House of Stake: 467 Days, $500K Later — Still No Mainnet Launch
Nearly 16 months after NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin tasked the NEAR Foundation with building a new governance framework, the flagship initiative known as House of Stake (HoS) remains offline. More than $500,000 has reportedly been spent so far — not including Gauntlet’s paychecks, traveling, events like the recent presentation in Cannes, and internal coordination efforts. Yet the governance platform is still only available in testnet alpha, with no confirmed date for mainnet launch.
The prolonged delay is drawing growing criticism from across the NEAR community. Calls are intensifying to prioritize delivery and elevate execution-oriented contributors. One independent developer shipped a working NEAR wallet in just three weeks*, prompting some to suggest recruiting builders like this into leadership — especially in light of the departure of former COO Chris Donovan from full time role.
Meanwhile, the NEAR Foundation’s commitment to transparency remains under scrutiny. Though it publicly pledged to release regular financial disclosures, no specific breakdown has been shared regarding costs associated with the Cannes trip or HoS-related contractor payments. This absence of detail has only deepened concerns around accountability — especially after reports surfaced that an advisor known as @KlausBrave received $15,600 for work on HoS before disappearing from all public channels without delivering visible output.
Despite these headwinds, development continues. James W, lead of the Governance Infrastructure & Process working group, confirmed that Agora’s frontend is actively being tested. A governance assistant is expected to be ready for testing within the week. AI summarization tools, including GovBot, are already functional across Discourse and X , with possible Discord integration in development. Additionally, a prototype “shade agent” capable of autonomously reviewing proposals is under exploration, potentially evolving into an AI delegate. Discussions are ongoing about deploying a global HoS voting contract and integrating governance tools with platforms like neartreasury.com and nearn.io. Still outstanding, however, are foundational governance documents such as a Code of Conduct, a Mission/Vision/Values statement, and a Conflict of Interest policy.
In parallel, Kent Fenwick and the Agora team have launched a public alpha version of the governance app. Users can test proposal flows and voting mechanics on testnet. Agora’s frontend code will soon be open-sourced, once placeholder code is cleaned. FastNEAR has resolved a known undelegation bug. The tentative roadmap includes updating smart contracts, enhancing delegate filtering, and coordinating with NF to finalize a mainnet launch date.
Broader governance questions also surfaced this week. Charles, one of the initial HoS delegates, proposed transitioning around ten NEAR Foundation departments to community control (Bianca NF HoS coordinator didn’t confirm it). Validator operations and founder support could fall under HoS oversight within 12–18 months, depending on execution capacity and agreements. He also mentioned that the initial six-month HoS budget will prioritize AI governance tools and liquidity incentives.
The announcement sparked mixed reactions. Some raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, noting Charles’s ties to Benevo Labs, an AI and DeFi venture. Others see AI alignment as consistent with NEAR’s broader strategy.
Personally, I view this more optimistically — at the very least, we might finally get a dedicated AI agent managing NEAR’s social media. (Earlier, @Illia terminated NF’s moderation team with the idea of transitioning to AI agents managed social media.)
Still, there’s legitimate concern: @crypto_psalm flagged that the budget process lacks broader community input and doesn’t include other essential expense categories.
A mock poll conducted within the HoS community asked members to define the “HoS North Star”. A tongue-in-cheek result the winner was raising the price of $NEAR to $142.37 againts of used before (in NDC) benchmarks like: net new user growth, 30-day retention, active application count, and net inflows.
In related governance developments, the community began voting on which NF functions should be prioritized for migration under HoS. Surprisingly, DevHub led the polling.
I disagree with that. Overall, Vlad Frolov has been managing DevHub quite effectively, despite some open questions around marketing and community engagement. He’s not afraid to shut down unsuccessful projects like Race of Sloth and move forward. The new Near N project has real potential to become a leader — with the right marketing and community strategy. If anyone has ideas, feel free to share.
As for Nearweek, it’s worth considering what exactly is being offered on the market for the $35,000 that the NEAR Foundation is paying them. There may be alternatives. That said, the community reacted negatively to the idea of the HoS working directly with Nearweek at the time.
Elsewhere, Lane Rettig — NF’s Head of Governance and Research — launched a public GitHub repository for House of Stake development: https://github.com/houseofstake
Its intended use remains unspecified, but it could serve as a central coordination point for ongoing technical work.
(*) 3 months
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