Accounts in BitShares are separated into three groups. We decided to give users the option to upgrade their accounts into a VIP-like status if they desire and profit from reduced fees and additional features.

Membership Groups


A regular account is a non-member.

Lifetime Members

Lifetime Members get a percentage cashback on every transaction fee they pay and qualify to earn referral income from users they register with or referer to the network. A Lifetime membership is associated with a certain one-time fee that is defined by the committee.

Anual Members

If a lifetime membership is too much you can still get the same cashback for the next year by becoming an annual subscriber for a smaller one-time fee which lasts for only one year.


Technically, the fees that you pay stay the same, but a part of the fees is refunded in the form of a vesting balance.Once the fees have vested you can withdraw them. To see your vesting balances, go to your “Account” tab, then click on “vesting balances” at the bottom left. Vesting balances are recalculated hourly, so you might not yet see them right away.


Due to some discrepancies, the annual membership has been disabled in most web wallets and will be re-enabled after a proper update eventually.


Every time an account you referred pays a transaction fee, that fee is divided among several different accounts. The network takes a cut, and the Lifetime Member who referred the account gets a cut.

The registrar is the account that paid the transaction fee to register the account with the network. The registrar gets to decide how to divide the remaining fee between themselves and their own affiliate.

Pending Fees

Fees paid are only divided among the network, referrers, and registrars once every maintenance interval.

Vesting Fees

Most fees are made available immediately, but fees over the vesting threshold (such as those paid to upgrade your membership or register a premium account name) must vest for some days as defined by the committee.