What a token lock is, and what it proves

A token lock puts tokens inside a contract that will only release them on a schedule set when the lock was made. While it holds, nobody can sell those tokens, including the person who locked them.

What a lock proves

Exactly one thing: that a specific number of tokens sits in a contract that will not release them before a specific date. That is a narrow claim, and its value comes from being checkable. Anyone can read the contract and confirm it in under a minute, without contacting the team and without trusting a screenshot.

This matters most in two places. A team holding a large share of its own supply can lock it to show it will not be sold into the market next week. A project that has added liquidity to a pool can lock the LP position to show the pool will not be pulled.

What a lock does not prove

People read far more into a lock than it says. It does not tell you:

• That the whole supply is locked. A team can lock 2% of supply and still hold the other 60%. Always check the amount against total supply, not the headline.
• That the token is safe. A lock says nothing about the token contract itself, which may be able to mint more, tax transfers or block wallets.
• That the team is honest. It proves those particular tokens are held, and nothing about anything else they control.
• That the lock is long. A lock expiring in six days is still a lock. The date is the point, so read it.

Lock, or vesting?

A straight lock holds everything and returns all of it on one date. Vesting releases gradually, usually after a waiting period, so the holder receives a trickle rather than a lump. Teams normally want vesting for contributors and a lock for liquidity. The differences are set out here.

How Lockbox does it

Each lock gets its own vesting wallet, created fresh and holding only that one lock's tokens. Nothing is pooled, so one lock can never be paid out of another's funds, whatever a token contract does. The Lockbox contracts have no owner, no pause switch and no upgrade path, which means the schedule that was set is the schedule that runs. The security model goes through this in detail.

Every lock gets a public page that reads live from the chain, with no wallet needed to view it. That page is the thing worth sharing, because the reader can check it themselves. Browse the locks that already exist.