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#2: lANTS, the NFT That Keeps ANTS Liquid

· 6 min read
Antseed Team
Antseed Team
Building the P2P AI Network

Ants line up at a leaf-roofed lANTS stall while another ant pulls a cart of seeds.

ANTS is a liquid token for AI inference. lANTS is how it stays liquid while it's staked.

Stake ANTS, keep it liquid: stake ANTS behind a provider you trust, your position becomes an NFT, and you can keep it, move it or sell it.

In the first post in this series, we explained how staking ANTS with a provider can get you free AI. This post is about what your stake becomes.

When you stake ANTS behind a provider you trust, your position becomes an lANTS NFT. It can get you free AI from that provider and earns staking rewards. The ANTS stays locked, but you can move the lANTS to another provider or sell it. If you've staked your ANTS, you already have a lANTS NFT.

Why does this matter? Antseed is an open market where anyone can run a provider, and no central authority decides which ones are good. Staking is how you help the network curate providers. Your stake adds to the provider's trust score, and the AI VPN app and Antseed gateways only route requests automatically to providers whose score is high enough.

Let's dive in.

What a lANTS NFT gets you​

Free AI. Providers with a staked free tier give you a bigger free allowance the more ANTS you lock with them, and the longer you lock it. That can mean more free requests, unlimited use of their free models, or free requests on paid models.

With the default tiers, 10,000 ANTS locked for a year gets you 5x the base free limit. Each provider sets its own offer and can change it, and your stake only counts with the one you picked.

Staking rewards. Your position earns a share of that pool's weekly staking rewards. Rewards change with activity and how much is staked in each pool, so there's no fixed return.

What's inside an lANTS​

Each lANTS is an onchain record of one staked position. It holds:

  • The provider you're backing
  • How much ANTS you staked
  • When the lock ends

What counts is your staking power: the ANTS you stake multiplied by the weeks left on your lock. 10,000 ANTS locked for a year has the same staking power as 20,000 locked for six months.

Staking power is counted in weekly epochs, which start every Thursday, and a new position starts counting from the next one. Each week your lock has one week less left, so your power goes down. For example, 10,000 ANTS locked for a year starts at 520,000 and is at 260,000 halfway through. That means the free tier you reach today can drop over time, unless you extend the lock.

Same staking power: 10,000 ANTS with a 1-year lock and 20,000 ANTS with a 6-month lock both give 520,000 staking power.

Your stake backs a provider you trust​

Backing a provider does more than help them get picked. Your stake also raises their rewards boost, so qualifying paid usage with them earns more Antseed Points for them and their users. Your pool's rewards move with that usage too, so a provider that serves people well is good for everyone backing them.

Move it, split it or sell it​

lANTS keeps the lock but lets the position change providers or owners. So, if your plans change, you don't have to withdraw early, which would burn part of your stake as a penalty.

Move it. If a provider stops earning your trust, move your position to another provider's pool. It keeps its amount and remaining lock, nothing is burned, and the move takes effect from the next epoch. That gives providers a reason to keep earning your backing.

Split or merge it. Split part of a position into a second one with the same terms, or merge positions in the same pool that unlock on the same date.

Sell it. Because lANTS is an NFT, you can sell it. People are already buying and selling lANTS on marketplaces the community built, such as antseedmarkets and lANTS Market. The buyer takes over the stake, its remaining lock and any free-tier allowance already used. The ANTS stays in the provider's pool unless the new owner moves it, so the provider keeps your backing.

Five ways to use your NFT: get free AI, earn staking rewards, move it, split or merge it, and sell or buy it.

How to get a lANTS NFT​

Stake. Pick a provider, an amount and a lock in the staking dashboard, and you get a new lANTS. You can stake ANTS from your wallet once transfers are turned on for it, or stake the ANTS you earn through Antseed Points on qualifying paid usage.

To open the staking dashboard in the AI VPN desktop app, go to Rewards, then click Manage staking.

In the AI VPN desktop app, open Rewards, then click Manage staking. The staking dashboard opens in your browser.

Buy. You can buy an lANTS on community marketplaces like antseedmarkets and lANTS Market. Hold it in your buyer address and it counts toward that provider's free tier for you. Before you buy, check the provider, the lock left and how the marketplace handles unclaimed rewards.

The lock still matters​

The early-withdrawal penalty is 50% of your stake at the start of the lock, falling to 5% near the end. Once the lock ends, you can withdraw with no penalty. Only lock ANTS if you're comfortable with the lock terms.

What's next​

Today, an lANTS can get you free inference from the one provider it backs. Next, we want one stake to get you free inference from more than one provider. More on that soon.