> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wayfinder-1.gitbook.io/wayfinder/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wayfinder-1.gitbook.io/wayfinder/paths/staking.md).

# $PROMPT Staking

$PROMPT is the layer that makes the Path marketplace trustworthy. Creators bond tokens to publish, stakers back Paths they trust, challengers police quality, and rewards flow to everyone proportional to their contribution.

The Path bonding and staking contracts are live on Base. The product itself is cross-chain, so a Path can be built and used wherever Wayfinder reaches (currently 13 EVM chains plus Solana). Bonds, stakes, and rewards all settle onchain.

## Four roles

### 1. Bonding (creators)

Publish a Path by posting a $PROMPT bond. Minimum 10,300 $PROMPT — that's your capital sitting behind your work. Bonded Paths get higher priority in discovery, and bonding more than the minimum increases your share of rewards. **As the creator, you earn from the creator pool, which is 20% of every weekly reward pool. On top of that, 20% of your stakers' rewards is routed back to you as a curation premium.**

* Minimum bond: 10,300 $PROMPT
* Probation period: a short window after publishing, before the Path can be promoted live
* Bond withdrawal: retire the Path first, then a 10-day cooldown applies

New bonds sit in probation to allow time for team review. An automated AI reviewer filters out obvious issues and malicious Paths before they go live.

### 2. Staking

Stake $PROMPT on Paths you trust. Your stake earns a share of that Path's rewards and signals quality to other users considering an install. **Stakers draw from the staker pool, which is 80% of every weekly reward pool. A Path's stakers split its share pro-rata to stake size, minus a 20% curation premium routed to the creator.**

* Minimum stake: 5 $PROMPT (individual Paths can set a higher minimum — the stake form shows it and rejects amounts below it)
* Staking capacity: 20x the creator's bond per Path
* Exit: start a 5-day cooldown, then withdraw

This is not a passive position. Stakers can be slashed for backing malicious Paths. You may want to download the Path bundle and review the code, or run it through your own coding agent with a lens toward gaps and malicious behavior, before you decide to back it.

### Staking from the Wayfinder app

The **Staking** tab at [wayfinder.ai/app/paths/staking](https://wayfinder.ai/app/paths/staking) is where stake positions live. If you have rewards waiting, a claim-and-stake panel sits at the top so you can put them straight back to work.

Below that, **My positions** gives each Path you back its own card, showing only the numbers that apply: active stake, pending unstake, when the cooldown ends, what's withdrawable now, and claimable rewards. **Stake more**, **Unstake**, and **Withdraw** open inline on the card, so backing a second Path or exiting a first one doesn't move you off the page. **Manage** opens the Path's trust view for the full picture.

Under that, every Path accepting stake is listed with search, a filter for open capacity or just the ones you've staked, and sorting by APR, capacity, or community stake. The capacity column reads how much room is left, **Full** once stake has run up against the creator's bond, or **No capacity** for a Path with no cap configured. You can stake from this list without opening the Path.

#### One cooldown clock per position

Unstaking again while a cooldown is already running **restarts the clock for your whole pending balance** — the earlier amount waits longer too. The form warns you before you confirm, naming the amount already cooling and the date it would have unlocked. Plan exits in one move rather than several.

#### Which wallet is staking

Your positions are read across every wallet on your account, so stake held by your agent wallet still shows up when you're connected with a different one. Every stake and unstake form names the wallet that will sign.

With more than one wallet, a picker sets the staking wallet everywhere at once. On an unstake form each option shows that wallet's stake on that Path rather than its $PROMPT balance, since unstaking spends stake. A wallet that's linked but not connected is readable and marked view-only, with a prompt to connect it before it can sign.

### 3. Challenging

A published Path can be challenged for malicious or negligent behavior within a 5-day window. Post a challenge bond of 2,353 $PROMPT to initiate.

* Challenge bond: 2,353 $PROMPT (refunded unless the challenge is deemed spam or griefing)
* Challenge window: 5 days to raise one — creator bonds and community stake are frozen while a challenge is open
* If the challenge succeeds: the Path's bond and stake are slashed, the challenger receives 20% of the slashed amount, and the rest goes to Wayfinder's safety fund
* If the challenge fails: challenge bond is forfeited

The community gets paid to keep the marketplace clean.

### 4. Rewards

Rewards accrue over weekly cycles and pay out once a cycle is funded and published. The reward pool is set by Wayfinder and will be funded generously to start.

**Two pools:** each weekly reward pool splits **20% to creators** and **80% to stakers**. Each pool is shared across Paths by its own score:

| Pool               | Your Path's share is set by                       |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Creator pool (20%) | Path reputation (half) and creator bond (half)    |
| Staker pool (80%)  | Path reputation (half) and community stake (half) |

Your Path's score measured against every other eligible Path decides what fraction of each pool it draws that week. The creator then takes a **20% curation premium** from the Path's staker-pool share, and the rest is paid pro-rata to each staker's amount. A Path with no reputation draws nothing from either pool, however large its bond. So reputation never pays you directly. It sizes both pots your Path pulls from, and it moves creator and staker payouts together.

Bond and stake are capital you can post. Reputation is the part you have to earn: two Paths with identical bond and stake are separated entirely by how many real people use them.

**Path reputation** measures real usage rather than raw install count. Installs of your live Path during the week are counted, then each one is weighted by how genuinely active that installer is on Wayfinder. An established trader's install carries close to full weight; a freshly created account with no activity counts for almost nothing. Reputation is the sum of those weights, so it always sits at or below your verified install count, and the gap between the two numbers is a fair read on how much of your traffic is real.

That's what makes farming pointless. A hundred throwaway wallets barely move reputation, while a handful of installs from people who actually trade will.

Reputation is also the primary sort in the marketplace at [wayfinder.ai/app/paths](https://wayfinder.ai/app/paths) — it decides ranking and which Paths get featured, with raw installs used only to break ties. It shows on the Path card and in the detail sidebar next to stars and install count.

It's a per-Path metric and unrelated to the personal reputation score on the [weekly leaderboard](/wayfinder/shells/rewards.md), which measures your own trading volume and credit usage.

The 20x cap limits deposits, but a tighter limit applies to rewards: only community stake up to 3x your bond counts toward your Path's allocation. Stake above that stays in the Path but stops adding to the score, and the Path page warns you that the bond is the binding constraint. Raising your bond lifts the ceiling.

Creators earn for shipping things people use. Stakers earn for picking quality early. Rewards are claimable onchain on Base once a cycle is funded and published.

#### Before the cycle closes, it's an estimate

The Path page shows a projected next payout, including a normalized "per 100 $PROMPT per week" quote so stakers can compare Paths on the same basis. It's a forecast from current installs, backing, and the most recent funded pool — usage is captured in hourly buckets as the cycle runs, and the payout settles on the closed hours. Expect the published number to differ from the projection.

#### When rewards pause

A Path earns nothing while it's in probation, under challenge, slashed, or otherwise not fully eligible for community staking. Stake stays put during a challenge; it just stops accruing until the Path is eligible again.

## The loop

Creators bond to publish. Users install and stake on the good ones. Challengers police the rest. Rewards flow to people producing value.

Higher-quality Paths attract more stake, which means more rewards, which attracts better creators. Challenges prune the long tail.