RFC: Mini Season 2 of Radix Rewards during Foundation Handover

Governance Radix Community DAO
1

There are calls to start a smaller season 2 of Radix Rewards during the Foundation handover to community. It would be nice to have a small incentive live to take advantage of any new eyes on our ledger from Timan’s test and related publicity.

I would like to hear from others if you think this is a good idea, how much rewards should be involved, and how long it should run? The numbers I have seen floating around are 6 weeks duration, 5-10 million XRD reward.

Throwing this RFC together quickly because this seems like something that would need to be voted on quickly, perhaps even alongside the next vote on which token to use for DAO voting participation.

10 Likes
2

Should there even be a S2 when engagement is at an all time low? I feel like a campaign in general should be met with clear goals to achieve with an aligned vision. Until there is a new direction for Radix, it shouldnt be considered at all imo. And having lower awards from the initial S1 is just going to send sentiment lower. Sonic did this, in a more scummy way and people were PISSED.

“Flash campaigns” that I’ve seen in other networks also dont retain very well.

3

I didn’t participate, as I always got burned in every other “opportunity” that Radix gave us previously.
I guess I can be neutral on this but if given a vote, I rather there’s no more of this until it’s community-run

1 Like
4

That was my first reaction too, but a few counter arguments have me possibly reconsidering. Presenting the arguments I have heard here since no one else has:

  1. TVL may crash if we don’t have something in place. I am actually not super concerned about that at this point, but others in eco seem to be. I was going to unwind some cross chain loans and go all into staking if there is no S2 but I would chill where I am at if there is something going on. That’s just me, but others may feel the same.

  2. Any kind of hook to get people to try some things on ledger is probably good. While a TVL crash from here isn’t the end of the world imo, its a bad look if people from this public test poke around to see what were about. Adam also mentioned:

”Another bit of good news today, had a discussion with the large cloud provider that is supporting the Hyperscale tests. On the day they will be providing support, and once successful they are keen to look into doing a case-study about it and are happy for us to name them once the test is complete.

They are also pushing internally to promote the result, but can’t promise as they are a massive corporate so have a hell of a lot of red tape to get through (although I hear slightly less so than Radix has :wink:)”

Maybe more people will see the result and check us out?

  1. Season 1 was something like 5m rewards per week. What is being proposed is something much smaller on the order of 5-10m total so approx 1m per week.
4 Likes
5

I wouldnt trust a single thing off a trust me bro hopium type thing. In general, a rewards campaign with no vision in sight apart from hoping to grab some kind of sticky users wont work imo. Im thinking that pot should be used more wisely (now, more than ever) to rebuild with a shared, unified vision that new users can really get behind and participate in the campaign long term with the belief that the network will make it

6

We must to do something not drop the TVL . if is a Rewards, must…..but in these case i propose that ppl that will go to recibe it will be locked for 1 year or locked for X amount of time till price arrive to X , 0.10¢ for example. Otherwise is give free money again and ppl dont stay on the net.

1 Like
7

I also think we should continue with the campaign on a smaller scale. I think 5 million XRD for a period of six weeks would be appropriate. I hope that will be enough to prevent our TVL from falling completely.

8

Incentives are a marketing tool which works with positive chart so no wonder it did bad when chart was heading to the ground. Without incentives radix would dump to the absolute shitter. Currently when incentives end we’ll suffer both liqudity outflow and waste a huge opportunity to be able to lead new users to >something to do<. Keeping small rewards for those is a nobrainer. Original plan was 100m/season, we can easily drop it to 10m/season and it’s more than enough.

Removing it is a foolish move especially if you consider that dapps to work need liquidity and unless radix does some massive pump/promo we need to do everything possible to encourage users to keep liquidity on chain. Else our ecosystem will need necromancer. Right now there’s still some life inside.

Lower rewards won’t send sentiment lower when chart itself is doing fine. No rewards will send liquidity away and have potential to dump the chart.

3 Likes
9
  • Foundation to run a Season2 with 10M XRD pool and 3 Months duration
  • No Season2: Kill it with fire till after the DAO has taken over
0 voters

I’m not as experienced with marketing and this topic in general, but I did enjoy participating in the Rewards program.

Based on the above convos I am leaning towards letting the Foundation run the program for a limited time (3 months) and much smaller pool of rewards (10M XRD).

The tooling for Season2 is already in place (sunk cost) so I don’t see much harm in running a limited scope Season 2. Likewise, since the tooling is already in place there should be minimal impact on the Foundation resources to enable this to happen during the transition period.

As such, I think it’s a prudent use of funds and resources during this period, but I’ll defer to the vote above (and comments below).

2 Likes
10

Imo it doesn’t need to last exactly 3 months, just let foundation run it with limited rewards until dao takes over so it doesn’t act as a blocker “to keep foundation up” when otherwise it could just wind down.

2 Likes
11

My problem with the tooling is that if it’s not usable by the community upon handover … we’ll have the same arguments as now and no way to give it a go … or we’ll have to build smtg in a haste with voting needed to even decide that :thinking:

that’s what I mean by “until it can be community-run”

If we can have some degree of assurance the tooling in use will be usable by the community, as is, no modifications, ready to fire up S3 immediately if need be … then perhaps not so risky.

Else, I rather have a clean cut now and start the work to have a way to run those ahead.

12

Entire incentives stack is ready and can be easily transferred to the community, no need to create new tooling - just run it like it was being run during S1. No need to redesign anything. Afterwards if we’ll want to change something we can just vote on it.

Also clear cut now means liquidity on chain gets way thinner than it is now. And gl jump-starting the network when liquidity is going away.

13

(1) Reminder on the Foundation’s published purpose of the test if this is an argument for extending the incentives programme.

“This test is designed to provide the ecosystem with a transparent snapshot of current capabilities:

  • The Network: Full configuration details.

  • The Workload: Exact transaction composition.

  • The Result: Raw, unvarnished performance data.

‍The goal is not a marketing badge, but a technical baseline that any developer can verify, challenge, or extend either independently, or in collaboration with future community structures.”

Maybe question the purpose of the social media strategy first around this test, which I tried to do today in main channel.

(2) Maybe check the data for the hUSDC in and outflows over S1 for indication of any signs of success of the programme and present it here.

I recall the foundation presenting the DEX trading volume as being a success in S1 - validate that data and break it down into Perp v Spot trading. The Perp trading looked anecdotally wash trading from inspecting the charts. Try and present evidence the foundation’s claim is justtfied?

14

No idea of best timeframe to use since I have no timeline from foundation on handover. Jelthebest had a pretty cool idea of leaving it open ended and just doing 1m rewards (or just some fixed number) per week and it could end whenever suits foundation.

2 Likes
15

I would be ok with that adjustment to give us some flexibility to end it “as needed” based on when the community takes over.. For a 3 month program it would equal roughly 12M XRD (and more if longer obviously).

2 Likes
16

Personally think it would make sense to continue RR, albeit low reward per season (also after the Foundation handover).

We can scale up the rewards whenever there’s more alt L1 interest. For now, it can act as a glorified RadQuest, where users at least have something productive to do on the network.

5 Likes
17

Yeah maybe even lower rewards like 500k/week could accomplish that.

How much dev time is required to keep it running? What about paying out rewards?

2 Likes
18

I understand the intention behind this proposal, especially with potential new attention coming in :thinking: . However, I’m not convinced a “Season 2” rewards programme is the right move at this stage.

In practice, rewards programmes in Radix overwhelmingly benefit existing users, particularly those who already know how to optimise them. That tends to mean whales and highly active participants, not genuinely new entrants. Many of us are long-term holders (myself included), but longevity alone isn’t a sufficient reason to continue distributing XRD. At that point, we are rewarding persistence rather than progress.

We also need to be honest about behaviour: a large proportion of activity during rewards seasons is driven by the incentive itself. The “odd transaction” is often performed to capture yield, not to demonstrate real economic usage or attract sustainable builders and users. That does not strengthen the ledger in any durable way.

At a higher level, XRD is the project’s capital. After years of heavy outflows, this is the moment to be conservative, not generous. Protecting treasury resources is not being selfish; it is fiduciary responsibility. Every XRD spent today has an opportunity cost tomorrow.

FREE money is not a growth strategy anymore, especially in the current market environment.

If the Foundation is handing over to a DAO, then this is the right time for a mindset shift. The DAO should operate like a serious business:

  • Capital preservation first

  • Measured, ROI-driven investment second

  • Incentives only where there is clear, provable value creation

Rather than blanket rewards, funds should be deployed selectively into strong projects with accountability. If teams want funding, require structure: milestones, deliverables, skin in the game. Think less “airdrop” and more “collateralised loan” or performance-based grants. That’s how real ecosystems mature.

Short-term incentives may create noise, but they rarely create resilience. If we want Radix to still be here and thriving in five or ten years, we need discipline now.

We should treat what remains of the treasury as the golden goose. Protect it. Invest it wisely. And stop rewarding activity that exists mainly to extract value rather than build it.

That, in my view, is how we best serve the long-term future of Radix.

1 Like
19

Liquidity is the lifeblood of the defi network, you need as much of it as possible - where do you think people will place their BTC/ETH/$ if there is no more xrd airdropped? On our 1-2% apy pools or on “trusted and predictable” 10%+ pools on eth?

obraz
obraz1280×293 83.9 KB

Here’s our TVL chart [in xrd] on which you can see where incentives start and here’s the same chart in usd [zoomed in because 2024 is included and it makes current chart look flat] despite price being dumped to the ground our tvl is still way higher than before the campaign started.

obraz
obraz1280×293 31.2 KB

Now imagine where xrd would be if it wasn’t for this liquidity. Paying 1m xrdeez/week for this is nothing [especially that current campaign cost 10x more].

Not having this on the network and getting it dumped on… well that’d be something that hurts. The main reason we have this liquidity parked on the network are people willing to forego their easy 10%+ apy on other stuff because of their bullishness on xrd so they stick with 1-2% apy and xrd airdrop instead.
Take the airdrop and this liquidity goes away.

5 Likes
20

I don’t support incentives because they mostly reward people who are already here, not real new users.

The TVL they create isn’t real demand, it’s basically rented. We’re paying people to park liquidity. Stop the rewards and it leaves. That doesn’t mean the network got stronger, it just means we paid rent for a while.

Removing incentives is gonna look like a failure whenever it stops.

I’d rather see lower but honest numbers and protect the treasury than inflate TVL by paying ourselves.

That’s my position.