I’m thrilled to share that I joined House of Stake as Head of Governance on November 13.
Over the past months, NEAR has shipped foundational upgrades that connect governance, economics, and participation:
House of Stake live on mainnet
HoS now provides a transparent, scalable governance platform where participants can lock NEAR (and supported liquid-staking tokens) to obtain veNEAR, enabling proposals, signaling, and delegated voting.
Alignment between commitment and voice
With time-weighted voting power through veNEAR, NEAR strengthens long-term stewardship and responsible governance across the ecosystem.
Tokenomics modernization
The community is advancing an inflation-halving upgrade—from 5% to 2.5% — reflecting network maturity and supporting sustainable, stake-based incentives alongside HoS.
This moment opens a more inclusive, accountable, and durable governance era for NEAR.
And in fact, this is just the beginning.
We have a lot on our plate over the coming months to make House of Stake not only fully functional, but flourishing, resilient, and exemplary.
What’s next?
I want to share a thought I recently posted on HoS Telegram. It’s the essence of what House of Stake is all about.
What I’d like everyone to start thinking about is this:
How do we make NEAR the blockchain for AI, and why is a decentralized model inherently superior to the centralized giants racing to dominate the space?Most AI users today don’t care who runs the models or what data they’re trained on. So:
Who will our users be?
I’m not talking about the small circle of decentralization believers. I’m talking about the real market, likely more B2B than B2C.Now, imagine NEARCon as a place where we invite real users to experience our ecosystem. How would you convince them that the DAO model is better than Google’s, OpenAI’s, or others’ centralized approaches?
@Dacha, you raised strong points around proposal processes some weeks ago: how whales could exploit the current voting system and drain DAO funds easily. That’s exactly the kind of thinking we need, being ready to:
- Protect the DAO against malicious behavior in a permissionless setup
- Identify expertise and partnerships needed to drive mandates (economics, tech, legitimacy, ecosystem health)
- Find product–market fit in a competitive space and attract top talent. Ask: why would they thrive in a DAO environment?
- Listen to NEAR’s users, even those who aren’t crypto-natives
Overall, make not just decisions, but the right decisions for NEAR’s long-term success!
That’s what HoS must be all about.
Upcoming governance proposals and updates
Expect a series of proposals and updates aimed at making governance fully functional end-to-end for all proposals. This will include:
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Ensuring all communication channels are clear, open, and actively maintained
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Publishing all process docs so they are live, operational, and easy to follow
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Providing comprehensive, complete, and up-to-date information required for informed decision-making
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Finalizing and ratifying all constitutional documents, including the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Policy
The goal is to empower the community to take responsibility for the information, context, and processes needed to make strong decisions aligned with our shared North Star.
Join the conversation: Community Governance Calls
Let’s get to work, together.
We’ll meet weekly over the next four weeks to discuss the governance roadmap, next steps, and how to get involved.
Good Morning House of Stake — Governance Calls
Wednesdays, 7pm UTC
https://meet.google.com/pzx-jxqp-kkm
You can also reach me directly on Telegram, my DMs are open: @akrtws
Let’s build governance where AI serves people, not platforms.
Onwards, House of Stake!