EigenLayer has announced earlier today a major adjustment to its Programmatic Incentives v1 payout schedule, delaying the initial claim date by one week, from October 8 to October 15, 2024. This change follows the discovery of a discrepancy in the incentive program’s implementation.
To correct the issue, the team will post a new Merkle root at a stipulated date later this month, ensuring that only eligible EIGEN stakers and operators receive rewards for their activity before September 30, 2024. This swift correction underscores EigenLayer’s commitment to fairness and transparency in their reward distribution process.
EigenLayer Incentives Payout Delay and Discrepancy
EigenLayer has announced via a post on X a significant change in their Programmatic Incentives v1 payout schedule. The initial claim date for these incentives has been postponed by one week, moving from October 8 to October 15, 2024. This delay comes as a result of a discovered discrepancy in the implementation of the incentive program.
The EigenLayer team identified an error in the Programmatic Incentives v1 implementation and is taking steps to address this issue. They will be disabling the Merkle root that was posted on October 1, 2024, and posting an updated Merkle root on October 8, 2024, with a corrected calculation.
The rewards from the new Merkle root will become claimable on October 15, 2024, one week after the posting. This correction aims to align the implementation with the original intent of the program, ensuring that only qualifying non-investor EIGEN stakers and eligible operators receive programmatic rewards for their activity before transferability.
The discrepancy arose from the erroneous inclusion of certain addresses in the Programmatic Incentives pipeline. In May 2024, EigenLayer had announced that investors would not accrue rewards for staking EIGEN until token transferability restrictions were lifted on September 30, 2024.
While investor addresses staking EIGEN were excluded from stakedrop Season 2, this exclusion was overlooked in the Programmatic Incentives code when rewards were retroactively added starting from August 15, 2024.
It’s important to note that the Programmatic Incentives logic is correct for the period starting October 1, 2024, as all addresses accrue rewards uniformly moving forward. The update is specifically needed to exclude investors who were staking before September 30, 2024.
New Merkle Root and Transparency Efforts
A more recent Merkle root will be revealed on the 8th of October, covering the EIGEN rewards from August 15 to October 6, 2024. This new root will make rewards claimable for eligible stakers and operators on October 15, 2024, one week after the root is posted.
EigenLayer has committed to making the code for calculating this initial root and ongoing future Programmatic Incentives public soon. This move towards transparency should help build trust and allow for community verification of the incentive calculations.
This delay and correction process reflects the complexity of implementing blockchain-based incentive programs and highlights EigenLayer’s commitment to fairness and accuracy in their reward distribution.
The team’s quick response to the identified discrepancy and their transparent communication about the issue demonstrate their dedication to maintaining the integrity of the Programmatic Incentives program.