Moats: Infrastructure for Configurable Staking and Rewards
Moats is a modular protocol that allows token projects to design staking, locking, and reward systems without building custom infrastructure.
Most token projects want to reward their holders and build engaged communities. But creating a staking system usually means hiring developers, paying for audits, and hoping nothing breaks. Moats removes these barriers.
Moats, built by Fortifi, is a platform where any token project can set up rewards for their community in minutes. No coding required. No security risks. Just choose how you want holders to participate.
What Moats Does for Projects
Think of Moats as a toolkit for token projects. You get three main options for how your community can participate:
Staking: Holders deposit tokens and earn rewards. They can withdraw anytime. This keeps your community engaged while maintaining flexibility.
Locking: Holders commit tokens for a set period (anywhere from 1 day to 2 years). They earn higher rewards for longer commitments. This reduces sell pressure and rewards loyal holders.
Burning: Holders permanently remove tokens from circulation. They still get rewards or special access. This reduces your token supply while keeping participants engaged.
You can use one, two, or all three. Mix and match based on what makes sense for your project.
The Traditional Approach vs. Moats
Normally, if you want staking for your token, you have two options:
Pay developers thousands of dollars to build custom contracts, then pay more for security audits
Hope an existing platform accepts your project (and they might not)
Moats is different. The contracts are already built and professionally audited. Projects configure their settings and deploy immediately. No gatekeeping, no development costs, no waiting.
Even better, you can change things later. If your initial reward rate is too high or too low, adjust it. If you want to add burning later, you can. The system adapts as you learn what your community needs.
What Holders Get
If you hold tokens in a project using Moats, here’s what participation looks like:
You visit the Moat page and connect your wallet. You choose whether to stake (flexible), lock (committed), or burn (permanent). You start earning rewards based on your choice.
Your staked or locked tokens might also give you voting power through Snapshot. This means the same tokens earning you rewards also let you vote on project decisions. One action, two benefits.
How Projects Benefit
Save Money: No development costs. No audit fees. Moats provides everything ready to use.
Save Time: Launch in minutes instead of months. Configure your settings and go live.
Stay Flexible: Adjust reward rates, lock periods, and other settings as your project grows. You’re not locked into decisions made at launch.
Build Trust: The contracts are professionally audited. Your community knows the system is secure.
Get Governance: Snapshot integration is built in. Staking and governance work together automatically.
Ecosystem Benefits
When you participate in Moats, you’re also engaging with the broader FortiFi ecosystem:
Moat Points: Each Moat you participate in earns you points specific to that Moat. Points are tracked independently per Moat.
Fort Score: A weighted aggregate of your Moat Points across all different Moats. This score measures your overall engagement in the ecosystem.
Moats Airdrop: The Fort Score directly correlates to the upcoming Moats Airdrop for early participants.
Future $MOATS Token: A governance token is planned that will let the community direct platform development and emissions.
Who Should Use Moats
Moats makes sense for:
New Projects: Launch with professional staking from day one without technical expertise.
Existing Projects: Add staking to your token without changing your contract or migrating users.
Community DAOs: Implement governance and rewards in one system.
Meme Coins: Add utility beyond just holding and hoping.
Small Teams: Access enterprise-grade infrastructure without enterprise budgets.
What You Need
To launch a Moat, you need:
A token (ERC20, ERC314, ERC404, or LP token)
Rewards to distribute (can be your token or another token)
Basic decisions about staking, locking, and burning options
Moats handles everything else.
The Bottom Line
Moats solves a simple problem: token projects need staking and governance systems, but building them is expensive and risky. Moats provides these systems ready-made, audited, and customizable.
For projects, it means launching professional staking without technical or financial barriers. For holders, it means consistent, secure ways to earn rewards and participate in governance across different projects.
The platform removes the complexity from token incentives and makes them accessible to everyone.
What’s Coming
The Arena is set to launch their V2 staking system through Moats in February. Their implementation will offer stake, lock, and burn options with different reward tiers. Under this new structure, the top 500 stakers will continue to enjoy their “Champions” status. It will be interesting to see how this implementation shifts the economic dynamics of The Arena’s ecosystem.
If you’re running a token project and want to reward your community, Moats is worth exploring. If you hold tokens in projects using Moats, you now have clear options for how to participate and earn.
Explore and learn more:
Website: https://moats.app/
Documentation: https://fortifi.gitbook.io/moats
Dive into the Avalanche ecosystem today! Download the Core Wallet and unlock a world of seamless DeFi, NFTs, and more.
Really solid breakdown of how Moats commoditizes what used to be a moat for bigger projects. The flexibility angle is especially interesting becuase most teams dont realize their tokenomics assumptions are wrong until months in. I've sen projects lock themselves into unsustainable reward rates with no way out. Being able to adjust parameters live could prevent alot of those death spirals.