Authors
Maha, 0xRichter
Summary
This proposal unlocks value and reduces barrier to entry of vlAURA by building a native presence on Base, positioning to increase holder count, access to upcoming HYPER incentives, and market exposure to Balancer technology. A big value here is increasing awareness of Aura’s franchise and reducing the barrier to entry to qualify for any airdrop allocations.
This will be achieved by the deployment of the Aura Locker (vlAURA) on Base, along with the seeding of AURA liquidity and the enabling of auraBAL staking. Currently, Aura’s Base deployment supports depositing of BPTs and Bridging of AURA, this proposal seeks to create a feature set parallel to the Aura Mainnet experience.
To complete the experience for Base users, the groundwork will be laid for a custom app at base.aura.finance that again aims to mirror the mainnet experience by focussing the app around the specific network. This could theoretically be rolled out to other L2s if desired.
Proposal
vlAURA on Base
A version of vlAURA will be deployed on Base, allowing users to lock up AURA as normal. This vlAURA contract will be added as a secondary strategy on both Aura’s snapshot spaces, allowing Base-vlAURA holders to vote and receive rewards as cheaper alternative to locking on mainnet.
As for the rewards, HH will take into account any votes cast from Base however the initial implementation will see voting rewards continue to be distributed to users on the chain they were placed (due to the lack of bridges for all tokens). Through a delegation to Paladin, users will be able to receive voting rewards directly as USDC on Base. If the user wishes to vote for a different pool they still have that option.
This will be enabled for the voting round beginning after any successful AIP resolution.
AURA Liquidity
An E-CLP will be created on Base via Gyroscope, and 15k AURA per week will be added as extra incentives for 16 weeks which should create sufficient liquidity depth for Base. AURA will be enabled on dex aggregators on Base (1inch). Prospective ECLP layout is here, ECLP 2.
Theming and UX/feature parity with mainnet
Aura app needs to become more cohesive for L2 users, and so a chain specific theming strategy will be put in place, potentially utilising sub-domains like base.aura.finance to make the app native to each chain. This AIP is the first step towards achieving that and the framework will be laid out.
Motivation
The decision to expand capabilities on the Base network is driven by several key factors:
- Airdrop Accessibility: With an upcoming airdrop of 11% of HYPER to vlAURA holders, it makes sense to make locking as accessible as possible in order for users to participate in the airdrop as efficiently as possible.
- Cost Efficiency: Base offers significantly lower network fees compared to Ethereum mainnet, making it more cost-effective for users to lock their AURA.
- Transaction Speed: Faster transaction times on Base enhance the user experience and operational efficiency.
- User Acquisition: Base’s association with Coinbase presents a unique opportunity to attract and onboard new users to Aura Finance with a lower barrier to entry.
Audits & Testing
This AIP deploys existing contracts (auraBAL, vlAURA) on a new network and thus new audits are not needed. Aura prioritizes security above all else - read about the security practises here.
Technical specification
Should this AIP be approved, the following changes will be implemented:
- Deployment of Locking and Staking Contracts: The necessary smart contracts on the Base network will be deployed to enable locking of AURA tokens and staking of AuraBAL tokens.
- Modification of Snapshot Strategies: Both Snapshot strategies will be modified to add Base-vlAURA as a secondary source of voting power.
- AURA Liquidity Incentives: The E-CLP will be deployed and funded with incentives.
