[AIP-41] Replenish the Aura Ecosystem Fund

Author

Contributor

Summary

This proposal seeks to replenish the Aura Ecosystem Fund (AEF) with a grant of 600K AURA.

Background

The AEF was established in Q3 2022 via AIP-15 (https://vote.aura.finance/#/proposal/0xad012580bf47b88d6ef93688a3afb4322300e8d0baa40e5013ab1bd8b71f458f) as a vital resource for the Aura community. The AEF supports the development of new projects and products on top of Aura via grants, and funds contractor/contributor stipends, bug bounties, and audits, which are essential to ensuring Aura’s long-term security.

The AEF was established with the assistance of the Aura Foundation, to allow for off-chain relationships. As an independent non-profit foundation incorporated in the Cayman Islands in accordance with the Foundation Companies Act in April 2022, the Aura Foundation’s stated objective is to foster the research & development of the Aura Finance Protocol and to provide assistance to the Aura Finance DAO. Through the AEF, the Aura Foundation can further undertake development, security, and other necessary activities on behalf of the Aura Protocol, while preserving the Aura Treasury, as mandated by Aura DAO.

Grants

Over the prior period, the AEF strengthened Aura’s foundations 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.

Grants are distributed by the AEF Grant Committee. https://forum.aura.finance/t/aef-grant-committee-applications/257 Current committee members are Barry, Beguin, Contributor, Matt, Mui, and Woop.

Notable grants over the prior period include:

1. 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. The dashboard will be delivered in 5 sprints over a period of 5 months. DeFilytica has a strong track record of building analytics dashboards, and this dashboard will bring transparency and key insights into important metrics about the protocol. Moreover DeFilytica will be leveraging their expertise with Balancer to provide additional data not present in other projects like Defillama. https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-aura-analytics-dashboard/404
2. Sturdy Finance, to cover the cost of audits and integration. This was a co-grant with the Balancer Grants DAO. Sturdy will be integrating Balancer’s BPTs with Aura staking. https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-sturdy-finance/352/8
3. Notional Finance, to cover the cost of audits. This was a co-grant with the Balancer Grants DAO. Notional will launch a leveraged vault that will deposit capital into Balancer boosted pools and stake the LP tokens on Aura. https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-notional-finance/345/10
4. APY.vision, to integrate Aura on the APY.vision platform. APY has developed boosted rewards tracking for depositors in Aura, and indexed data which would allow tracking rewards earned when locking the Aura governance token and then voting using the Hidden Hand system. https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-apy-vision-grant-request-for-historical-p-l-dashboard/269
5. DefiWars, to integrate Aura on the DefiWars platform. https://forum.aura.finance/t/grant-proposal-defi-wars/323

Total grant expenditures, including grant commitments for the prior period, totaled 244,680 for 9 grantees.

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 notable entities involved in the security industry for multiple audits and comprehensive security assessments to identify vulnerabilities, including Zellic, Halborn, ImmuneFi, Hephyrius, and Facundo.

Aura security audits can be found here: https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/tree/main/audits

Notable audits this term include:

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/auraBalVault/facu_spagnuolo_aurabal_vault_audit_report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/auraBalVault/halborn_aurabal_vault_audit_report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/sidechain/halborn_sidechain_audit_report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/sidechain/hephyrius-internal-report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/sidechain/zellic_sidechain_audit_report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/upgrades/facu_spagnuolo_aura_upgrade_01_audit_report.pdf

https://github.com/aurafinance/aura-contracts/blob/main/audits/upgrades/hephyrius_aura_upgrade_01_audit_report.pdf

Total security expenditures for the prior period totaled 148,100 for 7 entities.

Stipends

Aura understands that in order to foster and sustain a great ecosystem, significant resources are required. Some community members may be looking to make a difference through part-time contributions; others have perhaps become stuck through lack of resources. By supporting these types of individuals, the AEF is dedicated to powering 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 BD to Governance.

Contributor stipend vesting is held at the AuraVestedEscrow contract. https://etherscan.io/address/0x53cd23f5563bcb3ac32f97616dbd118b7842a1a4

Total contributor stipends for the prior period, and funded through June 2024, totaled 311,583.32 for 11 individuals.

Total contractor stipends for the prior period totaled 67,816.96 for 6 individuals.

Accounting

Grants, security, and stipend expenditures for the prior period totaled 772,180.22.

Total expenditures for the prior period, inclusive of miscellaneous services and transaction fees, totaled 856,512.61.

AEF funds are held in three separate multisigs:

1. Ecosystem A, holds funds necessary for off-chain relationships in a multisig serviced by the Aura Foundation and Fund representatives. https://app.safe.global/balances?safe=eth:0x196bda3808A7Af322AaD6384103C1E6Adb40AFa7
2. Ecosystem B, holds funds allocated towards on-chain expenses in a multisig serviced by current Treasury multisig signers and core contributors. https://app.safe.global/balances?safe=eth%3A0x3BC0Cb287f74504347D50fe3aDA6d90214E6F512
3. Ecosystem C, holds funds allocated towards grants, which is transferred on an as-needed basis, in a multisig serviced by AEF Grant Committee members. https://app.safe.global/balances?safe=eth:0x388a09A28e7D56dc61dcb1bb356251Fe0C46fe8C

Ecosystem A continues to hold 99,515.8 AURA and 39,663.23 USDC for a total of 208,552.75 USD.

Ecosystem B continues to hold 8,604.77 AURA and 16,021.939 USDC for a total of 41,216.30 USD.

Ecosystem C continues to hold 10,072.03 AURA and 7,500 USDC for a total of 24,593.62 USD.

Total unspent funds in aggregate total 274,362.67 USD as of July 2023. All unspent funds will be held on books and rolled over into the following funding period.

Specification

This proposal requests a grant of 600K AURA to replenish the AEF. If this proposal is approved, 60K AURA shall be transferred to 0x196bda3808A7Af322AaD6384103C1E6Adb40AFa7 (Ecosystem A), 500K AURA shall be transferred to 0x3BC0Cb287f74504347D50fe3aDA6d90214E6F512 (Ecosystem B), and 40K AURA shall be transferred to 0x388a09A28e7D56dc61dcb1bb356251Fe0C46fe8C (Ecosystem C).

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 the granting AURA in accordance with the specification set out in this proposal.