Must-Read Before WLFI Launch: 20 Q&As Fully Explain the Governance Model

Original Title: "20 Q&As to Help You Understand the Governance Model of the Trump Family Crypto Project WLFI"

Original Author: Moni, Odaily

Last weekend, the dispute between World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and Aave over proposals attracted market attention, with both parties embroiled in a controversy over a "7% profit share." After a week, WLFI is also set to launch its first token claim and trading on September 1. So, what exactly is the governance model of this crypto project backed by the Trump family? Below, Odaily will take you through 20 official Q&As for an in-depth understanding:

General Governance Questions

1. How to participate in WLF protocol governance?

The sole purpose of WLFI is to participate in the governance of World Liberty Financial (referred to as the "WLF Protocol"). Therefore, the community is encouraged to actively participate in proposals, discussions, and voting on WLF Protocol governance matters. If you do not intend to participate, please do not purchase this token.

Proposal Questions

2. How to participate in discussions on potential proposals?

Proposals will be discussed on the "forum." Community members must first register an account to participate in the forum. Note that the forum is not limited to WLFI token holders; anyone with an account can participate. While the forum is a place to discuss potential WLF Protocol governance initiatives and conduct "temperature checks" before voting, no actual token voting will take place on the forum, and no actions on the forum will determine voting outcomes. Some discussions on the forum may be purely social in nature.

3. How to submit a formal voting proposal?

Formal proposals are submitted via Snapshot. Any user who holds and custodies votable WLFI tokens can create a proposal. World Liberty Financial will screen proposals before Snapshot voting begins and reserves the right to reject any proposal if its implementation would constitute or cause an unreasonable risk of violating legal requirements (including contractual obligations) or security risks, as defined by the WLF charter. These decisions are made solely by World Liberty Financial and are final.

4. What happens after a proposal is submitted?

After submission, the proposal enters a community review phase. During this period, all WLFI holders can review the proposal, provide feedback, and discuss its implementation. There is no minimum discussion period, but the voting period for specific proposals is typically two weeks, subject to adjustment by World Liberty Financial as needed.

5. How to prevent spam proposals?

World Liberty Financial will screen proposals and may reject any it deems to be spam. Ultimately, through the governance process, additional screening measures may be created to allow users to submit proposals directly.

Voting Questions

6. How is voting conducted?

Once a proposal is approved for voting, a "snapshot" of token holders is taken. Token holders at that time are eligible to vote. In most cases, proposals will use single-choice voting (for or against), but in some cases (e.g., if a proposal may have more than two outcomes), ranked-choice voting may apply.

To participate in Snapshot voting, you must hold WLFI tokens and custody them in a way that allows your wallet or similar application to connect to Snapshot. Snapshot voting allows off-chain voting (to avoid voters paying gas fees), and voting results are stored on-chain and verifiable.

7. How do I know if a proposal is open for voting?

Proposals are usually announced on the Snapshot forum. Formal proposals can be submitted and viewed on Snapshot, but you must register on the forum to receive information about voting proposals.

8. How long is the voting period open?

The voting period for proposals is typically two weeks, but World Liberty Financial may change this in certain cases.

9. Are there limits on the number of tokens that can participate in voting?

Yes. Each token holder is limited to voting with 5,000,000,000 tokens (i.e., 5% of the total supply). Any treasury tokens (i.e., tokens owned by World Liberty Financial) cannot be used for voting.

10. Are WLFI tokens transferable?

At this stage, WLFI is not transferable or resalable. In July 2025, WLFI holders approved a proposal to allow WLFI token transfers. It is expected that, according to the unlock schedule, some WLFI tokens sold to early buyers will become tradable. The remaining WLFI tokens sold to early supporters will be subject to a second community vote to determine the unlock and release schedule. The unlock schedule for founders, advisors, and other personnel is expected to remain non-transferable, and in any case, a longer unlock schedule must be followed. World Liberty Financial reserves the right to independently determine the timing and eligibility requirements for unlocking WLFI tokens.

11. What happens if I do not participate in voting?

If you do not participate in discussions, proposals, and voting, you will not be able to use the functions of WLFI tokens and will miss the opportunity to help shape the future of the WLF Protocol and participate in the WLFI community.

12. What is the approval threshold for voting?

A proposal passes if it reaches the initial minimum quorum of 1,000,000,000 WLFI tokens voted, and the majority of WLFI tokens vote in favor. These thresholds may be adjusted as the governance process evolves.

13. What happens if a token holder owns more than 5,000,000,000 WLFI tokens?

World Liberty Financial aims to embody distributed governance and has therefore decided to limit the voting power of individual token holders. Wallets holding more than 5% of the total token supply (i.e., 5,000,000,000 or more WLFI tokens) will have their voting power capped at 5,000,000,000 tokens. Additionally, if it is found that someone holds more than 5,000,000,000 WLFI tokens across multiple wallets or addresses, measures will be taken to ensure that person's voting power is capped at 5,000,000,000 tokens, regardless of how many addresses or wallets are used to control their total WLFI holdings. Early contributors and service providers holding more than 5% of tokens have disclosed their ownership and affiliated status.

14. What is the difference between total token supply, unissued token supply, and votable token supply?

Total token supply refers to the total number of tokens ever issued, fixed at 100 billions.

Unissued token supply refers to the total token supply minus the number of tokens held by WLF, including tokens sold to buyers in token sales and grants to advisors, service providers, directors, executives, and employees. Votable token supply refers to the unissued token supply minus the number of tokens held by individuals and their affiliates known to hold more than WLFI tokens.

For example, if a holder owns 7,000,000,000 WLFI tokens, that holder can only vote with 5,000,000,000 WLFI tokens, and the total votable token supply will be reduced by 2,000,000,000 WLFI tokens. Since the votable token supply is variable and ultimately depends on the number of WLFI tokens sold or issued, WLF reserves the right to adjust the token voting procedure limit to 5% of the actual votable token supply at any time.

15. How to vote if tokens are held through a third-party custodian?

You should contact your third-party custodian to understand their voting policies and procedures.

Proposal Implementation Questions

16. How are approved proposals implemented?

Once a proposal is approved on Snapshot, if its approval (or rejection) requires on-chain platform actions, the relevant multisig parties should execute the action within a reasonable time after the proposal passes. Some upgrade proposals may require extensive audits and other security verifications to be safely implemented within the platform, so the implementation time for approved proposals should be reasonably determined by the relevant multisig parties.

17. Under what circumstances will an approved WLFI governance proposal not be executed?

World Liberty Financial reserves the right to reject any proposed or approved proposal if its implementation would constitute or cause an unreasonable risk of violating laws (including any contractual obligations) or security risks. These decisions are made solely by World Liberty Financial and are final.

Other Questions

18. Will the WLF Protocol governance platform be upgraded?

There are currently no upgrade plans. The WLF Protocol governance platform may programmatically upgrade its voting procedures to automate certain proposals or types of proposals, but it should be assumed that no upgrades will occur in the future. Additionally, all parameters currently listed are only the platform's initial parameters and may change during the voting process, but such changes should not cause WLF to violate any laws or contractual obligations.

19. Can WLF Protocol governance be suspended in the event of significant security risks or other threats?

The WLF Protocol or any related protocol may encounter a "material adverse event," meaning any event that causes the WLF Protocol or any related protocol to be unable to operate as normally expected for an extended period; or a "security risk," meaning any event that causes the WLF Protocol to cease operation or endangers users' safe use of the WLF Protocol. During a material adverse event or security risk, governance control of the WLF Protocol will be exercised entirely by multisig until normal governance operations resume. In addition, the "security multisig" responsible for WLF Protocol governance, WLF Protocol updates, material adverse events, and security risks may be approved by token holders and WLF, and this security multisig is authorized to respond to such matters.

20. Is World Liberty Financial a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)?

World Liberty Financial is a non-stock corporation in Delaware that manages the WLF Protocol, which allows token holders to vote on certain WLF Protocol governance decisions. The WLF Protocol is not a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) or any type of organization, but is managed and controlled by one or more multisig signers, with the number and specific signers determined by World Liberty Financial. Although WLF Protocol governance may be affected by changes triggered by proposals approved by voting token holders, World Liberty Financial is not bound by any such proposals or votes. WLFI token holders have no obligations to each other or to World Liberty Financial. The relevant charter stipulates that if the WLFI token holder community approves, the WLF Protocol will implement certain WLF Protocol governance proposals.