[ARFC] ACI Phase IV – "Road to 80"

Governance
1

Title: [ARFC] ACI Phase IV – “Road to 80”

Author: @marczeller – Aave Chan Initiative (ACI)

Date: 2025-04-16

Summary

This ARFC proposes renewing and expanding the Aave Chan Initiative’s (ACI) mandate as the Aave DAO’s Growth and Governance Coordination service provider. Focusing on sustained protocol growth, strategic alignment, and governance operational excellence.

Motivation

Since its inception, ACI has served as the growth engine and governance orchestrator for the Aave DAO. Through managing incentive programs, launching key protocol initiatives, building strategic partnerships, and contributing to governance frameworks, ACI has delivered consistent, high-impact results. During 2024, Aave’s share of the active loan market increased from below 50% to 71.2%, significantly outperforming competitors across the DeFi landscape.

To keep this proposal concise, a retrospective of ACI’s past mandate has been published separately

Strategic Objectives of the next mandate

1. “Road to 80” – Market Share Leadership

Our core KPI: reach 80% of total active DeFi loans across all tracked platforms by expanding Aave’s competitive edge through product innovation, liquidity programs, and strategic onboarding and business development.

2. MASIv Expansion

Extend the Merit-as-a-Service Incentive Vault model as the standard growth and incentives engine for partners using Aave and DeFi in general. Building on early adoption from Circle, Tether, Ava Labs, Stader and others, Phase IV will onboard new MASIv clients and create synergistic feedback loops for the Aave ecosystem.

3. CeDeFi partnership Launch

Deliver a CeDeFi partnership with a top-tier centralized exchange providing CeFi access to DeFi-native yield.

4. Node Infrastructure via Frontier

Continue developing Frontier, our Aave-native node infrastructure, on a larger scale. Ensure DAO readiness for Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade and expand node partnerships with Lido, EtherFi, and others.

5. Multi-Chain Capability

Establish ACI’s readiness to operate across non-EVM chains, beginning with Aptos, in preparation for a multi-VM DeFi future.

6. Team Scaling & Increased Alignment

Expand the ACI core team (currently 8 members) with new hires in technical, governance, and ecosystem roles.

ACI Deliverables

ACI deliverables are executed on a best-effort basis, with transparency and proactive communication regarding any limitations or delays, while aiming to exceed expectations whenever possible.

A. Growth & Governance

  • Strategy, design, and execution of growth programs in partnership with Aave DAO’s service providers (Tokenlogic)
  • CeDeFi partnerships.
  • Coordination of incentive frameworks (MASIv, Liquidity Mining)
  • ARFC & AIP drafting and governance operations via Skywards services

B. Infrastructure

  • Frontier node services compatible for LSTs and re-staking protocols
  • Technical contribution to GHO, MASIv, and DAO tooling as requested and in sync with service providers relevant leads
  • Partnership integrations.

C. Community & Coordination

  • Management of Snapshot and Discourse (via Dolce Vita)
  • Delegate onboarding & incentive structuring (Orbit)
  • Proposal escalation and support (Skywards)
  • Aave Protocol Embassy (APE) coordination and expansion (delegation-aware aTokens)

Limitation Of Scope

ACI is not a core developer or maintainer of the Aave protocol codebase. We rely on technical service providers’ tooling and infrastructure. While we have provided support in the past, ACI will not develop protocol infrastructure tools during this mandate.

For non-EVM ecosystems and Aave V4 (whose codebase is currently unknown to ACI), we will fully depend on technical service providers like @aavelabs to provide the necessary tooling and documentation to fulfill our responsibilities.

Out of Scope

The ACI clearly defines the following activities as out of scope, based on either our internal capabilities or to respect the roles of other Aave DAO service providers:

  • Direct smart contract development (except for AIP payloads within our scope), auditing, or formal verification (delegated to technical and audit service providers)
  • Protocol-level parameter tuning (delegated to technical and Risk Service Providers)
  • DAO Treasury or financial operations not governed by ACI mandates (leadership delegated to TokenLogic)

Specifications

  • Proposal Duration: 12 months (365 days)
  • Budget Requested: 3M aEthLidoGHO
  • Stream Method: Yearly linear stream, replacing any previous funding streams

Next Steps

  1. Collect community feedback on this ARFC
  2. If feedback is positive, escalate to Snapshot for signaling
  3. Upon Snapshot approval, submit onchain AIP to renew ACI mandate

Disclaimer

This ARFC is submitted by the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) independently and without third-party compensation or sponsorship.

Copyright

This proposal is published under a CC0 license. All rights waived.

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13 Likes
2

The ACI’s effectiveness and commitment to the DAO are undeniable. Their consistency over the years has never failed to impress me

Beyond the strength of the protocol itself, we are lucky to count their squad as one of Aave’s many unfair advantages

Their continuity as a service provider and pillar of the DAO is obviously unquestionable

100% in favor of this!! :fire:

6 Likes
3

I strongly support the Aave Chan Initiative’s (ACI) proposal to renew as an AAVE service provider, recognizing their pivotal role in driving Aave’s remarkable growth over the past 18 months.

ACI’s strategic efforts have significantly expanded the Aave ecosystem. Just some of their achievements that spring to mind are:

They spearheaded Aavenomics Part One, implementing tokenomics enhancements and revenue redistribution.
ACI, with Tokenlogic helped fuel the GHO stablecoin’s rise to a $200 million circulating supply, introducing (soon to be) innovative features like Anti-GHO to maximize user value.
Their optimization of the Merit reward system boosted Aave’s DeFi market share by delivering compelling user incentives.
ACI also championed Aave V3’s deployment on Sonic, securing $15 million in funding to broaden Aave’s cross-chain footprint.
By streamlining governance through Skyward and Orbit programs, ACI enhanced efficiency and supported community-driven expansion.
I could go on…
ACI’s unwavering focus on growth through innovation and strategic initiatives makes their renewal a “no-brainer” for Aave’s continued ascent.

100% in favour

5 Likes
4

ACI has been relentlessly working on the Aave protocol and the numbers speak for themselves. Aave improved in every metric and is still growing, despite growing competition and harsh market conditions.
100% supportive and happy to see them sticking with Aave and expanding their team.

5 Likes
5

With ACI at the Aave DAO forefront, Aave has become the number 1 protocol by TVL.

Was also great to see how aligned you were in defending AAVE holders against the recent Horizon proposal, too.

ACI seems to have the best interests for AAVE holders so excited for the Road to 80.

4 Likes
6

ACI has performed in an exemplary manner for the Aave DAO to date and has been one of the core reasons behind Aave’s domination over the last year. The road to 80 is a commendable goal and the CeDeFi partnership sounds very promising. Overall, it’s a no brainer to extend ACI for one more year.

In terms of the budget, could you expand on the difference with last year’s budget of 1M GHO and the rationale behind the budget tripling? Not saying we aren’t in favour, but just to understand more about what the additional budget compared to Phase III will be utilised for.

2 Likes