Recently discovered an interesting staking mechanism that made me reevaluate the lock-up strategies for governance tokens.

A project’s tiered staking just went live, and I carefully reviewed the rules. The design is quite interesting. Basically, locking for 3 months yields an annualized return of 12%, 6 months jumps to 18%, and if you lock for a full year, it skyrockets to 25%—plus an additional 1.5x governance voting power bonus.

How significant are these numbers? I did some quick math with 1000 tokens: compared to a 3-month lock, a 1-year lock earns an extra 400 tokens at maturity, which means a 40% higher return. This isn’t just a few percentage points; it’s a tangible difference you can see.

Even more impressive is the "renewal stacking" feature—if you don’t redeem at the end of the lock-up, you can continue to lock and earn an additional 5% bonus. Compared to those stable, unchanging staking yields, this long-term holding incentive clearly attracts more capital that truly believes in the project to come in and deposit.

I’ve already switched all my tokens to a 1-year lock-up. Honestly, for projects with real potential, long-term holding is the best investment logic, and this mechanism design simply amplifies the returns of that logic.