YieldNest DAO
Last updated
Last updated
The YieldNest DAO is the governance backbone of the YieldNest ecosystem, overseeing protocol decisions, products, and subDAOs. Its goal is to create a self-sustaining, decentralized system that operates autonomously, driven by community participation and AI-enhanced decision-making.
At its core, the YieldNest DAO empowers YND token holders to shape the protocol’s evolution. Governance will progressively decentralize, transitioning from core contributor oversight to full community control. Initially, the core team will provide strategic guidance, but as the ecosystem matures, DAO participants will take full governance responsibility, ensuring true decentralization.
We believe in the inevitable rise of DeFi as a fully self-sovereign financial system. The YieldNest Protocol and its subDAOs serve as building blocks for this future, integrating with other DeFi primitives to simplify complexity, enhance security, and deliver the best risk-adjusted returns. At the same time, YieldNest strengthens the DeFi ecosystem, making it more resilient, adaptive, and antifragile.
YieldNest DAO combines hybrid human/AI governance with AI-driven strategy execution. Advanced restaking and DeFi mechanisms ensure the protocol, its products, and its ecosystem continue to thrive. This approach enables continuous evolution and strengthens its role in shaping the future of decentralized finance.
YieldNest’s governance system is built on Aragon V2, leveraging its framework to improve and harden the YieldNest DAO continuously.
All products and subDAOs each have their own dynamic fee structure see below for an overview of all products and subDAOs.
ynETH MAX (ynETHx): ETH-based strategies
ynBTC MAX (ynBTCx): BTC-based strategies
ynUSD MAX (ynUSDx): USD-based strategies
ynBNB MAX (ynBNBx): BNB-based strategies
ynETH – Native ETH Restaking strategy (nLRT)
ynBTCk – BTC Restaking strategy focused on the BNB chain (LRT)
ynLSDe – ETH Restaking strategy for LSDs (LRT)
ynBNB – BNB-Based restaking strategy (LRT)
YieldNest and Nest AI are deeply connected, with Nest AI becoming the first SubDAO in the YieldNest ecosystem. This synergy creates immense value for both.
A detailed description of the YND & veYND Tokenomics.
YND is the native governance token of the YieldNest DAO and can only be used for voting when staked, accumulating veYND voting power over time. Staked veYND grants holders influence over protocol decisions and a share of protocol revenue, aligning rewards with active governance participation.
More in-depth: YieldNest’s governance system is built on Aragon V2, leveraging its framework to enhance and strengthen the DAO continuously. Upon staking, there is a brief warmup period before governance power activates, but users immediately start earning yield, which increases in parallel with their voting power.
Exiting veYND to reclaim YND requires a 30-day queue and a minimum deposit of 42 YND for locking. For those who prefer delegated voting and auto-compounding without the exit queue, liquid lockers, developed in collaboration with StakeDAO and Convex, will provide an alternative staking solution. These liquid lockers will not be available at launch but will be rolled out over time. veYND holders will have the option to merge or unmerge their positions from the liquid locker, providing greater flexibility in governance participation and yield optimization.
Before any official proposal is made, proposers can open a temperature check thread to share their ideas and discuss them in the YieldNest governance forum. This step helps voters better understand proposals and encourages active governance participation. Anyone can initiate a temperature check discussion.
AI Enhancement: AI-driven analytics can summarize discussion threads, highlight key points, and assess community sentiment to provide data-driven insights for voters. This allows for better engagement and ensures proposal improvements before moving to a formal vote.
Once the temperature check has facilitated a healthy discussion, a formal snapshot proposal and forum proposal thread can be created.
The DAO proposal is then formally submitted. Initially, only whitelisted veYND holders with at least 500,000 veYND can initiate formal proposals. Interested parties can analyze proposed changes, hold discussions, and gather support.
Once a proposal has been created, token holders vote via the YieldNest DAO platform, built in collaboration with Aragon. The voting period lasts 7 days but will be extended by 3 days if a quorum is reached right before the deadline, ensuring fair participation.
Once a DAO proposal has passed, a 3-day waiting period is initiated. Users who object to the outcome can withdraw funds or make necessary adjustments during this time. After the waiting period, the YieldNest multi-sig executes the proposal, or work begins if it’s not an on-chain action.
Incentive allocations are voted on monthly through a weighted vote, where the percentage of votes received determines the share of incentives allocated to different initiatives. This system mimics the CRV bribing model, but instead of discretionary rewards, incentives are distributed to all eligible users to ensure long-term alignment.
veYND holders vote on where to allocate YND incentives, with options including:
MAX LRTs
LRT Strategies
Integrations such as LP pools
This process requires a list of potential allocation targets, which could lead to vote markets where participants bribe veYND holders for votes.
The Security Council comprises nine members, requiring a 5-of-9 majority for emergency action. Members are elected every six months via an on-chain vote.
The Security Council is responsible for mitigating critical risks and can take emergency action without a vote if required. These emergency actions include addressing:
Critical security vulnerabilities that could endanger user funds
Threats to protocol integrity
