Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis (Polarpunklabs)) and Mariia Ermolova have completed an Aave Case Study: Building Trust in Decentralised Finance (DeFi), funded by the Aave Grants DAO. The study is designed for use in a traditional university setting and is part of the Level3: Web3 Educational Case Studies repository. The project received a $5,000 grant, with $3250 remaining after completion. Dr. Dylan-Ennis is considering returning the remaining funds to the DAO or using them in the classroom¹.

User Alice raised concerns about the clarity of the distinction between the Aave Companies and the Aave DAO in the case study. She also pointed out a few typos and questioned the choice of licensing for the case study². In response, Polarpunklabs asked for more information about the Companies and DAO distinction and confirmed that he would check for typos. He also explained the choice of licensing was due to industry problems with predatory journals/collections rewriting and putting possibly corrupted versions behind paywalls³.

Alice then provided a brief explanation of the distinction between the Aave Company and the Aave DAO, stating that the Aave Company created ETHlend and the Aave protocol, which later became independent from the Company by becoming a DAO governed by $AAVE token holders. The protocol makes money which goes into the DAO treasury, allowing the DAO to pay people and companies to work directly on the protocol⁴. She also corrected her previous explanation of the Aave timeline after consulting with the original poster, clarifying that the term "aave companies" refers only to companies created by the Aave founder, not the service providers ^4,7.

Polarpunklabs appreciated the helpful information and plans to update a document with it the following week. He also expressed interest in possibly including a certain image in the main Aave docs for future researchers, as it provides a clear sense of contributors. He also plans to use remaining funds for classroom demonstrations ^5,8,9.

0xbilll thanked Polarpunklabs for sharing an update and his work on the educational modules. He offered to answer any questions and mentioned having sent a direct message on Twitter. He also provided information on the relationship between service providers and the Aave DAO, and advised that remaining funds can be kept or returned to the multisig address from which the grant was originally received⁶.

In conclusion, the Aave Case Study: Building Trust in Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has been completed and will be used in Dr. Dylan-Ennis's Ethereum Ecosystem module at the University College Dublin. The community has provided valuable feedback and clarification on the distinction between the Aave Companies and the Aave DAO, which will be incorporated into future updates of the case study. The remaining grant funds will be used for classroom demonstrations or returned to the DAO.