[TEMP CHECK] GHO Cross-Chain Strategy Launch with CCIP

Summary

This Snapshot aims to officially capture the community's agreement on adopting Chainlink Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to initiate the GHO cross-chain strategy. The details of the rollout plan and the configuration of risk parameters remain subjects for future governance discussions.

Motivation

The current limitation of GHO, which is primarily accessible only via minting on the Ethereum mainnet or through secondary markets, represents a significant constraint in its potential reach and utility across DeFi. We believe the future of GHO is to become a multichain asset where users can interact across various networks using GHO. Moving cross-chain increases the accessibility and liquidity of GHO for a larger spectrum of users.

The current moment is ideal for GHO to venture into new frontiers, and to facilitate this, it is essential to employ a solution that empowers users and stimulates growth. CCIP stands out for its high-speed and cost-effective token bridging, extensible compatibility to both EVM and non-EVM networks, ease of integration, and robust risk mechanisms. Aave Labs suggests implementing a canonical, unified cross-chain strategy for GHO using Chainlink's CCIP.

Specification

Aave Labs proposes using Chainlink CCIP infrastructure to move GHO across blockchain networks. This will allow the seamless transfer of the GHO token between source and destination networks. CCIP transfers tokens by locking/burning on the source chain and then releasing/minting on the destination network. Cross-chain GHO uses a combination of lock/release and mint/burn models, backing the aggregated liquidity across chains with locked GHO on Ethereum. Every destination chain will have a canonical version of the GHO token and an Aave Governance controlled facilitator with a specific bucket capacity.

• Transferring GHO from Ethereum to another chain: GHO tokens get locked in a vault contract on Ethereum, GHO tokens get minted via Facilitator on the destination chain.
• Transferring GHO from another chain to Ethereum: GHO tokens get burned via Facilitator on the other chain, GHO tokens get released from the vault contract on Ethereum.
• Transfering GHO from one chain to another (none of them are Ethereum): GHO tokens get burned via Facilitator on source chain, minted via Facilitator on destination chain.

Each network will have a canonical version of GHO and a facilitator, controlled by Aave Governance, that will manage facilitator buckets and onboard GHO liquidity from Ethereum. The liquidity on each network will depend on the bucket capacity of the Facilitator and CCIP configuration (e.g. rate limit). The total amount of liquidity across chains is always less than or equal to the amount of GHO tokens locked on Ethereum.

Next Steps

Once the community signals its consent for the implementation of CCIP to initiate the cross-chain strategy for GHO, the subsequent actions will be undertaken:

• Initiate technical implementation process
• Perform a thorough technical review to select the optimal networks for deployment.
• Formulate a strategic rollout plan for the GHO cross-chain approach, in partnership with Risk Providers.