Freemium has been widely used in software and web2 products with great success. Many centralized products in crypto have adopted the model successfully such as the RPC service — Alchemy, blockchain analytic service — Nansen, etc. However, the adoption of this effective model is rare in decentralized apps and almost none in decentralized finance (DeFi) products. Another innovation of Double is to leverage, adopt, and adapt the freemium model to incentivize community driven growth of Double.
The kind of “premium” equivalent feature in Double is the value of double dipping, where capital providers double their ROI while at the same time significantly reducing impermanent loss risks, and earning Double Dip Joy (DDJ) which has no premine and strong protocol native demands. The premium feature is access controlled by design. It is gated by the NFT token Double Down Club (DDC). To supply capital into Double, capital providers must either own DDC or have the delegation by other DDC holders.
The kind of “free” equivalent feature in Double is the possibility to earn DDJ without DDC. Any user can earn DDJ by importing and migrating AMM LP tokens into Double via the Pair tab. The DDJ rewards will be distributed based on another Double’s innovation — Liquidity Mining 2.0 (LM2). DDJ is the only currency that is required to participate in the auction to win the community allocation of premined DDC or to breed and mint new DDC by existing DDC holders to meet the strong market demand of DDC.
In the typical freemium model, there is no path, except paying, for free tier users to become premium tier users since the premium feature fee is the business model. Double’s freemium design is different and better. It enables free tier users to earn the currency (e.g. DDJ) which can be used to purchase the ticket (e.g. DDC) to become premium tier users either directly, via auction of DDC, or indirectly by converting DDJ to crypto and then buying DDC via secondary NFT marketplace.
Double’s refined freemium model design brings amazing benefits to Double. First, it incentivizes everyone to deposit assets into Double and contribute to the Double community. Second, it offers additional value to a sub-community — DDC holders, motivating them to lead the growth of Double. Third, it also creates a power balance between DDC holders and the rest of the Double community.
DeFi is still in its infant stage. To succeed in its mission to replace CeFi and TradFi, DeFi should adapt the successful models used in web2 to create competitive advantages. Via this innovation, Double wants to lead by example to fulfill DeFi’s mission!
