Staking DAO explained

Search…
Definition
DAO 
The term DAO stands for “decentralised autonomous organisation” and can be described as an open-source blockchain protocol governed by a set of rules, created by its elected members, that automatically execute certain actions without the need for intermediaries. (Source) 
Read more about DAOs on ethereum.org here. 
Watch a simple video explanation by Whiteboard Crypto here. 
Proposal 
Generally speaking, community members create proposals about the future operations of the protocol and then come together to vote on each proposal. Proposals that achieve some predefined level of consensus are then accepted and enforced by the rules instantiated within the smart contract. (Source) 
Votes 
A Vote (Allbridge Vote) is a non-transferable token that is minted after locking another token (xABR). It can be used for Voting once a week. This token can’t be transferred from a wallet. It has no price and can’t be traded.
What is Staking DAO?
Staking DAO is a decentralised autonomous organization that decentralizes the decision-making process for Allbridge products.
The primary goal of the first version of Staking DAO is to give ABR stakers the ability to decide on how to distribute rewards in Allbridge Staking.
The next goal is to create a new utility function for xABR token.
How DAO influences Allbridge Staking?
With the introduction of Staking DAO, ABR stakers can decide on how to distribute rewards between the chains.
There is a single pool of rewards from all the chains. Rewards are distributed according to the DAO voting result. In theory, every DAO member could favor a reward distribution to a single chain, or, alternatively, equal distribution between all chains. The execution will be implemented by the smart contracts.
How does Staking DAO work?
Who can participate in DAO?
Users, who stake ABR token in Allbridge Staking on any blockchain.
What type of proposals does it have?
In the first version, there is only one type of proposal, generated automatically.
This proposal is a voting for a blockchain, to which a user wants to allocate the rewards. Basically, it is a list of chains. However, a user can vote only for a chain, where he/she has Votes. 
In the first version, there is no proposals related to any other Allbridge products, except Staking.
What are Lock rules?
If a user (identified by its address) did not lock any tokens yet, then any lock interval can be selected, ranging from 1 month to 3 years. The number of votes will be calculated by multiplying the amount of tokens locked by the square root of the interval.
If the user has already locked some tokens for a certain period of time, then s/he can lock again for any interval greater or equal to the current lock interval (no longer than the maximum of 3 years). The lock interval will be updated to the new one.
Example: User has 100 tokens locked for 2 months on January 1st, gets 130 votes. Unlock date is March 1st. In 1 month (February 1st), the user locks another 100 tokens for 2 months (minimum lock interval is 1 month), and gets another 130 votes (260 total). Unlock is now 2 months from the last lock event, so it gets updated from March 1st to April 1st.
What are Unlock rules?
On the unlocking date, the user can no longer vote but can either redeem the funds (xABR token) or lock them again (and receive the votes back).
What are Voting rules?
Users can vote only once each week.
Users can lock tokens, get votes, and vote, all within a single week.
Users can vote only for a chain where they have Votes and only if they are logged in.
How to get Votes?
To vote for a chain, you need to have Allbridge Votes on that chain.
In order to receive the Votes, you need to lock xABR tokens.
Let’s imagine you want to get Allbridge Votes on NEAR blockchain, while having 1000 ABR. 
Here is how you will do it:
1.Navigate to Allbridge Staking.
2.Select NEAR blockchain.
3.Stake 1000 ABR. You will get 922.68 xABR (1 xABR = 1.0838 ABR)
4.Navigate to Staking DAO.
5.Lock 922.68 xABR.
a. You will be able to select the lock period (1-36 months).
b. The longer you lock, the more Votes you get.
c. 
       d. If you want to lock for 1 month, you will get 922.68 Votes/for a year - 922.68 * 3.49 = 3,220.1532 Votes, for 3 years - 922.68 * 6.04 = 5,572.9872 Votes
Staking DAO benefits
One of the possible ways to benefit from Staking DAO is to lock a small number of tokens for a long period of time. This way, DAO members can have a high voting power while being able to transfer the main Staking deposit between the chains with high APR.
Example
A user staked 5000 ABR on Solana and received 4264 xABR.
The user then staked 500 xABR for a year and receiving 1,745 Votes on Solana.
A user can vote with their 1,745 Votes on Solana every week.
If one week Solana has a low APR, a user will be able to unstake 4,264-500 = 3,764 xABR and bridge them to a chain with a higher APR.
Next week, they could vote for Solana and incentivize rewards on Solana again.
This way, the user can vote and transfer liquidity between chains.