Replace One-Way Grants with Repayable, Stablecoin Based KSM Loans

Kusama burns KSM on one-way grants that never return.

This Wish For Change proposes repayable KSM loans to regulated stablecoin issuers:

• Issuers launch branded, audited stablecoins on Asset Hub.

• Treasury is repaid in stablecoins, creating a diversified, predictable reserve.

• Validators can be paid without relying on token price or inflation.

• Objective metrics from stablecoin adoption replace easily gamed KPIs.

Vote YES → Build a self-financing treasury and move towards fiscal independence.

Vote NO → Keep spending KSM and remain dependent on market cycles.

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Decent Partners is already proving the model with dUSD, Kreivo, and Bloque, but the proposal is deliberately stablecoin-agnostic, any competent team or collective can copy it.

Conflict disclosure: Decent Partners developed the Brale partnership and have launched dUSD on Asset Hub and are working on a range of other integrations and partnerships. We are core users of Kreivo infrastructure and the Bloque neobank. We have committed capital and resources to the ecosystem since the ICO. Our incentives are aligned with the long term independence of the network and the success - creative, financial or otherwise of its talent.

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1. Summary – The Binary Choice

Vote YES → Transition from non-recoverable grants to repayable KSM loans that build a stablecoin reserve, introduce objective metrics and secure long-term validator payouts.

Vote NO → Stay with the current model: spend KSM (and soon DOT), judge impact with gameable KPIs, remain dependent on token prices and market sentiment.

2. The Problem

Kusama needs a simple, pragmatic path to commercial sustainability, one that does not rely on rising token prices and can operate independent of market cycles.

In closing the Marketing Bounty #1791 the Web3 Foundation announced their intention to become active in Polkadot's governance:

Like many decentralized experiments, it’s natural for initiatives to evolve as we learn together. Within this context, the Web3 Foundation and its Funding Committee, in alignment with OpenGov’s values, have committed to protecting the treasury by ensuring all ongoing programs align with strong, outcome-driven frameworks.

Kusama’s economic sustainability is tightly linked to the market price of KSM.

• Treasury outflows are non-recoverable.
• Coretime and transaction fees generate negligible revenue.
• Loans (e.g. Bifrost) return principal and staking rewards but do not diversify reserves.
• Validator operations are increasingly unviable.
• Treasury lacks diversification.
• Spending efficacy relies on subjective, easily gamed metrics.
• Proof of Personhood is not a near-term fix for sustainability.

Outcome: The treasury is not resilient to market cycles and cannot reliably support long-term network operations let alone sustain growth.

3. Why Now — 10M DOT Are Coming

Kusama will receive 10 million DOT (~$23 M at current prices) transferred from the Web3 Foundation into three separate bounties over the next 24 months.

If this is spent the same way we have spent KSM for the last four years - as one-way grants judged solely by vanity metrics, hitting delivery milestones and benchmarked against marketing impact reports it will be wasted.

4. Why Current Approaches Fail

OpenGov spending is measured using KPIs and ROI frameworks unsuitable for decentralised R&D:

• On-chain metrics (TVL, DAUs, transactions) can be gamed or manipulated, are volatile and represent poor proxies for economic sustainability.
• Off-chain metrics (views, impressions, attendance, signups) are detached from real economic impact.
• Impact is subjective and difficult to compare across domains, bounties and initiatives.
• Claims of domain expertise is not backed up by commercial revenues.

Need: Metrics rooted in objective economic performance, not marketing proxies.

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5. The Solution Turn Spending into Investment

5.1 Overview

Replace one-way KSM grants with repayable KSM loans to regulated stablecoin issuers.

These issuers use a portion of stablecoin yield to repay the treasury, creating a self-reinforcing system:

• Treasury spending becomes productive investment.

• Repayments build a diversified, dollar-based reserve.

• Proposers are accountable to measurable financial outcomes.

• Stablecoin growth serves as an objective adoption metric.

• Value recirculates in a regenerative design rather than being extracted by third parties as happens with Circle (USDC) and Tether (USDT).

5.2 Why This Works

• Un-gameable metrics: Regulated, audited stablecoin supply growth is verifiable.

• Accountability: Loans are liabilities for issuers and assets for the treasury.

• Aligned incentives: Issuers benefit from growth; the treasury gains stablecoin income.

• Diversification: Treasury accumulates stable assets rather than depleting KSM.

• Stable validator payouts: Validators can be paid in stablecoins, removing dependence on token price.

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6. Operational Mechanism

The model is open by default. Decent Partners demonstrates the workflow, but any capable team can execute it.

6.1 Phase 1 — Formation

1. Bring your company on-chain or start a new one via Bloque.

2. Sign Brale’s regulated stablecoin issuance agreement with performance based yield-sharing.

6.2Phase 2 — Issuance

3. Launch a branded stablecoin on Asset Hub.

4. Define use case, revenue model, and ecosystem plan.

5. Register brand identity as on-chain IP to pledge as part of funding.

6.3 Phase 3 — Funding

6. Request USD-denominated KSM loan from treasury.

7. Approved KSM is automatically converted to dUSD on Asset Hub.

8. Treasury records loan and IP as assets on its balance sheet.

6.4 Phase 4 — Growth

9. Deploy products, services, and partnerships around the stablecoin.

10. Yield grows according to Brale’s tiered revenue-sharing model.

6.5 Phase 5 — Repayment

11. Use stablecoin yield to repay the treasury.

12. Treasury accrues a diversified, predictable, non-inflationary reserve.

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7. KPIs and Growth Targets

• First 12 months: scale a single issuer (e.g., dUSD) past $20M issuance.

• Brale Yield-Sharing Tiers:

• Surpassing $20M issuance validates the model and sustains Kusama' core development.

• Surpassing $50M ($150k monthly run rate) validators can begin to be subsidised.

• Over $100M ($300k monthly run rate) the network is self-sufficient.

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8. Case Study: dUSD

8.1 Overview

Decent Partners demonstrates the model with dUSD. Yield is fully reinvested to drive ecosystem adoption. The team are focused on building:

• Commercial partnerships that move off-chain cashflows on-chain.

• Incubating dUSD based tools, products and services.

• Talent coordination and strategy.

8.2 Bloque: The dUSD Neobank

Signup here.

• Individual, corporate and DAO accounts

• Treasury and payroll tools with dUSD on/off ramps very soon.

• VISA card issuance with instant fiat settlement.

8.3 Traction

• $800k+ dUSD processed as of end of November 2025.

• Projected $10M in six months.

• Enterprises, music/entertainment, sports, NGOs and hardware manufacturers onboarding.

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9. On-Chain Evidence & Performance Metrics

Real-world dUSD usage is verifiable via public Asset Hub transactions.

• Example: dUSD transfer history on Subscan

• Provides objective, auditable metrics:

  1. Transaction volume and frequency
  2. Stablecoin adoption growth
  3. Economic activity from real payments

Loan repayment and treasury inflows will also be easily verifiable on-chain.

This reduces reliance on vanity KPIs and enables governance to assess true network impact as well as Kusama's progress towards financial sustainability and independence.

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10. Scaling Roadmap

Flywheel Effect: Success of early issuers enables treasury to expand loan size, accelerating ecosystem growth - inflation becomes a growth engine with measurable impact and returns.

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11. Long-Term Vision

By onboarding businesses onto Asset Hub, Kreivo, and Bloque:

• Generate perpetual, predictable and stable funding for ecosystem R&D

• Build a diversified treasury of regulated and independently audited stablecoins

• Enable new decentralised economies in payments, music, hardware, media, and more

Kusama becomes a self-financing network, capable of scaling innovation funding.

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12. Voter Options

🅐 YES — Adopt the New Treasury Strategy

• Transition from grants to repayable KSM loans

• Develop a stablecoin-denominated reserve

• Fund ecosystem growth via impact delivered by incentives aligned on-chain businesses

• Measure impact through auditable stablecoin metrics

• Leverage inflation to create growth capital.

• Secure long-term validator and treasury sustainability

🅑 NO — Keep the Current Treasury Model

• Continue issuing non-recoverable KSM grants

• Evaluate spending using subjective, easily gamed metrics

• Depend heavily on KSM price

• Retain limited treasury diversification

• Lack structural mechanism for stable, recurring income