[OIP-2] Adjustment of OpenOcean's DAO Gas Refund

Summary:

To adjust the current DAO gas rebate mechanisms and parameters to ensure its long-term sustainability and incentivize more traders to stake and trade on OpenOcean.

Background:

OpenOcean DAO Gas Refund Program is an incentive program to alleviate the cost of gas for stakers trading on OpenOcean. As these refunds are distributed on OpenOcean, only a weekly cap for each valid wallet is set. Currently users can stake up to 2 million OOE in the DAO for a 100% gas rebate on five different chains: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Fantom and Avalanche.

So far, the Gas Refund Program has distributed 6.1M OOE covering more than 40% of the total budget (Initial budget: 15M OOE), however, less than 7.5% of refunded wallets received over 90% of the total distributed OOE. Among those wallets, over 90% are using bot tools for arbitrage, which is unfair to a wide range of long-term supporters and OOE token holders. If in the long term the benefits only apply to just a select few users, that would not align with our original intentions and may instead put further pressure on our budget for the program.

As we can see from the above, if this program were to keep running as it is now, 50%-60% of the budget for the program will be used up in Q2 2023, with 90% of the OOE flowing to just a few wallets. To ensure the sustainability of the Gas Refund Program this proposal aims to amend certain values that will keep it active and around for the long-term whilst not affecting the majority of users.

The proposed method and implementation:

We highly encourage all DAO participants to engage not only in DAO governance, but also in trading. Due to the time-sensitive nature of these measures we propose the following changes to be implemented immediately to the gas refund program:

• The refund distribution will adjust from weekly to monthly. Gas refunds are available to claim on the first of each month.
• The monthly hard cap for each address with different lock level will be changed into:
• For Level V & IV, each wallet must have a monthly trading volume of at least one million to claim full rewards. For those who can not reach this requirement, we will distribute the refund based on the proportion of your trading volume. For example, if you are on Level V, the actual monthly volume is 100k (10% of required volume), the gas refund will be $100.
• Users need to lock at least 8,000 OOE for at least 16 days to be eligible for gas refund. Gas refund rewards will be counted since the first day locked.
• Total budget limit is 15M OOE (6.1M OOE have already been claimed).
• Users are not allowed to unlock OOE before claiming gas refunds.
• Gas refund rewards will automatically expire after ten days if not claimed.

In terms of retroactive withdrawals, we propose to distribute in the following way to mitigate the potential pressure of OOE token release:

• Retroactive gas refunds will be distributed through airdrop within 16 weeks.
• If the proposal passes, it will be effective immediately on 4/17/2023 4:00 am UTC. (the time when the initial proposal posted in Discord forum)

Future consideration:

While this proposal might be sufficient to mitigate the current emissions, it could be adjusted again if the distribution of gas refund in OOE cannot fairly benefit and incentivize as many participants as possible.

Additionally, the OpenOcean team is working on a smooth transition to a new tokenomic model to support the engagement of OOE holders and supporters, participation of DAO governance, sustainability of our project and health of the OpenOcean ecosystem in the long run.