TL;DR
- Departure: BGD Labs will end its Aave DAO engagement on April 1 after nearly four years, citing a changing organizational environment rather than technical issues.
- Governance: The firm said Aave Labs’ growing influence over branding, communication, and voting has created centralization risks and limited meaningful collaboration on Aave v4.
- Transition: BGD Labs will finish its current responsibilities, publish documentation for successors, and propose a $200,000 optional security retainer for April through June 2026 to support incident response during the transition.
BGD Labs has announced it will end its role as a core technical contributor to the Aave DAO when its current engagement expires on April 1, concluding nearly four years of work on the lending protocol. The firm said it is notifying the community early to ensure a smooth transition and will continue fulfilling responsibilities tied to Aave v3, Umbrella, chain expansions, asset onboarding, and security until its contract ends.
Shift in Organizational Dynamics
In its announcement, BGD Labs emphasized that its departure is not due to technical concerns. The firm said Aave v3 is in a solid and future‑proof state, governance infrastructure functions reliably, and operational procedures are well established. Instead, it cited a changing organizational environment within the DAO, driven largely by Aave Labs’ pivot toward a more central role as it leads development of Aave v4 and other initiatives.
BGD Labs said the shift has created what it called an asymmetric organizational scenario. According to the firm, Aave Labs’ control of the brand, communication channels, and significant voting influence makes it difficult for independent contributors to participate without risking centralization. It added that while Aave Labs’ strategic direction may benefit the ecosystem, the execution has sidelined existing contributors and reduced the space for decentralized collaboration.
Collaboration Challenges Around v4
The firm also pointed to the friction surrounding Aave v4 development. It said contributors were asked to advise on v4 without incentives or meaningful involvement in its design, describing the process as adversarial toward improving Aave v3. BGD Labs argued that this approach conflicted with its values and its belief in an organizationally decentralized ecosystem, ultimately making continued participation untenable.
Despite stepping away, BGD Labs said it intends to support continuity. It plans to publish documentation and maintenance guidelines to help other contributors assume responsibility for its systems. The firm also proposed an optional two‑month security retainer from April through June 2026, costing $200,000, which would keep it available to respond to incidents affecting Aave v3 and governance infrastructure, pending DAO approval.
