Proof-of-Liquidity Overview

How BERA stake, WBERA emissions, Reward Vaults, Dedicated Emission Streams, incentives, and sWBERA fit together.

Proof of Liquidity (PoL) is Berachain’s system for directing network emissions toward useful economic activity. It rewards the participants who secure the chain, allocate emissions, provide liquidity, and build applications.

PoL turns block rewards into a programmable emission-routing system. BERA stake secures the validator set and determines how often each validator can produce blocks. When a validator produces a block, WBERA emissions are split into two paths: one portion is routed through Dedicated Emission Streams to globally selected Reward Vaults, while the remainder is routed to Reward Vaults according to the validator’s selected reward allocation.

Businesses can access PoL emissions in two ways: by funding incentives on Reward Vaults to compete for validator allocation, or by being included in a Dedicated Emission Stream for a more predictable long-term flow. See Dedicated Emission Streams for more details.

Users participate by staking eligible assets in Reward Vaults, or by depositing $BERA into the $sWBERA Staking Vault.

When a Reward Vault with active incentives receives emissions, those incentives are collected and split. A portion is paid to validators as commission for allocating emissions, while the remaining incentives are converted into $BERA through the Incentive Auction and accrued into $sWBERA.

How one WBERA emission travels from validator stake through Reward Vaults to user yield. Deeper pages cover each segment in detail.

Lifecycle

1. Stake BERA

   Validators stake $BERA to enter the active set. Additional stakers can increase a validator’s stake directly or via Staking Pools, impacting that validator’s block-production probability.

2. Produce blocks

   Active validators propose blocks with probability proportional to their $BERA stake.

3. Allocate WBERA

   Each proposed block creates a fixed $WBERA Reward Vault emission. The Distributor applies any active Dedicated Emission Stream carve-out, then allocates the remainder through validator reward allocation.

4. Compete with incentives

   Businesses fund Reward Vault incentives to attract validator reward allocation. When emissions are routed to incentivised vaults, part of the incentives is paid to validators as commission and the remainder is redirected to the Incentive Auction.

5. Accrue yield

   Redirected incentives are converted into BERA through the Incentive Auction and accrued into \sWBERA.

6. Claim rewards

   RewardVault stakers can claim $WBERA rewards.

Core components

$BERA: security and block-production weight

Validators join the active set based on staked $BERA, subject to protocol minimum and maximum bounds. The active set contains the top 69 validators by stake. More stake increases block-production probability, which increases how often that validator’s reward allocation is applied.

Validator operators configure that allocation through BeraChef; see Manage Reward Allocations.

Block Rewards

Each per-block $WBERA emission splits along two paths: a fixed baseRate payment to the validator operator, and a rewardRate stream that flows through Dedicated Emission Streams and BeraChef into Reward Vaults.

The BlockRewardController splits each block $WBERA emission in baseRate() (0.4 WBERA) to the validator’s operator and rewardRate() (1.305 WBERA) to the Reward Vaults of the validator’s active reward allocation.

BeraChef manages validator reward allocations, vault whitelisting, and incentive commission. Validators choose how to split their emission across governance-whitelisted reward vaults; see BeraChef.

See Block rewards for the reward model and BeraChef allocation mechanics.

Reward Vaults: where emissions land

Reward Vaults receive allocated $WBERA emissions from validator reward allocation and, where applicable, Dedicated Emission Streams. Users stake PoL-eligible receipt tokens in these vaults and claim rewards based on their share of vault stake.

See Reward Vaults for staking and delegated staking.

Incentives: why validators allocate

Validators define their reward allocation of $WBERA emissions toward the Reward Vaults of their interest to earn a commission in the form of the Protocol’s incentive tokens.

Validator allocations are the signal that directs network emissions toward applications the ecosystem values. Stronger allocations to vaults backed by active, valuable protocols compound the PoL loop: more emissions flow to liquidity that produces real demand, and the incentive market keeps validators accountable for which vaults are actually generating ecosystem value.

Incentive tokens not paid out as validator commission are redirected into the Incentive Auction, where buyers settle them by paying WBERA. That WBERA becomes yield for $sWBERA stakers and registered LST stakers, closing the loop between protocol-funded incentives and the broader BERA economy.

See Incentive Marketplace for incentive rates, commission, and redirection.

Dedicated Emission Streams

In addition to validator-directed reward allocation, Berachain can route part of its emissions through Dedicated Emission Streams.

Dedicated Emission Streams route predictable emissions to selected businesses and globally selected Reward Vaults outside the standard validator allocation market. This gives teams a clearer growth budget they can plan around, while keeping the remaining emissions available for validator allocation.

See Dedicated Emission Streams for eligibility, parameters, repayment mechanics, and revenue-sharing details.

BGT: deprecated

The previous dual-token PoL system based on $BGT and $BERA has been upgraded to a single-token model based on $WBERA.

The $BGT token that previously acted as both governance and emission token is being deprecated.

Contracts retain legacy handling so existing Reward Vaults with residual BGT allowance can settle that allowance automatically as $WBERA during claims.

Existing protocols and Reward Vaults do not need to redeploy. Validator emissions now route to vaults as $WBERA directly, residual $BGT allowances are converted to $WBERA at the claim path inside RewardVault. Protocols whose user-facing surfaces (claim UI, reward-token tags, indexers) referenced $BGT should retag those surfaces to $WBERA; no on-chain migration call is required.

See BGT Token.

Roles at a glance

PoL has distinct participant roles. The same wallet can play more than one role, but each role has a different job and yield path. The table below names each role and links to its canonical page.

Participant	Main job	Main reason to care
Validators	Stake $BERA, produce blocks, allocate emissions towards Reward Vaults	Earn base rewards and incentive commission
BERA stakers	Deposit $BERA to validators directly or through Staking Pools	Increase validator block-production probability
Reward Vault stakers	Stake Protocol’s receipt tokens in Reward Vaults	Earn allocated $WBERA emissions
$sWBERA stakers	Deposit BERA or WBERA into the Staking Vault	Earn WBERA yield from the Incentive Auction
LST stakers	Stake LST tokens into a registered LSTStakerVault	Earn WBERA yield from the Incentive Auction
Staking pool depositors	Deposit BERA into a Staking Pool, receive non-transferable shares	Earn $WBERA yield from both base rate and auction of the incentives commission
Businesses / protocols	Create Reward Vaults, fund incentives, or receive Dedicated Emission Streams	Attract emissions, liquidity, users, and long-term growth capital
Governance	Whitelist vaults and tokens, set system and Dedicated Emission Stream parameters	Keep PoL bounded and accountable

Where to go next

From here you can drop into any specific piece of the system. Reward Vaults is where users actually stake to earn allocated $WBERA, and Incentive Marketplace is where protocol-funded incentives get split between validator commission and the auction that turns the rest into more $WBERA yield for $sWBERA holders. Block rewards is the rate model that sits behind all of it — how much the chain pays per block and how BeraChef divides it.

If you build on Berachain, the integrator surface lives under the Build tab. PoL Integration Basics is the entry point; most protocols then move to Set up a Reward Vault and Add incentives. LST issuers should read LST Integration to plug into the same auction yield that flows to sWBERA. Validators and node operators looking at commission and reward-allocation controls should start at the Nodes overview.

Businesses can apply for a Dedicated Emission Stream: predictable emissions in exchange for a premium-repayment obligation and long-term revenue sharing with the network.