Tigris: Mezo's Native Incentive Management System
Tigris manages Mezo's incentive and revenue distribution, rewarding long-term participants. Coming soon: Lock BTC on Mezo to participate in the chain governance.
If DeFi history has shown us anything, it’s that reliance on high token inflation and hasty reward schemes often leads to short-lived hype. Speculators rush in to extract value, then leave once the rewards dry up, burdening remaining participants with a weakened ecosystem. This cycle makes sustainable growth almost impossible.
Drawing from over a decade of Bitcoin development experience, the Mezo team has witnessed these patterns repeatedly. By combining Bitcoin's scarcity principles with lessons from the most successful DeFi protocols, Mezo creates a system that captures the best of both worlds.
Enter Tigris, Mezo’s integrated incentive management system, crafted to break the cycle of incentive instability and build a sustainable foundation for the future. Just as the Tigris River nourished Mesopotamia’s agricultural and societal growth, Tigris serves as the lifeblood of Mezo, channeling value to those who actively sustain the ecosystem.
Built by system designers with decades of combined experience in Bitcoin and DeFi, Tigris solves the critical flaws of modern incentive models by rewarding long-term commitment, aligning stakeholders, and transforming BTC into supernormal capital—productive, programmable, and perpetually powerful.
What is Tigris?
Tigris is Mezo’s integrated incentive system designed to align incentives across the ecosystem. It weaves together several battle-tested, proven DeFi concepts to direct revenues (chain and application fees) into the hands of long-term Mezo users.
Tigris focuses on creating a balanced economic structure in which those who commit their capital and efforts over time have the highest stake in governance and rewards.
Drawing Inspiration from Proven Models
Tigris takes cues from successful DeFi projects that have utilized the vote-escrow system, often referred to as ve(3,3). Projects like Aerodrome and Curve enable users to lock their respective tokens (AERO, CRV, BTC, etc.) and receive a veNFT.
These veNFTs grant the user voting rights for certain protocol operations, such as emissions, revenue flows, and liquidity direction. Voting power granted through the veNFT is directly proportional to the lockup period, where longer lockups = more voting power.
The key benefits of the vote-escrow model:
- Align participants by granting governance rights in proportion to their locked assets and lock durations.
- Ensure long-term lockers earn a portion of platform fees and can influence where new token emissions flow.
- Allow projects to direct fresh incentives toward targeted pools or features, prompting deeper liquidity and user engagement.
Vote-escrowing is one of the core innovations in DeFi, ensuring the long-term participation of users. The initial progression of Curve’s vote-escrow model saw complex layers built on top that optimized a user's voting power, aggregated vote power to a single entity, and simplified the bribing system. This ongoing progression was better known as the ‘Curve Wars’.
As the model has developed over time, Aerodrome handles nearly all operations under its own protocol, minimizing complications and simplifying the UX.
Mezo takes this a step further. Not only does the native DEX utilize the stake-gauge system, but the direction of all base network fees and core app revenues are determined by the ve-stakers on Mezo. In practice, users will lock their BTC on Mezo to receive a veBTC NFT. This grants voting power on DEX Gauges and Chain Governance (more details on these in a follow-up blog).
Why Tigris on Mezo?
Mezo is focused on extending Bitcoin's utility in DeFi while maintaining its core principles of security and decentralization. Tigris elevates this vision with a comprehensive incentive framework that rewards you for taking an active role and contributing to the Bitcoin economy on Mezo.
Tigris development will occur in two main phases. In Phase 1, Tigris enables active governance through veBTC. A follow-up blog will cover concrete details on Phase 1.
By locking BTC to mint veBTC, Mezo users are granted proportional voting power. As such, Tigris can be thought of as a microcosm of Mezo’s larger ethos. veBTC holders enable:
- Self-sovereignty. Just as Bitcoin lets you hold your own keys, veBTC gives you control over Mezo’s governance. Your votes shape the ecosystem.
- Fair value sharing. All fees generated from Mezo’s core applications flow directly to veBTC holders, starting with Borrow in Phase 1 and expanding to Swapping, MUSD, and more as the ecosystem grows.
For example, every time you use Mezo’s Borrow feature to get MUSD, the fees generated flow back into the hands of lockers. This circular flow of value serves a dual purpose: it encourages continual participation from dedicated BTC holders and strengthens the protocol’s overall health. Instead of passively watching from the sidelines, your influence and commitments guide the ecosystem’s evolution.
This structure places economic weight in the hands of contributors who lock their BTC for various lengths of time. Over time, Tigris’s model can adapt to new participants, new token holders, and additional features. As a result, Tigris enables governance to stay dynamic and incentives to remain fair.
What's to Come
As mentioned, Tigris will be rolled out in Phases.
The initial release of Tigris will be the "Earn" feature, which allows users to interact with the BTC-locking system on Mezo. The matsnet version of this feature will have lock phases of 1 day to 1 month. Following the Earn feature will be "Pool" and "Vote", rolled out at later dates during matsnet.
If you’re looking to shape Mezo’s future today, Tigris offers the perfect avenue. Lock your BTC, vote with veBTC, and help guide Mezo’s direction. The follow-up post will break down the Earn mechanics step by step. Stay tuned, and please reach out in Discord if you have any questions.
The road to banking on yourself starts with borrowing on Mezo.
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