Unlocked Neurons don’t “Age” and accrue an “Age % bonus” to be used later if the neuron decides to stake for the minimum period to be able to participate in governance (currently 6-months). Locked Neurons that are staked for 1-day, 7-day’s (minimum period to lock a neuron), 10-day’s, 150-day’s, etc… all accrue an “Age % bonus” yet are have no voting rights and cannot vote.
This Free Parking - age % bonus accrual shouldn’t happen, 8-year stakers… heck ya’ll any stakers that are staked 6-months and are eligible to vote and participate in governance should question why we as a DAO allow non-voting neurons to accrue Age % Bonus that they could use if they ever decided to stake for longer or wait for Dfinity to reduce the voting period to 3-months… than all these non-voting age % bonus accruing thiefs of the NNS can swoop in with all their voting extra voting power for doing nothing is scammy to me. Just my opinion.
I don’t think this is such a good business. If you top up a neuron (or merge it with some other neuron) then the new age bonus is a weighted average of the age bonus of the previous stake and the new stake, resulting in the same voting power as if you created a fresh neuron/left the neurons unmerged
I think the idea is that all neurons earn age bonus the same way, whether they’re in not dissolving for 8 years or 8 minutes. But locked neurons (with higher dissolve delay) earn higher rewards. Unlocked ones don’t - even if they still gain age bonus.
I don’t see this as unfair. If someone keeps ICP in a 8 minutes dissolve delay neuron, they miss out on rewards. Later, if they choose to stake it longer, the age bonus is like a small reward for not disbursing. Or they can withdraw, and the bonus means nothing.
In short, it’s a way to encourage locking later, not a cheat. You give up rewards for a while, but you may get a better voting boost later if you commit.