Risk Labs Funding Proposal for Growth, Expansion and Across v3

Title: Risk Labs Funding Proposal for Growth, Expansion and Across v3
Author: Kevin Chan
Status: Proposal
Related Discussions: N/A
Submission Date: October 16, 2023

Summary:
The Risk Labs foundation is requesting 100,000,000 $ACX to fund the continuing growth and expansion of Across protocol and to build Across v3. Risk Labs has delivered to the Across community the fastest, cheapest and most secure cross chain bridge. There are still many opportunities that Across can capture to further establish its dominance and necessity in the interoperability space. Risk Labs would use these ACX tokens to establish potential strategic partnerships and to incentivize developers and contractors. Regardless of the agreement, these tokens will not be sold for at least 2 years.

Motivation:
Across protocol has established itself as a dominant competitor in the cross chain bridge space. Over the last two years, the Risk Labs foundation has worked tirelessly to design, build, operate, and market the bridge that Ethereum deserves. Across shines on many metrics and the following are some of the accomplishments the Risk Labs team has helped achieve:

*Across has completed over $2.6B of bridge transfers since inception and currently averages around $11.5MM of volume per day

*Across consistently has the lowest bridge transfer fees relative to its competitors which is the result of Risk Labs’ developers designing and delivering the most gas-efficient and capital-efficient bridge.

*Across has steadily gained market share and is well ahead of its competitors (with the exception of Stargate which is benefitting from Layerzero airdrop farming). You can track this on DeFiLlama.

There remains many areas of opportunity for Across to grow and maintain its leadership in cross chain bridging. Across can continue improving its efficiency to ensure it remains the fastest and cheapest bridging option. Across can further grow its volumes by expanding to more destinations which includes more L2s and other L1s.

To further excel Across protocol and secure its position in the interoperability domain, Risk Labs is planning to build Across v3. Across v3 will establish Across protocol as the optimal intents based bridge. Across v3 will continue to improve protocol efficiency and enhance user experience. The improvement in design would allow other dApps in the ecosystem to integrate with Across and provide account abstraction which allows users to seamlessly move between chains.

Capturing these opportunities will increase volumes and total bridge fees, driving value to the Across ecosystem. However, funding the research and development to achieve these goals requires significant resources. Therefore, Risk Labs is requesting 100,000,000 $ACX tokens to help fund this endeavor. Risk Labs would use these $ACX tokens to establish potential strategic partnerships and to incentivize developers and contractors. Regardless of the agreement, these tokens will be locked and not sold for at least 2 years.

Specification & Implementation:
To fulfill this funding request, the Across DAO will need to vote for and execute this proposal using oSnap. $ACX token holders will vote through Snapshot and the proposal will include the exact transfer transaction that will send 100,000,000 $ACX to the Risk Labs multisig address on mainnet (0x8180D59b7175d4064bDFA8138A58e9baBFFdA44a). If the vote passes, anybody can propose to execute this transaction and a 5 day dispute window will be open to UMA’s optimistic oracle to verify the validity of the transaction.

Risk Labs intends to use these tokens to secure potential strategic partnerships and incentivize developers and contractors. Risk Labs will ensure that in any agreement where there is a transfer of ownership of tokens, whether onchain or offchain, these tokens will clearly have restrictions that prevent the sale of the tokens for at least 2 years.

Questions and feedback very much welcome and appreciated! Thanks

Voting:

Should the Across DAO transfer 100,000,000 ACX tokens to Risk Labs to fund the continuing growth and expansion of Across protocol and to build Across v3? These tokens will not be sold for at least 2 years.
  • Yes
  • No
  • Abstain
0 voters
4 Likes

Bullish on ACX since day one! 100% in favor of Risk Labs leading potential strategic partnerships and incentivize developers and contractors.

3 Likes

RL has been putting in the work to create something beneficial for the community. No matter which path they choose, I am confident that their decision will ultimately result in a positive outcome for all of us. The dedication and effort they have shown in building ACROSS is truly commendable. Can’t wait to see the incredible things they have in store for us!

3 Likes

Hey @Kevin_UMA
Very excited at the prospect of an Across V3 with new added features to ensure we stay on top of the bridging game. Risk Labs has an impressive track record of delivering flawless products and I’m sure the new V3 will not let us down.

  • How long is V3 development estimated to take?
  • How many new developers are you looking to hire?

100,000,000 ACX translates to $4.6MM USD’s based on current price which is a hefty price tag(I also feel ACX is heavily undervalued currently). It is also 10% of the total supply of ACX. This proposal promises to keep the 100,000,000 ACX tokens vested for 2 years but Risk Labs already holds a lot of ACX tokens that could potentially be sold.
Since ACX is being used to incentivize bridge liquidity, a big drop in price due to Risk Labs needing to sell tokens could have a detrimental impact on our goals to increase bridge liquidity and support more bridge volume.

  • How is the Risk Labs treasury doing for non native assets to fund this type of development?
  • Will you be required to sell other ACX holdings that were already owned by Risk Labs prior to this proposal to cover development costs?
4 Likes

I have complete confidence in the team and their ability to manage and carry out all future tasks. If they request this figure, it is because it is definitely necessary. Let’s go Across!

1 Like

These are good questions and I’m also excited about the prospect of Across v3, intents, account abstraction etc.
It would be good if the RL team shared a tentative roadmap with us.

1 Like

Would any of the 100MM tokens be used to directly fund the RL team, or purely for the 3 areas called out above by @Kevin_UMA ?

1 Like

Thank you for sharing this ambitious proposal! It’s evident that Risk Labs has put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into ensuring the continued success and growth of Across protocol. I’m fully supportive of this plan and trust that it will lead to even greater achievements.

I’m particularly excited about the potential partnerships and the emphasis on user experience in Across v3. These are significant steps forward. Let’s move ahead with confidence and enthusiasm
However while reviewing the proposal, I initially had some concerns about potential token value shifts. but, the assurance that these tokens won’t be sold for at least two years provides a reassuring level of stability. it’s a great strategy, very considerate at most. Great job!

1 Like

Hey @TheRealTuna_Across
Thanks for the feedback and questions. There’s no set time for development at the moment. We know the direction we want to take v3 but the specifics of exactly what and how we build it are not set. There could also be collaborations with other projects.
There is no need to sell any ACX tokens and Risk Labs is well funded with non native assets. ACX would help in aligning the interests of potential partners and developers/contractors for Risk Labs. At the moment Risk Labs contractors are not compensated with ACX, but this should change in the future. Ideally, we would compensate long term contractors with non native assets like USDC or ETH (which foundation has) and include some ACX with restrictions so that they are aligned with the project’s growth.

Hi @markh
When I mention contractors/developers that would include RL team. We want to incorporate that into future compensation to align incentives. There would be restrictions on this to ensure ACX is held.

Thank you for the clarification, my vote is yes. I hope the development of V3 doesn’t have an effect on our ability to add new chains to the current version as some opportunities have only a small window.

1 Like

What if funding was received incrementally. If a plan is created for making Across v3 with certain milestones in place, then when achieved a piece of the funding could be unlocked with it. E.G. give half the request up front and the other half unlocked when certain goals are met.

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.