AIP-83: Proposal for ApeFi to receive ApeCoin token Grant - Ecosystem Fund Allocation

Proposal Name: Ape Finance Building DeFi for ApeCoin Ecosystem

Proposal Category: Ecosystem Fund Allocation

ABSTRACT

Ape Finance is building DeFi for the metaverse, centered around ApeCoin. Currently ApeCoin holders can borrow ApeUSD against their ApeCoin, giving ApeCoin holders more utility without selling ApeCoin.

ApeFi is seeking a 250,000 ApeCoin grant from the ecosystem fund to further build out ApeFi, with funds going toward security audits, protocol owned liquidity, and general overhead.

If this proposal passes, voters who voted on this proposal, regardless of FOR or AGAINST, will share 8,250,000 APEFI tokens, based on their voting power. Addresses voted with over 825 ApeCoins will be entered into the ApeFi NFT allowlist.

MOTIVATION

Borrowing against ApeCoin instead of selling ApeCoin benefits all ApeCoin holders by preserving ApeCoin value. DeFi is a proven web3 use case that ApeFi is building into ApeCoin, and having more ApeCoin token utility with strong DeFi integrations built by strong DeFi builders is highly valuable to our community. By adding the ability for ApeCoin holders to collateralize their ApeCoins to borrow ApeUSD, ApeCoin holders have more options like earning yield or paying for general expenses without having to sell their ApeCoins.

Many in Web3 have heard of the Bitcoin Pizza story, where in 2010 Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 BTC on two large pizzas. If only Laszlo had a DeFi lending service like ApeFi to borrow against his BTC, Laszlo would still have 10,000 BTC, which is worth ~$240-million USD today. ApeFi will help the ApeCoin community avoid the same mistake.

RATIONALE

ApeFi has already built the protocol that allows ApeUSD to be borrowed against ApeCoin, with collaboration and integration with major DeFi projects such as Frax Finance, Curve Finance, Convex Finance, and Uniswap so far. ApeUSD can be directly exchanged for FRAX or USDC on Curve at https://curve.fi/factory/138

It is no secret that many ApeCoins are soon unlocking to investors and contributors. Without viable options to borrow against their ApeCoin distributions, their only option is to sell their ApeCoins. By providing a useful borrowing option, we can protect the value of ApeCoin by reducing sell pressure. Spending borrowed funds is a common strategy for the wealthy to spend without paying taxes on those funds because it is a taxable event to ā€œrealizeā€ the gains.

ABOUT APEFI

Ape Finance is building DeFi tools for the metaverse. We appreciate culture, art, and games. Ape Finance begins with the creation of the ApeUSD.

ApeUSD is the stablecoin for the metaverse. Users can collateralize ApeCoin to mint ApeUSD. Borrowed ApeUSD tokens are overcollateralized by ApeCoin deposits, similar to DAI from MakerDAO. Our governance token is APEFI.

ApeCoin holders can deposit ApeCoins and borrow ApeUSD at ape.fi.

SPECIFICATIONS

250,000 ApeCoin from the Ecosystem Fund as a grant to ApeFi to back ApeUSD for security audits, protocol owned liquidity, and general overhead.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT

250,000 ApeCoins to be transferred to the ApeFi multisig. Voters who voted, regardless of FOR or AGAINST, can claim APEFI tokens at ape.fi within 7 days after the AIP vote ends. Addresses voted with over 825 ApeCoins will be entered into the ApeFi NFT allowlist.

TIMELINE

Can be implemented as soon as a passing FOR vote is confirmed.

OVERALL COST

250,000 ApeCoins from the Ecosystem Fund.

3 Likes

To reward voters who vote YES a share of the tokens - this seems super odd to me - so if I read this right it is a way of paying people to vote YES?

Also, does not seem in anyway this will benefit whole apecoin ecosystem, just the few higher holders. Let them fund themselves and we will fund better projects with 1 million dollars plus [current value of quarter million apecoin].

Having looked at the already running apefinance website I see no details of the creators, staff, contributors etc, asking for such a high amount of apecoin and coupled with the latest stablecoin issues weā€™ve seen and all probably lost money via, one would expect much more transparency and openness and a better approach than buying YES VOTEs.

Final point - their are already several companies offering this exact service already - borrowing against APECOIN, massive players too like NEXO & BINANCE and several others.

6 Likes

There have been multiple twitter spaces about ApeFi since early days of Apecoin. I have positive feedback about this proposal, because I like how they have spoken about it in a transparent way.

This is a good example of Apes building for Apecoin. Theyā€™ve held large twitter spaces, gotten feedback from a wide variety of individuals including small holders like me. Itā€™s also a really good example of a ā€œbuild firstā€ mentality. ApeFi is already functional & available on multiple dexes.

This brings a DeFi element to Apecoin that I think is positive for the ecosystem!
Because they built first, they donā€™t have to ask for a huge number of Apecoin. I like that.

4 Likes

So why do they need 1million dollars plus? Iā€™m glad you donā€™t think one million dollars plus of apecoin is, I quote ā€˜a huge a mount of apecoinā€™, I wouldnā€™t exactly call it a small amount. Who are they? If you are asking for one million dollars plus [a large amount of apecoin] then two twitter accounts with less than 3000 followers combined [2223 on one and 233 on the other] will not cut it in todayā€™s environment.

I wouldnā€™t mind if it was something new, original or exciting, but it just isnā€™t and the fact they are already running makes me laugh even louder when they ask for $1,400,000 plus [current value].

You do not need 1.4 million dollars and to give $1,400,000 dollars to anons imho is just madness - we should all need to be doxxed when asking for such MASSIVE ammounts of funding, submit detailed business stuctures, plans, proposals etc - two anon twitter feeds is just weak when asking for this kind of backing - my advice would be:

  1. Make the proposal beneficial to all apecoin holders - saying those who VOTE YES get a share of the apefi tokens is verging on paying for votes!
  2. Doxx your business structure - you are not asking for pennies, you are building right? You are creating a long term web3/web2 company yes? Then two twitter accounts and a discord is weak, show some conviction in yourselves if you are legit.
  3. Do something different, copy and pasting what is already available is not new or groundbreaking and maybe thats where you should start and then add the copy paste ideas after the new, fresh and original offering - as you will be/are competing with bigger players like NEXO and BINANCE [who already offer loans on apecoin - links given above previously].
  4. Lower your initial ask; you dont need over $1,400,000 - maybe if your idea was fresh and original, but copy paste just makes no sense for such large amounts of free money [$1,400,000 plus] that benefits just the few and not the whole apecoin ecosystem or the vast majority at least.

I could go on but I think you understand my reservations at this point and my sincere contempt for people who try to buy YES VOTEs especially when their idea is nothing new or exciting and they are asking for $1,400,000 plus to run audits and general overheads - SMH SMH

7 Likes

Considering the amounts budgeted for the ecosystem, 250,000 is a relatively small amount. If youā€™re familiar with some of the other proposals, you may see upwards of over 1,000,000 being asked for by projects. This is a project likely get traction in the community because existing Apes are using it. Iā€™m not wrong to want to see grants allocated to assist them. If anything Iā€™m surprised they arenā€™t asking 1,250,000 apecoin, because thereā€™s a good chance itā€™d be awarded.

If youā€™d like to understand more about the people that are behind this, you should attend the twitter space thatā€™s scheduled later today @ 10:30am CST https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1mrGmakboXZGy?s=20. Again, Iā€™ve attended multiple spaces and i like their ā€œbuild firstā€ approach. Itā€™s worth looking at.

As far as buying yes votesā€¦I donā€™t entirely agree w/ that portion of it. But iā€™m not going to dismiss their idea and team, shake my head at them, and say ā€œgo away weā€™ll use binance.ā€

3 Likes

So a link to an old twitter space will not bridge the gap - asking for this kind of funding in the current economy by anon twitter accounts.

So the reason I asked for detailed business structure and breakdown of employees and investors etc is because why do they need funding from the apecoin DAO - most of them are successful business people with millions of apecoin, apes and other assets from NFT projects they run - so why not fund it themselves, what are the ulterior motives at play here, if any?

You also say you are surprised they did not ask for $6.25 million dollars - why? for audits and overheads lol - what do you mean, please qualify this remark as makes no sense to me at all.

The questions here should be:

  1. Who are you all and how is the ā€˜businessā€™ structured - this is a minimum requirement imo when asking for over 1 million dollars?
  2. How does this benefit the majority of the apecoin community?
  3. Why can you not fund it yourselves, what benefit is their from taking apecoinDAO funds other than it is free and will save you all from having to put the funds in?
  4. Why not do a fair distribution to all that VOTE, regardless of how they VOTE?? Why only distro to those who VOTE YES - detailed reasons would be appreciated on this one.
  5. If it was ā€˜built by apes for apesā€™ will there be any kind of distro for ape holders? As we all know apeoin holders do not have to be apes. So ā€˜built for apes by apesā€™ is kinda hard to wrap my head around presently tbh.

I could go on and on, but this is just ridiculous imho - no one is saying go away i will use BINANCE or NEXO or one of the others offering the exact same service - what I am saying is why should we give them and remember its not a loan, its a grant, it does not get paid back, why should we give them 1.4 million dollars for an idea that is already done by many other much bigger players, why should we give 1.4 million dollars to apes that could possibly add the funds themselves, why should we give 1.4 million dollars to apes who PAY FOR YES VOTES?

What is new and original here? What will stand out among the crowd of others doing exactly the same with much deeper pockets and connections?

I am all for giving funds, I voted yes fro the securityDAO as it will benefit the entire community or a vast proportion of them and has great value in educating people. Their are no genuine efforts here to help the entire community this proposal is proposed by the few for the few and is just a way to secure funding for a copy and paste idea to further make themselves money - if you canā€™t see this then I donā€™t know what to say than possibly believe they are your friends and accuse you of not approaching this from an unbiased angle.

Now Iā€™m sure it may well pass as it is more than likely backed/owned/created by some of the higher apeoin holders, but I think we really need to think before we give out vast sums to anon copy and paste ideas that simply are designed to put vast sums back into the pockets of a few apecoin holders.

4 Likes

(You should stick to the numbered questions you just listed. The side comments you make are entirely unhelpful to the overall discussion. Your forum etiquette is poor. Very ā€œfurious anger blasting keyboard,ā€ typing 90 miles a minute in an aggressive manner & its painful to read.)

Proposal Specifies Funds Will Be Used For:

  • General Overhead & Security Audits
  • Protocol Owned Liquidity ā† (this is the important part)

Audits & overhead are a relatively small expense. Whatā€™s far more important is liquidity to ensure that ApeFi users can withdraw their funds. Following a similiar model to DAI & MakerDAO, these tokens are overcollateralized. By supporting this proposal, weā€™re ensuring that ApeUSD is fully backed.

That means that every ApeUSD can be exchanged without issue. This proposal adds to the protocols liquidity pool to stabilize and ensure that if all ApeUSD was exchanged, the ApeFi protocol still has reserves. Thatā€™s the real important part of all of this. Ensuring ApeUSD has solid foundation.

3 Likes

LOL - it took me a long time to type those up - as for my name it it like little john name - donā€™t take my questions, thoughts and points to heart - you seem to be getting off topic and personal to an extent which is not what this is for.

Can I ask with what authority you put forward these two points and explanations - are you a part of the team? If not then your comments are mainly assumptions and nothing more.

I also propose that if you reply you answer all the questions and not just pick one - what about all the other concerns i raised - or do I assume from your lack of retort that you agree with all the rest?

Also, there is no need to try and ā€˜cussā€™ and use stupid comments - all this does is make you look hypercritical at the least and unable to debate without the need to revert to insults or try as you did anyway - lets stick to the agenda and intelligently discuss the proposal - if you agree then there are lots more points for you to address.

I get the feeling you are perhaps more involved in this than you let on, [friends with the creators/team or involved in the project] so I think maybe the discussion between us can get no where as you are taking this to heart, your comments are bias and you are trying to make this personal and resort to childish insults - not a good look.

2 Likes

Are you involved in this project for transparency reasons?

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(Once again youā€™re just kinda blasting text into your keyboard. Itā€™s very distasteful & disruptive. Itā€™s great you want to jump in & get involved but should do so in a constructive manner. Breath. Relax. Iā€™m not particularly sure you read the full proposal or my talk of liquidity importance.)

Here, iā€™ll give you some resources to better understand liquidity. You should also read the above proposalā€™s specifications where it states the funds will be used for protocol-owned liquidity.

Hereā€™s a good one about Protocol-Owned Liquidity Pools:

Currently ApeUSD can be swapped for FRAX or USDC on three different exchanges. The proposal above states that it will be used to deepen those liquidity pools. Iā€™ll now search for a source that says ā€œa bigger liquidity pool means more tokens can be swapped,ā€ since requested.

How this works as stated in the proposal above:

Users can collateralize ApeCoin to mint ApeUSD. Borrowed ApeUSD tokens are overcollateralized by ApeCoin deposits, similar to DAI from MakerDAO.

Once ApeUSD is minted it can be taken to an exchange with a liquidity pool, where it can be swapped for other tokens. ApeUSD is powerful because its pegged to $1. Itā€™s much like a loan where eventually you have to buy ApeUSD again to payback on the official ApeFi website.

250,000 ApeCoin is a small number in decentralized finance. For ApeFi to scale to metaverse size as their homepage goal states, this hekos but the team will have to work to deepen the pools more.

2 Likes

Again, you are trying to make this personal with stupid comments and insinuations that are false.

You have not answered any of the concerns I have raised, and instead gone off on a tangent.

I will let you cool down and allow you to prepare a better way to try and play this, as you are undoubtedly trying to deflect.

Thank you for the link to liquidity pools but as Iā€™m sure you are aware this was totally unnecessary; as I made no reference anywhere in my replies/concerns about that - this is just subterfuge.

I have raised my concerns and if you would like to address them I will happily debate with you.

3 Likes

The educational resources about liquidity pools address your comments below. You now have access to more information on why the amount requested is reasonable. Weā€™re all here to help input & improve proposals in the AIP Idea stage, not bash projects & DAO forum members. Build!

You do not need 1.4 million dollars and to give $1,400,000 dollars

something different, copy and pasting what is already available is not new or groundbreaking and maybe thats where you should start and then add the copy paste ideas after the newā€¦

Lower your initial ask; you dont need over $1,400,000 - maybe if your idea was fresh and original, but copy paste just makes no sense for such large amounts of free money [$1,400,000 plus] that benefits just the few and not the whole apecoin ecosystem or the vast majority at least.

especially when their idea is nothing new or exciting and they are asking for $1,400,000 plus to run audits and general overheads

You also say you are surprised they did not ask for $6.25 million dollars - why? for audits and overheads lol - what do you mean, please qualify this remark as makes no sense to me at all.

we really need to think before we give out vast sums to anon copy and paste ideas that simply are designed to put vast sums back into the pockets of a few apecoin holders.

This is very much a ā€œshop localā€ kind of thing. Iā€™d rather use a protocol like ApeFi than some large borrowing provider like Binance & Nexo. Comparing rates, using ApeUSD is competitive.

2 Likes

Again, you have addressed one point that you have copied and pasted from several replies - lol - need to do better.

So I am going to stop replying to you now, as is becoming embarrassing for you and I am cringing on your next reply too.

Letā€™s let other people add to the discussion without axes to grind, ulterior motives or general pettiness.

Good day ser.

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Guys, can you both stop it? @furiousanger just expressed his concerns, now itā€™s time for the ApeFi team to answer them. Your brawl doesnā€™t lead to anything good.

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Wish you would be a bit more professional on this forum. As a ape holder i think its important we support apes building within the community. being able to utilize ApeUSD is a far better option than outsourcing and using Binance to borrow off of your Ape. Competition remains a key factor in driving growth and i think Apefiā€™s team is more than capable of capturing market share in the lending market. i also think a Stable coin will be needed in the future here and ApeUSD fits the bill on that one, very similar to DAI the way is collateralized. another thing this grant will go towards incentivizing Ape.fi users encouraging more ApeUSD to be minted and gives Apecoin holders a way to collect interest on their assets.

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Lots of us remember seeing the Twitter spaces, they have been building this out of pocket and would be able to do so much with this grant. i imagine they would add various products and features which would benefit everyone.

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Unfortunately I think you are misinformed - holding an ape has nothing to do with their proposal or the apefi system - lending is proposed for apecoin only, not for NFTs.

Anyway, my concerns are legitimate and I still await answers/responses from the team who is proposing.

BTW - thanks for taking the time to post for the first time and welcome to the forum [as I see you joined two hours ago].

[NB: There are several platforms which will lend on your ape NFT and I can share those with you if youā€™d like - send me a direct message and ill fire the info over, as we are straying off topic here.]

1 Like

22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang) | by Investigations By ZachXBT | Jun, 2022 | Medium

I felt this is a must share with the community - as machibigbrother is all over this one and involved to what extent I canā€™t say for sure, but all this anon action seems very familiar and goes to only stregthen my gut instinct on this one from the start - make your own minds up ape fam - please read it in full - this was shared with me around 2 hours ago.

1 Like

I agree completely that we should support Apes building. I think thatā€™s a big part of how the DAO can power new ideas. Especially because they have an existing team w/ a reputation in the community. I remember hearing ā€œWe want to bring the DeFi guys to Apecoinā€ in Spaces and getting excited.

Iā€™ve also spent some time checking out the website. I like UI, the navigation is simple. Itā€™s a brandable project that could advertise on digital billboards in the metaverse. I see a lot of potential!

Especially because ApeUSD is already live, we want to see it be stable & able to grow. There are recent examples of some Stablecoins destabilization & its important that ApeUSD never be one of them. I think the team made a smart decision to follow the DAI & Maker DAO model for this.

3 Likes

Spreading misinformation is a bad practice & you should refrain from posting things like this. I donā€™t appreciate that you also shared it on MY twitter timeline. Makes sense now why you declare every post here is ā€œoff topicā€ if not leading to slanderous talk. Have escalated this to moderators for review.

2 Likes