Behind the ApeCoin token (APE) DAO approved three proposals to develop the project focused on changing the governance structure and integrating the NFT staking mechanism from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem.

Voting is over on three AIPs and all passed: https://t.co/VQEtMwsh98

This includes the restructuring of the ApeCoin forum (AIP-7) as well as offers on staking (AIPs-21&22).

— ApeCoin (@apecoin) May 5, 2022

AIP-7 includes a change to the structure of Discourse, a forum where DAO members can put forward and discuss proposals. The authors of the initiative noted that at this time, the platform is not suitable for discussions unrelated to the AIP approval process.

“This forum is structured to focus entirely on the AIP process and is not suitable for other discussions. This prevents it from becoming a vibrant place for discussing AIP-related issues, choosing areas of study that can be inspired by the work of the DAO, and for the overall development of the community and fraternity.”

AIP-21 provides the integration of the ApeCoin staking mechanism with the BAYC NFT ecosystem. Token holders will be able to contribute assets to pre-built liquidity pools and earn rewards in APE.

At the same time, NFT holders will be able to sell them without removing them from the stake pool. The rate will be tied to a specific token, not an address. This means that the new owner can claim a reward as well.

The authors estimated the cost of AIP-21 integration at $300,000-500,000, with implementation time 12-16 weeks.

According to AIP-22, the DAO will send 17.5% of the total APE offer to Stakeholder NFT holders within three years after payment offers are activated. Staking period will be 12 months.

These two proposals stem from the community-rejected AIP-5 written by Animoca Brands. The latter was criticized by opinion leader Cobie. According to him, such a staking mechanism is not useful for the protocol.

“Instead of being rewarded for contributing to blockchain security by locking up assets, the modern “stake” means “we will give you more tokens as a reward if you don’t sell the tokens you own.” […] These modern betting mechanisms have no function. […]. They do nothing in a practical or technical sense,” he wrote.

After the recommendations were approved, some community members expressed a similar view. A DAO member stated that developing a second-tier solution for the BAYC ecosystem is more important than implementing a staking mechanism.

Building a BAYC L2 scaling protocol is more important than staking.

– ap3father.eth (@ap3father) May 4, 2022

Developer 0xBender stressed that these proposals have been approved despite a “recent call” for a separate network where NFT and ApeCoin can be used “for real staking”.

The APE dao staking offer was accepted despite the recent call for a new “monkey chain” where these coins would be better offered for actual staking and not as “gifts” to existing bayc, mayc and bayc holders.

idk if the dao can make a real chain of monkeys if these are the decisions made

— bender (@0xBender) May 5, 2022

According to CoinGecko, the price of APE rose 14% with the approval of AIPs. At the time of writing, the asset is trading around $16.40.

Recall that in April 2022, the minimum price of NFTs in the BAYC collection increased its historical maximum above $430,000.