ApeCoin DAO Signs Off on a $4.4M Bug Bounty

ApeCoin DAO, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization that is in charge of overseeing the development of APE, the native token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, has approved the allocation of $4.4 million to conduct a bug bounty program on ImmuneFi.

According to the snapshot of the votes cast which ended today, as many as 3.9 million APE tokens were cast in favor of the proposal, dubbed AIP-134.

The votes in favor ended at 57.92% as compared to 42.08% for those who committed 2.9 million APE against the proposal. 

The essence of the bug bounty is to carve out an extra security layer for the much anticipated ApeCoin staking service that is billed to go live in December. The ApeCoin DAO wants experienced hackers to help search out the loopholes or any porous avenues in the staking smart contract that may cause headaches later on.

The bounty, now that it has been approved can be launched on ImmuneFi with the 1 million APE tokens earmarked for the bounty set to be drafted from the protocol’s treasury.

“As we near the launch of the ApeCoin staking system outlined in AIP-21 and AIP-22, we propose taking additional measures to ensure the DAO is following smart contract security best practices. This proposal uses treasury assets to fund a 1 million $APE bug bounty program with Immunefi, and partners with Llama to help design, implement, and run operations of these initiatives,” a snapshot from the proposal reads.

The DeFi ecosystem has not been spared from the wranglings and inconveniences caused by hackers this year. That there is a security loophole in most emerging smart contracts is not a question up for debate, whether founding teams have the right model to prevent exploitation remains a major bone of contention.

As one of the most prestigious NFT collections, Bored Ape users have been a major target of cybercriminals, and hopefully, the bug bounty will help tighten all loose ends ahead of the launch of the staking product.

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