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Unclaimed funds from TheDAO, the 2016 hack that nearly ended 
Ethereum before it began, are being repurposed into a $220M security fund for the Ethereum ecosystem, Unchained reports.
What's the Scoop?
- Sources of Funds: The fund draws from two pools. First, 70.5K ETH (~$206.6M) from the "ExtraBalance," which represents overpayments from participants who bought DAO tokens above the 1 ETH per 100 token base price. Second, 4.6K ETH worth of tokens (~$13.5M) from the Curator Multisig, including tokens accidentally sent to TheDAO or its Withdraw Contract.
- Staking for Yield: 69,420 ETH will be staked to create an ongoing endowment, currently generating approximately $8M annually in yield for security grants.
- Grant Process: Funding will be distributed through DAO mechanisms including quadratic funding, retroactive funding, and RFP ranked-choice voting. The Ethereum Foundation will set eligibility criteria for each round, with Giveth supporting operators.
- Potential Recipients: Groups like SEAL 911, Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin, Quantstamp, Revoke.cash, Blockaid, L2Beat, and
Safe could qualify for funding.
Bankless Take:
It’s a nice twist that Ethereum's most notorious security failure will become a permanent source of security funding. The timing is notable too. Vitalik recently wrote that Ethereum needs "more DAOs — but different and better DAOs," arguing that token-holder voting designs are "inefficient, vulnerable to capture, and fail utterly at the goal of mitigating the weaknesses of human politics." Now here we have TheDAO Security Fund's using quadratic funding, retroactive grants, and ranked-choice voting — all attempts to build something closer to that vision.
