Page last updated: October 20, 2021

Referral Program Terms & Conditions

Lido Referral Program was launched on July 19th 2021 by the Lido DAO based on the following proposal. The main goals are to increase the number of active stakers, grow Lido TVL and promote the benefits of stETH.

The Lido DAO controls the full life-cycle of the referral program including but not limited to launch, defining total rewarding pool, allocating rewards for each period, pausing, resuming or stopping the Program at any time.

Lido referral program was switched to ‘whitelist mode’ to improve the security and productivity by the DAO decision via voting on the following proposal.

Conditions

1.

Only whitelisted referral addresses will be eligible for rewards. All the other referral links will no longer be eligible for rewards.

2.

Users are given the ability to generate a unique referral URL that is specific to their Ethereum address.

3.

Rewards are calculated every 2-week Rewards calculation period.

4.

To be eligible for rewards in the current rewards calculation period, referral should drive at least 1 ETH in referee stakes during this time.

5.

A referral receives 1% payback in LDO of the ETH staked with their referral link. Referral reward amount in LDO is calculated each payout week based on ETH/USD and LDO/USD 14 days (whole referral period) TWAP to be 1% payback. The minimum reward amount is 5 LDO and the maximum reward amount is 20 LDO per 1 ETH staked.

6.

The Lido Referral Program does not have any timeframe. The Program ends when there are no more tokens in the Reward Pool (i.e., the total amount of LDO tokens that can be distributed to participants of the Program) or when the DAO makes an active decision to cancel it.

7.

The Lido DAO can stop, pause, and resume the Program at any time.

8.

The Lido DAO determines the size of the Reward Pool, amount and terms of the LDO Token Reward, and can change them at any time.

9.

The Lido DAO can at any time change the operating conditions of the Lido Referral Program.

Reward Pool

The currently approved size of the Reward Pool is 15 million LDO.

Program Implementation

1.

15 million LDO tokens held in the DAO Treasury will be reserved for the purpose of the Lido Referral Program.

2.

Each Rewading Calcluation Period takes 2 weeks. During this time a referral preliminary rewards are calculated based on the referee staking. Payout Period that comes after is the time to check and filter abuse cases and approve rewards. During Payout Period approved rewards are allocated to Deversifi* for referrals to claim.

3.

Referral Periods Reports showing the distribution of LDO will be regularly published to ensure transparency of the Lido Referral Program.

4.

If for whatever reason there are any errors in the calculation or transfer of allocations of the Rewards to any Referrer, the error can be rectified in any suitable way. Users are welcome to contact Lido support at any channels ([email protected] and other) in case of any problems.

5.

We want to underline that DAO can at any time stop the Lido Reward Program, amend the way it is implemented, including Proposed LDO Token Reward, Reward Pool.

*At the current stage, Deversifi is used to distribute the rewards on L2. In the future, the Lido Referral Program might be implemented using a different cost-efficient solution (e.g., Optimism). Our community will be updated on any relevant changes to the implementation of the Program.

**DAO can extend the list of unwanted activities that can be considered abusive and not contributing to the development of our ecosystem.

Denied rewards

In order to ensure that the Referral Program can successfully achieve the purposes of developing the Lido ecosystem and attracting new stakers, there are rules in place to limit abuse and misbehavior. Namely, participants/addresses involved in abusive, incorrect, suspicious behavior that is against Lido DAO values and goals will be excluded from the Program and will not be entitled to LDO Rewards, including but not limited to the following situations:
1.

Cycle staking. Cycle staking is using the same amount of ETH multiple times by converting stETH back to ETH and staking it again.

2.

Removing liquidity from liquidity pools. This affects the stETH/ETH price peg so Lido will not incentivize that behavior with referral rewards. Liquidity pools include 1inch, Curve, Balancer, or Sushiswap.

3.

Adding/removing one sided liquidity to stETH pools with liquidity mining programs (such as Curve, Balancer, SushiSwap). Referral rewards will still be issued for two-sided stETH liquidity deposits and withdraws.

4.

Other actions that are directly or indirectly affecting the ETH:stETH peg.

5.

A suspicion that staked ETH are the proceeds of crime (e.g., hack).

Glossary

Reward Calculation Periods — 2 weeks period when referral gathers rewards on referee staking using a referral link. These rewards are considered as "not approved yet" and reflected in the Referral Widget interface.

Check & Approval — the process of filtering abuse cases (cycle staking, re-staking from stETH/ETH pools and others) and approving rewards. It happens at the beginning of the Payout Period.

Payout Period ("Rewards distribution") — 1 week during which Check & Approval (filtering abuse cases and rewards approval) and distributing rewards. Approved rewards are allocated to DeversiFi and can be claimed there. Approved rewards are going to be transferred to and be available at DeversiFi at the end of the Payout Period.

Approved Rewards — referral rewards considered fair after Final Check & Approval, not breaking terms and conditions, gathered without cycle staking or re-staking from stETH/ETH pools.

Denied Rewards — referral rewards that are not going to be allocated to DeversiFi and will not be available for claiming. Denied rewards rewards were considered as collected by abuse cases — cycle staking, re-staking from stETH/ETH pools, affecting stETH/ETH price peg, trying to get multiple rewards from the same amount of ETH, and others that are breaking the initial rules or considered as an abuse case by DAO. New types of abuse cases are going to be explained in detail in related articles and announces (f.e. 1st payment period review).

Referral Period Report — a public spreadsheet that represents referral addresses, staked amounts, approved rewards amounts for each Reward Calculation Period.

Whitelisting Guide

Any wallet or protocol team can apply to join the program as an approved partner. To apply or propose a candidate follow the instructions outlined here: https://research.lido.fi/t/referral-program-whitelisting/1039

All applications will be reviewed on a weekly basis. All relevant applications (wallets, protocols, frontend) are automatically approved with detected abuse cases leading to automatic exclusion from the program.

Referral Guide

1.

Generate your referral link via the Lido Referral Widget and share it to gather referees.

2.

Get s staking using your unique URL and track your rewards on Referral Widget. The widget presents only not approved rewards for the current Rewards Calculation Period.

3.

After the rewards have been approved during the Payout Week they are presented in the Referral Periods Report.

4.

Claim your approved rewards via DeversiFi after the rewards are approved and sent to DeversiFi during the Payout Period.

Rewarding Flow

1.

Rewards Calculation Period of 2 weeks (gathering and calculating the rewards);

2.

Payout Period of 1 week:

  • Check & Approval - filtering abuse cases and approving good ones;
  • Updating Referral Period Report (posting new period sheet);
  • Allocating approved rewards by DAO voting;
  • Transferring rewards to rewards distribution service (DeversiFi);
3.

Claiming rewards by referrals (from DeversiFi).