We develop governance tokens that power decentralized decision-making. ERC20Votes, vote-escrow models, delegation systems, and seamless governance integration.
A governance token is more than a voting mechanism — it is the instrument through which a protocol distributes power, aligns incentives, and enables collective decision-making. The design of a governance token determines who participates, how much influence they have, and whether governance produces good outcomes. Arthiq develops governance tokens that are thoughtfully designed for effective, secure, and inclusive governance.
Our governance token development covers the complete technical stack — from the ERC-20 contract with voting extensions to the Governor contract that manages proposals and execution, to the frontend that makes governance participation accessible. We build governance systems that actually work, not just ones that technically function.
We have implemented governance for DeFi protocols, DAO treasuries, NFT communities, and infrastructure projects. Each has different governance needs — DeFi protocols need parameter governance with risk-aware safeguards, DAOs need treasury governance with spending controls, and communities need social governance with reputation weighting. We tailor the governance token design to each use case.
We build governance tokens using OpenZeppelin's ERC20Votes extension, which tracks voting power through checkpoints. This enables historical balance queries — governance can determine each token holder's voting power at the block when a proposal was created, preventing vote buying during active proposals.
Voting power can be configured in multiple ways. Simple token-weighted voting gives one vote per token. Quadratic voting reduces the influence of large holders by taking the square root of token balance. Time-weighted voting increases power for long-term holders. We implement the model that best matches your governance goals.
We also implement ERC20Permit for gasless approval operations, ERC20Wrapper for governance wrappers around existing tokens, and ERC20Snapshot for point-in-time balance queries used in airdrops and revenue distribution. Each extension adds specific functionality needed for comprehensive governance infrastructure.
Vote-escrow (ve) models, pioneered by Curve Finance, require token holders to lock their tokens for a specified period to receive voting power. Longer lock periods grant more voting power, creating strong incentives for long-term protocol alignment. We implement ve-token systems with configurable lock periods, linear decay of voting power as locks approach expiration, and boost mechanics for protocol participation.
Our ve-token contracts support lock extensions, early unlock with penalty, and delegation of voting power without transferring the locked tokens. The penalty for early unlock can be distributed to remaining lockers, burned, or sent to the protocol treasury — each approach has different incentive implications that we analyze during the design phase.
We also build gauge-based reward direction systems where ve-token holders vote on how protocol rewards are distributed across different pools or strategies. This mechanism, known as gauge voting, creates a powerful alignment between governance participants and protocol liquidity management.
Most token holders do not participate directly in governance. Delegation systems allow passive holders to delegate their voting power to active participants who represent their interests. We implement liquid delegation where delegation can be changed at any time and holders can override their delegate on specific proposals they care about.
Our delegation systems include delegate discovery interfaces where delegates can publish their governance philosophy, voting history, and platform. Holders can choose delegates based on alignment and track their delegate's voting record. This transparency mechanism improves governance quality by creating accountability for delegates.
We also implement partial delegation — holders can split their voting power across multiple delegates, and delegation percentages can be adjusted without gas costs through off-chain signature-based delegation. These features maximize governance participation while minimizing the friction for individual token holders.
The governance token connects to a Governor contract that manages the proposal lifecycle — creation, voting, queuing, and execution. We build on OpenZeppelin Governor with configurable parameters for proposal threshold, voting delay, voting period, quorum, and execution timelock.
Our Governor implementations support multiple proposal types — standard proposals that execute arbitrary contract calls, parameter change proposals with bounded ranges, spending proposals with budget limits, and emergency proposals with expedited timelines. Each proposal type can have its own quorum and approval thresholds.
Arthiq delivers governance token systems that are production-ready and genuinely effective. Our Singapore-based team combines smart contract engineering with governance design expertise to build systems where community participation produces good outcomes. Contact founders@arthiq.co to discuss your governance token project.
We develop governance tokens with voting power, delegation, and Governor integration. Build governance that your community actually participates in.