Status: Draft concept Date: February 2026
Growth Staking aligns SKY governance token holders with ecosystem innovation. Under Growth Staking, SKY stakers must also hold other Sky Ecosystem tokens — called growth assets — to unlock staking rewards. The more directly a growth asset contributes to ecosystem innovation, the less of it a staker needs to hold.
This creates a direct economic link between governance participation (staking SKY) and investment in the ecosystem's growth layer (holding Agent tokens, providing risk capital, or holding sSGA).
Each eligible growth asset has a Staking Factor (SF) — the ratio of growth asset value to staked SKY value required to unlock full staking rewards.
| Category | Assets | SF | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent tokens | Prime tokens (SPK, Grove, Keel, Obex), Halo Agent tokens, Generator Agent tokens, Guardian Agent tokens | 0.4× | Equity in the innovators; most direct growth signal |
| Junior risk capital | TEJRC (per-Prime) | 0.6× | First-loss capital enabling Primes to deploy; binding constraint on ingression |
| Senior risk capital | srSGA (global), TISRC (per-Prime) | 1.0× | Funds the system but loss-protected; less direct innovation contribution |
| Savings | sSGA | 2.0× | Passive participation; already incentivized via savings rate |
Excluded assets: stUSDS, Halo Unit shares, NFATs, LCTS queue positions, DAI, MKR.
Rewards scale linearly from 0% to 100% based on how much of the staking factor requirement is satisfied:
Reward % = min(1, Growth Asset SF Value / Staked SKY Value)
Where Growth Asset SF Value = Growth Asset Value / SF for that asset type.
Example — $100k staked SKY, with Prime tokens at SF 0.4×:
| Prime tokens held | Requirement ($100k × 0.4) | Reward % |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $40k | 0% |
| $20k | $40k | 50% |
| $40k | $40k | 100% |
When multiple growth assets are held, each is converted to its SF-adjusted value and the contributions are summed:
Total SF Value = Σ (Asset Value_i / SF_i)
Reward % = min(1, Total SF Value / Staked SKY Value)
Example — $100k staked SKY, holding $20k SPK (SF 0.4) + $30k srSGA (SF 1.0):
SF Value = ($20k / 0.4) + ($30k / 1.0) = $50k + $30k = $80k
Reward % = min(1, $80k / $100k) = 80%
Agent tokens are valued for SF purposes at the lower of book value or market value per token. This prevents market price manipulation from inflating staking factor calculations.
Book value = net capital reserves of the Prime, with look-through to book value for any Halo Agent tokens the Prime holds.
A Prime holding $500M in capital reserves with 10B tokens outstanding has a book value of $0.05 per token. If the market price is $0.08, the SF calculation uses $0.05. If the market price is $0.03, the SF calculation uses $0.03.
Halo book value combines capital reserves and earnings × P/E ratio. Halos invest in technology and infrastructure, so their value reflects both the capital they hold and the revenue they generate from it.
Halo Book Value = Capital Reserves + (Annual Earnings × P/E)
- Initial P/E ratio: 15×
- Revised periodically through governance
Early-stage Halos: A newly capitalized Halo with no earnings history can still count toward the favorable Agent token SF — provided its synomic artifacts demonstrate that the capital is being actively spent on genuine growth (building technology, deploying infrastructure, etc.). This is a qualitative assessment based on observable synomic activity, not just capital sitting idle. Once earnings materialize, the P/E component takes over as the primary value driver.
TEJRC, TISRC, srSGA, and sSGA are valued at their on-chain redemption value — no book value adjustment needed, since these tokens are directly backed by underlying capital.
To participate in Growth Staking, a SKY holder creates a Staking Halo — a personal Halo Agent that serves as a self-contained staking and investment vehicle.
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Staking Halo │
│ │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ PAU │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ Staked SKY: 100,000 SKY │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ Growth Assets: │ │
│ │ SPK: $30,000 │ │
│ │ TEJRC: $15,000 │ │
│ │ srSGA: $10,000 │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ Pending Rewards: ... │ │
│ └───────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Control: Sentinel or Manual │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
- Creation — Instant. Any SKY holder can create a Staking Halo at any time.
- PAU — The Staking Halo's internal Protocol Allocation Unit holds both staked SKY and the growth asset portfolio.
- Reward distribution — At each daily settlement, the system measures the total staking factor of assets inside the PAU and airdrops the corresponding staking reward.
- Control — The holder can manage the growth asset portfolio manually, or configure a Sentinel to execute an automated strategy (e.g., "maintain 0.5× in SPK, rebalance when drift exceeds 10%").
The Staking Halo can reinvest rewards automatically:
-
When SF capacity exists (growth assets support more SKY than currently staked) — use rewards to acquire more SKY and stake it inside the Halo. This compounds the governance position.
-
When at SF capacity (no room for additional SKY without more growth assets) — use rewards to acquire growth assets, expanding capacity for future SKY compounding.
This alternation creates a natural flywheel:
Stake SKY → earn rewards → buy growth assets → unlock capacity →
stake more SKY → earn more rewards → ...
A Sentinel can automate this cycle, optimizing the balance between SKY accumulation and growth asset acquisition based on current SF utilization.
Primes and Halos that hold SKY in their treasuries automatically earn Growth Staking rewards — the Agent's own book value counts as its growth asset portfolio at SF 0.4×. No separate Staking Halo is needed; the Agent itself functions as one.
A Prime effectively counts as a SKY staker with all of its own tokens in its Staking Halo. Same for a Halo holding SKY.
Example — A Prime with $500M book value holding $10M SKY:
SF value = $500M / 0.4 = $1.25B effective
Reward % on $10M SKY = min(1, $1.25B / $10M) = 100%
Any Agent with meaningful book value trivially satisfies the growth requirement, making SKY holdings essentially free yield for Agents. This creates a structural incentive for Primes and Halos to accumulate SKY in their treasuries — aligning Agent operations with protocol governance and creating natural demand for SKY from the innovation layer itself.
This creates an accepted paradox: an Agent's book value is used twice for staking factor purposes — once by the Agent itself (to unlock staking rewards on its own SKY holdings), and a second time by external token holders (who hold the Agent's tokens as growth assets in their Staking Halos). The same underlying book value supports both claims. This is by design — the double-counting amplifies the incentive to build genuine book value within Agents, and the protocol accepts this as a worthwhile tradeoff for the alignment it creates.
Growth Staking creates a direct incentive to convert passive holdings into active innovation investment:
$100k sSGA → SF value: $100k / 2.0 = $50k effective
↓ invest into a Prime
$100k in Prime book value → SF value: $100k / 0.4 = $250k effective
Same capital, 5× the staking factor efficiency. This pulls capital from the savings layer into the Agent layer.
- SKY whales must become ecosystem participants, not passive governance holders
- Agent token demand is structurally supported by stakers seeking efficient SF
- Risk capital supply increases as stakers invest in TEJRC/SRC for SF credit
- Mercenary staking is eliminated — holding SKY alone earns nothing
- Risk-tolerant stakers → hold Agent tokens (SF 0.4×) → maximum capital efficiency
- Moderate stakers → hold TEJRC/SRC (SF 0.6–1.0×) → balanced approach
- Conservative stakers → hold sSGA (SF 2.0×) → still works, just requires more capital
The primary defense against manipulation is the book value floor on Agent tokens — you cannot inflate SF value by pumping market prices above book value.
A secondary concern is hollow agents — Primes or Halos created solely to warehouse capital and claim favorable SF without genuine innovation activity. Defenses:
- Mechanical (day one): Book value is based on actual capital reserves (Primes) or earnings (Halos), so capital must be genuinely deployed or revenue genuinely earned.
- Synomic monitoring (when needed): Governance can monitor the synomic artifacts of Primes and Halos. A real level of intelligent synomic activity must be observed for an Agent's tokens to maintain SF eligibility. This monitoring layer is deferred — implemented only when manipulation attempts actually occur.
The same monitoring applies to potentially hollow TEJRC positions.
- SF governance — Are Staking Factors set by governance vote, or derived from on-chain metrics?
- Halo P/E revision cadence — How often is the P/E ratio updated? Quarterly governance vote?
- New Agents with no history — A new Prime with zero capital reserves or a new Halo with zero earnings would have zero book value. Intended? (Likely yes — prove value before getting SF credit.)
- Measurement timing — Snapshot at daily settlement, or time-weighted average to prevent flash-positioning?
- Forfeited rewards — Where do unclaimed rewards (from stakers below 100% SF) flow? Back to TMF waterfall? Redistributed to fully-qualifying stakers?