P5 - WalletConnect Pay Rewards Budget

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Abstract

This proposal introduces a WCT rewards budget for use and distribution of WalletConnect Pay by allocating 50M WCT in 2026 to accelerate consumer usage, wallet adoption, and payment volume via WalletConnect Pay.

Summary

This proposal establishes a WalletConnect Pay Rewards Budget, to incentivize both:

Consumers, for making eligible retail purchases via WalletConnect Pay, and
Wallets, for onboarding users and driving WalletConnect Pay usage through their wallet.

Rewards are denominated and distributed in WCT tokens and are designed to align incentives across users, wallets, merchants, and the WCT ecosystem.

WalletConnect Network will allocate 50M WCT in 2026 as a dedicated rewards budget for WalletConnect Pay to execute and evolve its rewards program. The program is expected to prioritize simplicity, predictability, and long-term sustainability, while allowing parameters such as rates and caps to evolve over time based on ecosystem feedback and performance evaluation.

Background

WalletConnect Pay operates in a retail environment where adoption and scale depend on user incentives, distribution, and developer participation.

Consumer Rewards

Traditional payment systems rely heavily on cashback and consumer rewards to drive usage, habit formation, and retention. These programs are typically funded through interchange, marketing budgets, or merchant subsidies and have become a standard growth lever across global payment networks.

Wallet Rewards

In parallel, traditional payment networks rely on interchange fees to incentivize issuers and payment apps to distribute, promote, and support specific payment methods. Wallets play an analogous role in the WalletConnect ecosystem: they are the primary distribution channel for WalletConnect Pay and are responsible for onboarding users and enabling payment options.

WCT Alignment

Allocating WCT to reward both consumers and wallets based on eligible payment activity mirrors the economic role of interchange and directly aligns incentives with network growth and payment adoption.

This approach supports:

Expanding WCT utility in real-world commerce
Rewarding both usage and distribution
Aligning users, wallets, merchants, and partners around WalletConnect Pay
Establishing sustainable growth loops for the WalletConnect Network

Proposal

This proposal will allocate WCT rewards budget to users of and wallets distributing WalletConnect Pay, covering both consumers and wallets rewards throughout the 2026 calendar year.

WalletConnect Pay Rewards

This rewards budget may apply reward mechanisms designed for simplicity, predictability, and ease of implementation. These may include flat reward rates, caps, and eligibility criteria, which can evolve over time based on ecosystem feedback and performance metrics.

WCT tokens rewards are envisioned for both consumers, as cashback-style rewards for eligible purchases, and wallets, based on WalletConnect Pay usage through their wallets.

WCT Budget Allocation

Both consumer rewards and wallet rewards will be funded through the proposed 50M WCT allocation from the WCT rewards budget, supplemented by revenue-driven WCT acquisitions on the open market and, optionally, future partner or merchant subsidies.

This proposal does not introduce new token minting and is funded partially from the WCT rewards allocation defined in the original WalletConnect Whitepaper.

Any portion of the allocated WCT that remains unused by the end of the 2026 calendar year will be reconciled and returned to the control of WalletConnect Network governance for reallocation through a subsequent governance process.

Implementation Considerations

WalletConnect Foundation may periodically share high-level information about WCT budget regarding rewards distribution and remaining allocation. This is intended to provide ecosystem visibility and alignment with the WCT ecosystem.

Call to Action

We invite the community to review the proposed WalletConnect Pay rewards allocation, evaluate its strategic relevance, sustainability, and incentive alignment, and share feedback from the perspectives of wallets, merchants, developers, and consumers.