[APPROVED] Aurora Labs Grant Allocation for 2026

[Egor]

Achievements of 2025

Aurora Labs Limited continued to lead the development and evolution of the Aurora Protocol throughout 2025, focusing on scalability, cross-chain infrastructure, and productisation of its technology stack.

Progress in 2025 aligned with the initial funding goals:

• Advanced R&D across Aurora Cloud and supporting ecosystem products
• Expanded infrastructure readiness for large-scale Virtual Chain operations
• Strengthened internal capabilities across engineering and product
• Increased ecosystem adoption through partnerships and product integrations

Core Tech

• Maintained and upgraded Aurora Engine to remain fully compatible with Ethereum updates
  • Prague hardfork support added, and Fusaka hardfork preparations were rolled out for Aurora Engine, ensuring alignment with Ethereum upgrades.
• Improved Borealis RPC infrastructure
• Continued contributions to NEAR Protocol
  • Supported ongoing improvements tied to scalability and protocol evolution

Infrastructure

• Launched 200+ virtual chains.
• Progressed gas abstraction capabilities
  • Extended flexibility in fee management for Virtual Chains
  • Enabled more customizable chain-level economics
• Developed and launched Aurora Cloud Console.
  • Defined product scope and architecture
  • Focused on simplifying launching production-ready virtual chain for non-technical users
  • Auto-deployment enabled, making chain launches faster, simpler, and fully self-serve.
• Developed and launched the Aurora Cloud Marketplace (Add-ons model)
  • Defined framework for third-party infrastructure providers
  • Early partner alignment for vertical-specific integrations (DeFi, AI, gaming, RWA)
  • Provided modular blockchain services for developers
  • 35+ partnerships signed, including Privy, Billions (ex-PrivadoID), Coca.xyz, Cluster.xyz, DIA, and others.
• Developed and launched the Calyx launchpad, a multichain token launchpad powered by NEAR Intents.
  • 2 multichain token sales executed
  • $148,884 total raised
  • 148% average oversubscription rate
  • 600+ participants
• Developed and released NEAR Intents Widget, offering a simple embeddable component for any dApp.

DevX (Developer Experience)

• Launched and ran the Fork That Chain Bootcamp:
  • 12 Web3 & Web2 participants completed the bootcamp
  • 5 projects submitted for Mainnet
  • 10 partner integrations
• Intents widget improved developer experience:
  • Robust product quality with rapid response to issues.
  • Good feedback reported from early clients like Hako, Yodl.fi.

Ecosystem & Adoption

• Final vested tokens released, officially completing Aurora’s token distribution schedule.
• Aurora Token Economy 3.0 proposed, outlining the next phase of value alignment and ecosystem incentives.
• Launched Aurora Incubator Program: Aurora Blocks
  • Onboarded 5 projects into the program: Optima, Omega, EasyChain, Sproutly, Tradable.
  • 5 new virtual chains in development
  • Cohort verticals: RWA, DeFi, DeFAI, Consumer/Education
• Revolut added $AURORA, increasing global accessibility and retail reach.
• Attended 10+ global conferences with networking, booth and speaking engagements.

2026 Grant Proposal

Objective

To enable Aurora Labs Limited to continue its essential role as the development entity for the Aurora Protocol, we propose a grant allocation of 25,000,000 $AURORA. This funding will be used to:

1. Establish Aurora as a cross-chain service provider for businesses, not just infrastructure.
2. Reach break-even by aligning cost structure with revenue generation.
3. Rebuild the AURORA token utility and give a real role inside the product ecosystem.

Roadmap

Core Tech

Continue strengthening Aurora’s technical foundation to ensure long-term compatibility, execution reliability, and support for future product and infrastructure expansion.

Key priorities:

• Maintain hardfork compatibility to stay aligned with Ethereum
• Progress Block Execution for Aurora EVM as a step toward participation in the zkVM project by Ethereum Foundation.
• Upgrade the Borealis Engine to support block processing across historical versions and enable safer rollout of breaking changes, e.g. mempool updates
• Improve transaction queue handling for higher-nonce transactions and reduce nonce-related failures
• Migrate the XCC Router to global contracts and improve the user experience of Aurora <> NEAR cross-contract calls
• Finalize BetaNet Self-Service Platfrom which enables easier easier testing and deployments and improvs developer experience

Product Development

Focus on improving and expanding the core product suite. Upgrade the Swap Widget to support better UX, broader chain coverage, and other features. Build Intents Connect as the core cross-chain execution layer, including API, widget, and deposit address infrastructure, as well as all the required supporting materials. Introduce payment links to simplify on-chain transactions and enable liquidity provision flows that support partners directly.

All products must be ready to integrate, simple to use, and built to solve real user problems. The goal is to deliver usable, revenue-generating solutions powered by NEAR Intents.

Distribution & Adoption

Drive aggressive integration growth. Target at least 12+ clients per quarter, focusing on high-quality partners. Each integration should aim for a minimum of $3M monthly volume to ensure meaningful usage.

Prioritize teams that benefit from cross-chain execution, including DeFi, trading platforms, RWAs, and consumer apps. Use integrations as the main growth channel.

Monetization & $AURORA Utility

Shift toward a usage-driven model, with $AURORA progressively integrated into the execution layer.

• Fees
  • Protocol-level fees on cross-chain execution
  • Revenue shared with integrators (widget/API)
• Solver layer
  • Solvers provide liquidity and execution for cross-chain intents
  • Exploring mechanisms for $AURORA to participate at the solver level (e.g. access, alignment, or economic participation)
• Liquidity & ecosystem alignment
  • Explore opportunities for $AURORA to support liquidity, routing efficiency, and ecosystem growth
  • Any $AURORA holder will be able to use their tokens to support cross chain settlement and execution
  • Ensure alignment between network participants, integrators, and end users
• Alignment
  • Increasing product usage drives volume
  • Volume drives fees and solver activity
  • Solver activity creates demand and utility for $AURORA

The objective is to align the token with real product usage and revenue generation, creating a direct connection between ecosystem growth and token utility.

Strategic Focus

Pause the Calyx stream and redirect all efforts toward the Intents Connect product suite. Narrow priorities to what drives revenue and adoption.

Restrict new Virtual Chain sign-ups and reduce resources allocated to non-core initiatives.

Product Migration

Start migrating Aurora+ toward widget-based and Intents-based flows. Ensure existing users transition smoothly into the new product ecosystem.

Platform & Brand Consolidation

Consolidate all web properties into a unified platform. Merge aurora.dev, aurora.labs, and aurora.cloud into a single experience.

Simplify messaging, improve clarity, and align the brand with the new product direction focused on cross-chain execution.

[Mucu]

Aurora 2025: not achievements, but a polished failure report

Aurora’s 2025 “achievements” read like a beautifully packaged admission of failure.

The document tries to present Aurora Labs as a strategic infrastructure company, but underneath the corporate language the picture is clear:

Aurora Labs is still not self-sustainable.

Aurora Labs still depends on ecosystem funding.

Aurora Labs still has no proven revenue engine.

Aurora Labs still has no clear token value accrual.

Aurora Labs is now asking for another 25,000,000 $AURORA to continue operations.

This is not growth funding. This is life support or charity.

The most important sentence in the entire proposal is not about technology, partnerships, infrastructure, virtual chains, or cross-chain execution.

It is this:

“Reach break-even.”

That means Aurora Labs is not break-even now.

After years of funding, years of ecosystem support, years of NEAR Foundation proximity, years of infrastructure development, years of partnerships, grants, conferences, product launches, and strategic experiments, Aurora is still asking the ecosystem for more tokens just to move toward basic financial sustainability.

That is not an achievement.

That is a red flag.

200+ virtual chains, but where is the business?

Aurora claims it launched 200+ virtual chains.

Sounds impressive.

But the proposal does not show how many of them are active, how many generate revenue, how many have real users, how many process meaningful volume, how many pay Aurora, or how many are not just empty infrastructure instances.

A chain launch is not adoption.

A deployed instance is not a business.

Infrastructure without usage is just cost.

If Aurora launched 200+ virtual chains and still needs 25M $AURORA to continue, then the question is obvious:

Were these virtual chains a real product, or just an expensive vanity metric?

Because if 200+ chains cannot create a sustainable company, then the model itself is broken.

Partnerships are being used as decoration

The proposal mentions 35+ partnerships, including names like Privy, Billions, Coca.xyz, Cluster.xyz, DIA, and others.

But again, where are the numbers?

No revenue by partner.

No usage by partner.

No conversion data.

No retention data.

No paid-client breakdown.

No proof that these partnerships materially changed Aurora’s economics.

In Web3, “partnership” has become the cheapest word in the room.

A partnership announcement is not traction.

A logo is not revenue.

A meeting is not adoption.

An integration is not product-market fit.

If Aurora wants another 25M $AURORA, it should stop hiding behind partner logos and show actual commercial results.

Calyx is the clearest example of wasted focus

Aurora presents Calyx as a 2025 achievement:

2 multichain token sales.

$148,884 total raised.

600+ participants.

148% average oversubscription.

Then, in the 2026 plan, they say they will pause Calyx and redirect efforts toward Intents Connect.

So one of the highlighted 2025 products is already being deprioritized.

That is not a success story.

That is a failed strategic bet being quietly moved to the side.

And the numbers are tiny.

For a company asking for 25M $AURORA, raising $148,884 through a launchpad is not proof of market strength.

It is proof that the product did not become a meaningful growth engine.

The token utility section is still vapor

The proposal talks about rebuilding $AURORA utility.

But the language is vague:

“progressively integrated”

“exploring mechanisms”

“support liquidity”

“alignment”

“economic participation”

“support cross-chain settlement and execution”

This is not a token model.

This is a cloud of words around a missing mechanism.

The proposal does not clearly explain whether $AURORA will be required for usage, whether it will be staked, whether it will be burned, whether fees will flow to holders, whether solvers will need $AURORA, whether revenue will create direct token demand, or whether there will be measurable buy pressure.

After all this time, $AURORA utility should not still be described as something to “explore.”

If the token still does not have a clear role inside the product economy, then why should token holders fund another cycle of experimentation?

The NEAR Foundation affiliation

The biggest issue is not only Aurora’s business performance.

It is the structural affiliation with NEAR Foundation.

Aurora has always existed with deep proximity to NEAR: technically, financially, politically, and narratively.

That proximity created visibility, legitimacy, access, and ecosystem support.

But this creates a serious governance question:

Is Aurora being funded because it is objectively delivering value, or because it is institutionally protected inside the NEAR ecosystem?

Because from the outside, the pattern looks bad.

Aurora receives support.

Aurora builds products.

Aurora announces partnerships.

Aurora attends conferences.

Aurora launches initiatives.

Aurora pivots.

Aurora remains unprofitable.

Aurora asks for more ecosystem funding.

At what point does this stop being ecosystem development and start looking like insider-subsidized survival?

The ecosystem deserves to know whether Aurora is being evaluated like a real company or treated like a politically connected extension of NEAR Foundation infrastructure.

If Aurora Labs were an independent company without NEAR Foundation proximity, would it still receive this level of funding?

That is the real question.

Where is the salary cut?

And one more question:

Where in this plan is Declan Hannon’s salary cut to $1, like Alex Shevchenko did?

If Aurora Labs is asking the ecosystem for another 25,000,000 $AURORA, while openly admitting that break-even is still only a future goal, then leadership should be the first to show sacrifice.

Not token holders.

Not the ecosystem.

Not builders waiting for real support.

Leadership.

If the company is truly in a transition period, if the roadmap requires discipline, if the team is asking for more ecosystem funding, then executive compensation should be part of the conversation.

Where is the compensation reduction?

Where is the leadership sacrifice?

Where is the public accountability?

Where is the commitment that management will not continue collecting full pay while asking the ecosystem to finance another survival cycle?

Alex Shevchenko previously reduced his salary to $1 as a public signal of alignment.

So why is the same standard not applied now?

If Aurora Labs wants to present this as a serious turnaround plan, then it should include Declan Hannon’s salary being reduced to $1 until break-even is reached, executive compensation tied to revenue milestones, no bonus payments until Aurora reaches sustainable profitability, public disclosure of leadership compensation, milestone-based grant unlocks instead of upfront funding, and independent oversight due to Aurora’s close affiliation with NEAR Foundation.

Because without leadership sacrifice, this proposal sends a very simple message:

The ecosystem takes the risk.

Token holders absorb dilution.

Aurora keeps operating.

Management keeps getting paid.

And “break-even” remains a future promise.

That is not alignment.

That is extraction with better formatting.

This looks like a company that should be wound down, not refinanced

A normal company that cannot reach sustainability after years of funding, failed product focus, unclear monetization, weak token utility, and repeated strategic pivots would face a hard decision:

Cut deeper.

Sell assets.

Merge into another structure.

Return remaining resources.

Or shut down.

But in Web3, companies often avoid this reality by wrapping survival needs in ecosystem language.

Aurora’s proposal does exactly that.

It does not read like a company with strong product-market fit asking for capital to scale.

It reads like an unprofitable company asking token holders to finance another attempt at becoming relevant.

If Aurora Labs cannot show real revenue, real usage, real token value accrual, and a credible path to profitability, then the responsible option is not another 25M $AURORA grant.

The responsible option is to close Aurora Labs as a standalone funding sink and preserve value for the ecosystem.

The proposal should be rejected unless hard conditions are added

No more blank checks.

Before any grant is approved, Aurora must disclose its current burn rate, current runway, 2025 revenue, 2025 expenses, revenue by product line, revenue by partner, usage by virtual chain, active clients, paid clients, token utility design, clear $AURORA value accrual, quarterly break-even targets, milestone-based unlocks, public reporting, and independent review of NEAR Foundation affiliation and potential conflicts of interest.

Without this, the 25M $AURORA request is not a strategic grant.

It is a bailout.

Final point

Aurora does not need another narrative.

Aurora does not need another roadmap.

Aurora does not need another “alignment” document.

Aurora needs to prove that it is not just an unprofitable, NEAR Foundation-affiliated infrastructure company surviving on ecosystem money.

And if it cannot prove that, then maybe the honest 2026 roadmap is very simple:

Stop pretending.

Stop asking for more tokens

Return focus and capital to builders who can actually create revenue, usage, and token value.

[Egor]

The proposal has been approved by DAO:

Trezu | One multisig. Any crypto. Total control.