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Tako

What is Tako

Tako is a liquid staking pool for Gram, the coin of TON.

You deposit Gram and get takoGRAM back. takoGRAM is a regular token: you can send it, trade it or put it in a prize draw. Behind it, the pool lends your Gram to TON validators, and what they earn for securing the network flows back into the pool.

How your balance grows

Section titled “How your balance grows”

One takoGRAM is worth a little more Gram every round. The number of tokens in your wallet stays the same; each of them becomes more valuable.

  • On every deposit the pool mints takoGRAM at the current rate.
  • When validators return their stake with the reward, the reward is added to the pool. It is spread smoothly over the next round instead of jumping the rate in one block.
  • When you leave, your takoGRAM is turned back into Gram at the rate of that moment.

Where the yield comes from

Section titled “Where the yield comes from”

TON pays validators for producing blocks. A validator needs a large stake to get a seat, so Tako lends them Gram from the pool. Validators compete for these loans in an open auction: the ones who promise the pool the most get funded. The pool keeps at least 97.25% of what a loan earns (the testnet parameter); the validator keeps the rest plus everything its own stake earns.

Over the last year of mainnet, a pool working this way would have paid more than Tonstakers did in every period we measured. See Yield backtest for the numbers and the method.

What makes Tako different

Section titled “What makes Tako different”
  • Take your Gram back at once while the pool has free liquidity, or wait one round and pay no fee. See Withdraw.
  • No-loss prize draws. Put takoGRAM in a draw: your deposit stays whole and the yield of everyone in the draw goes to the winners. See Prize draws.
  • Leave Tonstakers or Hipo in one transfer. See Move from another pool.
  • Built for Telegram. A mini app, a bot that sends you a message when you win, and draws for your own chat.
  • Checkable. Every draw uses public randomness from drand that the contract verifies itself, and every governance change waits two days in public.

Who runs it

Section titled “Who runs it”

Contracts are governed through a timelock: every change is published and waits at least two days before it can run, so anyone can read it and leave first. A separate halter key can only pause new deposits and loans, never move funds. See Governance.