• AADAO has also completed six venture investments on behalf of the Cosmos Hub during this period.
  • All AADAO contributors returned 88,056 ATOM tokens (about $817,159) to the Community Pool.

The Cosmos Hub’s governance-mandated DAO Atom Accelerator (AADAO) will shut down and return remaining funds over to the Cosmos Hub Community Pool. In addition, all AADAO contributors returned 88,056 ATOM tokens (about $817,159) to the Community Pool after unanimously declining their Performance Bonuses for the year.

The funds that was returned is the whole amount of the Performance and Retention Pool that was first used to finance AADAO’s second term via Cosmos Hub Proposal 865 . In order to maintain fair management of shared resources, the contributors are forgoing more than $817K in bonuses.

AADAO said that it was going into “Maintenance Mode.” The DAO will only concentrate on fulfilling its new grant obligations at this time, stopping the processing of new grant applications. To oversee pending grants and ensure a proper wind-down, a team of three to four contributors will continue to work on a reduced salary. The processing of all funding applications by December 31, 2024, will shed light on AADAO’s outstanding responsibilities.

AADAO has also completed six venture investments on behalf of the Cosmos Hub during this period, and seven more are scheduled to be completed in the next weeks. By 2028, it is anticipated that every investment will have a token delivered to the ATOM Community Pool, and the DAO has directed a trustee to safeguard these assets until then. Elys Network, Drop Protocol, Sphinx, Plaza Finance, and Union Labs are among the ventures in AADAO’s portfolio. The assets in this portfolio total $1.1 million, and there are still $750k in awaiting venture investments. The ATOM Community Pool is anticipated to receive tokens from these projects when they go live, which will significantly outweigh the $1.85 million that Cosmos Hub contributed.

After much internal discussion, the decision to sunset was made because it was determined that AADAO would be severely limited in its ability to provide value to the Cosmos Hub in its present configuration. However, throughout its existence, the DAO accomplished several milestones, including safeguarding essential infrastructure, supporting testnet activities, and advancing ATOM usefulness across many platforms, particularly in NFT-fi.

The AADAO contributors stated:

“This decision was not made lightly. We poured our hearts into delivering value for the Cosmos Hub. However, after assessing whether the DAO could still provide meaningful contributions, we concluded that stepping back was the responsible course of action.”

In the next week, AADAO will return about $2 million from its treasury to the ATOM Community Pool, on top of the $817k in performance bonuses that were returned. A portion of the funds is being set aside to pay for authorized grants with outstanding milestones, expected Maintenance Mode charges, and a small reserve for unanticipated needs. Any funds left over at the end of Maintenance Mode, including funds from grants that don’t reach their goals, will be put back into the Community Pool.

Before going into Maintenance Mode, AADAO made adjustments to its compensation structure in addition to sunsetting. Retention pay based on ATOM tokens was discontinued for contributors. During Maintenance Mode, contributors will continue to be ready to help with governance-related work without receiving payment, and the Oversight Committee will continue to perform its functions.

The Cosmos Hub’s Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a governance-mandated DAO. They were established with the goal of generating value for the Cosmos Hub & ATOM by assisting with projects that either directly affect the economy or generate value that may spur expansion. As a result, public grants and venture grants are now their main responsibilities.

The venture arm of Atom Accelerator makes strategic investments in businesses and potential early-stage web3 entrepreneurs both within and beyond the Cosmos Hub ecosystem. As specialists in the Cosmos ecosystem, Atom Accelerator contributes knowledge, direction, and assistance while advancing ATOM.