Summary

This proposal seeks the DAO’s approval to allocate an additional 11% in SEAM tokens to core contributors to support the long-term development, strategic hiring, security efforts, and other alignment grants for Seamless Protocol over the next 2–4 years. This allocation will bring the total contributor allocation to 22%, aligning with industry norms while maintaining strong DAO ownership of the token supply and positioning Seamless for long-term success in an increasingly competitive DeFi landscape.

Context and motivation

Since June 2023, the core contributors of Seamless Protocol have operated as a bootstrapped team, delivering significant value with limited resources. From the outset, Seamless was launched as a fair launch project, allocating only 11% of the token supply to the team and advisors (8% to the core team and 3% to advisors) — well below industry benchmarks.

Despite these lean conditions, the team has delivered several major milestones:

• The legacy lending/borrowing platform achieved over $100M TVL
• Release of Integrated Liquidity Markets (ILMs) v1
• Successful integration with Morpho vaults, driving over $75M TVL
• Tokenomics update and launch of staking (stkSEAM)
• Upcoming release of Leverage Tokens (currently under audit from Spearbit, targeting a May release)
• Ongoing execution across roadmap and master plan initiatives

This track record reflects both strong contributor performance and growing ecosystem traction. To sustain this momentum, the DAO must evolve its support model — shifting from lean startup conditions to resourcing a high-performing team of professionals.

To remain competitive, attract and retain talent, and scale effectively, the DAO should invest in its contributors. Providing the necessary resources will enable Seamless to mature into a strategically aligned, long-term team capable of delivering on the protocol’s mission/vision and navigating the demands of future growth. For reference, over the course of development, an estimated $3.25 million USD has been operationally utilized across salaries, audits, infrastructure, legal, BD, marketing, and more.

Goals & Objectives

This proposal seeks to increase the core contributor allocation from 11% to 22%. This amount remains below the industry averages of ~23-24% and is intended to ensure that contributors are rewarded fairly and supported sustainably.

The additional SEAM allocation will support several high-priority initiatives:

• Strategic hiring and team expansion
  • One new full-time contributor and one contractor have already been onboarded
  • Future hiring plans include:
    • Full-stack engineers with individual all-in compensations in the range of $102k-$193k USD per year (note: strong full stack engineers command average all-in costs of ~$152k USD depending on experience and geography)
    • DeFi-native generalists with individual all-in compensations in the range of $117k-$167k USD per year (note: DeFi-experienced non-technical contributors command average all-in costs of ~$147k a year, based on experience and geographical location)
• Funding essential protocol functions
  • Smart contract audits for Leverage Tokens v1.0, which typically cost between 50,000 and 100,000 USD per audit
  • Two audits have been previously completed: one for the legacy lending and borrowing platform, and one for ILM version 1.0
• Alignment grants for long-term partners
  • Token grants to support the involvement of governance delegates, strategic partners, and key advisors
• Sustaining long-term execution
  • The Seamless roadmap is ambitious. This allocation ensures the protocol has the talent and resources needed to meet community expectations and deliver consistently

By approving this proposal, the DAO can invest in the people and capabilities required to scale Seamless with focus and integrity. This would mean the continued execution of the short term roadmap and marching towards the Seamless long term master plan.

Proposal Details

Allocation

• 11% additional SEAM tokens (11m in SEAM tokens) sourced from DAO-owned and DAO-vesting smart contracts, taken as a subset of the 65% of SEAM reserved on-chain for DAO use
• SEAM to be moved from the DAO timelock to a secure multisig wallet designated by Core Contributors

Technical Implementation

• Execute onchain transfer from DAO-vesting smart contracts to DAO timelock
• Transfer SEAM from DAO timelock to multisig/custody controlled by core contributors

Resources & References

• Governance Discussion
• Proposal Implementation
• Built using Seamless Governance Proposals tools