The development of user incentives in Web3 has evolved from tokens, whitelists, Credentials to task platform points and then to project points. In the first few years, tokens were often used to incentivize growth or loyalty of participants, obtain value, or provide various types of core product utilities. Common token gameplay focuses on one-time retroactive airdrops to incentivize participation and reward early users (such as Uniswap, ENS); to continuous liquidity mining projects that reward users for performing certain actions (such as LooksRare, Compound).
It is 2021, at the end of NFT Summer. In order to screen out "family members" who are willing to contribute to the community and grow with the community, whitelist has become popular. However, the term "whitelist" eventually became a low-cost arbitrage tool and a bargaining chip for over-hyping by the project party, and with the arrival of the bear market, the NFT market was left in a mess. Subsequently, the explosion of task platforms and the popularity of the SBT concept have led to another iteration of Web3's incentives. In the past two years, we have witnessed the abuse of Point and the birth of PointFi... The endless incentives have attracted users, and the countless on-chain and off-chain behaviors they have generated have become certificates or digital traces that remain in the virtual space of each wallet. If these traces cannot be used well, it will become inevitable that the traces will become snowflake-like cyber signals.
But we are pleased to see that more explorations on user incentives have gradually gained good attention and even broad user support. Some user incentive programs aimed at promoting ecological prosperity are gradually being recognized through repeated explorations, such as the RFP program based on XP loyalty and reward layers launched by ZetaChain, a star project in the first half of the year.
Through the study of various incentive mechanisms in the past, it is not difficult to find that Web3 projects need a mechanism that can attract user participation and ensure their long-term loyalty and contribution. This is the background of the birth of ZetaChain's RFP program. The RFP program aims to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the entire ecosystem by attracting the participation of ecological projects and users. Once the ecosystem is successfully built, it will bring huge value to the public chain and investors.
Specific goals include:
Attract high-quality projects and users
Improve user engagement and loyalty
Ensure fairness and transparency in reward distribution
Driving the development of the ecosystem
Innovative incentive mechanism
To achieve these goals, ZetaChain has set a series of specific implementation details and processes.
Proposal submission and review process:
Submit Proposal: All eligible ZetaChain application projects must submit their proposals and verify their deployer address before 00:00 UTC on July 1st.
Expert Review: The UGP Committee will contact eligible applications to determine the final allocation.
Distribution Announcement: After announcing the reward distribution and rationale, the application can begin distributing user rewards.
Allocation Implementation: All allocations must be completed by October 1, 2024.
Compliance and Eligibility:
Project Qualification: Projects must have deployed active contracts on ZetaChain Mainnet Beta and have active users.
User Participation: Users participate in the rewards program by earning XP through participating in various activities and tasks.
Reward Structure and Incentive Mechanism:
Reward structure: Design a token distribution method to reward users based on their XP tier, frequency of participation, etc.
Incentive Mechanism: Applications can introduce their own rewards, separate from ZETA distribution, to build a closer connection with users.
Sybil analysis: used to filter real users and ensure fairness in reward distribution.
Continuous improvement and feedback mechanism:
Evolution of the XP Graph: Develop novel ranking system that takes into account absolute XP amount, recent activity, and consistency.
Community feedback: Optimize the reward distribution method through community feedback to promote the sustainable use of the network.
The RFP program based on the XP system is designed to be very interesting, with a wide range of incentives. Users can obtain ecological XP by participating in a variety of activities within the ecosystem. For example, this week's activities include 15 different tasks such as "Explore" any ZetaChain network event on Ultiverse", as well as regular Featured Activities such as "Send any amount of PEPE from Ethereum to ZetaChain", which provide users with rich participation opportunities and reward channels.
In terms of specific implementation, the RFP plans to ensure fairness and transparency in reward distribution through community voting and expert review. Users who participate in XP accumulation early will unlock the first round of rewards. 10M $ZETA has been distributed through TokenTable according to the previously announced process.
Projects participating in this round of reward distribution include:
Zearn Protocol (@Zearn_Protocol): Zearn is a full-chain liquid (re)staking protocol built on top of ZetaChain’s full-chain smart contract stack, supporting liquid staking of multiple assets across different blockchain ecosystems.
Native (@native_fi): Native is an intent-based liquidity infrastructure designed to improve capital efficiency in a multi-chain world.
Symbiosis (@symbiosis_fi): Symbiosis is a cross-chain AMM decentralized exchange (DEX) that brings together liquidity from different networks (including L1, L2, EVM and non-EVM).
Substance Exchange (SubstanceX) (@SubstanceX_): SubstanceX is a decentralized derivatives exchange dedicated to providing users with a user experience similar to that of centralized exchanges.
League of Thrones (@LOT_HQ): League of Thrones is a fully on-chain simulation game run by a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization).
Zebra Protocol (@Zebra_zeta): Zebra Protocol is a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and community-owned protocol that allows users to obtain loans using Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs) as collateral.
Implementing the RFP program through a third-party token distribution platform undoubtedly increases the transparency of the program. This mechanism not only increases the enthusiasm of users to participate, but also encourages users to continue to pay attention to and contribute to ZetaChain's various activities.
In addition, the RFP program encourages users to actively participate in various behaviors within the ecosystem through a variety of reward forms, which promotes the ecosystem's technological innovation and user activity. We can imagine that in the future, users can not only obtain XP by completing specific cross-chain transactions, but also by participating in community discussions, submitting proposals, participating in voting, and trying products. This diverse incentive method ensures that users have corresponding rewards for participating at different levels, thereby improving overall user loyalty and participation, and promoting the comprehensive development of the ZetaChain ecosystem.
Next, ZetaChain can attract more projects to onboard the ecosystem or the program by increasing exposure for projects participating in the RFP program and even providing financing endorsements. Users can also continue to pay attention to the distribution of this round and decide whether to participate in the next round based on their own interests.
