# The Splintershards (SPS) Token ![](/files/-MXDlh6i2JaWQz89AkfJ) Splintershards (SPS) is a cryptocurrency governance token which is integrated into the Splinterlands game in order to provide increasing levels of decision-making ability and control over the product to the player-base, asset owners, and other stakeholders. This document will cover all aspects of the SPS token, including its structure, distribution, utility, and estimated timelines for development and integration. This document will be available at and will continue to be updated and improved over time as progress is made and more information becomes available. ## Lore *For nearly a millennium after the Splintering, the Wizards’ Council has ruled over and governed much of the Splinterlands, wielding a mysterious power that allowed them to control and even alter nearly every aspect of the world as they desired. The source of that power has remained a heavily guarded secret...until now.* *Plagued by scandals around the recent unveiling and opening of the continent of Praetoria for exploration and settlement, the Wizards’ Council has suddenly and mysteriously disbanded, providing a rare opportunity for Splintral scholars to begin unraveling their many secrets. Before the death of Gariboleus the Old, the aged Wizard left a magical inscription upon the wall of a cave hidden deep in the Praetorian wilderness that began to tell the story. This cave was discovered by Truck Vandenburg, the first pioneer of the Praetorian explorations. The secret contents of Gariboleus’ inscription were revealed to the Order of the Silver Shield, who shared them with the most powerful people in the Splinterlands for an undisclosed price.* *It has now been discovered that the source of the Council's control over the Splinterlands came from massive deposits of a previously unknown type of rock spread throughout the Splinterlands. These rocks are believed to have been created in the midst of the great Splintering itself nearly one thousand years ago. When enough of these Splintershards (as they have come to be called) are combined together, they have the power to alter the very fabric that makes up the world of the Splinterlands. As more information is slowly discovered about the Splintershards, Splinterlanders who understand their secrets are scrambling to harvest as many as they can in hopes of harnessing their immense otherworldly power.* # SPS Foundation & DAO The SPS token and all related tokens and smart contracts are intended to be set up as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO. This means that all decisions relating to the token and related assets or contracts will be decided via votes of all staked SPS token holders, with the weight of the votes being determined by the amount of staked SPS tokens held in each participating wallet. The DAO is able to hold, send, and receive cryptocurrency which allows it to sell products and pay for services at the direction of the token holders. All of the funds owned by the DAO, including those from the SPS private token sale, token emissions that go towards the DAO, and proceeds from product sales on behalf of the DAO (e.g. LICENSE tokens and Riftwatchers packs), are currently held in DAO multisig wallets that are controlled by DAO elected Treasurers. The SPS Foundation is a Panama-based Private Interest Foundation owned and operated by a board of DAO elected representatives. The purpose of the SPS Foundation is to represent and carry out the will of the SPS DAO as outlined in the [Governance Voting System](/in-game-governance) section of this document and to bridge the gap between the decentralized, blockchain-based structure of the DAO and traditional legal and regulatory systems. It will provide a recognizable framework for managing assets, entering contracts, or handling liabilities on behalf of the DAO while preserving its decentralized ethos. ## DAO Funding As noted in the [Token Distribution](/distribution) section, 300M SPS tokens, or 10% of the initial supply, has been released to the SPS Foundation which is available to be used by the staked SPS token holders through the DAO. Token holders may submit proposals as described in the [Governance Voting System](/in-game-governance) section of this document to direct the use of those funds. Some examples of how DAO funds may be used are below, however it is ultimately completely up to the staked SPS token holders to decide and these are merely examples and suggestions. 1. **Providing Liquidity** - Token holders may vote to use some foundation tokens to provide liquidity for the token paired with other popular tokens on third-party markets such as Uniswap, PancakeSwap or Hive Engine. This may also allow the foundation to earn revenue in the form of liquidity provider rewards to sustain itself going forward after the initial tokens are all distributed.
2. **Paying for Services** - Token holders may vote to use some foundation tokens to pay for certain services that are expected to add value to the ecosystem, for example exchange listings or marketing and promotional services.
3. **Funding Third-Party Development** - Token holders may vote to use some foundation tokens to fund third-party development of tools and/or services that are expected to add value to the Splinterlands ecosystem, for example third-party markets, automation tools, bridges/integrations to other blockchain platforms, etc.
4. **Staking** - Token holders may vote to use some foundation tokens to stake within the game (more details on staking in the Staking & Earning section) and earn returns and other rewards to help the foundation sustain itself going forward after the initial tokens are all distributed.
5. **Investing** - Token holders may vote to use some foundation tokens to invest in other assets or tokens (whether related to Splinterlands or not) in order to earn returns and other rewards to help the foundation sustain itself going forward after the initial tokens are all distributed. # Token Distribution SPS tokens are being issued / unlocked via a pre-determined schedule which lasts for approximately 65 months from the date that the token is first released. The maximum total supply of SPS tokens will not exceed **3,000,000,000** which are planned to be allocated as follows: | Source | Tokens | % of Total | Release Schedule | | ----------------------------- | ----------------: | ---------: | ----------------------- | | Airdrop | 400,000,000 | 13.33% | Issued over 12 months | | Foundation / DAO | 300,000,000 | 10.00% | Issued over 65 months | | Private Sale | 200,000,000 | 6.66% | Unlocked over 10 months | | Unallocated | 270,000,000 | 9.00% | Unlocked over 65 months | | Partners / Advisors | 30,000,000 | 1.00% | Unlocked over 24 months | | Play to Earn | 900,000,000 | 30.00% | Issued over 65 months | | Staking / LP / Oracle Rewards | 900,000,000 | 30.00% | Issued over 65 months | | **Total Amount** | **3,000,000,000** | **100%** | | The primary goal of the token is to reward Splinterlands players and asset holders, which is why 13.33% of the total token supply was airdropped over a 12 month period to holders of nearly all types of Splinterlands assets. For more information on the airdrop, please see the Airdrop section of this document. Next, 10% of the total token supply was added into a foundation which is controlled exclusively by the DAO. 50,000,000 of the foundation tokens were issued on day one and the remainder were released to the DAO's multisig wallet upon launch of the SPS Validator Network. This means that SPS token holders are able to submit proposals and vote on how/if those funds should be used. For more information please see the [Governance Voting System](/in-game-governance) section of this document. 6.66% were offered directly in a private sale to a select group of advisors and influencers who helped promote both the token and the Splinterlands product to their audiences and networks and helped to ensure that the project had a successful launch. Tokens purchased as part of the private sale were subject to a vesting period with 10% of the tokens vesting and becoming liquid every month for a total of 10 months. All proceeds from the sale are being used for the development, promotion, and ongoing maintenance of the SPS token and ecosystem. 9% of the total token supply was left unallocated and are available for token holders to allocate for any purpose they wish via the governance proposal system. A portion of these tokens were allocated to a reward pool for the Soulkeep (Tower Defense) game via DAO proposal. The remaining unallocated tokens are being held in the SPS DAO multisig wallet. 1% of the token supply was reserved for partners and advisors of the project who work with the SPS token team and assist and/or provide advice on all areas of the project as well as help to market and promote the project. These tokens were unlocked in 12 monthly increments starting one year from the launch of the SPS token. Finally, the remaining 60% of the total token supply is going towards rewarding players, SPS holders, liquidity providers, and validator node operators. These tokens are being released on a fixed schedule over a 65 month period and go into separate pools for the various different areas to be rewarded. Please see the [Play to Earn & Reward Pools](/rewards) section of this document for the full distribution schedule and breakdown of these rewards. # Airdrop 400M SPS tokens, or 13.33% of the total token supply, was airdropped to players based upon the amount and type of Splinterlands assets held in their account. Rather than having a specific airdrop date/time with a snapshot as is common, SPS tokens were airdropped to asset holders on a daily basis over a 1-year period. The goal was to encourage players to accumulate and hold Splinterlands assets over a longer period rather than having a big rush up until the snapshot followed by a dump shortly afterwards. Nearly every Splinterlands asset was eligible to earn SPS tokens in the airdrop. Each type of asset was assigned a specific amount of "airdrop points" that it was worth. Then the total number of airdrop points was added up across all assets in all accounts in the game and held externally once each day and \~1,100,000 SPS tokens (400M / 365 days) were divided by the total number of airdrop points to determine how many SPS tokens each airdrop point was worth that day. As an example, if there were a total of 5 billion airdrop points in total across all assets in the game on a particular day, then players would have received 0.00022 SPS tokens (1.1M / 5B) for each airdrop point worth of assets they held in their account at the time of the snapshot that day. The base asset for determining airdrop points was Splinterlands cards. Cards were valued by their Collection Power, which was equivalent to the DEC burn value of the card, and each point of collection power was worth one airdrop point. Please note that the airdrop points were based on cards *owned* by each account, meaning that cards delegated to another account still counted towards the card owner's account, not the account to which the card was delegated. Additionally, cards listed for sale on the market also counted as they were still owned by the player until they were sold. The number of airdrop points each type of asset was worth is detailed in the table below: | Asset | Airdrop Points | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------: | | Collection Power (Owned Cards) | 1 | | DEC Tokens | 1 | | DEC in Liquidity Pools | 2 | | Untamed Booster Packs | 600 | | AZMARE Dice Booster Packs | 900 | | Essence Orb Booster Packs | 2,400 | | Beta Booster Packs | 2,400 | | Alpha Booster Packs | 4,800 | | Land Plots | 10,000 | | Champion Points | 10 | | Splintertalk Tokens (SPT) | 0.25 | | Card Skins (C/R/E/L) | 1,000 / 2,500 / 5,000 / 10,000 | | Totems (C/R/E/L) | 1,000 / 5,000 / 25,000 / 100,000 | | Titles | 100k (Untamed / Explorer) / 1M (Praetorian / Custom) | #### Assets Held on External Platforms Splinterlands assets (DEC, cards, packs, land claims, etc) held on external platforms including Steem Engine, Hive Engine, WAX, Tron, BSC, and Ethereum were all eligible to receive airdrop tokens based on the mechanism described above without having to transfer them back into the game, as were DEC tokens staked in these liquidity pools; Swap.Hive:DEC and DEC:SPS on Tribal Dex (HIVE), DEC:BUSD on CubDefi (BSC), and DEC:ETH on Uniswap (ETH). Please note that DEC or other game tokens listed for sale on external bid/ask markets (not liquidity pools) such as Steem Engine, Hive Engine, and TronTrade were not eligible for the airdrop rewards. # Play to Earn & Reward Pools New SPS tokens have been added to the various reward pools at a rate of 37,500,000 tokens per month and that amount decreases uniformly across all reward pools at a rate of 1% per month, meaning that after one year the monthly contribution rate to the reward pools dropped to 33,239,400 and after 5 years it will have dropped to 20,518,400 SPS per month. These rewards will end after 65 months and at that point no more SPS tokens will be created. The planned reward pools and the amount of the initial 37,500,000 monthly total rewards allocated to each can be found in the table below. Details about how to earn SPS from each reward pool can be found in the following subsections of this document. Please keep in mind that once released, all of these details including, but not limited to, the amount of SPS added to the reward pools each month and how the rewards are distributed may be changed by a vote of staked SPS token holders. All information contained herein describes only how the system was planned to be set up at the initial launch, and it is up to the token holders to decide whether or not to keep it or change it. | Reward Pool | Initial SPS Tokens / Month | | -------------------------- | -------------------------: | | Ranked Battles | 7,500,000 | | SPS Staking Rewards | 7,500,000 | | LP Incentives | 7,500,000 | | Land Expansion | 6,250,000 | | SPS Validator Node Rewards | 3,750,000 | | Tournament Prizes | 2,500,000 | | Guild Brawls | 2,500,000 | # Staking & Earning Splintershards (SPS) tokens are required to be staked in order to earn SPS staking rewards, participate in governance, or participate in special offers, promotions, and bonuses available to SPS holders. Staked SPS tokens are not liquid and may not be transferred or sold. Staked SPS tokens may be unstaked over a period of four weeks, with 25% of the total amount of tokens being unstaked becoming available as liquid SPS tokens at the end of each of the four weeks from when the unstaking operation is submitted. Tokens must be held in a Splinterlands game account (in a Hive blockchain wallet) in order to be able to be staked and earn staking rewards and participate in governance voting. ![](/files/-MaEA-QFY3AOFRHmX_1F) # Ranked Battles Staked SPS tokens can (but are not required to) be staked on a particular player which will allow both the SPS holder and the player to earn rewards based on the player's performance. SPS holders may stake their SPS on themselves and/or other players and they may spread their stake among any number of different players that they choose. Players may also choose to limit the players who may stake SPS on them to their guild members, a specific list of accounts, or leave it open for anyone to stake SPS tokens on them. Additionally, staked SPS tokens can be added and removed from players at any time without any time limits or restrictions. Both the Ranked Battles pool and the SPS Staking Rewards pool will work similarly to how the DEC rewards for ranked battles work currently. After every ranked battle, a number of "reward shares" will be calculated for the winner based on the winner's ranked ladder rating, their Energy Capture Rate (ECR), and any modifiers such as the use of gold cards, win streak, and guild or other bonuses. Then the reward shares value will be adjusted based on the amount of SPS tokens staked on that player in total. The formula for adjusting the reward shares based on SPS tokens staked is as follows: ``` reward_shares = reward_shares * (sps_staked / (sps_staked + 1000)) ``` *Please note that the "1000" value in the above formula is a placeholder. The actual value will be determined by running various simulations with different values to see what works the best. It may also be adjusted in the future as necessary.* The final reward shares value will then be divided by the total number of reward shares earned by the winners of all ranked battles in the last 24 hours to determine the percent of both reward pools that will be allocated for that battle. The SPS earned from the Ranked Battles reward pool will go to the player who won the battle, and the SPS from the SPS Staking Rewards pool will be divided among all of the accounts that staked SPS on the winning player based on their percentage of the total SPS staked on that player. The system is designed such that the more SPS tokens that are staked on a player, the more rewards the player and the holders of the SPS tokens staked on them will earn in total, but with diminishing returns. This means that the more SPS tokens that are staked on a player, the lower the return will be per SPS token staked. Therefore, it would not make sense for everyone to stake their SPS on the top-rated player because after a certain point it will provide better returns to stake SPS on a lower-rated player who does not have so much SPS already staked on them. Please see the table below for some sample earnings calculations based on this formula. Please note that the numbers in the sample are based on a very early and rough simulation and the actual numbers seen in the game may vary significantly and will also change over time as the number of players competing for the fixed reward pool fluctuates. This should only be used as an illustration of how the formulas work out for players at different rating levels and for different amounts of SPS staked on them. | Rating | SPS Staked | Return / SPS / Year | Max Return / Year (1 SPS Staked) | | -----: | ---------: | ------------------: | -------------------------------: | | 500 | 1,000 | 5.58% | 5.64% | | 1,000 | 10,000 | 20.51% | 22.54% | | 2,000 | 100,000 | 45.13% | 90.17% | | 3,000 | 300,000 | 50.77% | 202.89% | | 4,000 | 600,000 | 51.58% | 360.70% | Once again, the above numbers are simply an illustration, but you can see that higher rated players are able to generate a higher return per staked SPS and ***for a larger amount of staked SPS*** than lower-rated players. Because players earn a higher reward for themselves the more SPS that is staked on them, it is always in players' best interest to try to get as much SPS staked on themselves as possible. The higher their rating, the more they can entice other SPS holders to stake SPS on them because it will offer higher rewards for the SPS holders as well. # Liquidity Pools Liquidity pools have been set up for both the SPS token and DEC token to be traded against other tokens on various blockchains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Hive Engine, and may potentially be expanded to more blockchains in the future. ![](/files/-MaEA6Fm3mK7jIzQ1oi_) # Land Expansion ![](/files/-MaE9BRSQnCO4XVbQIoN) The land expansion is the next major evolution of the Splinterlands game which is being released in phases over time. The details and economy of the expansion are still developing and further details regarding land ownership will become available as each phase of Land Development nears completion. While the details of the land expansion are outside the scope of this document, it is important to note that the expansion is planned to be almost an entire new game within the current Splinterlands game, and will allow land owners (or renters) full control over the minting of completely new types of cards that can be used in the existing Splinterlands battle game. It is expected that, once fully developed and released, this will help propel the entire product to a new level in terms of nearly every metric including player growth, retention, and spend, and should also drive significant value to the SPS token which will be tightly integrated into all aspects of the expansion. For additional information about the land expansion, please see the following Splinterlands blog posts: 1. [Splinterlands Land Expansion Details](https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/splinterlands-land-expansion-details) 2. [Splinterlands Land Presale Announcement](https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/official-splinterlands-land-presale-announcement) # Tournament Prizes The SPS tokens in the Tournament Prizes inflation pool will be allocated to SPS DAO-sponsored tournaments as prizes which are available to be won by players based on their performance in the tournament. These new prizes replaced the DEC prizes for tournaments that were previously funded by Splinterlands (i.e. the portion that does not come from market fees or shop purchase). ![](/files/-MaEACXsD5Kl-jIpbIGj) # Guild Brawls Guild Brawls is an interactive game mode that was launched to expand the functionality of Guilds and allow for cross-guild play. Each guild that participates in brawls earns a portion of the Guild Brawls SPS inflation pool based on the guild's overall performance in the brawl, and those tokens are split among all of the players who participated in the brawl based on their individual performance. The amount of SPS earned by each guild may also be affected by various items that the guild may purchase from the guild shop. ![](/files/-MaEAHKZgISpVo5MJjQF) # SPS Validator Node Rewards Please see the [Node Operator Rewards](/sps-chain/node-operator-rewards) page for details on how this reward pool will be distributed. ![](/files/-MaEALlDydXxv4tjTurc) # SPS Chain The Splintershards (SPS) token operates via an open-source software package that allows the token and all related smart contracts to be run and verified by anyone, anywhere in the world, anonymously, and without any control from the Splinterlands company or any other organization or entity. This software utilizes the Hive blockchain as the "layer 1" where all related transactions are published. The software validates all of the relevant transactions published to the Hive blockchain and maintains the current state of SPS token balances and all related smart contract data. This effectively creates a "layer 2" blockchain platform which is referred to as "SPS Chain". The SPS Chain is currently handling all transactions and smart contracts relating to the SPS, VOUCHER, and LICENSE tokens, however over time we hope to migrate all Splinterlands assets and contracts to SPS Chain, including DEC, cards, land, marketplaces, etc. This will allow transactions, balances, and state for all of these assets and contracts to be independently computed and validated by anyone, anywhere, without any reliance on the Splinterlands company. # Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) SPS Chain is governed via a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus model very similar to that of networks such as Hive, EOS, BSC, and many others. This means that any account with staked SPS tokens can vote for accounts that are running the SPS Chain software in order to elect the people or entities that will be responsible for validating all of the SPS Chain transactions and to determine who to entrust as SPS Treasurers that control the SPS Foundation funds. Please note that it will not cost anything or use up staked SPS in any way to vote for validators. It will simply be an additional use for staked SPS tokens and a way for token holders to participate in the governance of the system. Each block on the Hive blockchain is randomly assigned to one of the validators running the software based on the amount of staked SPS tokens they have voting on them. When assigned a block, the validator will publish a hash of the data in that block to the Hive blockchain which can then be checked and confirmed by all of the other validators. Once confirmed, the validator will receive a reward in SPS tokens for validating that block. The more staked SPS that is voting for a particular validator, the more blocks they will be assigned, and the more rewards they will receive. # Validator Node Licenses One potential issue with Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) systems is that there are only a relatively small number of accounts that will get the majority of the votes, and therefore the majority of the rewards. This means that there will not be much incentive for other people to run a "node" (a "node" is meant as a running instance of the blockchain validator software). In order to try to address that issue, a new LICENSE token will be offered which will allow anyone to earn rewards for running a node without needing to have any staked SPS votes. The SPS Chain validator LICENSE tokens were originally purchasable with a combination of SPS tokens and VOUCHER tokens based on the pricing schedule outlined below. 80% of the SPS tokens and 100% of the VOUCHER tokens spent on node licenses were burned and the remaining 20% of the SPS tokens were put into the SPS foundation. The SPS DAO subsequently voted to end the discount mechanism of Vouchers and repurpose them, so now LICENSE tokens are only able to be purchased with SPS tokens. The LICENSE tokens are able to be freely bought/sold/traded on secondary markets, and it is possible to utilize multiple licenses with a single SPS Chain validator software instance - meaning that if someone purchases multiple licenses, they only need to run the validator node software once to earn the rewards for all of their licenses. This system is similar to the node license structure used by a number of other projects, which have generally been very successful, and in this case all of the value from license purchases goes directly into the SPS token ecosystem. With this system we hope to have many thousands of validator nodes running all over the world which will help decentralize, distribute, and secure the system as well as provide significant additional value to the tokens. # Node Operator Rewards As mentioned in the [Play to Earn & Reward Pool](/rewards) section, there are 3,750,000 SPS tokens per month allocated to a reward pool for SPS Chain node operators. 10%, or 375,000, of the monthly total are allocated as block validation rewards for the accounts that receive staked SPS votes and are assigned specific blocks to validate, and the remaining 3,375,000 SPS / month will be split equally between all of the LICENSE token holders that are actively running the node software. While at first it might seem that only a small amount is being allocated to the voted validators, please keep in mind that there will only be a relatively small number of validators that receive the lion's share of the votes, so this 375k SPS / month will be split among a small group of accounts. Likely no more than 50 - 100 in total, with the top 10-20 receiving the majority of the rewards. If we assume 50 validators are splitting that equally, then they would each get 7500 SPS / month. In reality, the top voted validators will receive significantly more than that, as the rewards are proportional to the number of votes received. Please note that it is possible to earn from both pools if you have one or more LICENSE tokens and some staked SPS voting for you. It is expected that many, if not all, of the top voted validators will also hold licenses (though it is not required). LICENSE token holders receive an equal share of the 3,375,000 SPS / month rewards per license they hold in their account as long as they are running an active SPS Chain node. The SPS Chain node software periodically publishes transactions to the Hive blockchain that will prove that the software is being run in order to receive the rewards. In addition to the SPS rewards, there is also a pool of 20,000 VOUCHER tokens per day that are allocated to SPS Chain node license holders in order to provide further incentive for purchasing LICENSE tokens and running nodes. This pool is allocated equally per LICENSE token to all holders that are actively running an SPS Chain node. Please see the Vouchers page for more information on VOUCHER tokens. Initially, the SPS and VOUCHER token pools for SPS Chain node operators were split among all LICENSE token holders simply for holding the tokens. The requirement that LICENSE token holders need to be actively operating an SPS Chain validator node in order to earn rewards was implemented after the validator software was released publicly and the SPS Chain "mainnet" went live on March 7th, 2025. # LICENSE Token Sale LICENSE tokens are available to be purchased within the shop on the Splinterlands website or by submitting the appropriate transaction to the Hive blockchain. LICENSE tokens are currently transferrable via the Splinterlands game website as well as on the Hive Engine platform. The pricing for the licenses is shown in the table below. There will be 60,000 licenses available in total, and as each phase sells out, the next phase licenses will be available at the increased price point. Please note that there will be no difference between licenses sold in the presale phase or any other phases other than the purchase price.
PhaseQuantityPriceVOUCHER Discount Rate
Presale2,000$1,000 of SPS + 500 VOUCHERsN/A
Tranche 13,000$3,000 of SPS$3.00
Tranche 25,000$5,000 of SPS$5.00
Tranche 310,000$7,500 of SPS$7.50
Tranche 410,000$10,000 of SPS$10.00
Tranche 510,000$15,000 of SPS$15.00
Tranche 610,000$20,000 of SPS$20.00
Tranche 710,000$40,000 of SPS$40.00
It is important to note that licenses do not expire, so they are eligible to continue earning SPS and VOUCHER token rewards indefinitely. This means that the earlier you purchase licenses the lower the price you can "lock in" ahead of time and then take advantage of any price increases in the tokens for as long as the project is running. Each tranche of the sale (with the exception of the Presale) will allow VOUCHER tokens to be used to receive up to a 50% discount on the price. For example, in Tranche 1 the voucher discount rate is $3.00, which means that each voucher token spent will reduce the price by $3.00. Since the maximum discount is 50%, that means that you can spend up to 500 VOUCHER to reduce the price from $3,000 to $1,500. This allows VOUCHER tokens to always have value when it comes to buying licenses, while also not making them required. # Governance Voting System This page will describe the current SPS governance voting system that is in place as of the time of writing, which is around March of 2025. This system will continue to be improved and further decentralized over time as more of the infrastructure for the project is ready, most notably the SPS Chain and its Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism which you can read more about in the [SPS Chain](/sps-chain) section of this document. Anyone is free to submit a governance proposal to a vote of all staked SPS token holders by publishing a post detailing their proposal to the Hive blockchain and including #spsproposal as the first tag on the post. Additionally, there is a fee for submitting a proposal of 100k DEC tokens. The fee must be paid by burning the tokens (transferring them to the "null" account in game), and the ID of the burn transaction on the Hive blockchain must be included by itself as the first line of the proposal post. Please note that the DEC burn transaction must have been made by the same account from which the proposal post is published. # Pre-Voting Phase A Pre-proposal is the first 7 day period of any SPS DAO Proposal's life cycle. During this time, discussions about the Pre-proposal should happen and the author can edit the Pre-proposal if they choose to do so. Pre-proposals may be edited by the author during this 7 day period. Anyone can submit a Pre-proposal to the SPS DAO by transferring 100,000 DEC to null and then publishing a HIVE post from that same account with SPSPROPOSAL as the first tag and putting the transaction ID of the DEC burn at the top of the post. [You can find an example Proposal here.](https://peakd.com/spsproposal/@cryptoeater/unstake-sps-early-with-penalty) If at least 5% of staked SPS votes to support the Pre-proposal it will advance to the Proposal stage after the 7 day Pre-proposal period is complete and no further changes to the submitted Proposal will be accepted. Additionally, [the SPS DAO has voted](https://peakd.com/@clayboyn/sps-governance-proposal-community-proposals-guidelines) to empower the SPS Project Manager to create and run community-led Pre-proposals to address ongoing issues or needed changes specifically related to the SPS DAO and the SPS token. For these DAO Sponsored Pre-proposals to be funded and advance to the full Proposal stage, they require that at least 10% of staked SPS votes on them of which a 2/3rds majority must be in favor of the Proposal. If they do not receive at least that level of support, the DAO will not burn 100,000 DEC and these DAO Sponsored Pre-Proposals will not advance to the Proposal stage. # Formal Voting Phase In the formal voting phase, users will have the opportunity to vote both for or against a proposal. The formal voting phase will last for 7 days. For a proposal to pass the formal voting phase, at least 10% of the total staked SPS in the system must vote (either for or against) the proposal, and of the staked SPS that has voted on the proposal, at least 66.66% must vote "for" it. The "weight" of each vote will be the amount of staked SPS tokens the account has at the time of the vote. The vote weight will not change if the amount of staked SPS in the account changes after the vote has been cast even if the formal voting phase is still active. Users may change, remove, or recast their vote at any time while the formal voting phase is active, so if a user has voted on a proposal and then gets more staked SPS in their account they can remove their vote and cast a new vote to increase their vote weight. Each Hive blockchain account can only cast one vote for each proposal. # Proposal Implementation While in the future we hope that proposals will be able to include updated smart contract code or blockchain transactions that can be instantly and automatically executed when the proposal vote passes, for the foreseeable future all passed proposals will need to be manually implemented and executed by either the Splinterlands team and/or the SPS Foundation. Both of these organizations are committed to implementing and executing proposals that have been approved through a vote of the SPS stakeholders as quickly as possible, however certain proposals - particularly those which require significant development work on the Splinterlands game platform - may take significant time to plan, design, and implement. The relevant teams will do their best to clearly communicate with the SPS stakeholder community regarding the timing and progress of proposal implementation. # Proposal Guidelines The SPS token holder community may submit and approve any proposals that they want, however the following guidelines should help to ensure that proposals are clear and that voting goes smoothly. The community is ultimately responsible for creating the guidelines that they want proposals to follow and enforcing them by voting against proposals that don't comply. First and foremost, proposals may not be materially edited once the formal voting phase has begun. Minor updates or clarifications are generally fine as long as they do not meaningfully alter the details of the proposal. During the pre-voting phase, any changes may be made, and this is typically the time where the proposal author can gather feedback on their proposal and make changes that they feel will help the proposal to pass once it goes into formal voting. Any edits to proposal posts will be publicly and transparently recorded on the Hive blockchain so the community will be easily able to tell if any changes were made and what those changes were. Proposals should also be as narrow in scope as possible in order to give them the best chance of being approved. If there are multiple changes being proposed, it is often better to split each change up into a separate proposal, as long as they are not dependent on each other. This gives the community the opportunity to vote on each one individually and would allow one change to pass even if another does not. Finally, it is recommended that proposals be as clear as possible about all aspects of how any proposed changes should be made. Proposals with too much ambiguity should generally be rejected by the voters as it makes it much harder to implement and to predict the outcome of the change. If a proposal does not pass, the author (or anyone for that matter) may always submit an updated proposal that resolves any ambiguities or other issues that contributed to it not passing. # Proposal Topics While users may submit proposals about anything they want, it is important to understand what aspects of the ecosystem are within the purview of the DAO vs the Splinterlands company. The DAO controls all aspects of the SPS, VOUCHER, and LICENSE tokens including the supply, issuance rate, distribution, etc. The DAO also controls all funds held by the SPS foundation. This means that any aspects relating to any of those items are subject to change through governance proposals without requiring any type of approval by the Splinterlands company. All aspects of the Splinterlands game product, the Splinterlands website, and any other products or services provided by the Splinterlands company, are fully owned, maintained, and operated by the Splinterlands company and are not controlled by the SPS DAO. That being said, the Splinterlands company fully welcomes and encourages participants in the SPS DAO to submit governance proposals for any changes they would like to see the Splinterlands company make. Any such proposals that are approved by the SPS token holder community will be strongly considered by the company, but it will ultimately be up to the company as to whether or not they are implemented. Over time, the company intends to slowly migrate more of the game over to the SPS Chain software (including DEC, card and other NFTs, land, etc) which would then put them under the control of the DAO. # VOUCHER Tokens VOUCHER tokens are transferrable reward tokens within the SPS ecosystem which can be earned by staking SPS or by holding LICENSE tokens (for more information about LICENSE tokens, please see the [Validator Node Licenses](/sps-chain/validator-node-licenses) section of this document). The primary use of VOUCHER tokens will be for discounts and promotions both from the SPS DAO and within the Splinterlands game. Some examples of how VOUCHER tokens can be used include getting bonus packs for bulk purchases, getting discounts on pack and promo card purchases, and getting discounts on LICENSE token purchases. In the future we expect VOUCHER tokens to be used for discounts within the Secret of Praetoria expansion to Splinterlands as well as for things like building maintenance in the planned update for the guild system. There are currently two VOUCHER token distribution pools - one for staked SPS holders and one for LICENSE token holders. Both of these pools distribute 20,000 (20k) VOUCHER tokens per day split evenly among SPS stakers and LICENSE token holders respectively based on the amount of tokens each account has staked or holds relative the total across all accounts. # Release Schedule LAST UPDATED July, 2023 | Feature | Estimated Launch Timeline | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------: | | SPS Token Release & Airdrop Start | RELEASED | | SPS Bridges between the Splinterlands Platform, BSC, and other External Chains | RELEASED | | SPS LP Incentives | RELEASED | | SPS Tournament Prizes | RELEASED | | SPS Staking Rewards | RELEASED | | SPS Ranked Battle Rewards | RELEASED | | SPS Guild Brawl Rewards | RELEASED | | In-Game Governance Voting System | RELEASED | | SPS Land Expansion Rewards | RELEASED | | SPS Player Staking | TBD | | SPS Chain "Privatenet" | TBD | | SPS Chain "Testnet" | TBD | | SPS Chain "Mainnet" | TBD | | SPS Chain DPoS Launch | TBD | # Revision History ### March 12, 2025 * Updated multiple pages to bring change from future tense to present or past where appropriate. ### June 12, 2024 * Updated main [SPS page](https://sps.splinterlands.com/) to reflect that the token has already been launched. * Updated [Airdrop](https://sps.splinterlands.com/airdrop) page grammar from future tense to past tense. * Updated [Liquidity Pools](https://sps.splinterlands.com/rewards/liquidity-pools) for grammar from future tense to past tense and clarified where some of the pools are. # Legal Disclaimer ## **DEFINITIONS** “**Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)**” means the organization represented by a series of smart contracts published on the Binance Smart Chain by Splinterlands, which, if launched, will be controlled by users of the Splinterlands Platform. “**Splinterlands**” means **Steem Monsters Inc. d/b/a Splinterlands**, a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania corporation. “**Splinterlands Platform**” means the blockchain based online card game developed by Splinterlands. “**User**” means any individual and/or entity using the Splinterlands Platform. **LEGAL DISCLAIMER** This Splinterlands Governance Token Whitepaper is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendations, or any form of solicitation. Any information provided is at all times subject to change by the sole discretion of Splinterlands. Splinterlands is creating the SPS Token to function within the Splinterlands ecosystem in order to provide increasing levels of decision-making ability and control over the product to the player-base, in-game item owners, and other stakeholders. No SPS token will represent any economic interest in Splinterlands at any time, and Splinterlands developed SPS for the purpose of use within the Splinterlands Platform. Through the development of SPS, Splinterlands does not grant any rights, express or implied, other than the right to use SPS on the Splinterlands Platform or within the DAO. In particular, Splinterlands expressly denies any ability of the SPS token to represent or confer any ownership right or stake, share, security, or equivalent rights, or any right to receive future revenue shares, intellectual property rights or any other form of participation in or relating to any Splinterlands product and/or Splinterlands and/or any of its corporate affiliates. Splinterlands reserves the right to reject any usage of SPS tokens on the Splinterlands Platform. Splinterlands rejects any responsibility for any direct or consequential loss or damage of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from: (i) reliance on any information provided, (ii) any error, omission or inaccuracy in any such information; or (iii) any action resulting from such information. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law and except as otherwise specified in writing by Splinterlands: (i) SPS tokens are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, and Splinterlands expressly disclaims all implied warranties as to the SPS tokens, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement; (ii) Splinterlands does not represent or warrant that the SPS tokens are reliable, current or error-free, or that technical defects in the SPS tokens will be corrected; and (iii) Splinterlands cannot and does not represent or warrant that the SPS tokens or the delivery mechanism for SPS tokens are free of viruses or other harmful components. No terms in this Whitepaper constitute a prospectus, an offer document of any sort, or are intended to constitute an offer of securities, or a solicitation for investment in securities. If you receive SPS tokens through an airdrop, please note that any Splinterlands platform contribution and/or participation does not represent, constitute or involve the exchange of value for any form of securities, investment units and/or form of ordinary shares in any project, in any platform, in Splinterlands, or any other related company. This Whitepaper in any part thereof and any copy thereof must not be transmitted to any country where distribution or dissemination of these documents and its information is prohibited or restricted. No regulatory authority has examined or approved to this date of any of the information set out in this document. The publication, distribution or dissemination of these terms do not imply that the applicable laws, regulatory requirements or rules have been complied with. To the fullest extent permitted by the applicable laws, regulations and rules, Splinterlands, its founders, team members and any third party involved in the project shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or other losses of any kind, in tort, contract or otherwise (including but not limited to loss of revenue, income or profits, and loss of use or data), arising out of or in connection with any acceptance of or reliance on the information in this Whitepaper, or any part thereof and/or information provided on the Splinterlands web page. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law: (i) in no event will Splinterlands or any of the company parties be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or exemplary damages of any kind (including, but not limited to, where related to loss of revenue, income or profits, loss of use or data, or damages for business interruption) arising out of or in any way related to the distribution or use of SPS, regardless of the form of action, whether based in contract, tort (including, but not limited to, simple negligence, whether active, passive or imputed), or any other legal or equitable theory (even if the party has been advised of the possibility of such damages and regardless of whether such damages were foreseeable); and (ii) in no event will the aggregate liability of Splinterlands and affiliate parties (jointly), whether in contract, warranty, tort (including negligence, whether active, passive or imputed), or other theory, arising out of or relating to SPS or the use of or inability to use SPS. All statements contained in this Whitepaper, webpage, statements made in press releases or in any place accessible by the public and oral statements that may be made by Splinterlands, its founders, team members and any third party involved in the project and acting on behalf of Splinterlands, that are not statements of historical fact constitute “forward-looking statements”. No information in this Whitepaper should be considered to be business, legal, financial or advice regarding contribution or participation to the development of the Splinterlands Network and any of its projects. Splinterlands does not make or intends to make, and hereby disclaims, any representation, warranty or undertaking in any form whatsoever to any entity or person, including any representation, warranty or undertaking in relation to the truth, accuracy, and completeness of any of the information set out in this Whitepaper. All SPS recipients are responsible for implementing reasonable measures for securing their own wallet, vault or other storage mechanism used to receive and hold SPS tokens, including any requisite private key(s) or other credentials necessary to access such storage mechanism(s). If any private key(s) or other access credentials are lost, the holder may lose access to their SPS Tokens. Splinterlands is not responsible for any losses, costs or expenses relating to lost access credentials. Splinterlands shall have no obligations in any form or whatsoever to you in respect of SPS tokens. It is the token holder’s entire responsibility to withhold, collect, report and remit the correct taxes to the appropriate tax authorities regarding any received SPS tokens. Prior to the DAO launch, Splinterlands will maintain control over the protocol. Upon launch of the DAO, Splinterlands will no longer maintain any control over the protocol, which will be completely dictated by the DAO and the Binance smart chain. Splinterlands expressly denies any and all responsibility for any transactions occurring via the Binance smart chain or through any third party. Splinterlands also maintains the sole discretion to launch the SPS token on a different blockchain, and in no way is required to launch on the Binance smart chain or any other blockchain whatsoever.