RLY Rewards offer developers the opportunity to earn tokens as their token economy grows—spurring further app growth in the process, learn more in the Developer Resources Section on RLY Rewards.

Web2’s shortcomings are increasingly coming into focus, from ad-based business models to data misuse to one-sided financial rewards—and friction between app developers and their communities is rife. Community members and developers alike feel exploited and disillusioned. These issues are signs of a larger problem: Web2 apps have failed both developers and their communities due to incentive misalignment.

A study from Deloitte found that crypto-based rewards can help increase loyalty, Web3 tools like RLY Protocol offer an antidote—with the permissionless, open source, no-fee, multi-chain RLY Protocol, developers can easily launch social applications with tokenized economies. RLY Protocol takes the guesswork out of incentive alignment, making it easy for developers to distribute ownership to their community and to aspire to shared outcomes. Crucially, RLY Protocol also provides both developers and community members with an opportunity to earn financial rewards in the form of RLY Rewards.

What are RLY Rewards?

Denominated in RLY tokens, RLY Rewards are an economic mechanism that encourages positive behavior in RLY Network by offering up to one million RLY to developers during the Network’s bootstrap phase, as well as recurring awards. In short, RLY Rewards enable developers to secure financial value from their contributions to RLY Network.

RLY Rewards will be distributed to new apps built on RLY Protocol in two phases. During the Application Bootstrap Phase, new apps will be rewarded up to a total of 1,000,000* RLY for achieving launch, total-value-locked (TVL), and user metric-based milestones. App developers are encouraged to embrace designs that result in distribution to their communities.

Once apps have met all milestones, they will progress to the Application Mature Phase. In this phase, apps will be eligible to receive RLY in proportion to their contributions to RLY Network. Behaviors considered to be contributions include, the proliferation of RLY and app tokens, the active usage of RLY and app tokens, and the locking and staking of RLY. Developers can also apply for grants from the RLY Network Association and the RLY Ecosystem DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that funds RLY Network expansion.

*As of June 2022. Rewards formulas are subject to change to meet market and developer needs.

Why RLY Rewards Matter

RLY Rewards can help developers surmount common obstacles as they build their applications. For example, developers may worry that accruing value in a token economy will delay revenue recognition. RLY Rewards emissions help by offering developers a revenue stream for value creation.

Likewise, developers are often cash-strapped but require operating funds. With RLY Rewards, developers can instantly liquidate their RLY on the open market to bolster their operation. RLY Rewards can also help developers who are reluctant to give up equity to investors. Rather than sacrificing equity, developers can benefit from rewards distributed during the Application Bootstrap Phase and Application Mature Phase, in addition to applying for grants from RLY Network Association, RLY Network DAO, or other RLY Network projects.

Additionally, developers can incorporate RLY Rewards into their apps to align incentives with their communities. The first project on the RLY Network is Rally.io which offers social tokens for creators, these creators, and their fans, earn Rewards for community growth. Developers can look to a variety of RLY Protocol-powered projects for inspiration. Joyride Games utilizes RLY Protocol to tokenize gameplay and rewards players with RLY while they play Solitaire, Tennis, and other mobile games.

Gambit, a fantasy sports platform, enables players to take on the role of general manager as they buy and sell Athlete tokens, which represent players, in a marketplace. Gambit players also occupy the role of the coach as they work to optimize their team and compete in daily contests to earn RLY Rewards. Finally, Hotline, a token messaging platform offers its own Hotline token as well as branded creator coins which facilitate payments with creators’ communities. Fans can stake their creator coins for the opportunity to earn RLY Rewards.

Start Participating

The above cases provide just a few examples of what is possible to achieve with RLY Rewards. Ready to start building? You can learn more about RLY Protocol and RLY Rewards in our white paper.

• Developer Resources Gitbook: About RLY Rewards
• How to Play Solitaire Blitz and Earn Real-Money Rewards
• Solitaire Blitz – A Game For Fun, Glory, and $RLY Rewards (notice the shoutout and embed to our blog posts and tweets)