Using Aquarius Governance

The proposal process from discussion to publication — phases, AQUA fees, creator rewards, and the ICE quorum.

Aquarius Governance enables AQUA holders to shape the protocol through proposals and voting. Anyone can submit a proposal for community voting, but keep in mind that proposals lacking clear benefits for the Aquarius or Stellar ecosystem are unlikely to gain support.

Proposal process

Proposals go through two phases before voting:

1. Discussion phase (7 days) — a mandatory discussion period, primarily on the Aquarius Discord server. Proposal creators gather community feedback, refine their ideas, and decide whether to proceed, edit, or abandon the proposal.

2. Publication phase (up to 30 days) — after the discussion phase, creators can publish the proposal for voting immediately or continue refining it. Each edit resets both the 7-day discussion and the 30-day publication window. A proposal not published within 30 days of its creation or last edit is marked as finished.

Fees and rewards

Creating, editing, or publishing a proposal costs AQUA:

• Creation: 100,000 AQUA

• Editing: 100,000 AQUA per edit

• Publication: 900,000 AQUA

All fees are sent to the AQUA issuer wallet, effectively burning them. The fees exist to ensure proposals are well thought out before moving forward.

If a general governance proposal reaches quorum and finishes with more "For" than "Against" votes, the creator earns a 1.5 million AQUA reward — covering the 1 million AQUA spent on creation and publication, plus a 500,000 AQUA bonus if no edits were made.

The creator reward applies to general proposals only. Asset listing and delisting proposals pay the same creation and publication fees, but an approved asset proposal earns no reward.

Proposal queue and voting slots

Only one proposal can be in voting at a time — general governance and asset listing proposals share a single queue.

Voting happens in weekly voting slots: each slot runs from Monday 00:00:00 UTC to Sunday 23:59:59 UTC and holds exactly one proposal. When publishing, you choose a free slot from the next calendar week up to 6 weeks ahead; the current week cannot be booked. The proposal stays queued until its slot begins, then votes for that full week.

Validity and quorum

To be valid, a proposal must reach a 20% quorum of the circulating ICE supply — "For", "Against", and "Abstain" votes all count toward it. For example, with 50 billion ICE in existence, at least 10 billion ICE must participate in the vote.

A proposal with 100% "For" votes but less than 20% participation is automatically rejected. This ensures only widely supported proposals move forward.