1inch DAO (1INCH)

Overview

The 1inch Network is a decentralized-exchange aggregator: rather than running a single automated market maker, it routes each trade across many liquidity sources to find the best execution. Its Aggregation Protocol (the Pathfinder routing algorithm), a gas-efficient Limit Order Protocol, and the intent-based Fusion mode are governed by the 1inch DAO through the 1inch.eth Snapshot space. This makes 1inch a distinct archetype in the DAO directory: where Uniswap, Curve, and Balancer govern the pools that hold liquidity, 1inch governs the layer that routes across them, closer in shape to intent/solver DAOs like CoW DAO and the Solana aggregator Jupiter.

Origins: a 60-hour hackathon

1inch began at the ETHGlobal New York hackathon in May 2019, where Sergej Kunz (now CEO) and Anton Bukov (now CTO) – competing as the "CryptoManiacs" team – built a working aggregator prototype over roughly 60 hours. The protocol has since routed over $450 billion in cumulative volume across more than ten EVM networks.

The 1INCH token

The 1INCH governance and utility token launched on 25 December 2020 with a maximum supply of 1.5 billion. On 6 April 2022 the token's mint function was permanently burned, fixing the cap so no further 1INCH can ever be created. The token is distributed across community airdrops, liquidity incentives, the team, investors, and a long-term treasury.

Unicorn Power: staking with decay

Raw 1INCH balances do not vote. To gain governance weight a holder deposits 1INCH into a time-locked staking contract and receives st1INCH and Unicorn Power (UP) – the unit of influence in the 1inch DAO. The UP granted scales with both the amount staked and the lock duration (up to two years), and it decays over time as the lock unwinds, so sustained influence requires an active, renewed commitment rather than a one-time purchase. On-chain governance parameters set a proposal-submission threshold of 100,000 UP, a quorum of 10,000,000 UP, and a five-day voting window for standard proposals.

Two independent delegations

1inch's most distinctive design is that Unicorn Power can be delegated down two separate rails that operate independently:

• Governance delegation – UP delegated to a Snapshot delegate who votes on protocol decisions on the holder's behalf, a form of vote-lock representation comparable to vote-escrow systems.
• Economic delegation – the same UP delegated to a Fusion resolver: professional market makers who settle Fusion orders through gasless Dutch auctions. Resolvers compete for delegated UP, and stakers earn a share of the resolvers' arbitrage profits.

The split means the token doubles as a governance right and a yield-bearing stake in the network's market-making layer – a holder can lend their voice to a delegate and their economic weight to a resolver at the same time.

What the DAO controls

Through Snapshot votes weighted by Unicorn Power, 1INCH stakers hold direct authority over network governance, the DAO treasury, and the parameters of the Fusion Mode Settlement Contract – the contract that clears resolver-settled trades. Treasury management and the calibration of Fusion's fee and auction parameters are therefore live governance questions rather than founder prerogatives.

How Caper approaches this

1inch shows a deliberate split between governance weight (Unicorn Power for voting) and economic delegation (Unicorn Power lent to resolvers for yield), with influence that decays unless a holder keeps re-locking. Caper folds those into a single earned weight: a member's vote weight combines their token holdings with the soulbound record their own participation mints – by casting ranked ballots, and nothing for a buy, a sell or a transfer.

Holdings are one factor, not the whole story, so a bag that has earned no record – any position whose holder has never voted – cannot capture control at all. And where 1inch stakers must wait out a time-lock, Caper pairs weight with an exit right: a member can always leave with the share their own weight has earned rather than being locked in to a decision they lost.