Frequently asked questions.

71 questions, grouped by what you are trying to work out. Every answer is on this page. Nothing is hidden behind a click.

Getting started#

What is HoodLock?#

HoodLock, written as one word and often typed as hood lock, is a non-custodial token locker, burner, vesting and airdrop platform on Robinhood Chain. It holds ERC-20 tokens until a date you set, sends tokens permanently to the dead address, releases them gradually to a beneficiary, or lets a list of recipients claim their share, and it gives every lock, burn and schedule a public page anyone can verify.

Do I need an account?#

No. There is no sign-up, no email and no password. Connecting a wallet is the only identity involved, and browsing proof pages or the explorer needs no wallet at all.

How do I contact HoodLock support?#

Email admin@hoodlock.tech, or message @HoodLockRH on X. Include your wallet address and the transaction hash or lock id so we can answer in one reply. We will never ask for a seed phrase or private key. See the support page.

Which chain does HoodLock run on?#

Robinhood Chain only, chain id 4663. It is an Ethereum L2 built on the Arbitrum stack, with ETH as the gas token. Full parameters are on the network page.

Does Robinhood Chain have its own token?#

No. Robinhood's official documentation describes ETH as the native gas token of Robinhood Chain and does not mention any separate Robinhood Chain token, so you pay gas in ETH. Be wary of any token sold as the "official" Robinhood Chain coin: anyone can deploy a token with that name, and a symbol proves nothing. Network details are on the network page.

Which wallets are supported?#

Any wallet that supports Robinhood Chain. Browser extensions are discovered automatically, and WalletConnect covers mobile wallets and anything not installed locally. See connecting a wallet.

How long does locking take?#

Two transactions and about a minute. The first approves the amount, the second creates the lock. See the quickstart.

How do I stake on HoodLock?#

You do not. HoodLock has no staking and pays no rewards for locking. Half of HoodLock's fee revenue buys $LOCK on the open market and burns it, with a proof page for every burn; see $LOCK burns. A lock of $LOCK is an ordinary lock: your tokens stay in it until the unlock date and nothing is paid on them.

Can I try it with a small amount first?#

Yes, and it is a reasonable thing to do. The fee is flat rather than a percentage, so a test lock costs the same as a large one, but nothing stops you locking a token dust balance to see the flow end to end.

Costs#

How much does it cost to lock tokens?#

A flat 0.005 ETH per lock, plus gas. No percentage of your tokens is taken at any point. Full breakdown on the fees page.

Is there a fee to withdraw?#

No. Withdrawing an expired lock costs gas only. The fee is charged once, when the lock is created.

Is there a fee to claim vested tokens?#

No. Claiming is free apart from gas. The vesting fee is charged once, at creation.

Does extending a lock cost anything?#

No fee, just gas. That is deliberate. Extending should be the cheapest option, because it is usually the right one. See extending a lock.

Do you take a percentage of locked tokens?#

No, never, at any stage. The fee is a flat amount in ETH. A locker paid in your token has a reason to prefer larger locks over appropriate ones, which is precisely the incentive a flat fee avoids.

Can the fee change?#

Yes, but only for new records. An existing lock or schedule is never re-priced, and withdrawing and claiming stay free regardless. The vesting contract caps its fee at 0.05 ETH and the airdrop contract caps its fee at 0.25 ETH, both written into the code. The locker and burner have no cap. See fees.

What happens if I overpay the fee?#

The locker and burner refund the difference automatically. The vesting contract requires the exact fee and reverts on overpayment. It has no refund path.

Locking#

Can locked tokens be withdrawn early?#

No. The contract checks the unlock time on every withdrawal and reverts before it. There is no override, no admin path and no exception. See the security model.

Who owns locked tokens?#

You do. The lock records your address as the owner, and only that address can withdraw, and only after the unlock time. HoodLock never gains the ability to move them.

Can the team unlock tokens early?#

Not if they are locked with HoodLock. No function exists that shortens a lock or releases it ahead of schedule, so it is not a matter of policy or goodwill.

Can I extend a lock?#

Yes, as many times as you like, for free. Unlock dates can always be pushed further out and can never be pulled in. See extending a lock.

Can I shorten a lock?#

No. The contract requires any new unlock time to be strictly later than the current one. That asymmetry is what makes an unlock date a commitment rather than a preference.

Can I unlock part of a lock early?#

No. A lock is a single record with one amount and one date. If you need staggered access, create several locks with different dates rather than one large one.

Can I add more tokens to an existing lock?#

No. Create a second lock instead. Locks are independent records, which also means they can carry different dates.

What happens when a lock expires?#

Nothing automatic. The tokens stay in the contract until the owner sends a withdrawal transaction, and they can stay there indefinitely. See when a lock expires.

Can I transfer a lock to another wallet?#

Yes. Ownership of the lock can be transferred to a new address, which then holds the right to withdraw. The tokens themselves do not move.

What can be locked?#

Any ERC-20 on Robinhood Chain: project tokens, treasury balances, creator supply, and v2-style LP tokens, which are themselves ERC-20. Uniswap v3 and v4 positions are NFTs, so they go in the Liquidity Locker instead, where they keep earning trading fees while locked.

I launched on Pons. Can I lock my tokens?#

Yes. A token launched on Pons is an ordinary ERC-20, so it locks exactly like any other balance, and several already are. Paste its contract address into the lock form, pick an amount and a date, and you get a proof page like any other token. The one thing you cannot lock is the pool position, and only because Pons already locked that for you at launch. The same applies to every launchpad on this chain, and the Pons guide walks through it.

Is there a minimum lock duration?#

For locks, no. Any time in the future is valid. A vesting schedule must end more than 24 hours from the moment you create it.

Is there a maximum lock duration?#

No practical maximum. Choose a date you can defend rather than the largest number available.

Do I keep earning staking rewards on locked tokens?#

Usually not. Staking, governance and holder snapshots normally look at your own wallet, and locked tokens sit in the locker contract, so they do not see them. HoodLock itself pays nothing on locked tokens, $LOCK included.

Liquidity#

Can I lock LP tokens?#

Yes, if they are v2-style. A Uniswap v2 style position is an ERC-20 token and locks like any other balance. See locking LP tokens.

Can I lock my Uniswap v3 or v4 position?#

Yes, in the HoodLock Liquidity Locker on the lock page. A v3 or v4 position is an NFT, so it does not go through the token locker. You keep collecting its trading fees while it is locked, and HoodLock takes 25% of what you collect, fixed for each lock when it is created. If your launchpad set up the pool, check first whether it already locked or burned the position.

How do I tell whether my LP is v2 or v3?#

A v2 position appears in your wallet as a token balance with a symbol like UNI-V2, and its pair contract has a totalSupply() function. A v3 position does not appear as a token at all. Both can be locked; more in the liquidity locker.

Does locking LP stop the pool from trading?#

No. Locking the LP token prevents liquidity being withdrawn. Swaps, fees and price discovery all continue exactly as before.

Should I lock or burn liquidity?#

Burning is permanent and needs no trust at all. Locking is temporary and keeps the option to migrate the pool later. Neither is strictly better, it depends on whether you may need to move the pool. The comparison covers when each fits.

My launchpad already locked the liquidity. Do I need to do anything?#

Not for the liquidity. What usually remains is fee revenue, a creator buy from the curve, or a treasury. Those are ordinary balances, and they are what a holder looks at once liquidity is settled.

How long should I lock liquidity for?#

Long enough to outlast whatever people are worried about, and long enough to cover your first milestone. Because extending is free and shortening is impossible, err short and extend. The full discussion goes further.

Vesting#

What is the difference between a lock and vesting?#

A lock releases everything on one date. Vesting releases gradually between a start and an end, optionally after a cliff. Locks suit a single allocation you hold, and vesting suits supply going to people over time. Locks vs vesting vs burning compares them properly.

Can a vesting schedule be cancelled?#

Not by HoodLock. There is no revoke, sweep or rescue function in the contract, so we cannot cancel or edit a schedule. The token is the exception: an upgradeable, pausable or blacklisting token can still freeze or devalue a schedule after the fact, and the creator is often the token deployer. See token vesting.

Can I edit a vesting schedule after creating it?#

No. Not the amount, not the dates, not the recipient. This is the one action on HoodLock where a mistake cannot be corrected.

What is a cliff?#

A date before which nothing is claimable, even though time is accruing. When it passes, everything earned up to that point becomes claimable at once. Why holders look for one.

Who can claim vested tokens?#

Only the current beneficiary. The creator cannot claim on their behalf and cannot redirect the schedule.

Do unclaimed vested tokens expire?#

No. They accumulate and stay claimable indefinitely. There is no deadline and nothing is lost by claiming late.

Can the beneficiary be changed?#

Yes, but only by the current beneficiary, for example after a wallet change or a handover. The creator cannot do it for them.

Can I vest for a whole team at once?#

Yes. Batch creation makes one schedule per beneficiary in a single transaction, up to 200, sharing the same token and timing. The fee is charged per schedule. See creating a schedule.

Can a vesting schedule start in the past?#

Yes, and it is legitimate for teams vesting from the date people actually joined. But a schedule that is already half claimable on day one is in practice half a transfer, and the proof page shows that percentage.

Why did my vesting transaction revert?#

Most often because the schedule ends less than 24 hours from now, or because the fee was not exact. The vesting contract requires msg.value to equal the fee precisely and does not refund overpayment. More causes in troubleshooting.

Burning#

What does burning actually do?#

It transfers tokens from your wallet to the dead address in a single hop and writes a permanent record of the amount, the token and the time.

Can burned tokens be recovered?#

Not through HoodLock, and not by anyone holding the dead address, which has no private key. But a mintable token can re-issue the same amount, and an upgradeable token can add a function that moves the dead address balance. Check whether the token is mintable or upgradeable before treating a burn as permanent. See token burning.

Why burn through HoodLock instead of sending to the dead address myself?#

Both destroy the supply. Only one produces an indexed record and a page stating the amount and share of supply that a reader can check without knowing how to use a block explorer.

Do burned tokens sit in your contract first?#

No. The transfer goes straight from your wallet to the dead address. There is no intermediate custody step.

Airdrops#

How do HoodLock airdrops work?#

You fund the airdrop once with a list of wallets and amounts. The contract stores a single Merkle root, and each recipient comes and claims their own share, so nothing is pushed into wallets that never asked for it. If you set a deadline, you can take back whatever is still unclaimed once it passes. See airdrops.

What does an airdrop cost?#

Right now nothing beyond gas, because the airdrop fee is switched off. The contract can charge a fee that grows with the number of recipients, but the code caps it at 0.25 ETH per airdrop, and claiming never carries a platform fee.

$LOCK burns and referrals#

What happens to HoodLock's fee revenue?#

Half of it, after any referral or developer commission, buys $LOCK on the open market and burns it. The burn vault keeps back the burner's fee, swaps the rest for $LOCK and burns every token it bought through HoodLock's own burner, so each round has a public proof page. The other half goes to the team. See $LOCK burns.

What happened to the $LOCK revenue drops?#

They were replaced by the buyback and burn. Every drop that already opened stays claimable for 180 days after it opened, and the full history is on the $LOCK burns page.

How does the referral program work?#

Connect a wallet on the affiliate page and create a referral link. The link earns 30% of the fee on every lock, burn and vesting schedule created by wallets that first reached HoodLock through it. Your own wallet does not count. Earnings can be claimed once the balance passes $10.

How much do developers earn?#

50% of the fee on every lock, burn and vesting schedule their embed widget or API integration produces, whoever the user is. Like referral earnings, the balance can be claimed once it passes $10.

Verification and trust#

How do investors verify a lock?#

By opening the proof page, checking the token address matches the token actually trading, reading the share of supply rather than the raw amount, and checking the unlock date. Full method: verifying a lock.

Can I verify a lock without a wallet?#

Yes. Proof pages, token pages and the explorer all work with no wallet and no account.

What is a proof page?#

A public URL for a single lock, burn or vesting schedule that renders the current on-chain state: token, amount, share of supply, dates and status, with links to the transaction. See proof of lock.

Does a lock mean a token is safe?#

No. A lock is evidence about one balance. It says nothing about the token contract, the remaining supply or the team. The other checks matter as much.

Someone showed me a screenshot of a lock. Is that enough?#

No. Ask for the link and open it yourself, then confirm the token address on the page matches the token you would actually buy. Symbols repeat; addresses do not.

Can HoodLock take my tokens?#

No function exists that would let us. Only the lock owner can withdraw, and only after the unlock time. Only the beneficiary can claim vested tokens, and only the creator of an airdrop can take back its unclaimed balance. The security model names the exact functions to read, so you can check rather than trust.

What can the admin do?#

Change the fee for new records, change the fee collector, and hand over the admin role. That is the full list on the locker, burner, vesting and airdrop contracts. No admin function can touch an existing lock, schedule, airdrop or balance.

How can I check the contracts myself?#

The source of the locker, burner and vesting contracts matches the bytecode running on-chain, and you can compare the two yourself on Blockscout. Search it for withdraw and confirm every match is gated on the owner or beneficiary, then search for onlyAdmin and read what those functions touch. The security model names the exact functions. If you find something that looks wrong, report it privately to @HoodLockRH on X.

What happens if HoodLock disappears?#

The contracts keep running. They are deployed on-chain and do not depend on our site. You can call withdraw or claim directly from a block explorer. The proof pages would go, the funds would not.

Developers#

Can I add locking to my own site?#

Yes, two ways: an embed widget that is one script tag and a button, or a REST API that returns prepared transactions for you to submit from the user's wallet.

Can I style the button myself?#

Yes. The widget attaches a click handler and nothing else. It sets no classes, no inline styles and no attributes affecting appearance. Your button stays entirely yours.

Is the API key secret?#

No, it is public by design, in the same sense as a Stripe publishable key. It credits actions to you and cannot move funds, read balances or reach admin. Embedding it in frontend source is the intended use.

Can I offer only locking, without burn and vesting?#

Yes. Each button is independent, so a lock-only integration is a single button with no extra attributes. You earn on whichever products you add.

Do the API endpoints support CORS?#

Yes, they send permissive CORS headers and work from a browser. Note that the API key is passed as a query parameter on GET and a body field on POST. There is no header form, because the CORS policy allows Content-Type only.