[AIP-41] Replenish the Aura Ecosystem Fund

Proposals
1

Author

Contributor

Summary

This proposal seeks to replenish the Aura Ecosystem Fund (AEF) with a grant of 600K AURA.

Background

The AEF was established in Q3 2022 via AIP-15 (Snapshot) as a vital resource for the Aura community. The AEF supports the development of new projects and products on top of Aura via grants, and funds contractor/contributor stipends, bug bounties, and audits, which are essential to ensuring Aura’s long-term security.

The AEF was established with the assistance of the Aura Foundation, to allow for off-chain relationships. As an independent non-profit foundation incorporated in the Cayman Islands in accordance with the Foundation Companies Act in April 2022, the Aura Foundation’s stated objective is to foster the research & development of the Aura Finance Protocol and to provide assistance to the Aura Finance DAO. Through the AEF, the Aura Foundation can further undertake development, security, and other necessary activities on behalf of the Aura Protocol, while preserving the Aura Treasury, as mandated by Aura DAO.

Grants

Over the prior period, the AEF strengthened Aura’s foundations by supporting developers through its grant program. Grants are direct funding awarded following a formal application, review, and a decision made by the AEF Grant Committee with input from technical advisors. The AEF supports recipients in building products that are vital to Aura’s success without the need to commercialize this work, so that these resources remain free and open to all.

Grants are distributed by the AEF Grant Committee. AEF Grant Committee Applications Current committee members are Barry, Beguin, Contributor, Matt, Mui, and Woop.

Notable grants over the prior period include:

  1. DeFilytica (Xeonus and Hyferion), to build an Aura analytics dashboard. The dashboard will provide insights into key metrics such as TVL, AURA emissions, and voting incentive program data, using a combination of AURA subgraph data, Llama Airforce API data, and DeFilytica’s own data sources. The dashboard will be delivered in 5 sprints over a period of 5 months. DeFilytica has a strong track record of building analytics dashboards, and this dashboard will bring transparency and key insights into important metrics about the protocol. Moreover DeFilytica will be leveraging their expertise with Balancer to provide additional data not present in other projects like Defillama. [Grant Proposal] Aura Analytics Dashboard
  2. Sturdy Finance, to cover the cost of audits and integration. This was a co-grant with the Balancer Grants DAO. Sturdy will be integrating Balancer’s BPTs with Aura staking. [Grant Proposal] Sturdy Finance - #8 by Frozzy
  3. Notional Finance, to cover the cost of audits. This was a co-grant with the Balancer Grants DAO. Notional will launch a leveraged vault that will deposit capital into Balancer boosted pools and stake the LP tokens on Aura. [Grant Proposal] Notional Finance - #10 by Trantor
  4. APY.vision, to integrate Aura on the APY.vision platform. APY has developed boosted rewards tracking for depositors in Aura, and indexed data which would allow tracking rewards earned when locking the Aura governance token and then voting using the Hidden Hand system. [Grant Proposal] APY.Vision Grant Request For Historical P&L Dashboard
  5. DefiWars, to integrate Aura on the DefiWars platform. [Grant Proposal] Defi Wars

Total grant expenditures, including grant commitments for the prior period, totaled 244,680 for 9 grantees.

Security

Growth goes hand-in-hand with platform security—without one, the other cannot survive. Unlike centralized systems, which are secured by the companies producing the product, DeFi places trust in code rather than corporate entities. The reputational fallout from a single exploit will significantly affect Aura’s ability to scale to widescale adoption. As such, it is the AEF’s continued responsibility to be the active defender of Aura in this area, undertaking such as activities as hiring auditors and funding security competitions.

Over the prior period, the AEF retained notable entities involved in the security industry for multiple audits and comprehensive security assessments to identify vulnerabilities, including Zellic, Halborn, ImmuneFi, Hephyrius, and Facundo.

Aura security audits can be found here: https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/tree/main/audits

Notable audits this term include:

Total security expenditures for the prior period totaled 148,100 for 7 entities.

Stipends

Aura understands that in order to foster and sustain a great ecosystem, significant resources are required. Some community members may be looking to make a difference through part-time contributions; others have perhaps become stuck through lack of resources. By supporting these types of individuals, the AEF is dedicated to powering the Aura ecosystem as a long-lasting hub around its core tech. These individuals are responsible for a wide range of roles to advance the Aura protocol, ranging from BD to Governance.

Contributor stipend vesting is held at the AuraVestedEscrow contract. AuraVestedEscrow | Address 0x53cd23f5563bcb3ac32f97616dbd118b7842a1a4 | Etherscan

Total contributor stipends for the prior period, and funded through June 2024, totaled 311,583.32 for 11 individuals.

Total contractor stipends for the prior period totaled 67,816.96 for 6 individuals.

Accounting

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Grants, security, and stipend expenditures for the prior period totaled 772,180.22.

Total expenditures for the prior period, inclusive of miscellaneous services and transaction fees, totaled 856,512.61.

AEF funds are held in three separate multisigs:

  1. Ecosystem A, holds funds necessary for off-chain relationships in a multisig serviced by the Aura Foundation and Fund representatives. Safe{Wallet} – Assets
  2. Ecosystem B, holds funds allocated towards on-chain expenses in a multisig serviced by current Treasury multisig signers and core contributors. Safe{Wallet} – Assets
  3. Ecosystem C, holds funds allocated towards grants, which is transferred on an as-needed basis, in a multisig serviced by AEF Grant Committee members. Safe{Wallet} – Assets

Ecosystem A continues to hold 99,515.8 AURA and 39,663.23 USDC for a total of 208,552.75 USD.

Ecosystem B continues to hold 8,604.77 AURA and 16,021.939 USDC for a total of 41,216.30 USD.

Ecosystem C continues to hold 10,072.03 AURA and 7,500 USDC for a total of 24,593.62 USD.

Total unspent funds in aggregate total 274,362.67 USD as of July 2023. All unspent funds will be held on books and rolled over into the following funding period.

Specification

This proposal requests a grant of 600K AURA to replenish the AEF. If this proposal is approved, 60K AURA shall be transferred to 0x196bda3808A7Af322AaD6384103C1E6Adb40AFa7 (Ecosystem A), 500K AURA shall be transferred to 0x3BC0Cb287f74504347D50fe3aDA6d90214E6F512 (Ecosystem B), and 40K AURA shall be transferred to 0x388a09A28e7D56dc61dcb1bb356251Fe0C46fe8C (Ecosystem C).

All tokens granted will be held in AURA and stables, and AURA will only be liquidated when necessary to minimize external impact. The AEF may execute on transactions to allow funding, so long as it has positive impact for the growth of the Aura Protocol.

Voting

This forum post will be live for approximately three days before the Snapshot proposal goes live. We appreciate and encourage an open discussion on this subject.

This vote will be a single-choice vote. You may vote “For” or “Against” this proposal, or choose to abstain from the vote.

By voting “For” this proposal, you are voting in favor of the granting AURA in accordance with the specification set out in this proposal.

5 Likes
2

I should disclose that I am a member of the AEF Grant Committee. That being said, this proposal has my full support. The independent AEF has served as a valuable independent tool to foster the research and development of the Aura Protocol and the Aura ecosystem.

This proposal to replenish the AEF will help to solidify its independent grants role.

Each of the AEF’s grants have been vital for enhancing the research and development of the Aura ecosystem. I thank each of the grantees for their valuable and worthwhile efforts.

Recent events have also illustrated the vital role of the AEF’s grants in supporting this research and development. Without the AEF, we wouldn’t have the benefit of DeFilyticas Aura analytics dashboard that DeFilytica has launched and continues to build out today. The collaboration we have seen from Xeonus over the past few weeks with members of the Aura DAO in the Aura Discord server serves as further evidence of the vital importance of the efforts of the AEF and the valuable contributions towards research and development from its grantees.

I’m eager to see the AEF put this replenishment to work via grants to help promote even more research and development.

3 Likes
3

It’s been a sincere pleasure working and ideating with you over the last year, Matt. The Aura community is fortunate to count you amongst its members. Thanks for your great service.

2 Likes
4

As an ecosystem builder onboarded in the AEF and Aura Maxis groups through Aura’s decentralized contribution framework, I can confirm that the Aura Ecosystem Fund is handled very strategically and match the values carried by Aura as a DeFi project.

Grant reviews often lead to great results, such as the Defilytica dashboard that recently replaced llama airforce to track vlAura voting incentives, a market driving $350k of rewards bi-weekly to Aura holders.

I support this proposal

2 Likes
5

It would be great to see a bit more of a report/breakdown on what the Ecosystem B funds have been used for so far.

You spoke a bit to the results of the grants funding. I agree, the recent work by @Xeonus is a highlight there and these funds seem to be well looked after. It would be nice to know a little more about the ecosystem contributor spend. How many people are involved? What do these contributors do/accomplish? How does this connect with the 10 million AURA in contributor vesting described in the initial tokenomics and the funding for the Aura Maxis?

It seems odd that contributors would need more than the 10 million in vesting AURA and the funding for the Aura Maxis.

1 Like
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I can second this as an active grantee. We have been in close contact with both Aura devs and AEF members who are giving us crucial information to build out features for the analytics dashboard. We are so far very happy with the openness and direct points of communication with Aura and the AEF committee.

That is also a point I am curious about. We actually hope to bring transparency into that topic by building the financials dashboard component similar to the one we made for Balancer :pray:t2:

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As highlighted above the AEF has done great work to date, funding it sufficiently is imperative to continue stimulating the growth and innovation that Aura needs to remain competitive and thrive.

9

Thanks, brother. The former Llama dashboard was actually funded by an Aura grant as well through AIP prior to the AEF’s formation. [AIP-9] Llama Airforce Grant Request For vlAURA Dashboard

10

Eco A and Eco B are sister funds, one is for off-chain, the other is for on-chain. Expenses are aggregated by category across the funds, it makes less sense to do it by A/B, although we can do that next time if necessary. This information is under Accounting, above, and summarized underneath each section.

Contributors do what’s necessary to maintain the Aura protocol. This encompasses a variety of tasks, which Contributors propose and execute autonomously. There aren’t any fixed job duties handed out by a central authority. Devs can hop into Discord and answer questions, BD can give input on design.
Contributors accomplish many things, such as ensuring that the Aura protocol is well-maintained. KPIs are self-determined, performance is self-measured, stipends are self-proposed.

There’s no relationship between the 3. The vested Aura was allocated towards the initial set of Aura contributors. The Maxis are a separate SP. The Contributor vesting here is for the current set of Contributors. There’s no overlap in personnel between Contributors/Contractors and the Aura Maxis.

11

Thanks for building such a great product, brother. We hold your dashboard up as the shining example of what a well-funded grant program can accomplish.

12

Thanks, brother! We looking forward to working w/ you and the rest of the Aura Maxis more in the coming years.

1 Like
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The AEF fostered a lot of good tools and initiatives in the last period. It is important to have it as a way to keep moving Aura forward, especially now that we are multichain.

1 Like
14

Thanks, brother–looking forward to working w/ you more in the future as well.

15

Putting capital in the right hands will produce good results along the road, and these nice folks have already realized a lot in the dept of a bear market, with difficult conditions.
Obviously in strong favour.

1 Like
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https://vote.aura.finance/#/proposal/0xa3bdc70c12812faf4743a05a032c606b4bb4f31e4c39f3a5351fea433a1d002e

1 Like