i think aave labs and aave dao should come to some sort of long term, binding agreement on revenue sharing in this case and in all future cases of aave labs products that utilize/leverage/are built on top of the aave protocol.
i think something like this would work:
aave labs commits 25% of revenue generated from all aave labs products built upon the aave protocol to aave DAO.
100% of aave dao revenue received from aave labs products is used to perform aave buybacks.
this solves the issue with aave dao losing a revenue stream as the CowSwap swaps produce more revenue than the previous paraswap implementation where the dao was receiving revenue from swaps.
aave labs still take the majority benefit of their product level applications, so exceptional product building isn’t decentivized.
this increases alignment and delivers a fair percentage of value directly to AAVE token and AAVE token holders in the form of buying back more of the protocol.
in exchange for the majority of revenues on all Aave Labs products, Labs labs transfers website, brand, IP ownership to DAO.
result:
- aave labs keeps 75% of all aave labs product revenue.
- aave dao gets 25% of all aave labs product revenues.
- 100% of aave dao revenues from aave labs products goes to $aave token buybacks.
- DAO owns website interface, brand, IP
this takes a concession from aave labs’ current stance. this reinstates the revenue the dao has lost. this set up is scalable, so both sides win big as the aave protocol and aave labs products push us towards trillions secured.
another option, offer DAO Labs equity:
another option would be aave labs opening the door to aave DAO being able to buy equity in aave labs, so incentives for both sides are more aligned. currently, it is possible for aave labs to buy the aave protocol (as we saw yesterday with Stani’s 50k aave buy). this increases stani/labs’ influence over the protocol through voting power, but that isn’t currently possible the other way around: it is not currently possible for aave dao to purchase aave labs or become a bigger voice in their direction/decisions. but i could see how the dao owning minority share of labs (while still allowing labs to build and execute sharply) would lead to more alignment. that way when aave labs gets more revenue, it is a win for aave holders as well.