GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
Vesting
What vesting is: the gradual unlock schedule for team and investor tokens, with cliff and linear release, and why it is the first due diligence.
WHAT IS IT? · FOR DUMMIES
Vesting is the schedule under which the team and investors receive their tokens gradually instead of all on day one: typically an initial period with nothing (the cliff) and then monthly release. Its purpose is to align incentives — so that nobody can sell and disappear.
WHAT IS IT? · PRO
A standard scheme: a 6-12 month cliff and linear release over 2-4 years, implemented in verifiable contracts. Reading the vesting is the first due diligence on any token: how many tokens unlock, when and whose — large unlocks are selling pressure announced with a date, and a team without vesting is a red flag on its own.
In tokenomics design, vesting is the honest tool: it promises with verifiable facts what the whitepaper promises with words. In regulated issuances it also performs the function of the classic securities-market lock-ups.
01 / Key points
- Gradual token unlock: initial cliff + linear release
- Aligns team and investors with the long term
- Unlocks are selling pressure with an announced date
- First due diligence on any token
02 / Advantages
- Verifiable on-chain, not promised in a PDF
- Protects the investor from a team that sells and leaves
- Crypto equivalent of the traditional lock-up
03 / Disadvantages
- Massive cliffs concentrate selling pressure
- Modifiable if governance allows it: read who can change it
- Does not guarantee commitment, only incentivises it