Venus Protocol Review
The most precisely documented governance delays
of 10
Venus publishes three tiers of governance proposal with exact voting periods and execution delays, and releases under BSD-3-Clause. Its liquidation documentation, however, gives only worked examples rather than the protocol's actual parameters.
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Licence
BSD-3-Clause
Normal proposal
24h voting + 48h delay
Fast-track proposal
24h voting + 6h delay
Critical proposal
6h voting + 1h delay
Auditors
Certik, Quantstamp, FairyProof
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (5.0 + 9.0 + 5.0 + 10.0 + 8.0) ÷ 5 = 7.4.
Pros
- Three proposal types with published durations: normal 24h vote plus 48h delay, fast-track 24h plus 6h, critical 6h plus 1h
- BSD-3-Clause on both the core protocol and isolated pools repositories
- Additional cross-network execution delays stated separately
- Audits named and dated: Certik, Quantstamp and FairyProof
Cons
- Liquidation figures in the documentation are explicitly a hypothetical example, not live parameters
- Reserve factor and per-asset collateral factors are not published
- An Access Control Manager lets some actions bypass voting and execute via a guardian multisig
Governance documented to the hour
Venus publishes three proposal classes with their exact voting periods and execution delays, plus the additional delay that applies when executing on networks other than BNB Chain. Fast-track explicitly covers risk parameter adjustments such as interest rates and collateral factors — so a reader knows precisely how much warning a change of terms carries.
The caveat on the same page
The documentation also notes an Access Control Manager that allows certain actions to bypass voting and be performed by a guardian multisig. Publishing that alongside the timelock table is the honest thing to do, and we have scored the disclosure rather than penalising the admission.
Liquidation figures are illustrative only
The liquidation guide states collateral factor 50%, close factor 50%, threshold 60% and incentive 110% — but frames them as an assumption for a worked example. They are not the protocol's parameters, and we have not treated them as such.
How it compares
Fluid
Four audit firms, almost nothing else published
Compound
Timelock-controlled, with a lapsed licence date
Radiant Capital
72-hour timelock, no licence at all
Spark
Publishes the close factor that most protocols hide
Silo Finance
Liquidation fee fixed at deployment, forever
Aave
49 audit reports and a stated governance delay
Euler
Governance limits enforced permanently in code
Kamino
Publishes what it charges, per market
Morpho
GPL-licensed with published liquidation curve
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Venus — decentralisation and governance timelocks — checked
- 2.Venus core protocol — LICENSE — checked
- 3.Venus — security and audits — checked
Frequently asked questions
How long is Venus's governance timelock?
Normal proposals carry a 24-hour voting period plus a 48-hour delay, fast-track 24 hours plus 6, and critical 6 hours plus 1, with further delays for execution on networks other than BNB Chain.
What licence is Venus under?
Both the core protocol and the isolated pools repositories carry the BSD-3-Clause licence.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.