Feedback Request - The RISE Programme on Fenix

[Telaga]

Blast has now transitioned into a post-token phase. To accelerate ecosystem growth, it now needs a native economic engine that can operate as an incentives layer that drives revenue generation and access to deep ecosystem liquidity. At the core of this idea on Fenix is the RISE Programme.

How Fenix works:

Fenix employs an effective flywheel design based on the Solidly or ve(3,3) model (e.g. Aerodrome).

On Fenix all LPs receive FNX emissions as rewards. The allocation of FNX emissions to pools is controlled by veFNX voters, who vote each week to direct emissions. In return, voters receive all voting incentives and swap fees from the pool they vote for. Protocols deposit voting incentives to attract veFNX votes to their pools to gain FNX emissions. This mechanism allows Fenix to continually self optimise for the most productive pools over time.

The RISE Programme:

The RISE is an incentives framework that rewards protocols and users based on voting incentives deposited on the platform and from new 6 month (maximum) locks of veFNX. Rewards from the RISE are given as veFNX every 4 weeks and is funded from voting yield from a team veNFT worth 10% of the initial supply and Blast Native Yield.

This design encourages productivity from users and protocols on Fenix. It gives protocols a boost on their incentives to efficiently bootstrap liquidity (if new) and existing ones a boost on sustaining/growing liquidity at minimal cost whilst incentivising trading volume for their tokens.

We believe this is important to get right for Blast protocols as the cost of building liquidity will be a significant barrier for many. Often a make or break given the delicate nature of getting the balance right between demand and sustainability. Importantly, it also encourages long-term alignment with the Blast ecosystem through a 6 month lock.

Boosting the effective value of Gold through the RISE

To supercharge reward propagation from the RISE, our plan is to match incentives provided by protocols with Blast Gold on a pro-rata (proportional) basis. Here, veFNX voters will earn Blast Gold which will include protocols and users on Fenix. Here is an example for any week:

Our goal here is to provide a clear framework to the community to understand how we will utilise Gold and to gain feedback for improvement.

Other ways which we believe would be of net benefit to Blast include:

• Allocating Blast Gold as voting incentives to core ecosystem pools like BLAST/WETH & WETH/USDB to drive deeper liquidity and trading volume for the pairs that drive the most trading volume and utility on the network.

• Direct Gold rewards for new veFNX locks to lower barriers of entry for protocols and users who are making a long-term commitment to the ecosystem.

Key to using Gold in this way is that it is based on a tried and tested framework first done by Velodrome (a ve(3,3) DEX like Fenix on Optimism). The “Tour de OP” was a resounding success, generating 5-10x in multiples of rewards per $ of OP. These rewards were shared with LPs as a higher value of emissions over time, and with protocols and users through 100% revenue share as they will be on Fenix. Velodrome became the liquidity hub for Optimism and those rewards served as stimulus for growth of the entire chain.

Our experience and observation with Season 1 of Gold incentives was that providing it directly to LPs resulted in transient increases in TVL, which were not sustainable or capital efficient. By using Gold in a way that requires revenue input into the ecosystem, we expect to generate significant multiples of value on top of Gold incentives, which will encourage growth on Blast and increase the effective value of Gold.

Summary of benefits:

• Increasing the effective value for Gold through a system that requires revenue input for Gold reward allocation.

• Lowers the barrier of entry whilst encouraging long-term investment into Blast through long-term veFNX locks.

• Benefits Blast native projects who will receive a boost on incentives provided which results in them paying less for their liquidity whilst driving enhanced trading demand for their token through FNX emissions.

• Attracts more protocols from outside of Blast who will benefit from the multiplicative effect on rewards from the RISE and Gold, which may not be available on other chains.

• Build deeper liquidity for core ecosystem assets like USDB, WETH & BLAST which represent +80% of all trading volume on Blast. Their growth directly benefits the Blast business model which and will provide more Native Yield for the ecosystem.

[blastmoon]

In short, you want to reward Golds to your native token holders, of which you hold the majority of the voting power. This is definitely a NO GO. You’re trying to use a long and complicated text to make it difficult for people to understand and to make it seem like there’s something substantial, but in summary, you’re planning to give a lot of Gold to the voting power that the protocol mostly controls, so that the devs can extract Gold or attempt to boost the token price.

You were hacked on Arbitrum and relaunched on Blast, but it’s unacceptable to try to break rules like this just because you’re not getting attention.

[Telaga]

Hey, to be clear no Gold will be going to the team. We are not eligible for the RISE. We will make Gold distributions entirely transparent. We are building a Dune dashboard for the RISE.

We’ve discussed the RISE with many protocols who would benefit from a boost on their incentives through Gold. This makes it easier for native projects to build liquidity (which is tough to do) and makes Blast more attractive to external protocols. As a liquidity hub, this is a major benefit for Blast and to remain attractive in a competitive L2 landscape.

They and users are also making long-term commitments to Blast (a net positive for the chain) and the RISE is a way reward everyone who decides to make 6 month commitment to the network, whilst simultaneously driving more revenue growth.

We could directly match their incentives as Gold for LPs. However, as we’ve seen on Fenix and across Blast doing this is transient and limits any growth potential beyond the direct value of Gold.

We discussed this with the Blast team who agree that this is an interesting approach and encouraged us to post here to gain feedback. Giving Gold to LPs is largely wasted and especially within a ve(3,3) model (as they already earn 100% of platform emissions). Instead, we’re proposing a framework that has proven to be a highly capital efficient and an effective means to incentivise growth at scale that is entirely shared with the ecosystem (users, protocols & LPs; and not the team).

For reference team tokens are in permanently locked veFNX. We are completely aligned with the growth of Fenix for the long-term.

[Alessio]

I think this proposal from Fenix makes a lot of sense for the broader Blast ecosystem. The incentives would really push things forward, and from what I can see, it’s a solid plan that could benefit everyone.

• Boosting Liquidity on Fenix DEX: Fenix is focusing on deepening liquidity for key trading pairs, which are super important for the ecosystem. If they can get the incentives to make this happen, it’ll make trading smoother and more attractive on Blast, which means more volume and activity across the board.
• Encouraging Long-Term Participation: By offering Blast Gold rewards for veFNX locks, they’re not just looking for a quick boost—they’re trying to get more people and protocols committed for the long haul. This kind of stability is crucial for the health of the entire Blast ecosystem.
• Proven Strategy, Clear Benefits: The plan is based on strategies that have worked elsewhere, like on Optimism with Velodrome. If it worked there, there’s a good chance it’ll work here too. And if it does, everyone in the Blast ecosystem stands to gain—more trading, more fees, more rewards.
  From what I can tell, the logic is sound, and it could really help drive growth and stability for everyone involved. I think it’s worth supporting!

[billybobbagholder]

Great proposal to my mind. Blast, through it’s native yield, has potential to supercharge the ve33 flywheel. The addition of Blast incentives will take it to the next level again. Chains need to attract liquidity to stay relevant and succeed and the ve33 model flywheel combined with native yield and (if this proposal passes) Blast rewards will incentivise protocols to build and maintain liquidity on Blast.

[shawnooo]

Looks good to me. By introducing Fenix and the RISE Programme, Fenix is setting up a powerful engine that not only rewards productivity but also aligns long-term interests with the ecosystem. The combination of FNX emissions, veFNX voting, and Blast Gold incentives creates a flywheel effect that maximizes liquidity, boosts protocol growth, & drives sustainable revenue, as billy highlighted

[ivanhalen0x]

Hey @Telaga, first of all, thank you for proposing this well thought out idea for the Blast community to discuss.

I believe this is a proven data-driven framework that effectively drives long-term growth of the Blast ecosystem through incentive alignment. The framework outlined is similar Aerodrome’s Flight School program that rewards efficient direction of emissions. Aerodrome is well known as the most successful ve-system to date.

I see the following main benefits from this proposal:

1. Promotes locking veFXN and rewards active participation in Fenix governance, which by extension increases stickiness of Blast TVL, drives usage to the network, and deepens liquidity.
2. Provides a transparent and predictable framework for Gold distribution, rewarding users and protocols that contribute to Blast’s long term growth by incentivizing productive use of incentives such as liquidity provision.
3. Drives long term Blast TVL by deepening liquidity of key ecosystems assets. Emissions and Gold are used to build a liquidity layer that sets the foundation for other protocols to leverage, lowering the barrier to entry to the ecosystem, promoting composability, and unlocking growth at scale.

That said, I’d like to see some additions to the framework to reward efficient use of emissions. One possible way of doing this would be to boost Gold rewards for users whose votes led to the highest TVL increase in the previous epoch. This system would encourage continued productive participation in governance by rewarding well-thought out use of incentives (i.e. if you direct X emissions to a pool that gains more TVL on epoch n than others with the same amount of incentives, you get a higher Gold boost on epoch n +1) .