[BIP-78] Delegate Aave Holding to Llama

Governance
1

Title: [BIP-XX] Delegate Aave Holding to Llama
Atatus: Proposed
Author: @Llama - @Matthew_Graham
Created: 19-09-2022

Summary

The proposal presents the Balancer community the opportunity to delegate any AAVE and stkAAVE proposal power and voting rights to Llama.

Abstract

Llama is an active contributor in both the Aave and Balancer communities and has been working to find synergies to unlock the growth potential across both ecosystems. We have noticed that Balancer is currently not active within Aave governance and we would like to present an opportunity to the community to delegate its governance influence.

Llama is a registered delegate within the Aave and Balancer ecosystems and would like to offer the Balancer community the opportunity to delegate to Llama.

Aave’s governance framework consists of two types of governance rights: voting rights and proposal power, [8]. Llama will create an address specifically for Balancer’s delegated voting rights, (0x16645967f660AC05EA542D3DE2f46E41b86436d9). Balancer’s proposal power will be delegated to an existing wallet (0x55B16934C3661E1990939bC57322554d9B09f262) to help support the submission of AIPs for on-chain voting at Aave.

Motivation

Since the AAVE <> BAL tokenswap, the AAVE holding has not participated within Aave’s governance, which is suboptimal given the ongoing need to encourage governance participation within DeFi. By delegating to Llama, Balancer’s AAVE and or stkAAVE holding will be utilized within Aave’s governance. Balancer’s voting rights will always be used to represent Balancer’s interest in the Aave community and, if there is ever any need, Llama will consult the veBallers via the Discord Ballers channel.

When considering if to delegate to Llama, let’s first recap some of Llama’s involvement within the Balancer community. To date, Llama has either led or been involved in the following initiatives.

  • AAVE <> BAL token swap, [1].
  • Llama veBAL Delegate, [2].
  • Llama Aave Delegate, [3].
  • Whitelist Balancer’s Liquidity Mining Claim, [7].
  • Sturdy Finance Integration (coming soon).
  • Sharing insights into the new ConstantStablePool and Linear Pool potential with potential partners.
  • Developing potential new more exotic pools.

Llama voting records can be found on Boardroom and more recently Llama started compiling a delegation thread on Aave’s governance forum, [3,4]. Please note, this is not the address that Balancer will be delegating to.

Voting rights are to be delegated to a new address, 0x16645967f660AC05EA542D3DE2f46E41b86436d9, that only Balancer will delegate to. If Balancer ever wants to run its own Snapshot, veBAL holders can then vote and Llama will implement the vote from the address 0x16645967f660AC05EA542D3DE2f46E41b86436d9 on behalf of the Balancer community. On the majority of occasions, when no such Snapshot is created, Llama will vote from this wallet with Balancer’s interests front of mind.

Proposal power is to be delegated to a separate wallet from which AIPs are submitted. Do note, Index Coop currently delegates proposal power and voting rights to this address, 0x55B16934C3661E1990939bC57322554d9B09f262. At the time of writing, how this wallet votes is determined by Index Coop’s Snapshot and only Index Coop’s voting rights are delegated to this address, [5]. Llama is a delegate at Index Coop which focuses predominantly on metagovernance votes, [4].

Llama will not use Balancer’s voting influence to advance itself within the Aave community, [6]. When votes like this occur, we will reach out to the Balancer Snapshot authors and request a vote be created that Llama will then decline from participating in and will enact the vote cast by veBAL holders.

Specification

Balancer DAO delegates Aave governance proposal power to the following wallet:

0x55B16934C3661E1990939bC57322554d9B09f262

Balancer DAO delegates Aave governance voting rights to the following wallet:

0x16645967f660AC05EA542D3DE2f46E41b86436d9

References

[1] BGD. Aave Tenderly CLI - Development - Aave
[2] Llama Delegation Thread
[3] Delegate to Llama - Delegate Platforms - Aave
[4] Boardroom
[5] Snapshot
[6] Updated Proposal: Llama <> Aave - Governance - Aave
[7] [ARC] Whitelist Balancer’s Liquidity Mining Claim - Governance - Aave
[8] Voting & Governance - Developers

6 Likes
2

I support this. From my interactions with Llama and Matthew since they became a delegate here I can say they are a valuable advocate for Balancer in the DeFi community. We have no other plans to put our Aave voting power to work and I view Llama as an organization with an established reputation that Balancer can trust to act on our behalf in Aave governance in good faith.

There’s always the option to run a veBAL snapshot in case of a particularly important vote as well.

5 Likes
3

I support this. Llama has done incredible work in multiple DAO’s in the space and there are few parties more qualified to make good use of Balancer DAO’s Aave governance power.

6 Likes
4

Karpatkey has been working for a proposal to manage Balancer’s treasury for a few months already. Non-native tokens delegation is a service we provide so this proposal would be overlapping our functions.

We’ve been supporting Balancer since 2020 by being one of the largest liquidity providers from the Gnosisdao treasury, holding BAL, creating proposals and participating in the governance process.

3 Likes
5

Hi Everyone :wave:

Can we please proceed to move this proposal forward to Snapshot.

There is an important Vote coming up at Aave which we would like Balancer to participate in. See the below link for details:

6

We support this. Llama has done great work within the Aave community, and they are more than capable of handling this responsibility to a high standard.

I prefer this to happen in discord, so it’s public for other members to see rather than in telegram chats. Whether public or read-only channel for other members, it is important that these conversations are public for the community.

3 Likes
7

We can use the Ballers chat in discord and have updated the post to reflect this.

8

RFC. Aave Governance. Adjust Level 2 requirements is a non-contentious technical proposal backed by Stani and many Aave teams. It will likely pass without the intervention of small Aave holders.

On the other side, delegating Aave to llama is contentious to Karpatkey’s Treasury Core Unit proposal . How do you address this issue?

9

Hi @Defi_Foodie,

Ultimately, this is a governance decision and with open dialogue the community can elect a way forward.

At this point in time, I think Balancer has the option to invite others like @Llama to present an alternative to @karpatkey’s proposal. However, the sentiment seems to be amongst several delegates that active treasury management is not a pressing priority.

Please see my comment on the Karpatkey thread where I am more than happy to discuss the proposals merits.

1 Like
10

https://vote.balancer.fi/#/proposal/0xc77803ea0a567de8d43116720f66d00f5bd775427ed38e52aaa5f452f908fc02

1 Like