[GIP- 280] Sustainable Liquidity Mining Program for 2026

Summary

This proposal requests to change the incentive distribution policy, outlining a new budget for the 2026 year. The proposed budget is 115M GEAR for a 10-month liquidity mining program (Mar–Dec 2026) with:

• Fast convergence from 50M (Current budget) → 20M (Transition phase) → 10M (Target emission) GEAR/month in 1.5 months
• Monthly distribution to incentive management multisig. Exact incentive distribution is decided by core contributors and limited to V3.1 permissionless pools.
• Stop GEAR/WETH Curve incentives
• Target: 1.2% annual emission rate (115M/10B = 1.2%)

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Quick Reference

Parameter	Value
Total Budget	115M GEAR
Duration	10 months (Mar 5 - Dec 31, 2026)
Allocation Model	Contributors' discretion
Distribution Frequency	Monthly
Starting Rate	20M GEAR/month
Target End Rate	10M GEAR/month
Replaces	GIP-264

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Motivation

Background: GIP-264 — passed Oct 12, 2025 — allocated 300M GEAR over 6 months as part of the permissionless curator bootstrapping program. That program ran for ~4 months (Oct 2025 – Jan 2026); its budget was not fully spent. This proposal replaces GIP-264 and allocates new budget.

Current Problem:

• GIP-264's rate of 300M/6mo = 600M annualized (~6% of supply), while GEAR price is at its lows: TVL attracted by incentives is very costly in GEAR terms
• High emission rate creates persistent sell pressure on GEAR and is not sustainable long-term

Proposed solution prioritizes treasury preservation due to the low efficiency of current massive spending.

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Specification

1. Monthly Budget Schedule

All existing campaigns are kept untouched until March 1st.

Month	Monthly Budget	Notes
Mar	20M GEAR	Starting rate
Apr	15M GEAR	Convergence
May–Dec	10M GEAR	Target rate
Total	115M GEAR

2. Allocation

Each month, the budget is allocated to contributors. Implementation details including pool selection, distribution methodology, and incentive design are at each contributor's discretion.

3. Distribution Process

1. Prior to each monthly epoch, contributors publish the rewards distribution plan breakdown in the Discord governance channel: which pools receive how much GEAR, with motivation.
2. Monthly GEAR allocation is sent from Treasury multisig to incentive management multisig
3. A part up to 10% of monthly budget may be subject to mid-month adjustments (e.g. new market launch, market shift)
4. Unused tokens are accumulated on incentive management multisig and can be used for next months' distribution adjustments.

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Comparison to GIP-264

Aspect	GIP-264 (Current)	This GIP
Annual Budget	600M GEAR	115M GEAR
Allocation Model	Complex (TVL + revenue + bonuses)	Contributors' discretion
Calculation	Manual/discretionary	Contributors' discretion
Reduction Path	None	20M → 10M in 1.5 months
Duration	6 months rolling	10 months fixed