Gaze Protocol

There are two ways to participate in Gaze. Watch: install the extension, watch creators, contribute to the leaderboard. Your watch time — weighted by your commitment level — shapes how much a creator earns each month. Stake: buy a creator's token on their bonding curve, deposit it into the market. Options accrue per second. At period close, they're exercised into real creator tokens. These aren't mutually exclusive. A staker who also watches contributes 9x to a creator's leaderboard score. Two flows. One protocol. The more you commit, the more both flows work for you. gazeprotocol.com

$GAZE isn't just a governance token. It's the mechanism that lets the people who care most about the protocol shape it. Stake. Vote. Earn epoch rewards. Influence the accrual rate. The protocol governs itself. $GAZE is how you participate in that. gazeprotocol.com

Why does this matter for creators and stakers? Because the options accrual rate — the speed at which stakers earn options on their positions — is a governance parameter. The community that stakes $GAZE decides how fast the protocol rewards the community that stakes creator tokens. The incentives are designed to align.

Most governance tokens let you vote. $GAZE does that. But it also does something else. Here's what $GAZE actually unlocks.

The most honest attention is the attention given freely. No notification. No trending page. No reason except: this creator is worth your time. Gaze is the first protocol that knows the difference. gazeprotocol.com

The leaderboard reflects this. A creator whose community shows up on weekends — when there's no trending hook, no viral moment, no algorithm push — is a creator with real depth. That depth is what the Creator Rewards Contest is measuring. Not reach. Not impressions. Watch time, weighted by commitment.

On weekdays, people watch what the algorithm surfaces. On weekends, people watch what they actually want. That's a different kind of signal. And it's the one Gaze is built to measure.

Solana processed 10.1 billion transactions in Q1 2026. The first time any chain has crossed 10 billion in a single quarter. Sub-cent fees make that possible. Sub-second finality makes it meaningful. That's the infrastructure Gaze runs on. Options accruing per second, bonding curve prices settling in real time, leaderboard scores updating continuously. The protocol does the work because the chain can handle it.

Your options accrue every second you're staked. Most people think of them as future tokens — something you claim after the period closes. But they're already an asset. Gaze's lending protocol accepts accrued options as collateral. You can borrow USDC against your position without exiting it. The period keeps running. The options keep accruing. You don't have to choose between liquidity and your stake. Collateral requirements and terms: gazeprotocol.com

Most creator monetization tools solve one problem. A tipping tool. A subscription layer. A token launch platform. Each one is a single layer — useful, but not composable. You can't borrow against your tipping balance. You can't govern a subscription protocol. You can't build on top of a token launch app. Gaze is four on-chain programs. Tokens, governance, lending, payments — each one a primitive that other things can be built on. The difference between a tool and infrastructure is whether something else can be built on top of it.

Gaze is four on-chain programs — token launches, governance, lending, payments — plus an AMM. The programs are composable. The data is public. If you could build something on top of verified watch time and creator token infrastructure, what would it be?

Four programs. One AMM. One protocol. Not an app with a backend. Infrastructure with a public interface. Anyone can build on top of it. The programs are composable. The data is on-chain. That's what "protocol, not platform" actually means. gazeprotocol.com

Mayflower AMM. External to the four programs but integrated via CPI. Battle-tested DeFi mechanics for the bonding curve trades. Sub-second settlement. Sub-cent fees. The price discovery happens in real time — no oracle lag, no batched updates.

Gaze isn't one program. It's four on-chain programs plus an external AMM — each doing a distinct job. Most creator tools are apps. Gaze is infrastructure. Here's what each piece does.