Tokenomics
veTOPAZ Locks
Locking TOPAZ in the VotingEscrow contract mints a veTOPAZ NFT — the unit of voting power, fee claims, and bribe claims in the protocol. This page is the complete reference for what a lock can and can't do.
Lock basics
A lock has two inputs: amount (how much TOPAZ you escrow) and duration (how long you lock it for). The two together determine voting power.
| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum lock | 1 week | Rounded down to the next epoch boundary. |
| Maximum lock | 4 years | MAXTIME = 4 × 365 × 86400 seconds. Hard ceiling. |
| Voting power at lock | amount × (lock duration / 4 years) | Linear scale — half the duration, half the power. |
| Decay | Linear toward zero | Voting power decays continuously until the unlock date, then sits at zero until you withdraw or extend. |
| Output | veTOPAZ NFT (ERC-721) | Transferable, mergeable, splittable. |
What a veTOPAZ lock earns
- ✓Trading fees from voted pools. 100% of swap fees on Topaz flow to voters of the corresponding gauge. Vote share in epoch n earns fees from swaps that happened in epoch n; the fees become claimable in epoch n+1.
- ✓Bribes (incentives) on voted pools. External rewards deposited by projects to attract votes. Same epoch-n / claim-n+1 cadence as fees.
- ✓Rebases. Weekly TOPAZ distributed to all veTOPAZ holders pro-rata to voting power. The amount scales with the unlocked / locked ratio — when fewer tokens are locked, rebases get larger. For active locks, rebases auto-compound; for expired locks, they pay out as liquid TOPAZ.
The state machine
A veTOPAZ NFT lives in one of four states:
- ✓Normal. The default. Linear decay; can do everything (vote, transfer, merge, split, extend lock, withdraw at expiry).
- ✓Normal Permanent. You've converted to a permanent lock. Voting power stays at the max forever (amount = voting power, no decay). Cannot be merged into a normal lock, and only permanent locks can delegate. You can
unlockPermanent()to revert to a normal decaying lock — only if you haven't voted in the current epoch. - ✓Locked.A normal NFT that's been deposited into a managed NFT. Almost no functionality — the only path out is
withdrawManagedwhich restores you to a normal NFT with a fresh max-time lock. - ✓Managed Permanent. A special NFT created by the protocol or whitelisted managers. Aggregates many user deposits. Permanently locked by default; can delegate. See Managed Locks.
Operations on a normal lock
The VotingEscrow contract exposes a focused set of operations on an active lock:
- ✓increaseAmount. Add more TOPAZ to an existing lock without changing the unlock date. Voting power scales proportionally.
- ✓increaseUnlockTime. Extend the unlock date (capped at 4 years from now). Voting power increases accordingly.
- ✓merge. Combine two normal NFTs into one. The from NFT must be normal (not permanent); the toNFT can be normal or normal permanent. The destination's lock end is set to whichever is later. The from NFT is burned.
- ✓split. Divide one NFT into two with chosen TOPAZ amounts. Each child has the same unlock date as the parent. The parent is burned. Split is enabled protocol-wide on Topaz — anyone can split their own normal (or normal permanent) NFT.
- ✓lockPermanent. Irreversibly upgrade a normal NFT to permanent. Voting power locks at max with no further decay.
- ✓unlockPermanent. Reverse the previous step — but only if you haven't voted in the current epoch. Returns to a normal NFT with 4-year unlock from the moment of unlock.
- ✓withdraw. After unlock time, retrieve your underlying TOPAZ. The NFT is burned.
- ✓delegate. Permanent locks (and managed NFTs) can delegate their voting power to another NFT's owner for governance proposals. Does notdelegate gauge voting power — that's a separate concept.
Permanent vs decaying — which to choose
Permanent locks have two distinguishing benefits and one trade-off:
- ✓Benefit: voting power stays at the max forever; no need to extend each year.
- ✓Benefit: only permanent locks can delegate (useful for managed strategies and on-chain governance).
- ✓Trade-off: no exit. Until you unlockPermanent (which can fail if you've voted this epoch), your TOPAZ is escrowed indefinitely.
- ✓Trade-off: cannot extend or shorten — the lock state is binary.
Most active voters who plan to be in for the long haul prefer permanent locks for the no-maintenance behavior. Voters who want the option to gradually exit prefer decaying locks and renew duration as needed.
Voting once per epoch
Each veTOPAZ NFT can vote once per epoch. Voting also means depositing into a managed NFT (the two paths are mutually exclusive within an epoch). After you vote, you can't change your allocation until the next epoch — but unchanged votes carry over automatically.
reset() removes all gauge votes for your NFT. After resetting in epoch n, you can still vote in epoch n+1. If you don't reset, your previous vote keeps flowing into the same gauges.Where this happens in the app
Open app.topazdex.com/lock to create or manage locks. The page covers create, extend, increase, merge, split, convert to permanent, and withdraw — all the operations described above.
Continue reading
Gauge Voting →
How to direct emissions with your veTOPAZ each epoch.
Incentives (Bribes) →
External rewards posted to gauges to attract veTOPAZ votes.
Managed Locks →
Delegate your veTOPAZ into a managed NFT for passive participation.
TOPAZ & Emissions →
Where TOPAZ comes from, the emission curve, and rebases.