Summary
For the month of October our main efforts consisted of
- preparing a comprehensive launch plan for Balancer v3 as the launch is targeted for later this year. This includes a new fee model, chain launch strategy and pool strategy design which was conducted together with other ecosystem stakeholders
- Improve our operational capabilities by expanding the Ops UI functionality while also vastly improving our throughput
- Stepping back on how we do Multi-sig operations given the Radiant hack
In terms of operational costs, we are well below target and utilized less than 50% of our monthly discretionary budget while still being on track with our initiatives. Let’s dive into a more detailed summary for each initiative
Initiative 1: Scale Balancer’s On-Chain DevOps Hub
We continue to automate as many processes as possible given the complex infrastructure of Balancer v2.
Main areas of improvement are
- The expansion of functionality of the operations UI which is now in beta testing and will soon be promoted to external partners
- Continuous improvement of our automation code base
- For multi-sig management we switched to execute DAO payloads on a monthly cadence to reduce signer fatigue and increase review times for maximum safety
- We built a new discord invite site replacing the outdated design and tech stack. This invite site uses a custom bot solution to generate single use invite codes
- We successfully scaled our direct incentive management operations by helping key strategic partners like TokenLogic, Rocket, More and many others distributing incentive plans. The new Operations UI makes it easy to view and configure incentive programs
- We also successfully conducted a smart contract review of the next iteration of reward injectors and also deployed test factories on Base network. The operations UI will support v2 incentive management out of the box
- We successfully locked and voted with our veMODE positions on MODE network
- Automation for rewards and incentive management is underway
Given the recent Radiant hack, we increased our due diligence as safe signers and increased the signer threshold on critical safes holding significant amounts of money from 3 to 4. Additionally, we worked together with DEN to make sure they provide signature hash verification screens for additional security.
In terms of security, we are also working together with BLabs and Hypernative to finalize the capability to automatically pause Composable Stable pools (v6) if the HN thread algorithm detects a threat / hack. We successfully executed a test case on Sepolia and hope to go live with this solution soon.
Discretionary Budget Breakdown for October 2024
| Project | Budget spent |
|---|---|
| Operations: Injector v2: Smart Contract Review by Onchainification labs | $747.50 |
| Operations: Building a fee redirection algorithm for Gyroscope pools | $960 |
| Operations Front-end: Injector viewer dashboard, Injector v2 integration | $2’880 |
| Operations: Parallel processing for fee allocator v1 and v2, improved TWAP price calculations for fee collector code base | $1’740 |
| Operations: Scope and build Paladin bribe recycling algorthim, refactoring of bal_tools library dependencies | $1’140 |
| Operations: core library refactoring, code-base for multi-chain claiming, depositing and selling of funds | $1’440 |
In total, we have spent $8’907.50 out of $15’000 USDC in discretionary funds. We continue to utilize these funds as efficiently as possible.
Initiative 2: Support and execute on the launch of Balancer v3 and new Products
We have played a fundamental role in leading strategy workshops with key contributors to brainstorm the next iteration of our fee and incentive model. The launch of Balancer v3 provides the unique opportunity to streamline and simplify many aspects of our core pool framework and other components that made Balancer v2 less accessible. We approached the process in the following way:
- Analyze the status quo
- Identify bottlenecks in our current fee model
- Gather feedback from partners on what they think makes Balancer attractive and what is bad
- Based on above insight, come up with a new simplified model to attract adoption of Balancer v3
As of the writing of this report, we are finalizing a draft that will first be shared with key stakeholders and then be shared with the community for thorough feedback. We are excited to shape the future of Balancer v2 and v3 together with the community
Other initiatives
DAO Treasury Management
Given the recent Radiant hack, we increased our security measures as signers and also take DAO multi-sig management very seriously.
One important thing to note is that Balancer v2 is set up in a non-custodial way (same will be true for Balancer v3). Meaning, at no point can the DAO multi-sig or signers interfere with the protocol in any significant way other than draining our treasury funds.
In regards to the last point, we had good intentions of streamlining the management of our vlAURA position by deploying a safe module to automatically relock that position. We conducted security reviews and aligned with BLabs contributors and came to the conclusion that installing safe modules on the DAO multisig should be reconsidered. A public statement by BLabs contributors is expected soon. In that regard, execution of BIP-715 is put on hold until we have more clarity on how we handle such edge-cases.
Market Makers
We continue to be in close contact with market markers and are constantly evaluating new opportunities to position BAL as best as possible in the market. However, current volatility surrounding the U.S. presidential election should be watched with caution. Maxis have also been in contact with Binance in regards to the monitoring tag. We hope to share news in the near future but shift our focus on delivering a solid v3 product launch.
Conclusion
We continue to spearhead key initiatives such as the future fee model of Balancer v3 while providing first-in-class white glove service to all our valued customers and partners. This is a distinguishing factor of the Maxis and is something that we continue to strive for. The launch of Balancer v3 will be a pivotal moment and we will do everything in our power to make it a successful launch! Onwards!