User Onboarding Phase

Kaskad includes an 18-month transitional onboarding mechanism designed to bootstrap protocol adoption and incentivize early participation during the critical growth phase.

Overview

The onboarding phase runs for 18 months from launch and uses a dedicated budget sourced from the community round allocation (up to 25%). This budget funds growth incentives, milestone rewards, and early-adopter programs that supplement the regular epoch-based emission system.

The onboarding phase is a finite, time-limited program — it is not a permanent feature of the protocol.

Trigger Events

Onboarding incentives are released on two types of triggers:

Default Events (Time-Based)

• Monthly epoch closures
• Token Generation Event (TGE)
• Other predefined calendar-based events

Milestone Events (Performance-Based)

Triggered when the protocol reaches specific TVL thresholds:

Each milestone unlocks additional onboarding incentives for participants who contributed to reaching that threshold.

Milestone Validation

To prevent gaming and artificial TVL inflation, all milestone triggers are validated using:

TWAL (Time-Weighted Average Liquidity) — ensures that the TVL was sustained over time, not spiked briefly to trigger the milestone and then withdrawn.

TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) — prevents price manipulation from artificially inflating the dollar value of deposited assets.

Cooldown periods — a minimum time must pass between consecutive milestone claims.

Challenge windows — the community can contest milestone triggers if they suspect manipulation, with evidence reviewed during a defined challenge period.

Fund Routing

Onboarding phase funds flow through a defined path:

Community Round Budget (up to 25%)
        ↓
    Growth Pool
        ↓
   ┌────┴────┐
   ↓         ↓
DAO Treasury  Milestone Incentives

Funds are routed from the community allocation into the Growth Pool, which then distributes to the DAO Treasury (for ongoing incentives) and directly to Milestone Incentives (for event-triggered rewards).

After the Onboarding Phase

Once the 18-month onboarding period ends:

• The dedicated onboarding budget is fully distributed or returned to the DAO Treasury
• Incentives continue through the regular epoch-based emission system (39% of total supply)
• Governance assumes full control of incentive calibration within bounded parameters
• The protocol transitions to a self-sustaining incentive model driven by protocol fees and remaining emissions

The onboarding phase is designed to bridge the gap between launch (when organic fee revenue is low) and maturity (when the protocol generates sufficient fees and activity to sustain itself).