Seamless Protocol is built on the principles of facilitating transparent and reliable DeFi experiences that drive financial opportunity and permit open and fair access for all participating in the web3 ecosystem. At the heart of this vision lies a commitment to creating clear, sustainable and meaningful utility to SEAM token holders, who are the community served by the protocol.
This proposal introduces initial SEAM staking tokenomics that are simple and transparent. By staking SEAM, community members can actively contribute to the protocol’s success while benefiting from protocol growth.
The key motivations for this proposal include:
Rewards for Contributions: Establishing clear pathways where value creation should directly reward those who contribute most to the protocol’s success.
Simplicity & Transparency: Creating a straightforward, predictable and accessible tokenomics structure that aligns the protocol, users and active contributors while avoiding complexity that obfuscate value accrual. Supporting an ecosystem that fosters trust and engagement.
Sustainability: Laying a foundation to build on for long-term alignment of incentives between the protocol, its users, and token holders.
This approach enables Seamless to drive innovation while fostering a fair and thriving ecosystem for all contributors, positioning it as a leading DeFi protocol and ensuring long-term sustainability for all stakeholders.
Tokenomics Proposed Structure
The initial staking mechanism introduces a Staking Vault for SEAM token holders. This structure is designed to provide utility and protocol resilience.
Staking Vault Overview:
Users stake SEAM in a dedicated vault (where rewards are emitted), locking tokens, unless a cooldown and withdrawal is initiated (reward accrual is paused during cooldown).
While staked, participants:
Contribute to the liquidity and stability of the ecosystem;
Earn pro-rata SEAM or esSEAM emissions;
Earn a proportional share of fees and revenue (e.g., Reserve Factor, fees from future product launches) accruing to the DAO;
Can continue to delegate voting power
Reward Distribution:
Participants can track their live rewards, APR breakdowns, and protocol fee contributions through an intuitive user interface in the app (designed and built at a later time).
This foundational structure balances transparency, and sustainability, while rewarding users who are contributing to the protocol, positioning SEAM as a core element in the Seamless ecosystem.
Goals & Objectives
More utility for SEAM.
Improved engagement with protocol and community growth.
Increased buzz around SEAM and its ecosystem.
Call to Action
Let’s work together to make this vision a reality. Share thoughts and feedback by replying to this thread. Once there has been sufficient discussion and input, this may follow the GP track (i.e. snapshot voting) before moving to the PCP track in the future.
Appendix
Note, it is my belief that the following tokens within the Seamless Ecosystem should be seen in the following light:
Type
Description
Responsibility
Incentives
SEAM
Liquid governance token
Governance
NA
esSEAM
Escrowed variant of SEAM for distribution purposes for long-term alignment (disincentivize toxic farmers); governance responsibility
Governance
NA
staked SEAM
Locked SEAM
Governance, maybe even something like insurance/safety module/junior tranche
Great to see the protocol is evolving! New strategic vision and tokenomics should indeed boost activity.
Imo, a potential use case for the proposed vault could be a staking safety module where users stake their tokens for security of the protocol and get rewards in return. If Im not mistaken, according to the current tikenomics 55% of the supply are reserved for lqiuidity mining incentives and community rewards. So I suppose this should be possible.
One more question, how would staking work? I mean do u have some particular timelines in mind? And will there be any withdrawal period applied?
I’m all for starting to add more utility here. To @Ras’s point a staking safety module to secure the protocol could be a great first iteration. Seems like a great program that could encourage participation from holders build demand.
If there was a mock UI or process flow to visualize that would be helpful – perhaps could latch onto this even more with a cooldown period/withdrawal flow.
With this in place, providing a reasonable APR on SEAM would be fantastic
This is a good idea. I’m in favor of this. It’s hard to improve on what is proposed here. A suggestion that might not have a lot of participation which would mean it is not worth building but I’m curious to see what kind of interest their might be in paying for an accelerated esSEAM vesting. The funds paid from that could go to those contributing to the ecosystem and potentially to POL. Accelerating either a cool down or esSEAM shouldn’t go to zero but in bull markets, perhaps people would be willing to pay USDC or ETH to accelerate their esSEAM vesting by some minor multiplier or to buy forward the last month or two of their unlock distributed forward evenly over the remaining 10 or 11 months. I don’t know how to price it but there are a number of solid contributors who would be able to stake more of their SEAM sooner if they could accelerate their vesting schedule. Perhaps a minimum amount of Staked SEAM or SEAM would be required to be eligible for buy down. There are a number of ways to do it but the fees gathered through that buy down could be interesting in applying additional incentives throughout the ecosystem according to what the ecosystem needs.
It’s a challenging problem and perhaps wouldn’t have a lot of use but i think worth flagging now as the discussion is kicked off. Outside of that tweak i’d like to see new listing and new assets give meaningful contributions to Seamless. This could be in terms of locking up parts of their treasuries as TVL that earns yield as supply to lending markets which would be a win win. I’d like to see projects have a minimal required level of SEAM in addition to voting power when lobbying for inclusion on the Seamless platform. When lobbying for inclusion those projects could be asked to lock their SEAM in special vaults that have a cooldown period after a successful vote. That would be an interesting way to align prospective projects with the Seamless ecosystem and another way to apply this cooldown technology as well.
All in all I support this proposal and am glad to have this place to discuss the ideas.
This proposal reflects a major evolution in the Seamless ecosystem. By introducing staked SEAM, we’re seeing a mature, forward-thinking approach to DeFi tokenomics—one that balances the flexibility of SEAM, the alignment focus of esSEAM, and now the long-term commitment incentives of staked SEAM.
Staked SEAM’s dual role, offering rewards while enhancing protocol stability, ensures that every participant, from active contributors to dedicated holders, has a meaningful stake in the platform’s success. This isn’t just tokenomics—it’s a blueprint for building a resilient and inclusive ecosystem that rewards commitment and drives sustainable growth. Excited to see where this takes us!
@richyRNG This is a great proposal! I really like to see the SEAM staking mechanics. I think it should clear for users and the idea of rewarding long-term participation is definitely key <3
One question:
Will there be any flexibility in the staking periods, or is it strictly tied to the cooldown periods mentioned?
Maybe we can think in some collaborations for staking rewards?
I’m a fan of reinvigorating SEAM tokenomics - especially with loyal SEAM holders in mind. If the objective is to implement a single-sided staking pool, then I believe a pro-rata SEAM distribution is a more optimal option. I would propose amending a “compounding” feature, in which the staked-user can increase their locked position per the amount of rewards accrued. Would be worth considering an additional esSEAM airdrop to further incentivize this initiative (eligibility criteria could be: (1) consistency/frequency in voting; (2) consistency/frequency in governance post participation; (3) protocol engagement). I can’t emphasize this enough, but if the objective of governance tokenomic revitalization community-aligned/pointed, then the incentive & governance adherence structure should reflect that accordingly.
To expand on @richy’s table, I think merging esSEAM and “staked SEAM” should be considered. esSEAM should be the primary governance token w/ reward incentive optionality/consideration. a three-type model as suggested by the table could confuse new community members.
A final amendment I suggest considering:
Enable early unlocking penalty. The user should have the capability of unlocking their position at their discretion. However, for the sake of the protocol, a penalty should be enforced. This penalty, and forfeited rewards, should be re-routed to: (1) SEAM DAO treasury; (2) Locked Positions pro-rata.
Revenue Sharing: Distribute a portion of protocol-generated revenue (including fees) to $SEAM stakers, potentially in both crypto and fiat. This depends on how revenue is generated from the protocol in terms of any fees that the protocol makes. This can be a small portion of that.
Enhanced Governance: Provide $SEAM holders with advanced governance rights to influence protocol decisions and ILM strategies. Higher holders of esSeam should be able to start proposals.
Exclusive Access: Grant access to premium ILM strategies and early participation in new strategy launches. This is a great incentive for users to acquire $seam to gain exclusive access to complex Strategies. This can be tiered with more privileges. Need to be careful to either keep it simple or deeply think about not keeping an unrealistic barrier for people to achieve necessary features.
Fiat Integration: Enable fiat-based rewards or redemption options, making it easier for users to utilize their earnings.
Referral Bonuses: Incentivize community growth through referral programs rewarded in $SEAM. would need to review the true unique users however. if incase a single person is making multiple accounts. Perhaps some form of integrated decentralized ID could be of use here especially in the long term.
$seam tokens or badges for users who contribute with high value ideas/feedback or community contributions.
Looks like RF/fees will be distributed alongside SEAM staking rewards from the Community/DAO Rewards Budget? Love it. Feels like this is just step 1 and more utility/features for SEAM are on the way—big win if true.
Agree with @eg0maniac’s ideas on rev share and exclusive access (or even better rates). Curious how contributors and the community see the scope here. Keeping it tight might speed up execution, with enhancements added over time, which also keeps the hype rolling with steady updates for the community.
Thanks for all the insights from the community! Seems to be an outpouring of support and thoughts from folks.
My suggestion is:
We leave open the discussion period/request for comment for another 3 weeks or so, then we develop a final scope/PRD proposed before year end (spend ~1 week on that - total of 4 weeks). Perhaps memorialized via a snapshot vote.
Some context:
Based on eng-contributor bandwidth and resources, it might be possible for 1 smart contract engineer to be dedicated to working on this in January, with late January/early February delivery date.
However, that means some scoping adjustments need to be made. I don’t think a perfect “mona lisa” with all the bells and whistles will be possible in the beginning given the timelines/resources outlined above.
My proposed scope would be:
*A combination of the original proposal + introduction of staking module that @Ras suggested. There would be a withdrawal/cooldown period (perhaps we can use 7 days or 30 days as the placeholder?).
*Users would get pro-rata rewards (reserve factor and SEAM emissions) based on the amount they stake.
Some additional thoughts on other features suggested by folks:
Further utilities such as exclusive asset to vaults/ILMs would need to be integrated in the future at the smart contract development level. I believe this is a good idea and there seems to be little opposition to this idea; however, with any smart contract timelines this would require development and auditing, as such I suggest it’s removed from the Tokenomics scope which can focus on staking and distributing rewards for now. Perhaps the next generation of ILMs can have a gated feature built in based on staked SEAM amounts
Additional esSEAM airdrops can be considered if the community budgets for it, @Guz_MassAdopt , this may be a nice way to revitalize the community and draw additional attention to the protocol, but something on a smaller scale since this is no longer a genesis airdrop, perhaps we can spin up a token emissions budgeting thread to discuss the airdrop idea as well, I am happy to make a post about that this week/early next week to start discussions?
combining esSEAM and staking SEAM may complicate smart contract development significantly, hence the current suggestion ot have a staking SEAM and have esSEAM become an emissions mechanism. Really like the idea of early unlocks being an option, but penalized, perhaps that could be considered in a v2 system?
Lot’s of great ideas and discussion in this thread, love it!
I agree with @richyRNG’s proposed process and his proposed initial scope. If we as a community can identify the most important mechanisms to us for SEAM tokenomics we can prioritize building and launching that first and have additional logic built over time as we validate the success of the core featureset.
My thoughts on proposed initial scope:
Overall in alignment with that @richyRNG has proposed although I don’t have a strong opinion on the exact numbers such as the withdrawal cooldown of 7 days. Although, I think the exact cooldown length could be adjusted through the Seamless governance process over time if the community deems the length is not optimal.
My thoughts on what could be possible improvements that I would NOT consider as core initial scope (I define core initial scope essentially as features that I would be willing to wait for a later launch date):
Rage quit option: Users can skip the withdrawal cooldown in exchange for paying some fee and/or giving up some rewards.
Staked SEAM integration into core products: I believe the core products should have low barrier to entry and complexity to be in line with the Seamless philosophy of great UX. If staked SEAM utility can be increased while adhering to this core value then I would be in favour of that.
Staked SEAM integration into governance: Special badges for Discourse and Discord. Possibly a multiplier applied to voting power on governance proposals? Although I believe a longer lockup would be required to justify and increase in voting power to protect against attacks on governance.
Combining esSEAM and stkSEAM: I’m not sure how something like this would work, given in the current definition they both have very different mechanisms?
Moar Airdrops: I am fully in support of airdrops that strategically reward Seamless community members. What mechanisms do people have in mind for this?
Referral Bonuses: This seems like a great idea in principle, curious what people think about the relative success of these types of programs from other protocols?
This looks great! I fully support the implementation of this tokenomic system, and do agree that we should get started with the first proposed version to get the tokenomics kickstarted, then we should look to upgrade the system’s complexity over time. There may be new things that we learn after the tokenomics goes live, or even new best practices by then.
I am for getting this off the ground and running, and I believe that the broader user base of Seamless would also find it appealing. It enables the SEAM community to choose various roles, while continuing to provide value to the overall robustness of the ecosystem. Seems like the perfect framework for a healthy and sustainable tokenomic system.
