Operational Updates Following AIP-017 Approval
Thank you to everyone who voted on AIP-017. As a result of the AIP-017 approval, we are undertaking several key operational updates to streamline our governance and enhance our project’s infrastructure, as well as improving the communication and feedback cycle with our community.
Summary of AIP-017
As a reminder, to support the continued growth and development of Akropolis, we have kicked off the development of Project Omega - a BTC UTXO sidechain with enhanced EVM compatibility. One of our original goals was cross-chain functionality. Project Omega allows us to accomplish this by accessing the Bitcoin liquidity and ecosystem - which is multitudes that of Ethereum. This new project will effectively transition $AKRO from a pure DeFi dApp token into a new L1 native utility token - resulting in a greater use case surface area.
As part of this new direction, we will begin a rebranding effort shortly to showcase the use cases and the path to broader adoption, together with our branding and design partners at DeepWork.Studio and ZebraDesign.io, who have collectively spearheaded top-tier UX/UI design and branding for such landmark web3 projects as MakerDAO, Spark, Nexus Mutual, Maple, counting Ethereum Foundation and ConsenSys amongst their clients. We are incredibly excited about the new changes, and look forward to seeing the ecosystem growth as this develops.
New Multisig Structure
Project Omega’s complexity requires a different organisational structure and as a result a different operational multi-signatory setup. To this end, we are transitioning to a new multisig setup, featuring three active wallets: two dedicated to unlocking inflation under vesting and the third one for operational activities. The update also includes integrating our recent contributors into the governance framework, reflecting their roles and contributions to the project, whilst keeping the OGs on.
The new operational multisig will follow the same set up we have now with 4 out of 6 signatures required to perform any action, and two multisigs connected to inflation will have 4 out of 7 signatures required.
It will consist of the following contributors:
[veteran] Yana - product & operations contributor;
[veteran] Dima - long standing frontend contributor;
[new] Alex Bel - lead technical contributor;
[new] anon tech contributor_1
[new] anon tech contributor_2
[new] anon tech contributor_3
New Contributors
Our new contributors are joining us with a strong background and commitment to propelling the growth and development of the project.
Alex Bel: an experienced developer and CTO, with 15 years of senior leadership experience in large institutions, including a large mortgage issuer, where he has led a 250-strong team with a multi-million-dollar budget. An active pseudo-anon crypto ecosystem participant since 2017, in 2021, he founded an audit and whitehat cybersecurity firm that secured over $10bn of digital assets to date. It is this security-first mindset and exposure to poorly designed and executed solutions from a security and audit perspective that laid the foundation of Project Omega. As the Technical Lead behind the upcoming bitcoin ecosystem products, and the intrepid leader of the 15-strong senior development team, he will act as a new signatory on the multisig.
Core Development Team: a 15-strong senior team of developers and mathematicians with a track record of contributions to the bitcoin ecosystem, and impressive background in computer science R&D, machine learning, cybersecurity and complex systems design. The team members materially contributed to Hedera Hashgraph’s MVP architecture and development.
Alex and this team bring deep technical expertise and their existing contribution to Project Omega is invaluable. Our team is excited about this collaboration.
New Vesting Contracts and Vesting Terms
In order to fund the development and growth of the new L1 ecosystem, our community has approved AIP-017. Doing so brings our tokenomics more in-line with other L1s and ecosystem projects and allows us to push the ecosystem development of Akropolis much further. Alongside the new multisig wallets, we have set up dedicated vesting contract addresses to ensure unlocks follow an event-driven approach, which has multiple precedents in the ecosystem.
Event-driven vesting is defined as “a mechanism by which token rights are released upon the occurrence of a specific event. Unlike linear vesting, which is continuous and predictable, this type of vesting waits for a triggering event to activate the release of tokens. Examples include the achievement of a specific development milestone, airdrops, or the achievement of a goal (which may even be a funding goal) or KPI. These events are often defined as part of the project’s growth strategy”.
In our case, these will be linked to testnet and mainnet milestones, and will ensure that the additional supply is released largely upon completion of tangible verifiable milestones, from testnet to mainnet and beyond. In practical terms, this means that if there is a delay in the roadmap delivery, the corresponding amount of vested tokens will not be released until the milestone is verifiably completed. Under this structure, the incentives of the team are more aligned with the goals of the community - to see an increase in development, growth, and traction. This ensures transparency as well as accountability. The vesting contracts are designed to release tokens gradually, with only multisig being able to release the tokens as they unlock to avoid market disruption and support sustainable growth. The addresses for the vesting contracts are:
Inflation Management with Event-Driven Unlocks
Our inflation strategy has been enhanced with event-driven unlocks, ensuring that token releases align with the achievement of specific project milestones, applicable for 25% of team tokens and 15% of ecosystem tokens. This performance-based release schedule is designed to incentivize progress and recognize key development achievements within our timeline. Conversely, this approach ensures that no additional supply is made available in the event of material roadmap delays. To not inundate readers with information, we will be sharing more details about specific milestones in a subsequent technical & product roadmap for 2024-2025, so stay tuned.
Why It Matters
These updates to our multisig wallets and inflation strategy are pivotal as they enhance the robustness of our financial governance and support the sustainable growth of the project. We are excited for the vision and the skillset that this team can bring, and by implementing these mechanisms, we ensure that our project remains on a stable financial footing and continues to evolve together with the market and the ecosystem.
We are committed to transparency and will continue to update the community as these new operational measures are implemented and the new technical & product roadmap and relevant KPI commitments are available for public review.