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The Proposal
Remove the current Splinterlands affiliate program and replace it with a new 2 tier affiliate program. All players would receive the following tier 1 benefits:
- 500 credits upon affiliate spellbook purchase (unchanged)
- Bonus rshares at end of season equal to 5% of rshares earned by affiliates (max of 2x players own earned rshares)
Players who have referred at least 25 players who purchased a spellbook (excluding free spellbook promos) or who have received a special invitation from the Splinterlands team or the DAO receive all of the tier 1 benefits plus the following tier 2 benefits:
- 2.5% credit affiliate bonus from the Splinterlands team for primary packs purchased with credits (unchanged)
- 2.5% DEC affiliate bonus from the DAO for packs purchased on sets where the DAO receives a percent of the sales
- 0.75% affiliate commission on all secondary market transactions (buy or sell)
The 0.75% commission will come out of the current 2% market burn fee and will NOT increase fees on the marketplace. For example: if both the buyer and seller were referred by a tier 2 affiliate the market burn fee would be reduced to 0.5%.
UPDATE DURING PREPROPOSAL STAGE: The terms of service will also be updated to prohibit players from abusing the affiliate program, including but not limited to referring themselves to use the program as a cashback system or partnering with others to do so.
This TOS update is not intended to apply retroactively or trap players who have previously self referred their current account.
Video Breakdown
The Current Problem
The current affiliate system in place is a failure and does not provide incentives for bringing new members into the economy.
First off, it only rewards primary purchases made via credits. Only a small percentage of players put money into the system this way though. Packs only tend to be worth it for those buying on a large scale, so most players buy specific cards on the secondary marketplace instead. Plus many of those who do buy packs will do so using a currency other than credits. None of this rewards the person who referred the player making the purchase.
On top of that, many players who do use credits to buy packs will not do so on their original account. They will create a new account, referred by their original account, and claim the affiliate bonus for themselves. This completely removes the rewards from the original referring account.
The affiliate program has basically turned into a cashback program for large spenders and provides very little benefit to those who actually refer new players to the game.
The Solution
The solution to the above problems is two fold. First, we need to create a system that rewards players for all types of referred players.
This is accomplished with the tier 1 rewards, by allowing players to earn extra soulbound cards by referring other players, even those who don't spend heavily. It also gives players more rewards the better their referrals perform, so this motivates players to help their affiliates perform better in game.
Second, we need to reduce incentives for players to buy an additional spellbook just to get themselves listed as their own affiliate.
This is accomplished by removing direct financial benefits (minus the spellbook cut) for tier 1 affiliates. For most players, the in game soulbound benefits will be superior to the credit rewards of the old system, but will be more difficult to exploit, because they will be bound to separate accounts.
Creating an additional affiliate tier that is exclusive only for top affiliates allows for a system that is financially lucrative for those with the ability to bring a large number of players into the game, without being available for exploit as easily as a cashback system for players. It also gives marketing teams a base to help recruit influencers into the Splinterlands ecosystem without requiring large expenditures from a marketing department.
Many games reserve this as a private tier only for those who have received a special invite from the game. This is a centralized approach. The invitation option is included so the team or DAO employees can attempt to recruit outside influencers into the system, but it is also available for anyone who proves themselves by referring 25 players to join Splinterlands.
While this system does reduce the burn fee for secondary transactions of some referred players, there will still always be some DEC burned from every transaction, and this is still greater than if these players had never been referred to the game to begin with. Getting more players to join Splinterlands will burn more DEC overall.
This proposal is sponsored by Splinter Card Seller, a market bot to help you quickly sell your Splinterlands cards on the market at the best possible price. You can get started by visiting their Discord here. Note: The sponsorship of this proposal is not intended to act as an endorsement of the p