ApeCoin DAO Proposes $4.5M Bug Bounty Program

A member of the ApeCoin DAO council has submitted an AIP-21 bug bounty program that would postpone the launch of ApeCoin staking by 2-4 weeks. The new bounty program will guarantee that the DAO always has resources available to provide to white hat hackers guarding APE holders.

AIP idea was proposed by Maaria Bajwa, a board member and a principal in the investment firm Sound Ventures, in response to well-known exploits like the most recent one in which more than $560 million was stolen from Binance. Bajwa said that it is "prudent" to carry out the program, which would set aside 1 million $APE (about $4.5 million) "prior to going live." The AIP idea deals only with AIP-21, the first of two approved staking proposals for ApeCoin.

Bajwa's AIP idea was submitted on Oct. 13 and must now wait for the seven-day feedback window to close before proceeding with the lengthy AIP process.

Dean Steinbeck, co-founder of Horizen Labs and ApeCoin DAO board member, said in social media direct messages that he wasn't the "best person to speak about the bug bounty" but that a bug bounty program "wasn't part of AIPs 21 and 22 and therefore never considered it."

"I think, in general, the idea of a bug bounty is good," said Steinbeck. "In this case, we'll defer to the community."

"This timing can’t be serious...This proposal should have been done months ago, not two weeks before the staking date," said user Piair. "The contract has been professionally audited. It’s totally fine to have a bug bounty program but it should not delay the all thing again. Let’s open a bug bounty program while ApeCoin staking is live, it will be perfectly fine like this."

Maaria Bajwa apologized to everyone in advance for the last-hour changes. Bajwa confirms that it is necessary to implement a bounty program before going live. The bounty program adds a layer of security. It will reduce the risk to APE holders and the DAO.