GHOST Token
Every engine needs fuel. For the Specter network, that fuel is GHOST — the native token that powers every privacy operation, secures the chain through staking, and gives holders a voice in governance.
What Is GHOST?
GHOST is the native gas and privacy token of the Specter network. If you've used ETH on Ethereum or ATOM on Cosmos, you already understand the role: GHOST is what you spend to interact with the chain, what validators stake to secure it, and what the network rewards them with for honest work.
But GHOST does something those tokens don't — it's purpose-built for privacy. Every time someone commits a secret, reveals a credential, verifies a zero-knowledge proof, or bridges assets cross-chain, GHOST is the token making it happen.
Token Basics
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | GHOST |
| Decimals | 18 |
| Smallest Unit | aghost |
| Conversion | 1 GHOST = 10^18 aghost |
| Genesis Supply | 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) |
| Hard Cap | 1,500,000,000 (1.5 billion) |
The smallest indivisible unit of GHOST is called an aghost (think of it like wei to ETH, or satoshi to BTC). When you see gas costs quoted in aghost, that's the protocol speaking in its most precise denomination — 1 GHOST equals one quintillion aghost.
Supply Model
GHOST follows a capped emission model. The genesis supply is 1 billion tokens, with an additional 500 million tokens available through declining block rewards over approximately 10 years. This means the absolute maximum supply of GHOST is 1.5 billion tokens — a hard cap enforced at the protocol level.
The emission rate starts at 12% in Year 1 and declines annually, reaching a 0.5% tail emission floor. After 10 years, approximately 1,387 million GHOST will have been minted. The emission schedule is designed to reward early validators and stakers while ensuring long-term supply predictability.
Why "GHOST"?
The name isn't just branding. In the Specter ecosystem, privacy is the product. Ghost Protocol is the primitive that makes secrets programmable. GHOST the token is the economic layer that sustains it — aligning incentives so that validators run the network, users get privacy, and the whole system stays healthy.
Think of GHOST as the economic heartbeat of a privacy-first chain. Every transaction pulse, every proof verification, every governance vote — they all run on GHOST.