GM, Aleks here.

Aave Labs drew fresh scrutiny over the weekend after the company advanced a contentious proposal without consulting its author. 

The proposal requests that Labs transfer brand assets — such as naming rights, social media accounts, and the aave.com domain name — to the DAO, the cooperative that governs the protocol. 

On Sunday, Labs put the proposal up for an initial vote that will conclude on Christmas Day. 

The proposal was prompted by a recent furore over Labs’ decision to keep certain revenue generated by the website through which most users access the Aave protocol. Previously, that revenue had been directed to the Aave DAO. 

Critics called it an unacceptable attempt to profit off the Aave brand, which underwent a DAO-funded visual overhaul this year.

Labs has defended the decision, calling it a reasonable way to defray the cost of running that website. 

The ensuing clash has been a surprising show of disunity between organisations that typically work in lockstep.

The proposal’s author, software engineer Ernesto Boado, said the proposal was “intended to bring explicit clarity and DAO control to how Aave-branded assets and intellectual property are, first, owned, and second, can be used.”

Boado is a co-founder of Bored Ghosts Developing, a company hired by the DAO to provide software development and security services.  

Stani Kulechov, Aave’s founder and the CEO of Aave Labs, said the discussion has been extensive and token holders should be ready to vote. 

As of Tuesday, there were over 160 replies to the proposal, making it the fourth most commented-on proposal in the DAO’s history. 

Labs’ decision to move to the voting stage drew a rebuke from DAO members that had been critical of Labs in recent weeks.

Boado called the push for a vote “disgraceful,” citing the ongoing discussion, and urged DAO members to cast an “abstain” vote to convey their displeasure.

To abstain is the DAO equivalent of voting for a write-in candidate. 

Marc Zeller, the co-founder of Aave Chan Initiative, one of the DAO’s largest delegates, slammed Labs for scheduling a vote during Christmas week. 

“What started as a push for clarity and a more fair relationship between token holders and the current stewards, instead of today’s asymmetric dynamic, is now turning into a hostile takeover attempt by Labs,” he wrote, adding that ACI would cast an “abstain” vote.

Not everyone was convinced Aave Labs was rushing the vote.

One person in the forum noted the controversy has been covered extensively by crypto media. They added they had sold some of their AAVE tokens due to the dustup.

“Some DAO service providers attempted to change the status quo, ignored the risks, and blindly pursued ‘DAO rights,’ escalating a minor issue into a revolution,” they wrote. 

Their decision to sell might be a smart move if the controversy drags on. AAVE’s price took 20% nosedive in the past week. In that span, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been flat.

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