HiIQ

For how to use HiIQ see the HiIQ Guide.

HiIQ launched on August 4, 2021, and was created to incentivize IQ holders to become long-term holders who lock up their IQ tokens and get involved in the long-term governance of the IQ token and its ecosystem of dapps. The HiIQ system also allows IQ token holders to receive greater utility and access to IQ dapps. The HiIQ staking system allows IQ holders to choose how long they want to lock up their IQ and the number of IQ tokens they would like to stake. The greater the amount of IQ locked and the greater the length of time the tokens are locked the greater the HiIQ balance of the staker. A user's HiIQ balance determines their voting power on governance proposals involving the IQ token and IQ ecosystem. Users also receive IQ token rewards in proportion to their HiIQ balance. Following the first halvening on November 1, 2023, 1.5 million IQ are minted daily for HiIQ stakers.

Technical Background

HiIQ is a vesting and yield system based off of Curve’s veCRV mechanism. Users may lock up their IQ for up to 4 years for four times the amount of HiIQ (e.g. 100 IQ locked for 4 years returns 400 HiIQ). HiIQ is not a transferable token nor does it trade on liquid markets. It is more akin to an account-based point system that signifies the vesting duration of the wallet's locked IQ tokens within the protocol. The HiIQ balance linearly decreases as tokens approach their lock expiry, approaching 1 HiIQ per 1 IQ at zero lock time remaining.

Halvening Model

In October 2022, IQIP-14: New IQ Tokenomics for the New IQ.wiki Platform, a proposal of setting up new tokenomics for the IQ token, went through with the majority of votes. The community voted in favor of a halvening model like Bitcoin and FXS which provides higher initial emissions to incentivize early adopters and gradually lowers emissions to ensure long-term sustainability. From November 1, 2022, to November 1, 2023, under the IQIP-14 IQ token emissions model, 3 million IQ were minted each day for HiIQ stakers. 350,000 IQ were minted each day to provide rewards for editors and curators who contribute to IQ.wiki. 4,333,333 IQ were minted and used to acquire Ethereum, stablecoins, and other assets for the BrainDAO treasury. As part of these changes, it was also proposed to create a rule where up to 25% of incoming assets to BrainDAO from bonds and the TWAMM could be used by IQ.wiki to grow and develop the IQ ecosystem. 250,000 IQ were minted each day to incentivize liquidity for the IQ token. 1,000,000 IQ were minted each day and were allocated to the upcoming gauges system. 3 million IQ were minted each day and allocated to the IQ.wiki company which is responsible for growing IQ.wiki and the IQ ecosystem as a whole.

The first IQ halvening took place on November 1, 2023, the same date that the BrainDAO team announced IQ v3. As a result of halvening, 1.5 million IQ were minted each day for HiIQ stakers starting from November 1, 2023. As part of IQ v3, the team proposed further lowering inflation by reducing the amount of IQ allocated to the TWAMM to obtain stablecoins and blue-chip assets. With the BrainDAO treasury stablecoin holdings increasing along with higher than expected yields through sFRAX they were able to propose this reduction in IQ allocated to the TWAMM. The proposal involved reducing the allocation from 2,166,667 IQ to 2,000,000 IQ post-halvening.