Design & deploy incentives to bootstrap protocol usage and accrue token value
Well-designed incentives and staking programs attract aligned token holders who add value to your protocol. Tally provides a complete, modular staking solution—open-source smart contracts and a ready-to-use interface that makes participation effortless. Deploy reward programs and staking systems tailored to your protocol's needs without building infrastructure from scratch.
Protocols use Tally's incentives and staking solution to return protocol revenue to token holders, reward long-term commitment, encourage governance participation, incentivize DeFi liquidity, and compensate network validators.
: Return protocol revenue or treasury assets to token holders through staking rewards. Distribute value from protocol fees, native token emissions, or treasury holdings.
: Reward active governance participants based on their contributions and engagement. Integrate reputation scoring to gate compensation.
Multiple reward sources: Distribute rewards from protocol revenue, treasury assets, token emissions, or combine all three—in any ERC20 token or multiple tokens simultaneously
Governance integration: Staked tokens retain full voting power, so holders don't have to choose between earning rewards and participating in governance. Optionally, make rewards conditional on active governance participation
Liquid staking support: Enable token holders to earn rewards while keeping their tokens transferable and usable across DeFi.
Flexible eligibility criteria: Design custom requirements for earning rewards based on specific behaviors that benefit your protocol.
: Deploy with confidence using audited, open-source smart contracts.
Ready to launch incentives and staking? .
Staking on Tally distributes protocol revenue or native issuance to token holders. It's the foundation for open, trust-minimized systems.
Optionally, the rewards can be incentives for particular actions. Rewards can depend on particular behavior, like validating the network, long-term holding or governance activity.
Tally staking offers:
Flexible staking infrastructure: Implement staking for your protocol’s specific needs.
Multiple reward sources: Distribute rewards from protocol revenue, treasury assets, token emissions, or all of the above.
Governance integration: Staking is compatible with governance, so that holders don’t have to choose between rewards and governance. Optionally, rewards can be conditional on active participation in governance.
Validator support: Pay stakers and operators to validate protocol security.
Tally's solution works for protocols at any stage. It supports new token launches and established projects. This guide covers both strategic direction and technical details.
Launch a new token with built-in utility, or enhance your existing tokenomics. Either way, Tally's solution provides the foundation for sustainable economic alignment.
Staking contracts distribute rewards over time
Rewards can come from anywhere. The most common sources are 1) protocol revenue and 2) issuance of the protocol's native token. The rewards can be in any ERC20 token or even in more than one token.
Tally's staking contracts distribute rewards among eligible staking users over time.
Tokenholders stake protocol tokens for a share of the rewards
ZKsync is using Tally's staking solution to create an economic feedback loop where active governance participation drives protocol growth and rewards flow back to contributors. The program will distribute 35 million ZK tokens across two seasons.
Program structure:
Season 1: 10M ZK rewards for 400M tokens staked
Season 2: 25M ZK rewards for 1B tokens staked
Participants earn up to 10% APR by staking ZK and delegating to active governance participants.
How it works:
Delegation-based rewards: Token holders must stake ZK and delegate to active participants to earn rewards. Active participants are delegates who voted in at least 2 of the last 5 governance proposals. This ties rewards directly to governance activity.
Continuous reward streaming: Rewards distribute continuously over 30-day epochs, preventing yield discontinuities and giving stakers time to respond to changing conditions.
Governance integration Staked tokens retain full voting power. Eligibility criteria ties rewards to governance activity, ensuring staking incentivizes active protocol participation.
Learn more about .
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Tokenholders stake the staking token: the protocol's native token. Then, they earn a share of the rewards proportional to their share of all staked tokens over time. They can stake, claim rewards, and unstake at any time.
Staking supports governance. If the staking token is also a governance token, holders can use their staked tokens in governance. That way, tokenholders don't have to choose between governance and receiving rewards.
Optionally, the staking system can have eligibility criteria stipulate particular actions from tokenholders to get rewards. For example, it could require that staked tokens be active in governance to earn rewards. There's a large design space for incentivizing token-aligned services.
Reward active governance participants for their time
Reward active governance participants for their time, expertise, and contributions.
Compensation mechanisms encourage thoughtful participation while reducing voting power concentration among large holders. Tally's solutions include requirements to ensure only engaged and accountable delegates are rewarded.
Design compensation structures that reward quality participation, not just voting power. Tally's infrastructure integrates reputation scoring to ensure rewards go to delegates who actively contribute to governance.
Key features:
Reputation score tracking: Measure delegate engagement across voting, forum contributions, and discussion activity
Automated eligibility gating: Only delegates meeting minimum thresholds receive compensation
Flexible distribution models: Configure rewards based on voting power, reputation, or hybrid approaches
Transparent dashboards: Public visibility into delegate scores and participation history
Obol uses Tally's infrastructure to reward governance participants based on .
How it works:
Delegates receive scores from 0-100 based on voting participation, forum rationales, and discussion engagement.
Only delegates with DRS ≥ 65 qualify for compensation. Active delegates receive rewards using a square root model based on delegated voting power, reducing concentration while supporting smaller delegates.
Token holders view delegate scores and participation history directly on Tally for informed delegation decisions.
Learn more about .
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Key features of Tally's incentive and staking solutions
Fee distribution can be automated through smart contracts
Rewards can be paid in native tokens, ETH, stablecoins, or other assets
Unlike other staking systems that force users to choose between earning yield and participating in governance, Tally's solution supports both.
How it works:
Staked tokens can delegate their voting power
Optionally, rewards depend on the tokens being active in governance
Customer example: Obol implemented staking with governance integration, ensuring their stakers can earn rewards while still contributing to protocol governance decisions. Read the OBOL case study here.
Tally's staking system integrates with Delegate Reputation Score (DRS) tracking to measure and reward quality governance participation.
How it works:
Delegates receive scores from 0-100 based on voting participation, forum rationales, and discussion engagement
Scores update after each governance cycle to reflect current activity levels
Only delegates meeting minimum reputation thresholds (e.g., DRS ≥ 65) qualify for staking rewards
Token holders can view delegate scores and participation history to make informed delegation decisions
Customer example: Obol uses DRS integration to gate delegate compensation, ensuring only active, engaged delegates receive staking rewards.
Enable token holders to earn rewards while keeping their tokens transferable and usable across DeFi.
Your community can stake, track rewards, and manage positions through one intuitive interface.
Tally's staking system is compatible with staking and restaking protocols that provide validated services.
How it works:
Native tokens can be used to secure actively validated services
Compatible with protocols like EigenLayer and Symbiotic
Aligns token holder incentives with network security
Staked tokens can serve as insurance against reorgs or losses.
How it works:
Native tokens are staked in a pool and accrue rewards
If something goes wrong, like a reorg or shortfall crash, staked tokens are slashed to cover the losses
Stake streaks reward long-term holders, creating incentives for extended token holding periods and reducing market volatility.
How it works:
Stakers' earning power increases over time
Rewards scale based on continuous staking duration
Encourages long-term protocol alignment, and reduces token velocity
Ready to launch incentives and staking? Talk to our team to get started.
Tokenomics: The economic model of a token, including its supply, distribution, utility, and incentive mechanisms.
Rewards: Tokens or other assets distributed to participants for contributing to the network, such as through staking.
Yield: The rate of return earned on staked tokens, typically expressed as an annual percentage.
Earning power: A metric that determines a staker's proportional claim on rewards, which may be equal to or modified from their staked amount.
Earning power calculator: A component that determines how rewards are distributed to stakers based on various criteria.
Reward notifier: A contract that informs the staking system about new rewards and triggers their distribution.
Delegation surrogate: A contract that holds staked tokens and delegates their voting power to a specified address.
Reward stream: The mechanism by which rewards are distributed gradually over time rather than all at once.
Reward duration: The time period over which rewards are distributed (default 30 days in the Tally system).
Delegation: Assigning voting power to a specific address without transferring token ownership.
Delegatee: The address that receives voting power through delegation.
Governance Token: A token that grants voting rights in a protocol's governance system.
Governance Staking: Staking that preserves governance voting rights while earning rewards.
Auto-Delegation: A system that automatically delegates voting power according to configurable rules.
Liquid Staking Token (LST): A token representing a staked position that can be transferred or used in DeFi while the underlying tokens remain staked.
stGOV: Tally's liquid staking token implementation for governance tokens.
Rebasing LST: A liquid staking token whose balance automatically increases as rewards accrue.
Fixed LST: A liquid staking token with a fixed balance where the token-to-underlying exchange rate changes as rewards accrue.
Withdraw Gate: A contract that enforces a configurable delay when unstaking to prevent reward gaming.
Reward Source: The origin of rewards distributed to stakers (e.g., protocol fees, treasury, or token emissions).
Protocol Revenue: Fees generated by a protocol's operations that can be distributed to stakers.
Stake Streak: A mechanism that increases rewards based on how long a user has been staking continuously.
Bump: The process of updating a deposit's earning power, which may be incentivized with a small reward.
Reward Rate: The speed at which rewards are distributed per unit of time.
Oracle-Based Earning Power: A system where external data feeds influence staking rewards, such as delegatee activity scores.
Overwhelming Support Auto-Delegate: A delegation strategy that only votes on proposals with significant consensus.
Dual Staking: The ability to use staked tokens for multiple purposes simultaneously, such as with EigenLayer.
Restaking: Using already-staked tokens to secure additional protocols or services.
ERC20: The standard interface for fungible tokens on Ethereum.
ERC20Votes: An extension to ERC20 that supports vote delegation.
EIP-2612: A standard allowing gasless approvals using signed messages.
Permit: A function that processes signed approvals without requiring separate transactions.
OnBehalf: Methods that allow actions to be performed on behalf of users via signatures.
Ready to launch incentives and staking? Talk to our team to get started.
Yes. The native staking and LST contracts are code-complete, audited and open source. Tally's app includes a frontend for staking.
See OBOL & RARI Staking.
Ready to launch incentives and staking? Talk to our team to get started.
Rewards auto-compound
Rewards must be manually staked