Giveth uses GIVpower backing to rank verified projects

Staking and the GIVpower balance

Staking GIV in a GIVpower pool creates an equal baseline amount of GIVpower, a non-transferable ERC-20 token used for project curation. GIVpower holders allocate that weight to projects through boosts. A boost assigns a share of their backing; it does not send the staked GIV to a project wallet. Optional locking can multiply the weight associated with a particular staked batch. The balance available for allocation therefore depends on both the amount staked and any lock multipliers that remain active.

Verification and active backing

A project needs Verified status before GIVpower holders can boost it, and that status differs from GIVbacks eligibility. Three attestations from Giveth Verifiers on DeVouch can establish verification. Approval through the verification team provides another route. Vouches from other participants do not count toward that specific verification threshold. GIVbacks Eligible projects have an additional approval that concerns their contribution to public goods.

Losing verification makes a project’s existing GIVpower backing inactive, excluding it from rank and GIVbacks calculations. It does not become active support simply because the holder still has staked GIV. Verification status and the amount of assigned backing answer different questions: whether support counts, and how much support the project receives.

Percentage allocations and changing balances

A holder distributes GIVpower through project percentages that together total 100%, so each boost represents part of the whole balance. Those percentages determine how changes in the holder’s total weight reach individual projects. Additional staking increases the available GIVpower. An active lock multiplier also increases weight, while unlocking or unstaking can reduce it. The relative allocation percentages remain unchanged when the total balance changes.

Editing a project’s percentage adjusts the other allocations proportionally, subject to any allocation percentages that the holder has locked. This percentage lock controls allocation management. It is separate from locking staked GIV for a term, which changes the token’s withdrawal availability and its multiplier. A fixed allocation percentage can still represent a changing GIVpower amount as the holder’s total balance rises or falls.

Current rank and the previous round

A project’s current rank uses its average GIVpower backing from the previous two-week round. The platform updates that rank at the beginning of a new round. Its comparison therefore concerns projects’ backing over the same completed period. The project with the greatest average backing takes rank #1. Increasing a project’s average need not improve its position if competing projects also gain backing.

A boost made during the ongoing round contributes to that round’s record. Its timing matters because the average covers the full period. A late increase supplies less time at the higher backing level than an increase maintained throughout the round. The completed average becomes relevant at the next rank update. A current-rank label can consequently remain unchanged while present backing moves substantially.

What does projected rank show?

Projected rank estimates a project’s future rank from its present GIVpower backing, giving recent boosts a more immediate interpretation. Other projects’ backing can also change before the next round begins. The projection therefore cannot establish the next final rank. Verified-project sorting refreshes every five minutes, while current rank follows the round boundary. These displays describe different views of support, so an allocation change does not require every displayed position to move together.

Lock multipliers and separate GIV batches

Locking a staked batch multiplies its GIVpower and staking annual percentage rate (APR) for the selected term. The multiplier follows sqrt(1 + N) , where N is the number of locked rounds. The documented term selection runs from 1 to 26 rounds, with two weeks per round. Longer selections produce larger multipliers. The multiplier applies to that locked amount, while other staked GIV retains its own applicable weight.

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Separate batches can have different lock terms and unlock dates. Each batch can consequently contribute a different amount of GIVpower per staked token. The staking card shows a weighted-average APR across locked batches, while Locked GIV Details shows batch-level information. With no locked GIV, the card shows the current range of available APRs.

Unlock boundaries and variable staking rewards

A lock entered during an ongoing round counts its selected term from the next round’s beginning. The remainder of the current round comes before that selected term. A selection expressed in two-week rounds can therefore keep a batch locked longer than those rounds alone suggest. Locked GIV Details provides the batch’s unlock date, which determines when those tokens become available for unstaking.

Unlocking removes the batch’s multiplier and returns its GIVpower to the baseline associated with its staked amount. The tokens remain staked until the holder unstakes them. Unstaking then removes the corresponding GIVpower. Reward APR also changes with the total GIV staked across participants, so the estimate shown when locking is not a fixed future rate. Reward availability also depends on the staking pool’s funded incentive period. The lock term and the period that an incentive allocation funds are separate durations.

GIVpower after the GIVbacks raffle transition

Giveth’s GIVbacks Reloaded announcement on November 25, 2024, set the raffle transition for Round 77 on November 26, 2024.

Under the raffle system, donation size and the supported project’s GIVpower affect the donor’s entries. More backing can improve raffle chances for qualifying donations. It does not establish a fixed percentage repayment to each donor, and a high project rank does not establish a winning entry.

GIVbacks eligibility remains separate from verification that permits boosting. A donation must also meet the program’s token, amount, and active-round requirements. Owners must add a project update at least every 90 days to maintain GIVbacks eligibility. That update requirement concerns the donor rewards status; Verified status determines whether a project can receive a boost. A boost can support project visibility even when a particular donation does not meet those additional requirements. Staking rewards for the GIV holder and raffle rewards for a donor arise from different participation rules, even when both involve GIV.

Project visibility and separate funding calculations

Quadratic funding rounds use GIVpower in project discovery while matching amounts follow a separate calculation. Default sorting uses GIVpower for verified participating projects and donation amounts for unverified projects. Matching distribution uses Connection Oriented Cluster Match and the round’s eligibility rules. A better list position alone therefore does not determine a project’s matching payment. Estimated matching can also change after eligibility checks and post-round review.

Cause Donation Agents include GIVpower among the factors that they consider when assessing projects. Project information, update activity, social activity, and evidence of impact also inform that assessment. A change in project updates or impact evidence can affect the assessment even when its GIVpower backing stays the same.