Aura Finance - Community Newsletter (December 23rd, 2022)
Community News
Hear ye, hear ye, calling all Meditators!! – Welcome to the 13th Community Newsletter and our last for 2022. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! What a year it has been. Launching during the deepest parts of the bear market, where the FUD was so thick you could taste it, to where we are now, so much has changed. Aura has managed to capture a TVL of over $400 Million, and become a top 20 DeFi protocol on Ethereum measured by that same TVL. Aura continues to hold over 22% of the total veBAL and moving forward, has negotiated a peace treaty with the so-called Balancer Whale for a more healthy relationship and ecosystem.
The key metric for Aura, as a social aggregation layer, is the achievement of a secondary market efficiency close to 2x for voting incentives. Underpinning this are 6 large and notable participants, with others such as Frax, Euler, Across Protocol and more, committing further involvement in the near future! Partnerships like this drive value, TVL and active participation as we build out our sustainable model!
Aura is also targeting cross-chain integrations in January, dependent on Balancer’s integration of LayerZero (which is well on track and continues to be very exciting).
As a reminder, Aura has undergone a protocol upgrade, requiring migration for all LPs or products (dashboards, compounders, vaults) that integrated into Aura pools or auraBAL staking.
With so much good news around holiday season there will also be plenty of entertainment as we spend time with our loved ones, friends and colleagues. I know many of us will be watching the American football, the cricket and most notably for us, the ongoing saga in the SBF case. No matter how you plan to spend the holiday season, remember that both the holiday season and the upgrade do not affect the efficiency of incentives. Current efficiency per Llama Airforce is $2.20 worth of emissions per $1 worth of incentives. Now that should bring some holiday cheer!!!
Thegeekygrower @thegeekygrower has taken out the best twitter thread for this newsletter. This tweet explains batch Relayers on Balancer and how this works using Aura Finance as an example. This is an excellent thread that helps to explain some of the key benefits involved in Balancer as a DEX. It helps us understand some of the greater value that exists in the entire ecosystem and it’s long-term health and value proposition. https://twitter.com/thegeekygrower/status/1605228661141082112
Femi Adeniyi @phemmie01 has been looking at the UX for Aura Finance and has some interesting ideas. Always good to see community members trying out new things and attempting to improve the user experience! https://twitter.com/phemmie01/status/1605924508908621824
CryptoDoctor:bat:
@0xCrypto_doctor has completed a short thread on Aura and Balancer, and how to cover your exposure with hedging strategies in the ecosystem. https://twitter.com/0xCrypto_doctor/status/1605880731099467776
Small Cap, Xulien and wawr Dog had a rather unusual chat regarding Aura Finance on twitter. The point to remember is that AuraBAL is currently yielding excellent returns on Aura Finance! https://twitter.com/WawrDog/status/1605840941281325057
Abbott Helin(a) @helin_abbott has tweeted a summary of Aura Finance. Short and sweet, let’s get some more engagement on those tweets! https://twitter.com/helin_abbott/status/1605409491482468352
DeFi Alex @swaggyAlexyo has responded well to a call for some of the deepest value tokens in DeFi. Well we couldn’t agree more, Aura Finance is very well positioned! https://twitter.com/swaggyAlexyo/status/1605102305925566464
WhaleStats (tracking crypto whales) @WhaleStats has provided our usual update to where Aura sits amongst ETH top wallet holders. Aura continues to sit proudly in the top 10 for whale wallet transactions. https://twitter.com/WhaleStats/status/1604854321451094016
Kevin Chan @kevinchan2020 is very impressed with the Across chain protocol yields available on Aura Finance. Hash Error has also jumped in with a similar view regarding the crazy high returns currently available! https://twitter.com/kevinchan2020/status/1604828394809528321 and Hash’s https://twitter.com/HashError/status/1604827408611303424
Coty. @CotyKuhn, yes indeed DFX is also printing nicely on Aura Finance with some stunning rewards! https://twitter.com/CotyKuhn/status/1604842792437420032
Beefy Finance have recently managed to reduce fees on their deposits into some Aura vaults on their page. Cool stuff and we love to see protocols building on top of the Aura and Balancer ecosystem. https://twitter.com/beefyfinance/status/1604275592676999170
Global Macro Punk @PunkMacro is clearly a DeFi native and loves it. As you say, DeFi continue to provide the rewards promised while allowing you to take control of your own funds. This was a very well completed response to Raoul and the Real Vision guys and their macro video. https://twitter.com/PunkMacro/status/1604152403624095744
macflapd.eth @macflapd Thanks for keeping the Lido stakers up-to-date on the migration. Network effects of community are a wonderful thing to behold. https://twitter.com/macflapd/status/1603686020876079106
keelor.eth | ereum.eth 
@keelor_karan – I think everyone wants that Purple Stuff!! https://twitter.com/keelor_karan/status/1603618735654256641
Across Protocol are making it simple. Deposit into the LP and start earning. Always nice to see a thread from new participants and good to see a plug for the graviAura product from our friends at Badger too! https://twitter.com/AcrossProtocol/status/1603558285671481344
Sturdy 
@SturdyFinance have announced their airdrop to Aura users in certain pools. Covering the AAVE boosted pools and the wstETH/ETH pool users can head on over to Sturdy.Finance and check their eligibility to receive an airdrop of some of their initial supply. https://twitter.com/SturdyFinance/status/1603533111366664192
Blockworks Research has been keeping a close eye on us and on the Balancer ecosystem. With strong TVL increases since Q3 of 2022, Balancer has been growing and has Aura Finance as a key component of that increase and success. A wonderful partnership that has been identified by the Team at Blockworks! Check out the thread here: https://twitter.com/blockworksres/status/1603467329421004800
HAK Research. Good to see some more non-English content. This piece from a Vietnamese publication sheds some light on Aura Finance. https://twitter.com/HakResearch/status/1603367349741985792
YouTube
YouTube is the home of longer form content for Aura Finance, especially for news and updates.
Mr Masa, has done a deep dive on Aura Finance to round out many similar videos he has completed on DeFi projects. Lots of interesting commentary on Aura Finance and market fit with comparisons to Curve and Convex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5jW-cwWCSM&t=1069s
Ceazor’s complete breakdown video on Aura Finance and the Hidden Hand ecosystem is worth mentioning here again for the easy explanations covering the entire ecosystem. Well worth a repeat watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ3hdnn3yc
Our good friends at Market capping, DCF God and Small Cap Scientist, have done another great episode that covers off on Aura Finance, the Balancer ecosystem as well as staked ETH options and vaults. Lots of great content across a range of DeFi related topics in Alpha Updates #8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsQWtJMlMng
Aura News
The Aura Ecosystem Fund- 2022 Grants recap.
The Aura Ecosystem Fund Grant committee are proud to share with the community a summary of approved grants that have occurred since inception. A short summary of what has been approved is below:
- Aura merchandise- 140 Sets of exclusive Aura merchandise have been ordered for future distribution to contributors, lockers and supporters.
- APY Vision Grant- Completion of dashboards that cover historic Profit and Loss, AuraBAL rewards and information needed for making decision in DeFi.
- Aura Marketing Outreach- The marketing outreach program has funded 2 permanent marketers for a 12 month period in support of spreading the good word about Aura Finance!
- Aura Dune Analytics- Covering things like Aura returns, re-lockers, holders etc, these dune dashboards are a treasure trove of info.
- The Aura Helper series of videos- Covering topics such as how to stake, how to deposit, how to claim rewards and general user experience, these videos are an easy to understand tool to help newbies to DeFi and those looking to get involved in Aura Finance.
- DeFi wars tracker- The latest in the funded grant proposals comes from the chaps at DeFi wars who have built live trackers that cover off on who owns what and how the influence games are playing out.
Any builder, founder, or creator passionate about advancing Aura is welcome to apply for the Aura ecosystem grant. Follow the instructions here: https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-instructions/229
Aura LP Migration
The Aura upgrade & migration has rolled out smoothly both on-chain and on the front-end. If you have liquidity staked in Aura, please migrate as soon as you can to continue earning rewards. During this migratory phase, yields projected and realized on Aura may be somewhat volatile but will soon return to normal.
Aura underwent this upgrade to bolster the protocol’s security, feature flexibility, and ability to support cross-chain fee collection and deposits. The upgrade shut down AURA rewards for deposits in the old iteration of the Aura contracts but recent votes and work behind the scenes will be dropping the Aura and some Balancer rewards to users over the coming weeks. Check out Aura claims below!
Aura Claims
As per the results of AIP-19, Aura users accrued AURA rewards during the upgrade transition period have been shipped.
Github: https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-upgrade-rewards-drop
Contract: https://etherscan.io/address/0x69a07d8a45b71e5224bb220ae8933ae8dce96b74
Eligible users will see a row on the “Claim” page when the version toggle is set to “Previous.” Claims will be available for the next 26 weeks. Please note there will be more distributions in the future as more BAL is claimed from the old reward contracts.
Aura Merchandise
Would you like an Aura T-Shirt or a baseball cap? Aura Finance is offering 10 sets of merchandise to lucky winners who re-lock their Aura and get an NFT before 31 December! To be eligible ensure you re-lock your Aura at http://app.aura.finance/#/lock and then submit your entry for the giveaway at: https://forms.gle/d8nBzMMS3gLvq1hx7
The 10 Lucky Winners will be chosen on New Years Day!
Senate Labs and the DAO trackers
There is currently a new tracking page under development by Senate labs that tracks updates, snapshots and the delegates of specific DAOs and what they are voting on etc. This could well turn into a very valuable tool for tracking activities and votes across multiple DAO and different interests. It is still under development but check it out here: https://www.senatelabs.xyz/daos
The Aura Delegate Council
The Aura finance delegate council currently votes on Aura votes with delegated Aura from the community. These votes are counted much like the rest of the community’s votes to vote on Aura and Balancer proposals. At the moment this means that vlAURA holders can delegate to Aura Finance to vote on their behalf and to also vote on specific gauges on their behalf. At the time of writing this is not the ideal end state and we can expect more clarity on voting options in the coming weeks. This could include something like a governance vote delegation (to Aura or potentially another delegate in the future!) and a delegation for gauge votes to align incentives (to something like Hidden Hand).
There is a snapshot to replace a previously resigned Council member currently on snapshot with high quality applicants from Astrolab, Badger DAO, Jones DAO and a defi native!
DeFi Wars
Remember to track the Aura Wars and the Balancer wars and how they are playing out at the following links:
Aura Wars: https://www.defiwars.xyz/wars/aura
Balancer Wars: https://www.defiwars.xyz/wars/balancer
Meditator NFT
We are still awaiting the minting of the first Legendary Meditator NFT!! Who will be the first to mint one of these Legendary creations? To relock your Aura head over to the Aura.app and relock before your vlAURA expires to ensure you don’t miss out on any vote weight and to have a chance at minting one the legendary NFT!
Eco-system Governance
To get the latest on Aura governance updates head over to the Aura Discord and track the channel ‘Governance updates’.
Disclaimer
This newsletter is not official Aura correspondence and is written by community members.