Author
Contributor
Summary
This proposal seeks to replenish the Aura Ecosystem Fund (AEF) with a grant of 244k USDC and 500k AURA.
Background
The AEF was established in Q3 2022 via AIP-15 as a vital resource for the Aura community. The AEF supports new project development via grants, maintains Aura via deployment/transaction fees, and funds contractor/contributor stipends, bug bounties, and audits, which are essential to ensuring Aura’s long-term security.
The original AEF proposal and subsequent renewal split funding into two wallets, one for off-chain expenses serviced by the Foundation, and one for on-chain expenses serviced by DAO members. Currently, the AEF’s on-chain wallet is seeing much more usage, whereas the off-chain wallet still has significant unused funds (94.5k AURA and 44k USDC). This proposal will see the off-chain funds deprecated and returned back to the treasury, while the AEF’s on-chain portion will continue to operate as an independent entity, receiving a funding renewal, via this Aura DAO mandate.
Grants
Over the prior period, the AEF strengthened Aura 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.
One notable grant over the prior period went to 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. DeFilytica has a strong track record of building analytics dashboards. This dashboard will bring transparency and display key insights and important metrics about the Aura protocol.
Total grant expenditures for the prior period totaled 50k.
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 several notable entities involved in the security industry for multiple audits and comprehensive security assessments to identify vulnerabilities, including Chainalysis and Quantstamp.
Aura partnered with Chainalysis to adopt an Incident Response Plan for the protocol via AIP-37 to protect Aura in the event of a hack or exploit. Proactive CIR is a rapid-response retainer service. Through this partnership, Aura now has Chainalysis’ world-class, global team of professional investigators and cybersecurity experts on standby 24/7 in the event of a hack or exploit, ready to respond immediately. The IRP adds an extra layer of security on top of well-developed code and audits, and Aura will be able to deter hackers and have an asset recovery plan in potential events.
Aura security audits can be found @ Security | Aura Finance.
Total security expenditures for the prior period totalled 30,200.
Human Resources
Aura understands that in order to foster and sustain a great ecosystem, significant human resources are required. By supporting community members looking to make a difference, the AEF helps power 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 contributors responsible for protocol maintenance and business development, to contractors such as Alchemy, to independent individuals updating Aura’s Dune Dashboards, such as via AIP-58.
Contributor stipends for the prior period totalled 222,111.30.
Contractor stipends for the prior period totalled 41,498.99 for 8 entities.
Legal expenses for the prior period totalled 48,157.53.
Accounting
Total expenditures for the prior funding period, inclusive of transaction fees, deployment fees, and miscellaneous costs, totalled 654,933.27, a net decrease of 201,579.34 from the 2022-2033 funding period, reflecting Aura’s ability to leverage economies of scale and operate more efficiently over time. Some expenses such as transaction fees are continuing to be optimised.
AEF funds are held in a multisig serviced by Treasury multisig signers and core contributors.
Total unspent funds in aggregate total 5k as of July 2024. All unspent funds will be held on books and rolled over into the following funding period.
Specification
This proposal seeks to return the 94.5k AURA and 44k USDC from the on-chain fund to the treasury.
This proposal requests a grant of 500k AURA and 244k USDC to replenish the AEF. If this proposal is approved, these amounts shall be transferred to the AEF multisig on Ethereum at 0x3BC0Cb287f74504347D50fe3aDA6d90214E6F512.
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 granting AURA in accordance with the specification set out in this proposal.