- Compound Finance just passed a proposal that sought to create a passive income vault.
- Popular whale called Humpy allegedly involved in influencing the vote outcome.
Compound Finance is currently in the midst of a controversy involving a potential governance attack. The controversy revolves around Proposal 289, a Compound Finance proposal designed to provide a way for COMP holders to earn passive yields.
According to Compound Finance, a group called the Golden Boys created the yield earning mechanism which requires COMP. It was dubbed the goldCOMP DeFi vault.
The proposal sought to approve this mechanism which will allow COMP holders to deposit the token and receive goldCOMP tokens. The latter is a wrapped version of COMP. These tokens can then be added to the 99/1 Balancer pool 1 where they generate passive income.
A Compound Finance governance attack or fair vote?
The proposal’s official page revealed that the proposal was passed with 682,191 votes in favor and 633,636 votes against.
At first glance, the proposal looked like it would incentivize COMP HODLing. However, some of the community members who voted against the proposal expressed concerns about a potential governance attack.
By definition, a governance attack takes place when an individual or group influences governance decisions for selfish gains. Some of the community members had previously expressed multisig concerns which also encompassed the Golden Boys.
A whale who goes by the pseudonym Humpy was reportedly involved in influencing the vote. Over $25 million worth of COMP was moved out of the Compound treasury.
This fueled speculation that the same whale has ties to the Golden Boys, therefore his vested interest in the proposal being passed.
Those criticizing the development argued that the Golden Boys may end up having too much control of funds in the vault.
The latest update revealed that to alleviate those concerns, the Golden Boys created a trust setup. The latter highlights a set of rules which require Compound governance approval.
Is the trust setup enough to dispel the concerns?
The same whale may also be involved in the trust setup’s governance approval vote. On the other hand, some argue that Humpy may have operated within legitimate parameters of the voting process. In which case, the outcome of the vote would be valid.
A positive outcome could trigger more long-term demand for the COMP token. It exchanged hands at $48.82 at press time. A 52% discount from its YTD high of $103.48.
Source: TradingView
