Tokenomics
The token secures the network
The network token has three jobs: securing the network through staking, paying for settlement, and governing upgrades. This page explains the mechanics — not the market.
This page describes network mechanics, not an investment. The Network surface provides no price, market, or financial information, and nothing here is financial advice or an offer of any kind.
Utility
Utility.
The token has three plain roles on the network. None of them is an investment thesis. Each is a mechanism that keeps the network secure, paid for, and upgradeable.
01 · Staking & security
Securing the network.
Operators bond the token as stake. That stake is what they stand to lose for a provable fault, so it is the network's economic security — the cost of attacking it.
02 · Settlement fees
Paying for settlement.
Using the network — submitting transitions, settling proofs to Ethereum — is paid for in the token. Fees meter the work the network actually does.
03 · Governance
Governing upgrades.
The token carries a vote in the network's improvement-proposal process. Holders signal on upgrades; substantive governance lives with the Foundation.
Security budget
The security budget.
Staking rewards are not a yield. They are the network's security budget — the recurring cost of keeping an independent validator set online, honest, and economically committed to the network.
What the budget buys.
Rewards compensate operators for hardware, bandwidth, and the stake they put at risk. The larger and more independent the set the budget can sustain, the more it costs to attack the network. That is the whole point of the spend.
Where the budget comes from.
The budget is funded by token emission and by settlement fees. The balance between the two is a network parameter, set through governance, and published in the docs once confirmed — described here only as a security cost, never as a yield.
Read the operator side of the same mechanics on staking and security.
Supply & emission
Supply and emission.
The supply mechanics below are network parameters, not market figures. Pre-mainnet they are indicative; the confirmed schedule is published in the docs and governed through proposals.
Every figure marked indicative is unconfirmed and will be replaced by a published, governed parameter — never by a market figure. The network surface describes mechanics only, with no financial information of any kind.
Governance
Where governance lives.
The token votes on network upgrades. Everything substantive — the Council, the treasury, the Mandate — lives with the Foundation, not on this surface.
Governance lives with the Foundation ↗
How a token-holder signal becomes a network upgrade — and how the treasury and the Mandate are stewarded — is documented at the Foundation. This page hands off there rather than duplicating it.
openstatestack.org/governance ↗
Operate the network.
The token is how the network is secured, paid for, and upgraded — not a market. Run a node, or watch it run.