The SOCKET token

SOCKET holders decide which hook programs Socket's app and API route trades through, and hook authors stake it to keep their hooks on that list.

The token#

The whole supply is minted once and the mint authority is revoked in the same step, so no instruction can create more SOCKET. There are no emissions: no SOCKET is added after launch. The mint has no freeze authority and isn't a Token-2022 mint: it passes every check Socket applies to a mint and can be paired in any Socket pool.

Fair launch#

All 1,000,000,000 SOCKET go into one public launch, on the same terms for everyone. Nothing is set aside before it:

• no presale and no investor round,
• no team or contributor allocation,
• no airdrop or early-user allocation,
• no treasury or reward pool,
• no vesting, because there is nothing to vest.

Socket's contributors hold SOCKET only if they buy it in the market, like anyone else.

Voting#

Holders vote with SOCKET deposited in Socket's on-chain governance: one deposited SOCKET is one vote. A deposit can be withdrawn whenever no open vote is counting it.

1. Propose

   Anyone with 1,000,000 SOCKET deposited (0.1% of the supply) can open a proposal. A proposal carries the exact change it makes: a hook to add to the allowlist or one to remove.

2. Vote

   Voting stays open for five days. A proposal passes when its yes votes outnumber its no votes and reach 30,000,000 SOCKET (3% of the supply).

3. Execute

   A passed proposal waits two days, then executes as written. Anyone can trigger the execution.

What SOCKET decides#

The hook allowlist#

Socket's programs accept a pool with any hook program. The app and the API resolve, quote and prepare trades only for pools with no hook or with a hook on the allowlist, so the allowlist decides which hooks Socket users trade through.

Socket's built-in hooks are on it from the start. Every other hook is there because SOCKET holders voted it on. A hook's author proposes the hook program with its source, a verifiable build, its upgrade authority and an independent review. Holders vote it on, and can vote it off. The current allowlist is published by the API's /config and listed on Program addresses.

Listing stakes#

A hook on the allowlist is backed by its author. Proposing a hook locks 1,000,000 SOCKET from the author in Socket's listing program for as long as the hook stays listed.

• Listed: the stake stays locked and can't vote.
• Removed, or the proposal fails: the author can withdraw the stake seven days after the hook was proposed or removed, the time a vote and its hold-up take.
• Removed because the deployed hook doesn't match its published source: the removal vote can burn the stake instead, and a removed hook's stake can still be burned by a later vote while it is locked. Burned SOCKET leaves the supply for good.

The stake is the author's own SOCKET: what the author puts behind the claim that the hook does what its source says.

What a vote can't change#

Governance acts on the allowlist and the stakes behind it. It has no instruction in Socket's programs. No vote can change a pool's tokens, fees, hook or caps, move tokens out of a vault or a position, or pause trading. Every swap fee still goes to the pool's liquidity providers. Those rules hold for every pool, whatever SOCKET holders decide. See Security.