine your share of the monthly <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> reward pool. At month-end, your <mark style="color:red;">**ASP**</mark> share converts into your <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> allocation
3. You can claim <mark style="color:red;">**10%**</mark> of your allocation immediately, or stake for a defined staking period. Staking for <mark style="color:$success;">**12 months or longer**</mark> vests <mark style="color:$success;">**100%**</mark> of your allocation.
4. Any portion of your allocation that does not vest, whether by choice or by unstaking early, is rolled into the next month's <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark> reward pool. Nothing is burned; it goes back to the community
5. <mark style="color:purple;">**Voting power**</mark> is based on your vested <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> and grows over a **48-month curve**. Staking for 4 years takes you to 100% of <mark style="color:purple;">**voting power**</mark>

***

### 1. Active staking points (ASP)

<mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> operates on a monthly cycle. During each month, you earn <mark style="color:red;">**Active Staking Points (ASP)**</mark> based on your <mark style="color:purple;">**USN**</mark> and <mark style="color:purple;">**sUSN**</mark> holdings and deployment into partner protocols. <mark style="color:red;">**ASP**</mark> is a points-based accounting unit that determines your **percentage share** of the monthly reward pool.

**ASP** balances are displayed in the <mark style="color:blue;">**Noon**</mark> *dApp* during the month. <mark style="color:red;">**ASP**</mark> may be influenced by multipliers and, when applicable, specific activities. In practice, the more <mark style="color:red;">**ASP**</mark> you accrue relative to the total <mark style="color:blue;">**ASP**</mark> across all participants, the larger your share of the monthly reward pool.

At month-end, this share is converted into your <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> allocation for the month, i.e., **your total potential reward** before any claim or staking decision.

### 2. Maximising allocation

Your <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> allocation represents your total potential reward for the month. Once your allocation is determined at month-end, you can choose to <mark style="color:yellow;">**claim**</mark> a portion of it immediately or <mark style="color:purple;">**stake it**</mark> to be able to claim more of it over time. This is a familiar "vesting" mechanic to many digital asset users.

#### 2.1. Vesting curve

The vesting curve for your <mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> allocation is described by the following formula:

&#x20;                         &#x20;

&#x20;                              **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 <mark style="color:yellow;">**10%**</mark> of your total monthly allocation (and the remaining <mark style="color:blue;">**90%**</mark> of <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> is treated as <mark style="color:orange;">**intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking**</mark> and is rolled into the next month’s <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark> reward pool).

To increase rewards, your <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> allocation can be staked for a defined staking period. To <mark style="color:$success;">**maximise**</mark> your rewards, staking for 12 months, 2 years, or 4 years results in <mark style="color:$success;">**100%**</mark> of your monthly allocation vesting, while a shorter staking period (3, 6, or 9 months) results in only a portion vesting.&#x20;

Your allocation becomes a realised reward only as it vests, contingent on completion of the selected staking period.

#### 2.1.1. Active Staking periods, and corresponding vesting schedule

<figure><img src="https://596450103-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FvawK0RJiR8PpG791Q3EH%2Fuploads%2FoXX0mnMqydCxJcpXTy1G%2FActive%20Staking%20Periods.png?alt=media&#x26;token=a3fcaf02-8b45-48a6-90e6-d9d455b6bccb" alt=""><figcaption><p>Fig. 1 - Active Staking Periods, and corresponding vesting schedule</p></figcaption></figure>

For staking periods shorter than 12 months, the portion of the monthly allocation that does not vest is treated as <mark style="color:orange;">**intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking**</mark>. These tokens never become claimable under <mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> and are instead rolled into the next month's <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark> reward pool and allocated instead to participants in that month's <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark> rewards pool.

At the end of the selected staking period, all vested <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> associated with your monthly allocation become claimable. Once claimed, the <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> is fully transferable and may be used at your discretion, including being staked in <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark>.

### 3. Leaving early: what happens to rewards

<mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> 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 <mark style="color:orange;">**forgone due to early unstaking**</mark>, and is rolled into the next month's <mark style="color:green;">**Open Staking**</mark> reward pool.

> <mark style="color:purple;">**Example:**</mark> 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.

### 4. Voting power under Active Staking

Your <mark style="color:purple;">**voting power**</mark> determines the weight of your vote in our community governance process, i.e., how much influence your vote has when the community contributes to making protocol-level decisions.

Under <mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark>, your individual voting power is calculated based on the amount of vested <mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> <mark style="color:$success;">**$NOON**</mark> you held at any point in time, and is then multiplied by our voting power curve:

&#x20;                                          **10% + \[ (t / T)³ × 0.73 + (t / T) × 0.27 ] × 90%**, **over 48 months**

This is where the difference between staking for **12 months**, **2 years**, or **4 years** becomes <mark style="color:$success;">**material**</mark>. While all three periods vest <mark style="color:$success;">**100%**</mark> of the token allocation, the <mark style="color:purple;">**voting power**</mark> they unlock differs significantly.

At 12 months, a user has reached a quarter of the 48-month curve, corresponding to approximately 17% of maximum <mark style="color:purple;">**voting power**</mark>. At 24 months, this increases to approximately 30%. A full 4-year commitment reaches the ceiling: <mark style="color:$success;">**100%**</mark> <mark style="color:purple;">**voting power**</mark>.

In practical terms, a user who stakes for 4 years carries nearly <mark style="color:$warning;">**six**</mark> <mark style="color:$warning;">**times**</mark> the governance influence of one who stakes for 12 months with the same number of tokens.

#### 4.1. Leaving Early: what Happens to voting power

If an <mark style="color:blue;">**Active Staking**</mark> position is unstaked early, your voting power is reduced to <mark style="color:red;">**zero**</mark>.