Aura Maxis: BarryLime, Béguin, CheesySweets, cryptocomical, Matt | Alfafa or Spanky?, Mattgene, James K, Jeffery, JoJo and Yakitori.
June was an eventful month, with the launch of Aura in Arbitrum and the closure of Q3 for several service providers (SPs). As a result, most of Maxis’ work focused on supporting the launch on Discord, testing the UI/UX of the Aura website, reviewing the documentation, and presenting proposals on both the Balancer and Aura Governance Forums. In addition to these tasks, Maxis continued to work on ongoing responsibilities such as monitoring and moderating our community channels (Discord, Telegram) and providing governance analysis and recommendations on the Aura and Balancer Governance Forums.
During this month, strongteapot375 resigned from his position as Aura’s Korean translator. Maxis expresses gratitude for his work and services thus far and is actively seeking a new translator. Interested candidates can submit their applications here.
1. Governance Activities:
Governance activity was the main focus for Maxis this month. While a couple of BIP/AIP (Balancer Improvement Proposals/Aura Improvement Proposals) were directly drafted, most of the activity revolved around evaluating budget requests in the Balancer forum, which is expected towards the end of a quarter. Following the dissolution of Orb and the renewal of OpCo for year 2, there was a surge of new budget requests. These included OpCo’s request, Balancer Maxis funding for Q3, and a funding proposal for the Integration team (which emerged from the sunset Orb), among others.
The discussions that emerged saw Maxis promptly sharing their ideas, particularly regarding financial and operational aspects. These discussions resulted in significant developments, including OpCo’s decision to divide their budget request into two parts—one for the Administrative and Operational aspect, and the other for the Product aspect. Additionally, there was a further discussion about the establishment of a Compensation Committee that could provide third-party opinions on fair salaries. Throughout these discussions, Maxis made several individual interventions in the Balancer Forum. These interventions aimed to seek clarification and propose new courses of action, all with Aura’s best interests in mind.
Below is a breakdown of all proposals that were either published by Aura Maxis or assisted in drafting, including their goals and outcomes.
[BIP-338] Enable 55/45 auraBAL/wstETH Gauge [Arbitrum]
- Summary: request a gauge for the 55/45 auraBAL/wstETH pool on Arbitrum
- Objective: establish emission for a key pool on Arbitrum, on top of which add an Aura gauge
- Outcome/Update: the vote passed.
[AIP-33] Modify AIP-26 to Allocate Incentives for auraBAL/wstETH pool [Arbitrum]
- Summary: allocate incentives 55/45 auraBAL/wstETH gauge on arbitrum
- Objective: enhance liquidity through incentives with a gauge for the auraBAL pool on arbitrum to facilitate trading
- Outcome/Update: The vote passed, and the gauge established.
Aura Maxis interfaced with the Aura delegates:
- Circulated Balancer governance vote recommendations; and
- Coordinated and updated the Aura delegates’ vote reasoning on the Balancer Delegates’ Thread.
2. Protocol Support/Growth Activities:
Aura Maxis took on multiple tasks related to Support/Growth, primarily by serving as the first line of response on Discord in Partnership, Support, and Governance channels. The majority of activities this month revolved around providing support to the community following the recent expansion on Arbitrum. This involved guiding users on the proper procedures to take advantage of the new possibilities on this Layer 2 network.
On the Balancer Forum, Maxis focused on new proposals for gauges and actively tracked and provided new Balancer gauges to streamline BPT staking.
Additionally, Aura Maxis explored several partnerships with third-party protocols, aiming to potentially deploy their Protocol-Owned Liquidity on Balancer and eventually on Aura. These partnership explorations sought to enhance the collaboration between Aura and external protocols, benefiting both parties involved.
Activities Undertaken:
- Contributed to relevant forum discussions and groups to provide support and share insights
- Filtered and answered partnership proposals on Discord;
- Reached out to or engaged with the following protocols: Tarot, Paraswap, Vesper, Vendor Tprotocol, LevelFinance, NitroCartel, CIAN, Paraswap; and
- Communicated upgrades/news about the Aura protocol.
3. Community and Content Activities:
Aura Maxis actively engaged with the Aura community and generated content pertaining to the Aura and Balancer protocols. The primary medium of focus for these activities was Aura’s Discord server. In particular, Maxis dedicated attention to activities involving the bot used within the official Discord. This included planning the renewal of the AntiSpam bot and evaluating various other bots to offer additional services and features to the community. The goal was to enhance the security and user experience within the Discord server, ensuring a smooth and safe interaction for community members.
In terms of new contents, this month saw a particular emphasis on publishing a new section in the Aura documentation’s FAQ that specifically addressed Arbitrum. The goal was to provide comprehensive and informative answers to frequently asked questions related to the integration and usage of Aura on the Arbitrum network. By adding this new section, Maxis aimed to ensure that users had access to clear and concise information to navigate the features and functionalities of Aura within the context of Arbitrum.
Activities Undertaken:
- Moderated and maintained Discord and Telegram channels, answered questions, maintained Discord bots, and facilitated communications with other contributors;
- Wrote the Chakra Alignment Newsletter (10th and 11th);
- Managed the yearly subscription to the AntiSpam bot;
- Provided support in Discord and content for both Twitter and the main aura website in foreign languages (Chinese);
- Rewriting of FAQ section in aura docs; and
- Responded to community inquiries.
4. Internal Activities:
Aura Maxis conducted a review of the onboarding and offboarding process within the group, aiming to optimize and improve these procedures. Additionally, they prepared a new funding proposal for the upcoming quarter, ensuring that financial resources align with the project’s goals and objectives.
Given the departure of one team member, discussions took place to explore ways to enhance interaction with Aura’s community in the near future. This included plans to expand international coverage and engage with a broader audience. As part of these efforts, Aura Maxis is actively seeking a new Korean translator to support effective communication and engagement with the Korean-speaking community.
Activities Undertaken:
- Updated internal process in the Notion repository
- Conducted regular SP meetings to align on objectives and progress;
- Managed the Coordinape reporting and voting;
- Recorded internal flows and processes for further reference (Notion, Coordinape).
5. Financial Summary and Transactions:
The primary activity focused on allocating stipends according to [AIP-28] for the Aura Maxi Service Provider (SP) contributors. Additionally, an extra expense of $1,000 (or 0.53 ETH) was incurred to pay for the “Antiscam” bot, ensuring a secure environment on the Aura Discord server. The payment covered the bot’s services for a duration of one year.
All the multisig transactions are here, with a detailed breakdown below.
Transactions conducted by the Aura Maxi multisig:
The following is a list of transactions for the month of June 2023, from the Aura Maxi multisig wallet.
-
Transaction 5:
- Type: transfer
- Amount: 0.53 ETH
- Purpose/Category: annual payment of Antiscam bot for Discord
- Transactions hashes: tx 5
-
Transaction 6:
- Type: transfer
- Amount: 6028 Aura
- Purpose/Category: disburse stipends to SP contributors
- Transaction hash: tx 6
Conclusion
The establishment of Maxis in April and May was a significant milestone for Aura. In June, the primary focus was on solidifying Maxis’ position as the first line of support for both the community and contributors of the Aura protocol. Efforts were dedicated to improving coverage in community relationships and ensuring that Aura’s growth continues to progress.
The main objective of Aura Maxis is to foster Aura’s growth, which is reliant on an engaged community and a thriving ecosystem. Please review the proposed actions and comment, ask questions, and contribute.