PowerIndex Grant Program for the AAVE Protocol

Hello, AAVE community! We publish this post as our community considers AAVE as one of the most likely participants of PowerIndex, a decentralized Defi ETF-like product. Currently, LEND token is a participant of PowerIndex MVP version - Baby PowerIndex (index will migrate to AAVE in 24hrs).

Baby PowerIndex is a Smart Defi Index, composed of 8 governance tokens (YFI AAVE SNX COMP MKR UNI WNXM CVP). Currently, it is an unaudited MVP version live in mainnet, so everyone can play with it to see how it works. It has a certain liquidity cap ($550k) which is completely filled by our community.

For the main PowerIndex (uncapped audited version) token set will be defined by community voting. For the end-user, index share is represented by PIPT (PowerIndex Pool Token), which allows users to operate with a basket of 8 tokens using a single token.

We call this index a “smart” one due to the following features:

  1. All pooled tokens can be used for governance (voting) in composite protocols.
  2. All pooled tokens can be used for fund management strategies. All cashflows are distributed to the token holders. Also, index LPs mine CVP (the Concentrated Voting Power tokens, which integrate all pooled voting power of composite protocols) as additional source of income.
  3. Community can entirely govern the index, changing token set, weights of tokens, and pool fees via proposals.

We see the following value proposition for AAVE and its community in case if AAVE will added into the index:

  1. The end-users of the index (Defi community) will get a stake in AAVE simply by buying index token PIPT. So, any index user (PIPT holder) will be an AAVE holder at the same time.
  2. Index stores all governance tokens in a special contract (check out Baby PowerIndex contract). All pooled tokens are used by PowerPool (CVP) token holders for voting on proposals (we call this process meta-governance). As all pooled tokens will vote at every AAVE voting, this will contribute to solving the Voters’ Apathy problem.
  3. As PIPT is an interest-collecting token (cashflows will be generated by using pooled tokens in fund management strategies), liquidity providers will receive additional cashflows by providing their governance tokens, for example AAVE to the index.

In addition to the mentioned cashflows, all LPs will earn CVP tokens for provided liquidity according to the CVP LM program.

  1. PowerIndex allows swap tokens which are pooled inside the index contract. So, addition of AAVE into the index would allow to swap other governance tokens to AAVE and vice versa without any intermediary trades, boosting its liquidity.
  2. As a result of index capitalization growth, a lot of AAVE tokens will be pooled inside the contract, which will help to maintain AAVE market price acting as a supply sink.

Additionally, as it was discussed with the representative of the AAVE team, there is a possibility to establish a lending market on AAVE for PIPT, PowerIndex token. It will work as an additional secondary market with the option to lend and borrow index tokens. For the AAVE community, it will provide an exposure to the PIPT and allow it to use a curated basket of Defi tokens in their trading and hedging strategies via the AAVE market. Also, when the cap and liquidity of PIPT will be bigger, such ETF-like index token can become a good example of curated collateral for specific purposes.

The PowerIndex participants grant program

Today we are proud to announce the grant program for PowerIndex composite protocols and Protocol Politicians, elected by their communities. Allocation of these grants was approved by the CVP community in Proposal 6.

This program is aimed to establish community partnership. It will engage communities interaction and bring additional value for AAVE token holders and its governance system and PowerPool meta-governance protocol.

It is planned to allocate as much as 1% of CVP supply (1m CVP) to each protocol, which will be elected as PowerIndex member in upcoming community voting.

This grant will be divided into two parts: the main one (900k CVP) will be under control of the AAVE community and the rest of it (100k) will be divided into individual grants for two AAVE active and trusted community members - we name such persons a Protocol Politicians.

Two grant recipients will be elected by the protocol’s community. PowerPool itself and CVP token holders have nothing to do with that.

The purposes of grants allocation

As it was stated in a recently published article, there is no real democracy without rewards. In common words to achieve a high level of participation in the on-chain governance the community needs to be motivated and engaged enough.

Meta-governance is not only about accumulating governance tokens inside the protocol. It is about the proper people’s organization and motivation.

Since the community is the key for meta-governance (while pooling GT liquidity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for building such a system), we decided to provide leverage in PowerPool votings for every composite protocol.

So, the community of each composite protocol would be able to have its own loud voice and defend their interests in any PowerPool proposal.

From one side, it will engage the community of these protocols into PowerPool governance, and from the other one will provide an opportunity for index participants to create a sort of coalition and influence index management.

To enhance this community engagement effect, we decided to allocate 100k CVP for two protocol politicians from each protocol. These grants will be individual ones.

Rules of individual grants allocation:

  1. A person should be elected by the protocol community. For example, Protocol Politicians from AAVE should be elected by the AAVE community
  2. There are no restrictions: Protocol Politicians can be protocol team members, majority token holder, minority token holder, accidentally PowerPool’s alpha/beta/gamma tester. Only the community decides who will be elected.
  3. Protocol Politicians from composite protocols aren’t required to have a CVP stake.
  4. Each protocol can define their own rules of resignation in case of Protocol Politician misbehavior. We will discuss options for that with each protocol team individually (note, granted tokens would be anyway on a vesting contract).

Basic duties of Protocol Politicians:

  1. To act as a diplomat between his own protocol and PowerPool - helping with communication between communities, including community calls, intro(s) if necessary, establishing collaboration on mutual research, articles, tweets, announcements, etc.
  2. To inform community members about future and ongoing development, proposals, community activity, etc. People from AAVE and PowerPool need to be aware of activity in both protocols.
  3. To help with community-based technical integration. Here it means to facilitate all stuff related to community-driven tech development.
  4. Supporting community partnership. We consider protocols, which are exchanged with Protocol Politicians as partnered on the basis of community needs.
  5. Any other duties, specified by the community of the composite protocol. Each protocol can add their own duties and tasks for Protocol Politicians.

Roadmap for Grants

The roadmap for grants depends on the main PowerIndex launch roadmap. It is presented below:

  1. Posting on governance forums of protocols, which probably could become PowerIndex composite protocols. We expect it will take ~2-4 days from now. Until voting (the point 2 of this list) passes, all stuff regarding the election and resignation processes will be discussed on community forums.
  2. Community voting on PowerIndex composition (~7-14 days from now).
  3. Final election of Protocol Politicians, preparation of protocol’s treasures to use CVP voting rights in PowerPool governance. Integration of new sources of votes into PowerPool modular governance system
  4. Launch of audited and uncapped PowerIndex
  5. Distribution grants to the vesting contract, enabling all granted tokens for voting
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PowerPool Meta-Governance as Augmented Governance for Effective Protocol Management: https://medium.com/PowerPool/PowerPool-meta-governance-as-augmented-governance-for-effective-protocol-management-d681260ca09b

The Power Universe: Understanding PowerPool’s Ecosystem: https://medium.com/PowerPool/the-power-universe-understanding-PowerPools-ecosystem-50f9d7f0be5

Power Forum: https://gov.PowerPool.finance/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerPoolcvp

  1. Do you have certain criteria for politicians?
  2. How big of a tech change AAVE need to implement to make this work?
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Thanks for asking, our main requirement to Protocol Politician is that he or she has to be elected by the protocol’s community.

As for the tech changes on AAVE side, we need to dig deeper, but as far as my understanding goes, mo big tech changes are required.