How will an outside user understand that a DeFi protocol has basic quality and is at least slightly safe? DeFiSafety quality certificates is an answer to that question. We are asking for the support of the DAO in developing and popularizing an answer to that question.
The first question this forum post asks is should any AAVE DAO resources support the concept of an independent (independent of any protocol or chain) quality organization?
If the answer is no, the status quo is fine then consider what will happen if a regulator imposes a quality standard on DeFi protocols. If the DeFi industry does not have an existing, in-house standard then each protocol will be weak in arguing against whatever it is the regulator imposes. Better to support the devil you know then the unknown in the future.
At the moment there are no quality organizations and users are left on their own. DYOR, read the audits, ask around. But be careful what you read, most posts are scams or pump and dumps. The environment users have right now is not welcoming. This toxic environment limits the number of users of DeFi and directly limits the number of users that AAVE gets.
So that is two reasons why supporting this proposal will directly assist AAVE. Supporting a quality organization will at least slightly tame the wild West and increase the number of users of the AAVE protocol. It will also mitigate the risk of a regulator-imposed security standard that is more difficult than the existing standard.
We are asking for 15K (barely a month burn rate) so that we can remain independent. We are also asking that the capable and respected AAVE DAO community spread the word among other protocols that supporting an independent quality group is worth the effort. This idea needs active community support, or it will die.
DeFiSafety has been reviewing DeFi protocols since 2020. We have reviewed AAVE four times since then. Check the post from last year for the links. We have been provably independent all that time. We are the best existing group to act as a quality organization. We would prefer if the quality standards were developed by community working groups. We hope this will be done in the future. Right now, our standards are the best out there. They can be improved, and we would love more community input. But they are still a good baseline. Our reports are human readable, auditable and consistent.
Look at the security page referenced from the menu of the AAVE.com website. To someone outside of Web3 and software development they are incomprehensible. It is impossible to compare the list of audits in one protocol from the list of audits in another. We have to improve if DeFi is to grow.
DeFiSafety quality certificates offer a potential improvement. We ask for support of the DAO in this improvement in the DeFi ecosystem. As indicated above there are clear benefits for the AAVE protocol.