Jul 21, 2021
Code Rework
Reasons for outsourcing the rewriting of BIOPset V4 smart contracts.
Written: July 21st, 2021
Yesterday we decided to retain Omniscia to rework BIOPset V4 smart contracts. Given Omniscia’s good reputation and our commitment to prioritizing the safety of user funds, we felt that this course of action was the only viable path forward despite the budget implications and temporal impacts on protocol launch.
In this article, we want to outline the logic behind the decisions made.
TL;DR
The safety of BIOPset smart contracts is more important than launching quickly. Thus, the V4 protocol launch target is now September 15th, 2021.
Just over a month ago, a smart contract auditing enterprise, Omniscia, issued a preliminary report on BIOPset V4 contracts. The report found 47 issues with the BIOPset codebase and Shalaquiana, BIOPset’s core developer, made every reasonable effort to address those concerns.
Subsequent, frank discussions with Omniscia over the audit report made it increasingly clear that the V4 smart contracts were not ready for launch. Despite the various patches applied, the auditors were not convinced that the changes made were comprehensive enough to ensure that user funds would not be in jeopardy. This was a disappointing conclusion.
Fortunately, the auditors offered to rewrite the contracts to safely achieve the goals of the V4 protocol design. The cost of reconstruction cannot be made public because of the agreements signed with Omniscia. However, the code rewrite and internal testing will take approximately eight (8) weeks and costs more than discretionary funds that were available from the tiered initial bonding curve offering.
Discretionary Funds
The funds available at the time of making a final decision on reconstructing the contracts were as follows:
132.8 ETH (~$291,000)
9400 DAI (~4.3 ETH)
In summary, approximately 137.1 ETH ($298,200) was available to fund the following initiatives:
- Options Liquidity: 100 ETH (~$219,000) [1]
- Marketing Communications: 25 ETH (~$54,500)
- Website Enhancement: 4.5 ETH (~$7,000) [2]
- Deployment: 3 ETH (~$6,500)
The total of these budgetary items came to132.5 ETH ($288,200). Consequently, there was only 4.6 ETH (~$10,000) at discretion for rewriting the contracts.
Reprioritizing Initiatives
Since the reconstruction of the smart contracts would cost more than discretionary funds available, initiatives were reprioritized and funds reallocated to:
- Cover contract reconstruction costs.
- Maximize options liquidity.
As a consequence, the “marketing communications” budget was reassigned to “contract safety”. The “website enhancement” budgetary line item was removed after deciding to develop the frontend internally in parallel with contract reconstruction.
The budget allocations are now:
- Options Liquidity: 100 ETH (~$176,200)
- Contract Safety: 35 ETH (~$61,670)
- Deployment: 3 ETH (~$5,286)
Given the recent fall in the value of ETH, this reallocation is particularly unfortunate regarding initial plans to promote the protocol. That notwithstanding, if all BIOP token holders put their collective energy into extolling the virtues of the protocol, the investment in contract safety will be more beneficial to the ever-expanding community in the long term.
Protocol Launch Timeline
The smart contract rewrite will take eight weeks. Testing and frontend integration will commence as soon as possible in parallel.
The new aspiration is to launch BIOPset V4 on the Ethereum main net on Wednesday, September 15th, 2021. This new launch date is preferable to immediately launching potentially unsafe smart contracts.
Disagree? Please feel free to voice your disapproval in the BIOPset discord. Feedback is always appreciated.
Further Reading
To learn more about BIOPset, please consider reading:
Additional Links
Please reach out and keep in touch:
Telegram: https://t.me/BIOPset
Discord: https://discord.gg/4SRYBNdE3r
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BIOPset
Forum: https://biopset.freeforums.net/
[1] The budget for options liquidity had already been reduced from 110 ETH due to errors with the launch of the Tiered IBCO.
[2] Approximately $7,000 was allocated to frontend development that was planned at that time and another $3,000 for a frontend for the DAO.
