# Curation

Curators decide what art belongs in the VIBES collective. They have the ability to *infuse* any NFTs they own with **VIBES**, curating them into the network.

Infusion is a process that stakes **VIBES** inside of an NFT that can be mined and claimed over time by whoever owns it. This creates a circular token economy, where **VIBES** from curated art are mined by collectors that then get to shape the future direction of the curated network.

{% content-ref url="mining-vibes" %}
[mining-vibes](https://docs.sickvibes.xyz/protocol/mining-vibes)
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**Curators are onboarded via a decentralized peer-to-peer process**, ensuring that no central gatekeepers are responsible for deciding the curatorial direction of the collective.
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## Infusion

Infusion is the low-level mechanism that enables curation. Only VIBES Curators with **Influence** can infuse NFTs. What NFTs a curator infuses (and how much they infuse) is entirely up to them, but there are a few on-chain constraints:

**An NFT can only be infused once**. After an NFT has been curated into VIBES, it is always a VIBES NFT, even if all of the **VIBES** inside of it have been mined and claimed. There is no way to "refill" an NFT once it has fully mined all **VIBES**.

**There are limits around daily rate and total amount infused**. Currently, the mining rate is locked to 1,000 **VIBES** / day, and total infused **VIBES** must be between 50,000 and 1,095,000 (50 days - 3 years). These parameters can be adjusted by the [VIBES multisig](https://docs.sickvibes.xyz/governance#vibes-multisig) if needed. 

**An NFT must be owned by the person infusing it.** The intent is that the curator must have "control" of the NFT and intersect with its on-chain provenance in order to have the ability to curate it. This constraint can be disabled by the [VIBES multisig](https://docs.sickvibes.xyz/governance#vibes-multisig) if needed. 

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View the on-chain parameters around infusion constraints on the [Protocol Info](https://www.sickvibes.xyz/protocol) page under the Infusion Pool section.
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## Influence

An address can have a certain amount of **Influence**, which is an on-chain value (but not a token). You can view your Influence on the [Wallet Page](https://sickvibes.xyz/wallet) on the VIBES site.

**Any address that has more than zero Influence is considered a VIBES Curator.**

Whenever a curator infuses an NFT to curate it into VIBES, their Influence is reduced by the same amount. This happens regardless of whether the **VIBES** come from their wallet or the curation grant pool.

In addition, a curator may transfer some or all of their Influence to another address, onboarding another curator. This decentralized and peer-to-peer onboarding approach ensures the VIBES network will foster a rich diversity of thought, taste, art, and voice.

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You can see all addresses that have been assigned Influence on [Curators List](https://sickvibes.xyz/curate/curators) page.
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### Details

The total amount of assigned Influence is likely to exceed the amount of available **VIBES** that could actually be infused into NFTs; this is intentional.

Influence is not a token, it's mostly a way of **decentralizing the assignment and delegation of responsibility** in a crypto-native and dynamic way. Avoiding the use of a token here allows for more design flexibility in the protocol and provides a capital-independent assignment of network control. 

The [VIBES multisig](https://docs.sickvibes.xyz/governance#vibes-multisig) can set or reset Influence for any address at anytime, though this will only occur occasionally and with community support (see [this Snapshot proposal](https://snapshot.org/#/sickvibes.eth/proposal/QmaAhfdC5zGkaQBzSjifgKpP623LvBq2KbJoa4rhrAcpFy)), or in the case of problems or abuse as a last resort.

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Generally, the **VIBES multisig will only perform the initial assignments of Influence to a handful of "primary curators"**, who can then onboard more curators in a decentralized way.
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