Special Council Member Maaria Bajwa Has Proposed A Bug Bounty Program Prior To The Start Of Staking

As the Apecoin DAO’s staking system is scheduled to go live later this month, an ApeCoin Special Council Member has proposed the creation of a “bug bounty program” to safeguard the smart contract.

On October 13th, ApeCoin Special Council member Maaria Bajwa took to the ApeCoin DAO message board and wrote a draft Ape Improvement Proposal titled “Bug Bounty Program For AIP-21.”

In her proposal, Bajwa recommended that the ApeCoin DAO create a bug bounty program and allocate 1 million $Ape to it.

“The upcoming staking program is a significant allocation of treasury resources and will require smart contract interaction from APE holders,” Bajwa wrote. “The bounty program adds an additional layer of security and decreases the risk to APE holders and the DAO.”

Bajwa goes on to write that the creation of this bug bounty program would delay the ApeCoin DAO’s staking by 2-4 weeks.

“Though bounty programs can often be months long, we propose a 2-4 week program prior to staking going live,” Bajwa wrote. “This offers sufficient time to surface vulnerabilities while still allowing staking to go live in a timely manner. If no vulnerabilities are found after the period, we propose that staking should go live, and the bounty program remain in place.”

As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, Horizen Labs announced that the ApeCoin staking system’s “go live” date was October 31st.

Based on Horizen Labs go live date, the creation of a bug bounty program could delay staking until December 2022.

Following her proposal, Bajwa took to Twitter and apologized for the timing of her proposal but reiterated the importance of security.

“I know I’m an asshole on timing but given how many hacks there have been recently it feels prudent to run a short bug bounty program before @apecoin staking,” she tweeted. “Audits aren’t perfect. Neither are bug bounties, but both are better than nothing.”

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow this draft AIP and will let you know if a bug bounty program is created. You can read Bajwa's full draft AIP here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-draft-bug-bounty-program-for-aip-21/8792