The Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI) launched "Orbit", a delegate platform funding initiative aimed at enhancing the Aave DAO governance and rewarding key contributors. The pilot program, funded by ACI's own budget, ran from June to September, allocating a monthly budget of $15,000 to three delegate platforms - StableLab, Flipside, and Lbsblockchain¹. However, Flipside deferred the funding to another qualified candidate, considering the initiative more suitable for a delegate newer to the DAO and Aave⁵.

The payment method for the third month of the program transitioned from xDAI on gnosisChain to GHO on the Ethereum mainnet, with new streams initialized early the following week⁷. The community showed support for the initiative, with Kene_StableLab expressing gratitude for being selected for the Orbit Pilot Program², and others congratulating the successful delegate platforms^3,4. The ACI believes that by financially supporting delegate platforms, they can stimulate more community members to participate in Aave's governance, fostering a more vibrant and diverse DAO¹.

Towards the end of the program, MarcZeller announced that the last month of the Orbit program was in progress. The ACI initially intended to use this experiment to establish a DAO-controlled Orbit program for independent funding of delegate platforms. However, due to upcoming governance decisions to allocate DAO funds elsewhere, this project became less feasible in the short term due to budget constraints. The ACI plans to reassess and consider the next steps before September⁷. An update was provided that Orbit is now using GHO as the payment currency for the program⁸.