Windlass follows a ve(3,3) model: lock, vote, bribe, earn. Five steps make up the full loop.
Lock WNDL for up to four years to receive veWNDL, a non-transferable voting position. Longer locks carry more voting power, which decays linearly as the unlock date approaches — extend the lock at any time to restore full power.
Once per epoch (weekly), veWNDL holders vote to direct that epoch's treasury rewards across liquidity pools. Pools that receive more votes receive a larger share of rewards, making them more attractive to liquidity providers.
Anyone — most commonly a project that wants deep, stable liquidity for its own token — can add a bribe to a specific pool: a reward, paid in their own token or a stablecoin, offered to whoever votes for that pool. Bribes let real liquidity demand compete directly for votes.
100% of the trading fees generated by a pool, plus every bribe placed on it, flow to the veWNDL holders who voted for that pool that epoch — paid directly, not shared with liquidity providers. This is the core difference from a traditional AMM, where fees are split among LPs regardless of who directed liquidity there.
Deeper liquidity drives more trading fees, which makes veWNDL more valuable to hold, which drives more locking, which reduces circulating supply and sell pressure — while bribe demand grows in step with real demand for liquidity from projects that need it.
All five steps above are live on Robinhood Chain Testnet with real transactions and free test tokens — see the testnet guide to get started.