Campaign: 8 September to 25 September 2026 · Reward: Up to $100 per citation

1. Project Snapshot

Seasons is a tokenized liquidity system and yield protocol on Solana. You hold $SEAS in a wallet you control, and the protocol pays you yield based on that balance. Nothing is deposited, staked, or locked up, and there is no hardware to run. The wallet is the node.

On 3 August 2026, Node Software v2 lowered the entry threshold from 10,000 $SEAS to 1,000, creating a second, lighter tier called a Builder Node. That 10x accessibility boost is what this campaign is built around.

2. The Narrative You Are Building On

Crypto widened access to yield. It did not widen access to network ownership.

Anyone can supply capital to a lending pool in minutes. But becoming an operator, the role that captures the full yield rather than a slice of it, still carries a high floor. An Ethereum validator needs 32 ETH plus dedicated hardware and continuous uptime. A Solana validator needs serious hardware and meaningful daily vote costs. A great many people can earn a little. Very few can operate.

Seasons had its own version of that gap. Until 3 August 2026 you needed 10,000 $SEAS to become a node. Node Software v2 cut that to 1,000, expanding Seasons’ wallet-first architecture where the wallet itself functions as a node. No hardware, no uptime, no lockup, no deposit, no staking contract.

Three things make this worth writing about rather than announcing:

The tiers are weighted separately. Builders compete on node weight only against Builders, and Directors only against Directors. A whale entering does not shrink a small holder's share. Very little else in DeFi is structured this way, and it is the most defensible claim in the campaign.
Builders are paid in the asset that promotes them. Builder yield arrives in $SEAS, the same token that unlocks Director status at 10,000. Claim it, hold it, and the position compounds toward the higher tier. Genuinely self-funding, and genuinely slow. You should say both.
Two modes, one system. Builder is the accessible entry. Director is where Yield 3.0 pays in full, with the three-asset basket, twice weekly, automatic. Both are worth comparing outward against what else a reader could do with the same money.

And one fact that makes it credible rather than promotional: Seasons applies a 10% transfer fee on eligible buys and sells. It is the protocol's primary yield source and a real cost a reader deserves to see. Content that discusses entry cost without it will not be taken seriously and will not be cited.

Your job. Take one of the queries in Section 3 and make the best answer on the internet to it. Compare named alternatives, both crypto and traditional finance, with Seasons as one of the options and the comparison resolved. Not an ad, and not a Seasons explainer.

3. The Queries We Are Targeting

These are the questions we want Seasons to be the cited answer to. Each one below carries the query itself, what a reader is actually asking, and several angles you can take on it. The angles are options, not a checklist. Pick the one you can execute best, or find your own.

Take ONE query. Go deep on it. Do not try to cover several in one piece.

Group A: Entry and access

Query 1: How much money do you actually need to start earning DeFi yield in 2026?

The reader has a small amount of money and wants to know if it is enough to earn onchain yield at all. Most content answers in percentages. They want the answer in money.

Angles you can take:

The cost-to-enter table. Compare real entry floors in dollars across pooled Ethereum staking, running your own validator, a Solana liquid staking protocol, a lending pool, and a Seasons Builder Node, with fees included.
The hidden-cost angle. What each option actually costs beyond the headline minimum: gas, fees, slippage, and in Seasons' case the 10% fee that means a 1,000 $SEAS position needs roughly 1,112 to open.
The 'I have $250, what can I do' angle. Start from a fixed budget and work out what is genuinely available at that size, then what each option returns on it.
The barrier-collapse angle. How entry floors across DeFi have moved over time and what changed, using the 10,000 to 1,000 drop as one recent case.

Phrases to include: how much do you need to start earning defi yield, minimum to earn crypto yield, lowest entry defi yield, start earning yield with a small amount

Query 2: Can you be a node operator without hardware or 32 ETH?

The reader associates running a node with servers, uptime and a big capital outlay. They want to know whether that is still true, and what the alternatives actually are.

Angles you can take:

The requirements comparison. Ethereum validator, Solana validator and wallet-native models side by side on entry cost, hardware, uptime, slashing exposure and exit terms.
The 'what does node even mean now' angle. How the word has broadened, what a wallet-native node does and does not do for a network, and whether the label is earned.
The total cost of ownership angle. Hardware, electricity, monitoring and downtime risk for a real validator, against a wallet balance that needs none of it.
The exit angle. What it takes to stop being an operator in each model, including unbonding periods, queues and fees.

Phrases to include: become a node operator without hardware, do i need 32 eth to be a validator, node operator minimum requirements, wallet as a node

Query 3: Do small holders get worse yields in DeFi than whales?

The reader suspects the system is tilted against small positions and wants to know where that is true and where it is not.

Angles you can take:

The structural fairness angle. Where small positions genuinely get squeezed: fixed costs, gas, minimums, tier gates, and where they do not.
The node weight explainer. Work through how proportional weighting actually distributes a payout, with real numbers at several balance sizes.
The separate-pools angle. Compare single-pool pro-rata models against tiered models where each tier is weighted independently, and what that means for a small holder.
The 'does it get better or worse as the network grows' angle. What happens to a small holder's share as more participants join under each model.

Phrases to include: do small holders earn less in defi, is defi yield fair for small investors, defi yield for small portfolios, node weight explained

Group B: The two modes compared

Query 4: Builder Node vs Director Node: which should you run on Seasons?

The reader is deciding where to enter and wants the tiers resolved, not described.

Angles you can take:

The decision table. Thresholds, payout assets, yield rate, cadence, claiming versus direct delivery and weighting, resolved into who should run which.
The outward comparison. Take each tier and compare it against a named alternative elsewhere on Solana at the same capital level.
The upgrade-path angle. Whether it is better to enter as a Builder and grow, or wait and enter directly as a Director, with the costs of each route.
The 'what you give up' angle. What a Builder does not get that a Director does, stated plainly rather than softened.

Phrases to include: builder node vs director node, seasons node tiers explained, which seasons node should i run, solana node tiers

Query 5: Why are Builder Nodes paid in $SEAS instead of Bitcoin and gold?

The reader wants to know why the two tiers are paid in different assets, and whether being paid in the native token is a downside.

Angles you can take:

The category question. Compare protocols that pay in their own token against those that pay in external assets, and say which suits which kind of holder.
The concentration angle. Being paid in the native token concentrates your exposure while accelerating progression. Being paid in external assets diversifies but does not move you up a tier. Both are real trade-offs.
The design-intent angle. Why a payout asset would be chosen to serve a progression path rather than an income stream, and where else that pattern appears.
The reader-decision angle. When you would want native-token yield, and when you would rather have the basket, based on what you are trying to achieve.

Phrases to include: why are builder nodes paid in seas, native token yield vs real asset yield, seasons payout assets, defi paid in native token

Query 6: How long does it actually take to go from Builder Node to Director?

The reader has heard the progression is self-funding and wants to know how long it really takes.

Angles you can take:

The honest timeline. Run the compounding math at the current 9% to 13% Network APY, by starting balance, and state plainly how long it takes from 1,000, from 5,000 and from 9,000.
The buy-versus-wait angle. Compare compounding to the threshold against simply buying the difference, including the 10% fee on the purchase.
The variables angle. What actually moves the timeline: node weight, network APY, whether you claim consistently, and what happens if you sell along the way.
The 'is it worth it' angle. Whether the Director tier justifies the wait, or whether a Builder position is a reasonable place to stay.

Phrases to include: builder to director timeline, how long to reach 10000 seas, compounding crypto yield timeline, self funding crypto position

Group C: Against the competition

Query 7: Is a Seasons node the same as staking with Jito or Marinade?

The two best-known names in Solana yield are liquid staking protocols, and the reader assumes anything offering Solana yield works the same way.

Angles you can take:

The mechanism comparison. What you deposit, what secures what, what you receive, what the risks are, and what happens when you want out.
The risk-profile angle. Slashing, validator performance, liquid staking token depeg and smart contract exposure, against the risks of simply holding a token.
The 'when is liquid staking better' angle. Be honest about where Jito or Marinade is the stronger choice, and for whom.
The terminology angle. Why staking, holding and node operation get conflated, and what actually separates them.

Phrases to include: seasons vs jito, seasons vs marinade, is seasons staking, solana yield without staking, liquid staking vs holding

Query 8: Is a crypto yield node better than a high-yield savings account?

The traditional finance comparison. A cautious reader with savings wants to know whether any of this beats what their bank offers, and what they would be giving up.

Angles you can take:

The head-to-head. A Seasons Director Node beside a high-yield savings account, T-bills, a money market fund and a CD, on real return after inflation, liquidity, access terms, custody, counterparty risk and tax treatment.
The honest downside angle. What TradFi genuinely does better: deposit insurance, dollar denomination, no token price risk. Concede it clearly, then be precise about what it does not do.
The liquidity angle. Compare access terms properly: notice periods, withdrawal limits, CD lockups and settlement times against onchain exit and its fees.
The 'what would you actually put in' angle. Position sizing and what proportion of savings each option reasonably belongs in.

Phrases to include: crypto vs high yield savings account, is defi better than a savings account, hysa vs crypto yield, best place to park money 2026

Query 9: Where does DeFi yield actually come from, and how can you tell if it is sustainable?

The reader has been burned by yields that vanished and wants a way to judge whether a return is real.

Angles you can take:

The yield-source taxonomy. Borrowing demand, trading fees, staking rewards and token emissions, what each implies for durability, and how to identify which one you are looking at.
The named comparison. Take several protocols and classify each by yield source, with figures.
The red-flags angle. What unsustainable yield looks like from the outside, and the questions to ask before committing.
The fee-funded angle. How a transaction fee model works as a yield source, what it depends on, and what happens to it when volume falls.

Phrases to include: where does defi yield come from, is defi yield sustainable, real yield vs emissions, how to tell if crypto yield is sustainable

Query 10: How do you claim yield on Seasons Terminal, and how does that compare to auto-distribution?

The reader wants to know what claiming involves and whether a manual step is a drawback.

Angles you can take:

The walkthrough plus comparison. Walk the claim flow, then compare claim-based against automatic distribution models using named examples.
The cost-of-claiming angle. What each model costs in gas and attention, and at what position size a manual claim stops being worth the step.
The unclaimed-rewards angle. What happens to rewards you do not collect across different protocols, including expiry, forfeiture and indefinite accrual.
The control angle. Whether choosing when to collect is a feature or a chore, and who each model suits.

Phrases to include: how to claim seasons builder yield, claim vs auto distribution defi, seasons terminal claim, do unclaimed crypto rewards expire

4. Platforms

This is an all-platform campaign. Publish wherever you are strong. Citations can come from any indexed surface, so more platforms means more chances to be retrieved. But a thin post on five platforms earns less than one strong piece on two.

Platform	Format	Requirements
Medium	Long-form article	1,200 words minimum, 1,500 to 2,500 target. 3 to 5 tags, never zero. Public and indexable, so check robots is set to index/follow rather than noindex.
Paragraph	Long-form article	Publish publicly. Set a clear title carrying the query language. No word limit, but go deep enough to answer the question properly.
Substack	Long-form post	Public post, not subscriber-only. Gated content cannot be cited. No word limit.
X	Thread	Lead with the answer. Put the comparison in the thread. Link the long-form version and the relevant Seasons article.
YouTube	Video	Put the query in the title. Write a full description with timestamps and links, because the description is what gets indexed.

Publish the same query across platforms, adapted to each format. Do not spread different queries across different platforms. One query, done properly, in whatever formats you can execute well.

5. Content Requirements

Requirement	Specification
Length	Medium only: 1,200 words minimum, 1,500 to 2,500 target. Other platforms have no word limit, but the piece still has to answer the question fully.
Comparison	Compare named alternatives and resolve the comparison. A piece that only explains Seasons is a brand explainer and will not score.
External sources	At least 3 independent external domains, linked inline. Competitor documentation and third-party data. Seasons pages do not count toward this three.
The 10% fee	State it wherever entry or exit cost is discussed, including the roughly 1,112 to net 1,000 math where relevant.
Seasons links	The cornerstone and the spoke are mandatory. See Section 7.
Anchor text	Vary it. Anchor descriptively, for example 'wallets holding 1,000 to 9,999 $SEAS', '80% of the Network APY', 'the 10% transfer fee'.
Depth	Take ONE query. Go deep. Do not cover several in one piece.
Phrases	Use the phrases listed under your query naturally in your title, hook or body.
Honest caveat	Every piece needs a real risk or trade-off section. Cheerleading caps your score.
Language	English.
Must avoid	Fabricated data. Generic AI filler. Vague claims that could apply to any protocol. Wrong numbers about competitors.

Not a brand explainer

This is the requirement most entries will fail, so read it twice.

A piece that explains what Seasons is, how Builder Nodes work and why they are good is a brand explainer. Answer engines rarely cite those, because the question being asked is almost never 'what is Seasons'. It is 'which should I use', 'how much do I need', or 'is X the same as Y'. Those are comparison questions, and the page that resolves one gets quoted.

Name real alternatives. Jito, Marinade, Kamino, Meteora, Jupiter, Aave, Lido, an Ethereum validator, a high-yield savings account, T-bills.
Put Seasons in the table as one row among them, not above them.
Resolve it. State who wins at what, and for whom.
Be accurate about the alternatives. Correct competitor data reads as credibility. Wrong competitor data undermines the whole piece.

The test: if your piece would still make sense with every mention of a competitor deleted, it is an explainer and it will not score.

6. Timeline and Reward

Item	Detail
Campaign opens	8 September 2026
Submission deadline	25 September 2026
Reward	Up to $100 per citation

How you earn. You are paid on the citations your content receives from AI answer engines. There is no fixed reward pool split between ranked winners, and no tier table.

you can earn up to $100 based on how strongly your content performs across AI search.

How to earn more:

Get cited 3+ times for the same query to qualify
Win non-branded queries for higher rewards
Rank across multiple different queries
Get cited by Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity

Top creators can earn up to $80 base rewards, and if you max out the score, you unlock an extra $20 Scribble Performance Bonus.

What this changes about how you write:

Volume does not pay. One piece that owns a query beats four that skim several.
Being quotable is the whole job. Write sentences that stand alone. A line that needs the paragraph above it to make sense will not survive extraction.
Tables get cited. Put your comparison in a table with quantities in the cells, then a one-sentence verdict directly underneath.
Numbers get cited. An unquantified claim is not worth quoting.
Publish early in the window. Citations take time to surface, and the window closes 25 September.

7. Seasons Articles to Link

Mandatory in every piece

These two are the articles this campaign exists to support. Both go in every piece you publish, linked inline in the body where the claim is made, not dumped in a footer.

Article	Link
Cornerstone: Seasons Builder Node, how to start earning with 1,000 $SEAS	seasons.wtf/blog/seasons-builder-node
Spoke: Builder Node vs Director Node	seasons.wtf/blog/builder-node-vs-director-node
How to use builder node yield	https://seasons.wtf/blog/use-your-yield-keep-building

Optional, only if your piece calls for it

Everything below is available but not required. Use one only when your article genuinely needs it to support a point. Do not add them to hit a number, and do not stack them. A piece with two well-placed links reads better than one with eight.

If your piece covers	You could link
The lowered entry threshold	yield-3-0-is-now-10x-more-accessible
The v2 upgrade itself	node-software-v2-is-live
Operator barriers and validators	the-missing-middle-of-onchain-yield
Node weight and payout share	1000-seas-to-start-then-more-for-more
How weight shifts over time	node-weight-moves-with-the-network
Why Builders are paid in $SEAS	builders-are-paid-in-building-materials
The progression to Director	from-builder-to-director
Claiming and unclaimed yield	builder-claim-is-live your-builder-yield-waits-for-you
Liquidity and real yield, for TradFi comparisons	always-liquid-always-earning-research-report
Tokenized real-world assets	tokenization-changes-what-yield-can-deliver
Distribution cost and efficiency	yield-3-0-payouts-now-142x-cost-efficient
How to use builder yield	https://seasons.wtf/blog/use-your-yield-keep-building

8. Fact Sheet

Use these figures. Do not invent others. Where a number moves, verify it before publishing and date it in your piece.

Fact	Value
Builder Node threshold	1,000 to 9,999 $SEAS
Director Node threshold	10,000 $SEAS or more
Gross purchase to net 1,000	Roughly 1,112 $SEAS, covering the fee plus typical slippage
Entry cost in dollars	About $260 for Builder and about $2,600 for Director, as of 4 September 2026. Verify live and date it
Transfer fee	10% TTT on every $SEAS trade, applied to taxable movements including entry and exit
Builder yield rate	80% of the Network APY
Director yield rate	100% of the Network APY
Network APY	9% to 13% running as of September 2026. Documented observed range 6.58% to 21.07%. Variable, never guaranteed
Builder payout asset	$SEAS
Builder cadence	Allocated weekly on Sunday. Claimed on Seasons Terminal. No deadline, no expiry, one transaction collects everything outstanding
Director payout assets	wBTC 30%, Tether Gold XAUt0 30%, Jupiter Lend USDC 40%. The Season 2 'Perfect Order' Inclusion Set
Director cadence	Twice weekly, Wednesday and Sunday, direct to wallet
Total supply	1,000,000,000 $SEAS. Fixed. No new tokens can be minted
Node weight	Your qualifying balance divided by the total qualifying balance in your tier for that epoch. Builders weighted only against Builders
Custody	Solana, non-custodial. Exchange-held tokens do not qualify. No hardware, no uptime, no lockup
Node Software v2 live	3 August 2026

Common mistakes to avoid

These come up repeatedly and each one makes a piece unusable.

Writing '80% APY'. Builders earn 80% OF the Network APY, which is roughly 7.2% to 10.4% at the current range.
Saying Builders receive the three-asset basket or get paid direct to wallet. Builders receive $SEAS, allocated Sunday, claimed on Terminal.
Describing Seasons as requiring a deposit, staking or a lockup. It requires none of them.
Saying yield is price-independent. The accrual is denominated in tokens, but the dollar value moves with the market.
Saying the progression 'pays for itself' without a timeline. Give the real number or scope the claim.
Writing about graduation mechanics. Tenure and governance requirements for reaching Director are under revision.
Projecting or guaranteeing returns. APY is variable and the documented range is 6.58% to 21.07%.

9. Resources

Cornerstone: seasons.wtf/blog/seasons-builder-node

Spoke: seasons.wtf/blog/builder-node-vs-director-node

Website: seasons.wtf

Terminal: terminal.seasons.wtf

Documentation: seasons.gitbook.io/seasons-docs

Tutorials: seasons.wtf/tutorials

X: @SeasonsDEFI

Telegram: t.me/SeasonsHQ

Seasons 3.0