# veBAL and Gauges

The veBAL and Gauge system is designed to promote long-term token-holder alignment, decentralize Liquidity Mining allocation, and facilitate fair protocol revenue distribution. This system is based heavily on Curve's veCRV system.

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Looking for data from Gauges? Gauge Data lives in the [Balancer-Gauges Subgraph](https://thegraph.com/hosted-service/subgraph/balancer-labs/balancer-gauges). 
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## veBAL Overview

veBAL (vote-escrow BAL) is a vesting and yield system based on [Curve’s veCRV mechanism](https://curve.readthedocs.io/dao-vecrv.html) which locks 80/20 BAL/WETH Balancer Pool Tokens for a maximum of 1 year.

{% content-ref url="vebal-and-gauges/vebal" %}
[vebal](https://balancer.gitbook.io/balancer-v2/ecosystem/vebal-and-gauges/vebal)
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## Gauges Overview

Gauges are a class of contracts that determine how Liquidity Mining (LM) is allocated. 

There are a few Gauge Types to handle a few scenarios; some Gauge Types require voting with veBAL to give specific Gauges a higher weighting, while others are fixed-amount distribution channels. These per-Gauge-Type amounts can be changed by Governance vote.

**Examples**

* Voting with veBAL: Allocating LM to specific Ethereum mainnet pools
* Fixed-Amount: Amounts designated for the LM Committee to allocate as they see fit

{% content-ref url="vebal-and-gauges/gauges" %}
[gauges](https://balancer.gitbook.io/balancer-v2/ecosystem/vebal-and-gauges/gauges)
{% endcontent-ref %}