veChess
veChess and its utility.
veChess is obtained by locking CHESS.

# What’s the utility of the CHESS token?

Currently, there are three main utilities for CHESS token, all require veChess:
1. 1.
2. 2.
To receive a weekly BTCB rebate, which totals 50% of the fees collected (gas fee excluded) within Tranchess.
3. 3.
To receive a boost on CHESS earning through staking.

# How exactly is veChess calculated?

CHESS can be locked for up to 4 years. The number of veChess you receive depends on the time you lock your CHESS for. The minimum locking time is 1 week, and for every CHESS locked, veChess increases linearly from 0 to 1 as you increase your locking time from 0 to 4 years.
1 CHESS locked for 1 year = 0.25 veChess.
1 CHESS locked for 2 year = 0.5 veChess.
1 CHESS locked for 3 year = 0.75 veChess.
1 CHESS locked for 4 year = 1 veChess.
Without increasing the locking time or the number of CHESS, your veChess decreases linearly as the end date of the locking period approach.

# How do I participate in the weekly rebates?

Lock CHESS and enroll your veChess in BTCB rebate.
On Week 0, Thur 14:00 UTC, Tranchess registers individual's and the total amount of veChess enrolled for rebate. The recorded veChess will be eligible for the following week's BTCB rebate.
On Week 1, Thur 14:00 UTC, Tranchess sums up the total fees accumulated throughout the week and divides proportionally 50% of the total fees amongst the recorded veChess enrolled. The BTCB rebate will be claimable thereafter.
For example,
On Week 0, before Thurs 14:00 UTC: Alice enrolls 100 veChess whilst the total rebate pool is 10,000.
Between Week 0, Thurs 14:00 UTC to Week 1, Thurs 14:00 UTC: If Tranchess collected 1 BTCB as fees for the week, the BTCB rebate allocated to Alice would be 100/10000*1*50% = 0.005 BTC. Alice can claim this 0.005 BTC any time post Week 1, Thurs 14:00 UTC.
Note: Any new veChess gained during the week (Week 0, Thurs 14:00 UTC to Week 1, Thurs 14:00 UTC) can be enrolled but will only receive rebates post Week 2, Thurs 14:00 UTC.

# How to calculate the APY for locking CHESS?

The APY is calculated based on the last 7-day's BTCB rebate pool and the average lock duration. Below are the exact formulas:
$APY = \big(1+WeeklyYield\big) ^{52} -1$
$Weekly Yield = \frac{(Last 7-day's BTCB_{Reward} ) \times BTCB_{Price} }{Total CHESSLocked \times CHESS_{Price} }$

# What is Boosting?

Boosting increases the rate in which you earn staking rewards. A boost factor of up to 3x is possible to increase your chess rewards anytime.
For example, if you are currently earning 1000 CHESS per day by staking token QUEEN, BISHOP, and ROOK, a boost factor of 3x allows you to earn 3000 CHESS per day.

# When does Boosting start?

Boosting will start on September 20th, 2021, at around 2 pm UTC.

# How can I activate Boosting?

First, stake your QUEEN, BISHOP, and ROOK tokens. Second, ensure that you have veCHESS. Click “Enroll” after the Boosting feature goes live if you already have veCHESS before the feature launched. You only need to enroll once.
If you don’t have any veCHESS yet, start locking CHESS and you will soon see the boost factor displayed as shown below:
Testnet image, demonstration purpose only.
Check out how to stake QUEEN, BISHOP, and ROOK here:
Check out how to lock CHESS and earn veCHESS here:

# How do I know if I am given a boost now?

If you can see the Boost factor being displayed under CHESS rewards, then you are enjoying a boost now.
If Boost factor is 1x or if you see a notice as below, then it would imply that you are earning CHESS at regular speed:
Testnet image, demonstration purpose only.
If your account page looks exactly like the demo image shown above, CHESS locking is not the only action you are missing. Stake some QUEEN, BISHOP and ROOK tokens to activate CHESS mining first!
Lock CHESS now to boost:

# Will my boost factor change after I harvest CHESS?

No. However, if you locked some of the harvested CHESS, it would affect your veChess, which would then change your boost factor.

# How often does my boost factor change?

Your boost factor changes under two scenarios:
1. 1.
Whenever the general staking pool changes. That is, whenever there are more tokens staked or unstaked into the pool, or whenever you stake or unstake some tokens, your boost factor could change in tandem.
2. 2.
Whenever you adjust your veCHESS amount. By definition, veChess decreases linearly and continuously unless users increase their locked CHESS amount or extend the locking duration. This default decrease does not affect your boost factor. Locking more CHESS, extending the CHESS locking duration, or an expiration of the CHESS locking period would affect the boost factor.

# Why did my boost factor decrease after I lock more CHESS?

As mentioned before, your veCHESS decreases linearly over time, however your boost factor will only take notice of your decreasing voting power when your action requires interaction with certain contract, like enroll, locking, unlocking, etc.. Until such interaction happens, your boost factor is calculated using the last recorded veCHESS amount, which might be much higher than the current actual veCHESS number.
If the veCHESS proportion you obtain after locking more CHESS is less than the previous veCHESS proportion when your boost factor was calculated, the new boost factor might be updated to a smaller number.

# Do I get more BTCB rebates from Boosting?

Boosting impacts the rate at which you earn CHESS. It does not directly increase the amount of BTCB you get. However, your boost factor is partially influenced by the share of veCHESS, and the share of veCHESS decides your share of the BTCB rebate pool. So if you increased your share of veCHESS to increase your boost factor, you would have increased your share of the BTCB rebate pool at the same time.

# Will I get more boost by just holding any of the tokens?

For QUEEN, BISHOP and ROOK, stake those tokens first to start the basic CHESS reward mining. Once the basic mining started, lock CHESS for boosting.
Holding and locking CHESS tokens alone without staking Q/B/R does not activate boosting.

# How is the boost factor calculated?

Tranchess considers multiple parameters when calculating the Boost factor. Check out the formula in our Whitepaper.
There are two boost factors. The actual one applied to users' accounts and the potential max boost factor which is derived purely from the staking proportion of individual accounts. In practice, users can adjust their share of the veCHESS pool by locking more CHESS or extending their lock duration to reach their potential max boost factor.
To illustrate, we prepared two scenarios. Please note, since the boost factor can be affected by other users' activities (staking more tokens or increase veChess share), the examples shown below are for demonstration purposes only. In practice, the actual numbers might vary.
General Assumptions:
• The total staking pool has 17503 staked QUEEN, 756 staked BISHOP, and 682 staked ROOK.
• Some of the staked tokens in other accounts are already boosted.
• Total locked CHESS: 58859.5, average lock duration: 5 months.
• In both scenarios, the three users' behaviors should be considered as isolated events. That is, the boost factors are results of only one user's behavior, not three concurrently.
Scenario 1:
Assume after staking the desired token, the user locked 1500 CHESS for 1 week.
Scenario 2:
Assume after staking the desired token, the user locked 1500 CHESS for 25 weeks (6 months).