As Morpho’s usage continues to grow, ensuring fair distribution of rewards is critical to encourage broader participation, especially among retail users. This proposal outlines a reward system designed to be inclusive, genuinely rewarding for smaller participants, and sustainable for long-term growth.
1. Tiered Reward System: Prioritizing Fairness Across All User Sizes
To balance rewards between large and small participants, a tiered reward model can help distribute emissions fairly:
- Low-Tier Rewards: Offer a baseline reward rate to smaller depositors and borrowers. By offering meaningful incentives, we can attract smaller retail users who contribute to a decentralized, resilient user base.
- Medium and High Tiers: Larger positions would receive incremental, but not excessive, reward boosts to avoid the risk of overshadowing smaller participants.
This approach ensures that smaller retail users can enjoy rewards proportional to their contributions without competition from large positions dominating the reward pool.
2. Time-Based Reward Multipliers: Rewarding Loyalty and Stability
By introducing a time-based multiplier, retail users who maintain their positions for longer periods are rewarded more generously. This structure provides benefits beyond the size of one’s position, such as:
- Stability Incentives: Reward multipliers increase the longer a user holds a position. This way, retail users with smaller but consistent contributions receive fair compensation over time.
- Encouraging Long-Term Engagement: This multiplier system discourages short-term, high-volume positions from capturing a disproportionate amount of rewards, focusing instead on loyal, retail-friendly participation.
3. Reward Cap Per User: Preventing Dominance by Large Holders
To prevent large users from capturing the majority of daily rewards, a maximum daily reward cap per user could be implemented:
- Setting a Fair Cap: A reasonable cap on rewards ensures that no single user can dominate emissions, promoting a healthier distribution and greater inclusivity for retail participants.
- Transparent Thresholds: Publishing reward caps will offer transparency and assurance to retail users that rewards are not skewed towards institutional players or large investors.
4. Boosted Rewards During Low TVL Periods: Aiding Consistent Participation
By offering boosted rewards when the protocol’s total value locked (TVL) is low, the Morpho protocol can sustain engagement from smaller users during off-peak periods:
- Incentive for Early or Lower TVL Stages: Reward boosts during periods of lower TVL encourage retail users to continue participating, stabilizing protocol engagement and rewards across market cycles.
- Retail-Friendly Mechanism: As smaller retail users tend to be more affected by reward fluctuations, these TVL-based boosts ensure they stay engaged, even when larger players shift funds elsewhere.
5. Encouraging Retail-Centric Participation Actions
To further support a fair distribution, specific actions that align with retail user behavior should be prioritized for rewards:
- Small Transaction Bonuses: Smaller deposits and borrowing actions can receive slight reward boosts, encouraging retail users to take part without feeling overshadowed by large transactions.
- Governance Participation Rewards: To cultivate a retail-focused community, governance actions (such as voting and discussion participation) could yield modest rewards, allowing small users to actively shape protocol decisions.
Conclusion
This proposed reward distribution model seeks to make Morpho a more inclusive and rewarding protocol for retail participants. By focusing on loyalty, fair caps, TVL boosts, and retail-friendly incentives, we can create an environment where small contributors feel genuinely valued and encouraged to participate. This balanced approach aligns with Morpho’s mission to create a sustainable, decentralized ecosystem accessible to all users.