# Staking Mechanism ### Staking $NABLA Staked $NABLA ($sNABLA) allows users to submit proposals and vote on key decisions regarding the protocol’s strategic direction, main parameters, and reward distribution. It furthermore allows to profit from several reward mechanisms. ### Boost and Voting Power To incentivize loyal users, stakers accrue a boost over time, which increases their voting power. The longer they stake their $NABLA tokens, the higher that boost (linear, up to 2x after one year of staking). The voting power is calculated as the product of $sNABLA and the accrued boost. ### Unstake & Cooldown Period Token holders can choose to unstake at any time without a cost, but need to wait for a cooldown period of 2 weeks before the tokens can be withdrawn from the staking contract. If $NABLA tokens are unstaked, the accumulated boost for those tokens will be forfeited. Furthermore, the tokens don’t profit anymore from the utility of staked tokens during the cooldown period.