House of Stake

NEAR House of Stake is Live on Mainnet​

Today, the NEAR Protocol enters a new chapter in its evolution. We're proud to announce the mainnet launch of House of Stake: a next-generation governance system designed to be transparent, scalable, and adaptive. More than just a tool, it’s the first step in a multi-phase transformation of how NEAR is governed—and, eventually, how governance itself is reimagined.

Phase one, now underway, is about bootstrapping: building foundational infrastructure, establishing legitimacy, and delivering a functional and accountable system of stake-weighted governance. It’s a pragmatic design, relying on delegated voting and token lockups to ensure long-term alignment: all participants must lock $NEAR, and the longer they lock, the more voting power they receive.

In phase two, House of Stake will take on broader responsibilities across the NEAR ecosystem, starting with improving protocol economics. In phase three, AI becomes a first-class participant in governance—supporting decision-making, managing workflows, and eventually unlocking new models like “swarm governance,” where intelligent agents can represent the preferences of thousands of stakeholders at once.

This is the foundation for a new kind of institution—one that can scale with the network, adapt to its needs, and bring democratic ideals into programmable systems.

Why House of Stake?​

Two years ago, NEAR’s previous experiment in on-chain governance—the NEAR Digital Collective (NDC)—pushed the boundaries of community-led funding and participation. But it also faced challenges common to a lot of DAOs: low voter turnout, poor incentive design, and limited alignment between stakeholder capital and influence.

House of Stake is a novel experiment in on-chain governance that incorporates lessons from NDC and other, previous governance experiments. It replaces “one person, one vote” with a flexible, token-locked voting mechanism called veNEAR (vote-escrowed NEAR), which strengthens governance influence based on time-locked commitment. Proposals are screened for alignment and quality before going to a vote, and incentives are structured to encourage participation.

This system is designed not only to work—but to evolve. To guide that evolution, we’re actively tracking how it performs—beyond just on-chain metrics.

What does success look like?

• Consistently high delegate participation and proposal engagement

• Quality and clarity of proposals passing the screening process

• Diverse stakeholder representation (not just whales)

• Growing trust in the process, measured through surveys and forum feedback

• Effective use of incentives: are rewards driving real contribution or just farming?

What We Shipped​

Over the past year, we’ve worked with the best partner teams in the world to design and ship the House of Stake system. Based on governance research and design from our friends at Gauntlet, built by our friends at FastNear and Agora, and with facilitation, integration and product expertise from our friends at Hack Humanity. House of Stake already live on mainnet:

• veNEAR Governance Token: Users lock NEAR, stNEAR, or liNEAR to receive veNEAR. The longer the lock, the greater the voting power and rewards. This is a pragmatic approach: stake-weighted governance isn’t perfect but it’s currently the most effective Sybil resistance mechanism available. Our ambition is to evolve toward more democratic and identity-aware models as the technology matures.

• Delegation System: A curated group of Endorsed Delegates help scale decision-making. They’re required to maintain high participation rates, disclose their rationale, and act in line with the community’s goals.

• Screening Committee and Security Council: These oversight bodies ensure that governance is safe, credible, and efficient. The Screening Committee reviews proposals before they go to a vote; the Security Council has a final veto and can act quickly in emergencies.

• On-chain Voting + Incentives: Using NEAR’s 0.5% annual token inflation, as well as future protocol-generated revenue sources (intents, AI infrastructure, etc.), the system funds veNEAR holders, active delegates, and community-approved grant proposals—creating a sustainable, protocol-native governance economy.

Beyond Token Voting​

House of Stake was designed from day one to grow into a more expansive system. Here’s a high-level look at what comes next:

Phase One (Now):

• Launch veNEAR and the on-chain voting system

• Community elects the screening committee and begins proposal screening

• Distribute early incentives and test mechanisms

• Ship foundational infrastructure (contracts, frontend, onboarding, documentation)

Phase Two:

• House of Stake expands its scope: funding more verticals, coordinating more protocol functions

• Begins to own protocol economics and budgetary governance

• Introduces more robust delegate frameworks, forum tooling, and working groups

• Runs on-chain experiments in public goods allocation and participatory budgeting

Phase Three:

• Deep AI integration: agents that help interpret, vote on, and even propose governance actions

• Agents are trained on user values and community norms: governance copilots and autonomous delegates

• Governance agents represent thousands of users' preferences, run simulations of policy outcomes, and automatically adjust decisions based on community sentiment

• “Swarm governance”: a network of AI actors collaborating on behalf of their human stakeholders, coordinating at scales humans can’t match

• Real-world lessons exported to cooperatives, civic networks, and other governance domains

The House of Stake roadmap goes far beyond features. We’re adopting cutting-edge technologies and working at the fringes of what’s possible, and we’ll share the tools we build and the things we learn with the wider world.

Why It Matters​

Blockchains today face a dual legitimacy crisis. On-chain governance often devolves into plutocracy, while off-chain democratic systems are overwhelmed by misinformation and apathy. House of Stake takes both problems seriously and attempts to do something that’s never been done before.

By combining transparent incentives, structured participation, and AI-augmented tooling, House of Stake is setting a precedent for governance that works—not just for NEAR, but as a blueprint for the next generation of global, digital institutions.

And we’re doing it in the open, together, with community participation as both a mechanism and a goal.

How to Get Involved​

Participation is permissionless, and getting started is easy:

• Lock NEAR into veNEAR to gain governance power at gov.houseofstake.org

• Read and comment on proposals on gov.near.org

• Join the discussion on Telegram

• Follow progress via @NEARGovernance

• Become a delegate by convincing others to delegate their veNEAR to you, or delegate to yourself and simply vote on proposals you care about

Whether you’re a validator, a developer, a researcher, or a curious community member, there’s a seat for you in the House. The time to act is now! The foundations are still being laid, and early participation gives you more than voting power, it gives you influence over the very shape of this system.

Join the network. Read the proposals. Ask questions. Propose ideas. Help House of Stake lead a real on-chain governance revolution. If we succeed, NEAR won’t just be the “blockchain for AI.” It’ll be a proving ground for better institutions everywhere.