[TEMP CHECK] The Aave Interface Transparency Act

[inca]

Author: @inca

Date: 2025-12-17

Simple summary

Mandate fee address disclosure, permissionless verification tools, and scalable community oversight.

Motivation

The dispute over CoWSwap interface revenue is caused by information assymetries concerning the monetization of the established brand reputation, and underlying user base of the DAO. The discovery and contestation of the revenue diversion relied on under-compensated cohort of delegates, researchers and analysts, structurally disincentivized from governance due diligence labor.

Context

The CoWSwap dispute revealed the DAO govern unseen value flows while interfaces operate onchain/offchain payment rails. By focusing on transparency as a public good and funding vigilance as a community service, the DAO could address the interface revenue opacity.

The act proposes mandating fee address disclosure, permissionless verification tools, and scalable community oversight to analyze the data flows.

Specification of principles

Transparency Mandate: Require Aave Labs and interfaces to publicly disclose fee addresses via AIP. Governance gain an oracle signal; interfaces keep operational control. Enforcement through opt-in registry is reputational, as non-compliant entities could lose DAO endorsement and grant eligibility.

Protocol Verification: Standardize a FeeRouter contract template which interfaces can deploy, splitting fees verifiably onchain. Compliant partners could receive DAO-Verified badges, grant priority, and co-marketing.

Human Capital Sustainability: Fund forensic analysis, operational research and permissionless oversight (500K USDC/quarter) with retroactive grants for deliverables: audits, tools, dashboards, reports and sustained delegation.

Key Discussion Points

• The USDC initial investment for the oversight incentives.
• The optimal, trustless process for transparency verification.

Conclusion: visibility, not bureaucracy.

By clarifying revenue distribution, aligning interfaces via incentives, and sustaining human capital by funding results, the DAO vote for vigilance simplicity and against centralized opacity.

Disclaimer

The TEMP CHECK publication is uncompensated and the forum moderator already warned about unilaterally deleting the transparency act post.

Next Steps

Gather community & service providers feedback.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights concerning the transparency act are waived via CC0

[Ethicalprofit]

I think another key disclosure is the cap table of Aave Labs

The name of all shareholders in this privately held company and their shareholdings amount.

In addition I would say the financial accounts of the company for all available bookyears or at the very least the most recent ones should be disclosed.

This would be normal in the corporate world as well as part of corprorate DD of large contractors or joint venture like partnerships, or investments. If one company becomes defacto the largest (and only) contractor to another company. But given the nature of this relation, its even more important this is transparently disclosed. As Aave Labs has been (and is being) funded by the DAO and tokenholders and its acclaimed core mission is furthering the Aave DAO ecosystem.

All interests must be crystal clear, so we can identify any conflicts of interests that may arise.

@stani can you please disclose this for the sake of a fair discussion where everyone is privy to the same important information.

[inca]

The Aave Transparency Act represents a fundamental shift from voluntary compliance to enforceable sovereignty, hardening the protocol’s political, legal, and operational layers against opacity and value extraction.

Transparency emerges naturally in legible, adversarial, and multi-layered ecosystems. Sovereignty, however, demands continuous defense, execution, and expensive adaptation.

Aave could evolve from a governance forum that relies on hope for enforcement, to a sovereign entity that guarantees outcomes through three integrated systems:

• Piston Protocol: Make key addresses states and all material value flows publicly observable and verifiable in real-time, like reading a pressure gauge on a dashboard. Onchain transparency vaults and transaction routers, designed to prevent embellished reporting.
• Minimal Viable Sovereign Entity: Provide the DAO with a pioneer legally-recognized entity, governed by an elected multi-sig to hold social accounts, domains and trademarks property, ensuring onchain votes are enforceable and offchain assets are secured.
• Anti-Capture Sentinel Program: A professionally funded, futarchy-selected oversight body with fixed terms and sunset clauses, tasked with sustaining DAO integrity.

Transparency vs. Privacy

@Ethicalprofit while the Aave Transparency Act champions openness, certain details, such as Lab/Foundation’s cap tables, shareholder names, and comprehensive financial records, remain confidential, shared only with equity investors, regulators, or as mandated by law. Even in partnerships, non-disclosure agreements often apply.

Without onchain transparency, the offchain confidentiality maintains a loop of circular accountability: shareholders who also participate as service providers face inherent conflicts of interest, particularly when setting or voting on revenue allocation policies.