As part of our ongoing commitment to foster community engagement and support, we are excited to propose the launch of our Season 3 initiative. Building upon the successes of Seasons 1 and 2, which saw significant participation and growth within our ecosystem, Season 3 aims to further reward our dedicated community members and incentivize future engagement within the protocol and its ecosystem across DeFi.
Season 3 would introduce an airdrop of 25,000,000 ETHFI tokens to eligible ether.fi stakers
This initiative is designed to acknowledge and reward our community’s continued support and active participation in the ether.fi ecosystem
Reward loyal community members who have contributed to the growth and success of ether.fi
Incentivize new and existing community members to engage more deeply with our platform and services
Promote sustained growth and adoption of ether.fi.
Token Allocation
A total of 25,000,000 ETHFI tokens would be distributed during Season 3
Allocation would be based on community participation metrics and engagement levels
Timeline
Start Date: July 1, 2024
End Date: Early September 2024
The airdrop distribution would occur shortly after the conclusion of Season 3
Mechanics
StakeRank and StakingFrens were the mechanisms used in Season 2. Season 3 would launch Perks Passport, a new participation incentive framework to reward stakers for exploring the expanding ether.fi ecosystem.
Perks Passport explained
Perks Passport is a system that awards users a boost to their ether.fi loyalty points based on their participation in various DeFi activities and events, tracking their progress and achievements.
Users earn boosts for participating and meeting the requirements of any passport activity or event
Participants can earn up to a 5x boost on their ether.fi loyalty points
Perks activity will have a range from 0.1x - 3x, depending on the event or action
For every 5 Perk activities earned, the user will get an additional 0.5x Boost
Perk activities remain “stamped” once the condition for activating is met. For example, if a Perk activity was earned for depositing ETH into a Liquid vault for a minimum of 7 days, it would only stamp once the user maintains a deposit in that vault for the minimum 7 days
A user will also receive an additional 0.05x boost every 24 hours, up to the maximum 5x
Loyalty points will continue to accrue at the same rate as they did in Season 2. All points from Season 1 and 2 will be displayed in the dapp Portfolio tab and will apply to Season 3.
Conditions
A user’s staking balance needs to be above 0.1 eETH to activate Perks Passport
All eETH and weETH, whether held or in supported DeFi positions (displayed within the ether.fi dapp “DeFi” tab), including Liquid, will be treated the same for Perks Passport
Users who withdrew their ETH or mostly withdrew their ETH, their Season 1 or 2 points won’t earn them a Season 3 airdrop unless they stake additional ETH during Season 3
Users who withdraw their staked ETH shortly before or after the end of Season 3 may be disqualified for an airdrop
Any blatant sybil or manipulation attempts will result in no airdrop
Additional Info
The proposed season 3 airdrop increases the total ETHFI token Airdrops allocation to 14.76%, reinforcing our commitment and appreciation of our highly engaged community. The breakdown of allocations before accounting for any Season 3 allocation can be found here.
Community members would be informed about how they can qualify for the airdrop and participate in Season 3 activities through the protocol’s Discord, Twitter and other socials
Season 3 airdrop payout would follow the same vesting schedule of Season 1 and 2.
The intended design is subject to change through the season as feedback and suggestions from the community emerge
Conclusion
We believe this proposal will not only reward our community members for their continued participation and support, but also incentivize future engagement and growth within the ether.fi ecosystem. We kindly request your thoughtful consideration and participation in the voting process.
Voting
Voting duration: The voting window will be open for 5 days
What if we make Season 3 last six months instead of 3?
By spreading out the distribution of the 25 million ETHFI tokens over these six months, we can keep people engaged for longer without giving out as much tokens too quickly. I believe it’s enough to increase TVL.
Presumably this will get the thumbs up from voters: who doesn’t want more free tokens? But it does seem a little complicated: x5, x0.1 to x3, x0.5 and - why not? - a x0.05 boost to finish things off.
I’d suggest running it for (at least) 3 full months rather than ending in early September.
On the face of it the proposal sounds more like a ‘quest’ than the current ‘deposit more to earn more points which lead to tokens’ which is a surprise. I’ll probably play along, funds permitting, but would have preferred a simple ETHFI boost to APYs if being honest.
Does seem a little complicated, but seeing other projects do this as well (i.e. Blast w/ their multiplier feature). So I guess makes sense for etherfi to do so as well.
Agree with previous commenter (@Jack) about making it last 6 months. Let’s keep the engagement through the remainder of the year and well into this bull cycle. Things would be looking great for $ETHFI as we roll into 2025.
We are supportive of ether.fi’s multi-tiered airdrop approach given the early state of restaking in the Eigenlayer ecosystem. The large and continued community allocation has been undoubtedly a driving force behind ether.fi’s TVL growth during 2024. It is also interesting to see the DAO incentivize eETH / weETH holders to make their restaked ETH productive and put it to use throughout the DeFi ecosystem. We will be voting Yes for the following reasons.
To overly simplify the state of the protocol, we can assume that the ETHFI & EIGEN airdrops were the primary / only driver of TVL growth to date. We make this simple and flawed assumption given that AVS rewards are not yet live, so these two airdrops have been far and away the largest incentive to take on the additional smart contract risk of restaking ETH. As seen below, ether.fi’s TVL has continued to grow in both USD & ETH denominations suggesting that splitting the airdrop into multiple seasons has successfully incentivized continued restaking. We believe that the ether.fi team has been taking a rational approach to growing TVL in this pre-AVS-reward landscape. The only criticism or concern that we have relates to the length of Season 3 and whether or not it will be sufficient time for meaningful Eigenlayer rewards to go live.
If done thoughtfully, the Perks Passport program could deeply integrate weETH into DeFi protocols and Layer 2 networks. Below is a breakdown of the Passport program and a snapshot of weETH current utilization across the Ethereum ecosystem.
Not only does this likely bolster the liquidity of the LRT, but it also adds a stickiness to the protocol’s TVL. Removing the opportunity cost of staking & restaking is part of what makes LSTs and LRTs attractive, so we are excited to see weETH holders put their staked ETH to work. Kairos Research holds the belief that long-term holders of LRTs are yield-motivated & familiar with DeFi lego blocks. Therefore, LRT utilization throughout DeFi may be much more important than it was with stETH and other LSTs. We will continue to provide monthly updates on the utilization of weETH & other LRTs through our Twitter and Substack.
Thank you for your feedback. The duration of S3 was strategically chosen to ensure maximum engagement based on the allocation of 25M ETHFI. More proposals and opportunities for engagement will be presented in the future to build on this.
