Adjust Aave Governance Level 2 requirements
01Summary
This proposal updates Aave Governance v2 Level 2 Executor parameters by lowering voting quorum from 20% to 6.5%, vote differential from 15% to 6.5%, and proposition power from 2% to 1.25%, while adding a 7200-block (1 day) delay between proposal creation and vote start. It deploys a new Executor contract and migrates permissions from the old Level 2 Executor to the new one, including ownership of Aave Governance v2, proxy admin of AAVE token and stkAAVE, while moving ABPT and stkABPT proxy admin to Short Executor.
- Type
- governance change
Key changes
- Quorum requirement for Level 2 Executor reduced from 20% to 6.5%(high)
- Vote differential requirement for Level 2 Executor reduced from 15% to 6.5%(high)
- Proposition power requirement for Level 2 proposals reduced from 2% to 1.25%(high)
- 7200-block delay (approximately 1 day) added between proposal creation and vote start(medium)
- Permissions migrated from old Level 2 Executor to newly deployed Executor contract including Aave Governance v2 ownership and proxy admin rights for AAVE token and stkAAVE(high)
- ABPT and stkABPT proxy admin rights transferred to Short Executor(medium)
Notable concerns
- Migration of critical governance permissions (Aave Governance v2 ownership and proxy admin rights) requires careful execution to ensure no loss of control
- Lowered governance thresholds may increase governance participation but could potentially allow proposals to pass with lower consensus
Generated by Kvorum
02Description
Simple Summary
This proposal updates the governance parameters (voting/proposition requirements) of the Level 2 Executor smart contract on the Aave Governance v2.
Motivation
All context/motivation of this proposal is extensively explained on the Aave Governance forum thread
Specification
This proposal upgrades Level 2 requirements the following way:
- Quorum of Level 2 Executor changes from 20% to 6.5%
- Vote differential of Level 2 Executor changes from 15% to 6.5%
- Proposition power required for Level 2 proposal changes from 2% to 1.25%.
- A delay of 7200 blocks is added between proposal creation and vote start. 1 day considering 12 seconds/block.
These updates are applied in practice by whitelisting on the Aave Governance v2 a newly deployed Executor smart contract.
As the current Level 2 Executor holds permissions of the Aave ecosystem, this proposal also migrates them from the old Executor to the new one; permissions being:
- Ownership of the Aave Governance v2 smart contract.
- Proxy admin of the AAVE token smart contract.
- Proxy admin of stkAAVE (Safety Module).
This proposal also migrates the Proxy admin of ABPT and stkABPT to the Short Executor as they don't have influence on the Aave Governance
This proposal will be created via a fully decentralized smart contract (so-called Autonomous Proposal)
Security
-
An extensive suite of tests can be found HERE
-
We have executed a diff between the current Level 2 Executor and the new Executor, to verify that the changes are exclusively the ones expected. The diff can be found HERE.
-
In order to properly verify that all permissions are transferred to the new Executor, we did a verification procedure described HERE
-
SigmaPrime has audited the changes, and implemented an independent test suite, complementary to BGD's. The audit report can be found HERE.
-
Certora has reviewed the changes, and implemented an independent test suite, complementary to BGD's. The audit report can be found HERE
Implementation
Smart contracts can be found here. Especifically for what concerns this proposal:
- New Executor https://github.com/bgd-labs/aave-gov-level-2-update/blob/main/src/contracts/Executor.sol
- Proposal payload https://github.com/bgd-labs/aave-gov-level-2-update/blob/main/src/contracts/ProposalPayloadNewLongExecutor.sol
Copyright
Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.
03Mismatch analysis
Generated by Kvorum
04Actions
- Target
- 0x8e1b…9703
- Value
- 0 wei
- Function
- fallback()
- Arguments
{}- Calldata
05Tally
Summed from votes
06Voters
| Voter | Choice | % of total | Rationale | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250x25f2…6491 | For | 1.5M | 47.35% | — | 4y ago |
| 4A0x4a49…02f3 | For | 221.3K | 6.90% | — | 4y ago |
| 070x0703…961b | For | 95K | 2.96% | — | 4y ago |
| DC0xdc1f…e432 | For | 95K | 2.96% | — | 4y ago |
| 7A0x7ae1…e585 | For | 95K | 2.96% | — | 4y ago |
| AF0xafda…3a6e | For | 93.4K | 2.91% | — | 4y ago |
| C40xc4a9…2935 | For | 92.5K | 2.88% | — | 4y ago |
| 620x62a4…816a | For | 86K | 2.68% | — | 4y ago |
| B80xb83b…cf5c | For | 85K | 2.65% | — | 4y ago |
| 130x13bd…8548 | For | 85K | 2.65% | — | 4y ago |
| 4B0x4b69…52be | For | 85K | 2.65% | — | 4y ago |
| 200x2079…d6ce | For | 80.6K | 2.51% | — | 4y ago |
| 550x55b1…f262 | For | 68.6K | 2.14% | — | 4y ago |
| 680x683a…6c02 | For | 62.1K | 1.94% | — | 4y ago |
| DD0xdd45…4cc5 | For | 55.5K | 1.73% | — | 4y ago |
| FE0xfe23…e636 | For | 48.7K | 1.52% | — | 4y ago |
| 730x732a…b848 | For | 46.6K | 1.45% | — | 4y ago |
| 360x36c4…2a8a | For | 42.2K | 1.32% | — | 4y ago |
| B90xb933…8dd1 | For | 41.9K | 1.31% | — | 4y ago |
| 8D0x8dcf…e751 | For | 39.9K | 1.24% | — | 4y ago |
| B40xb4f7…d47c | For | 38.5K | 1.20% | — | 4y ago |
| E20xe22d…8b32 | For | 23.9K | 0.74% | — | 4y ago |
| B80xb8c2…4f87 | For | 19.2K | 0.60% | — | 4y ago |
| 410x41cb…7a07 | For | 18.9K | 0.59% | — | 4y ago |
| 160x1664…36d9 | For | 16.9K | 0.53% | — | 4y ago |
| 530x5382…1e21 | For | 14.1K | 0.44% | — | 4y ago |
| 960x96a8…1e03 | For | 9.2K | 0.29% | — | 4y ago |
| CF0xcfec…28e8 | For | 9K | 0.28% | — | 4y ago |
| 7C0x7c99…7a3d | For | 4.3K | 0.13% | — | 4y ago |
| 890x898c…7b34 | For | 4.2K | 0.13% | — | 4y ago |
| 030x0343…3881 | For | 3.1K | 0.10% | — | 4y ago |
| 750x75e3…f20c | For | 1.3K | 0.04% | — | 4y ago |
| 3A0x3a25…e9d2 | For | 1.3K | 0.04% | — | 4y ago |
| EA0xead5…e5a6 | For | 998.9 | 0.03% | — | 4y ago |
| C90xc92d…d142 | For | 731.7 | 0.02% | — | 4y ago |
| 9B0x9ba0…1bbd | For | 659.4 | 0.02% | — | 4y ago |
| 5B0x5b3b…7c98 | For | 425.5 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| 4A0x4ada…1c6b | For | 379.1 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| 400x40ae…8ffe | For | 263.6 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| EB0xeb52…ad00 | For | 218.9 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| 670x671a…93c0 | For | 213.1 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| F40xf48c…6e9d | For | 201.3 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| F50xf5fb…2c6f | For | 179.4 | 0.01% | — | 4y ago |
| FA0xfa61…1f5c | For | 157.9 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| DF0xdf33…bb49 | For | 150.6 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| 320x32f9…4d7f | For | 135.8 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| F10xf1df…f193 | For | 125.1 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| B60xb6d8…8f54 | For | 123 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| B40xb460…3d63 | For | 79.1 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
| 9D0x9da0…2583 | For | 61.4 | 0.00% | — | 4y ago |
07Forum
- [ARFC] Aave Governance. Adjust Level 2 requirements (long-executor) ↗discourse · high confidence
Arguments for
- Level 2 requirements have proven too strict, evidenced by 80 proposals in 1.5 years with only one targeting Level 2, and that proposal failed despite unanimous support.— bgdlabs, AaveLabs, stani
- A large share of the AAVE supply (deposited on Aave v2, Balancer, bridges, exchanges, etc.) is technically unable to vote, meaning the nominal 20% quorum actually requires an unrealistic ~40% of the effective voting supply.— bgdlabs
- The proposed lower thresholds are still high enough that no single entity currently has the resources to pass a proposal unilaterally, preserving security against attacks.— MarcZeller, AaveLabs
- Lowering Level 2 requirements is necessary to unblock important upcoming initiatives that require Level 2 proposals, such as token rescue, Safety Module migration to Balancer v2, and Governance V3.— bgdlabs, stani
- Using the AAVE Ecosystem Reserve as a one-time voting boost is a legitimate and pragmatic solution to reach quorum, as long as it is clearly framed as a one-off action.— MarcZeller, stani, bgdlabs
- The Guardian mechanism still provides a safeguard against clearly malicious proposals, reducing the risk introduced by lowering thresholds.— bgdlabs, stani
Arguments against
- Lowering the Level 2 threshold inherently makes a governance attack more feasible by reducing the cost and difficulty of reaching the required voting power.— MarcZeller
- Using the Ecosystem Reserve to boost votes could set a dangerous precedent for future governance actions if not strictly treated as a one-time exception.— MarcZeller
Unresolved concerns
- Whether the community should eventually mitigate or abandon the Guardian's intervention power over Level 2 proposals to increase decentralization, especially as exchange-held AAVE decreases.— stani
- Whether a third, more immutable 'untouchable' contract level should be introduced for core protocol aspects to prevent losing track of foundational goals.— rspa
- Whether using entities like LendToAaveMigrator for similar voting boosts would be legitimate, which BGD Labs explicitly declined to do this time.— bgdlabs
Notable participants
- bgdlabsProposer who authored the rationale, proposed parameter changes, the Ecosystem Reserve voting-boost mechanism, and managed the entire execution and communication process through to completion.
- MarcZellerDelegate power to the Autonomous Proposal and raised conservative concerns about attack feasibility and precedent-setting before ultimately supporting the proposal.
- staniCore contributor who supported the proposal and raised the longer-term question of the Guardian's role in decentralization.
- AaveLabsVoiced support for the proposal, framing the change as a long-overdue fix given AIP 41's failure.
- inkyamzeRepresented Gauntlet, adjusting and confirming delegation of proposition power to the Autonomous Proposal while flagging their own threshold constraints.
- MatthewGrahamCommunity member who delegated proposition power to show support despite limited holdings.
- rspaPraised BGD's execution and raised a forward-looking question about creating an immutable contract tier.
- soankyEncouraged remaining large holders to vote and praised BGD Labs' work during the voting period.
Generated by Kvorum
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