Just completed a new analysis with @raholloway on @RubiconDeFi's $OP incentive program and extracted some key lessons for future incentive programs

1/ Rubicon received 900K $OP for liquidity mining across 7 pools. TVL increased massively from 1,744% from $800K to $12.9M.

2/ Stablecoin and ETH pools were most capital efficient, attracting $10-$16 TVL per $OP. 

In contrast, long-tail assets ($OP, $SNX) saw huge TVL growth despite lower efficiency.

3/ @galxe_io quests drove 6.4x more transactions than incentives, indicating quests better engage users while incentives drive TVL. 

This is becoming a recurring trend amongst programs we've analyzed.

5/ Top claimer was Overnight defi at 10.8% but 15 of top 25 were Optimism delegators, showing ecosystem participation.

6/ Another takeaway: the FTX collapse drove a 9 ETH fee spike, highlighting market influence on results.

7/ Key insights:

• Incentivize high-demand assets for capital efficiency
• Boost long-tail assets to accelerate growth
• Blend quests and rewards for optimal impact
• Incentive program design must align with product trajectory

8/ Full analysis examines Rubicon's $OP incentive program and extracts key lessons for designing capital efficient and impactful protocols.

8/ Full analysis examines Rubicon's $OP incentive program and extracts key lessons for designing capital efficient and impactful protocols.
https://gov.optimism.io/t/incentive-impact-analysis-rubicon/6691

4/ A shortcoming: 

While innovation is inherently experimental, the incentivized product wound down shortly after the LM program ended suggesting a need to align incentives with long-term roadmaps.