Aave Loses Top Developer as ₱127.77 million ($2.2 million) Contract Ends April 1
Bored Ghosts Developing announced it won't renew its contract with Aave DAO when the current deal ends April 1. The developer built most of Aave V3, which powers a protocol holding more than ₱1.51 trillion ($26 billion) in user deposits.
Bored Ghosts Developing announced it won't renew its contract with Aave DAO when the current deal ends April 1. The token fell more than 6% Friday on the news.
The departure matters because Bored Ghosts built most of Aave V3, the protocol version that handles more than ₱1.51 trillion ($26 billion) in user deposits. The company's current contract pays ₱127.77 million ($2.2 million) in stablecoins plus 3,000 Aave tokens worth more than ₱17,423 ($300),000. Bored Ghosts asked for $200,000 to handle a two-month transition period, but the DAO declined.
Aave Chan Initiative Head Marc Zeller called the split devastating. Most of the revenue V3 generates today comes from Bored Ghosts' code and innovations, he said. They saved Aave more than once and have been the most productive engineering team this ecosystem has ever had.
Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov took a different tone. He said Aave V3 and every other part of the protocol stack will continue operating as normal. His team will handle all maintenance work until the DAO votes otherwise, Kulechov said. He acknowledged that Bored Ghosts played an important role in V3's technical development over four years.
The split stems from disagreements over Aave Labs' direction. Bored Ghosts co-founder Ernesto Boado, formerly chief technology officer at Aave Labs, said the organizational scenario of the DAO has changed radically in recent times. His company criticized Aave Labs for pushing the DAO to pivot without sufficient consideration of existing contributors' expertise. A Christmas Day vote on transferring brand assets to the DAO narrowly failed, highlighting the tension between Labs and other contributors.
Aave Labs is building V4, which it says will serve V3 users with higher capital efficiency and more advanced features. The company plans to actively maintain V3 until users migrate to V4 at their own pace. Bored Ghosts received a ₱945.48 million ($16.28 million) retroactive payment from the DAO in September 2022.
This article was written based on reporting from Dlnews.
