Aave controversy continues: Labs backs down on mandatory v3 migration, $42 million funding proposal leads in voting

According to ChainCatcher, Aave DAO is currently voting on a major proposal that would allocate up to $42 million to Aave Labs, including $25 million for ongoing product development and $17.5 million as milestone bonuses. As of Friday evening, the supporting votes were narrowly ahead with a 52% majority, and the voting will conclude on Saturday.

The controversy centers on Aave Labs' original plan to limit the development of v3 and force users to migrate to the yet-to-be-launched v4 version. This move sparked strong backlash, with the main contractor Bored Ghosts Developing announcing it would not renew its contract and criticizing the proposal as nearly absurd. This week, Aave Labs made concessions, promising not to enforce migration and to keep v3 operational.

Marc Zeller, a representative of the critics, argued that the requested funds are excessive, accounting for 31% of the DAO's reserves, and called for the proposal to be split into multiple independent votes. However, Aave Labs insists on proceeding with a single comprehensive vote. Currently, Aave v3 holds over $26.3 billion in deposits, accounting for more than 97% of the protocol's total deposits.