House of Stake weekly blog
House of Stake Goes Live (Alpha/Beta)
The NEAR Protocol’s new on-chain governance portal House of Stake (HoS) is now online in alpha/beta form. The HoS site (accessible at gov.houseofstake.org) allows any NEAR stakeholder to create governance proposals (“Create Proposal”) for review by the Screening Committee. As HoS Lead @lane Rettig reminded the community, participation is permissionless: any token-holder can lock NEAR (into “veNEAR”) and vote, even without formally joining a delegate. (The delegate structure simply streamlines voting for busy users.) The HoS launch has been staggered: an alpha version went live on August 7th and the core team is targeting a full mainnet launch in August 14th.
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How it works: Users can now submit proposals to HoS. Each proposal is pre-screened, then put to a vote of delegates and veNear token holders.
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Behind the scenes and lack of accountability: Unfortunately, all screening decisions so far still behind closed doors. No public timeline or feedback, except: “No specific deadline. You can see the prioritization of my tasks on the kanban. Reviewing proposals is important but it’s less time sensitive.” - The @lane NF HoS core team member said.
Governance Proposals on the Forum
Let’s tale a look on proposals - the Five major HoS-related proposals have already been posted to the NEAR governance forum, indicating the topics delegates and community members are discussing:
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Social Media & Ops Charter: to establish a “Social Media Team” and formal communications/operations framework for HoS.
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Suspend Delegate Fees: to temporarily set the endorsed-delegate remuneration fee to zero (and strip benefits) through end of 2025. The goal is to lower barriers for delegate participation until the compensation model can be refined.
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Due Diligence Team: to create a three-person Due Diligence Team (DDT) under the upcoming HoS Security Council. The DDT would independently audit potential conflicts-of-interest in proposals or budgets and advise the council.
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Transparency & Accountability: to urge the Screening Committee to publish its delegate-selection criteria, apply strict COI rules, and require HoS/NF core staff to issue regular public reports. It also calls for more on-chain voting of key decisions.
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More Decentralization: A community proposal by @Psalmy recommends phasing out the “endorsed delegate” model after an initial period. It suggests quarterly token-holder snapshots so that the top 10 veNEAR recipients (by stake) become new “verified” delegates representing the community.
Each of these proposals has sparked discussion. However, all review is still by the private screening committee, and no outcomes or schedule have been announced.
Delegate Spotlight
Several prominent NEAR community members now serve as HoS delegates, carrying the largest veNEAR voting power. Key figures include:
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Evgeny (aka Maestro) Kuzyakov (vote.mob.near): A founding father of NEAR and core developer (FASTNEAR). Maestro helped build NEAR’s protocol tools, making him a trusted technical voice in governance.
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Alan (alan777.near): A leading contributor from Meta Pool (the flagship NEAR staking pool). Community endorsements describe Alan as a “key member of the Meta Pool team” with years of NEAR governance experience. He co-founded NEAR education programs and was one of the NEAR Foundation’s initially endorsed delegates.
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Vadim Zavodil (zavodil.near): A founding father. Vadim has been active in NEAR’s ecosystem growth since the first days and now represents the entire community.
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Illia Polosukhin (root.near): CEO and Co-founder of NEAR and one of the original architects of the protocol. Illia’s foundational role in NEAR’s development (he “initially inspired the House of Stake approach”) gives his delegate status high prestige.
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Mister X (grmsn.near): whale who joined near in at the early days
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Slime — the ORIGINAL NEAR developer, active member of the Shitzu community, and founder of the INTEAR wallet. Some community members note that he may be the only original developer still actively working within the NEAR ecosystem.
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As well as originally endorsed delegates such as NEARWEEK, the NEAR Foundation’s media outlet, along with 404DAO and Tane Labs.
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Not all NF-endorsed delegates have yet joined to the HoS voting portal.
Transparency & Core Team Progress
Community members have raised concerns about transparency and readiness. The HoS Core Team has openly acknowledged delays in delivering promised documents and tools. In a late-July update, Lane Rettig reported that the team is “heads down focusing on the launch,” but admitted they’ve been “inconsistent” in providing mission/vision values, proposal templates, and other deliverables. A public dashboard of final tasks was shared, tracking items like a code-of-conduct and user docs that are still in progress.
Key points:
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Screening Committee: So far its deliberations remain private. No public criteria or minutes have been released. But if you want to nominate yourself - this is thread of you. Two people already nominated themselves.
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Security Council: A five-member HoS Security Council structure (with veto power) is being formed. (According to GitHub issue logs, three of its five seats are already fulfilled ).
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NF → HoS Transition: The NEAR Foundation is drafting an NF→HoS transition plan (per GitHub issue #27) outlining how budget and responsibilities will shift over 1–3 years. For example, proposals have suggested forming sub-committees (e.g. infrastructure, local events, investment) each with budgets and accountability metrics. Details are still being worked out.
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Hiring: NEAR recently opened a “Head of Governance” position to lead HoS long-term. The role will oversee the constitution, delegate processes, and even integration of AI-tools. This underscores that HoS is intended as a “flagship experiment” in on-chain governance for the entire ecosystem.
Next Steps & Launch Timeline
With August underway, HoS’s alpha phase is concluding. The Core Team has signaled that everything on their pre-launch task list must be completed to “green-light” the official launch. Assuming final checks go smoothly, NEAR stakeholders can expect the full House of Stake governance system to open by mid-August. At that point, any staker with veNEAR tokens will be able to vote on approved proposals, and the transition of budgetary control from the NEAR Foundation to the community-led HoS will accelerate.
Looking ahead: The coming week should reveal the first screening-committee decisions and delegate votes. Community members will be watching whether HoS launches “out of beta” cleanly and whether key roadmap items (like mission statements and user docs) finally go live. Meanwhile, discussions continue on the forum about governance models and oversight, reflecting that the HoS rollout is as much a political experiment as a technical one.
What esle?
- The draft of the architecture proposal is ready and published for community review
- The HoS website developed by Hack Humanity went online
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If you wish to share concerns anonymously, feel free to use this inbox:
hostip@proton.me
Disclaimer:
Some or all of the content in this document/message/publication was generated using AI language models, including Near AI assistant and ChatGPT. While we aim for accuracy and objectivity, the information may contain errors and should not be considered expert or professional advice. The author assumes no responsibility for any outcomes resulting from the use of this information.