BGD Labs
A service provider offering smart contract development and governance support for DAOs like Aave
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About BGD Labs
BGD Labs is a blockchain development team focused on the Ethereum ecosystem, mainly engaged in DeFi protocol development, smart contract auditing, and governance mechanism design. Its core contribution is deep involvement in the development of the Aave protocol, leading key systems such as Aave v3, governance infrastructure, chain expansion, and the Umbrella safety mechanism. The team is known for its technical expertise and emphasis on protocol security, addressing the pain point of DeFi projects lacking continuous development and maintenance capabilities.
In the past six months, BGD Labs diverged from the Aave community and announced it would cease contributions to Aave on April 1, 2026. The team believes Aave Labs had communication issues in promoting v4 and that centralization risks are difficult to avoid. For a smooth transition, BGD Labs proposed a two-month security retainer from April to June, costing $200,000, subject to community approval. Currently, BGD Labs is still handling existing projects and plans to publish more off-boarding materials.
Over the past six months, BGD Labs' key development was its full exit from Aave DAO technical work: after the Phase 6 contract ended on April 1, 2026, it did not renew, ceasing daily contributions to Aave v3 and governance infrastructure (). From April to May, it provided a $200,000 security retainer to support Aave incident response (). Officially, BGD Labs said its future focus shifts to independent product development, no longer centered on Aave; it also handed over project documentation and maintenance guides for the community to take over (). The team is transitioning from Aave's core contributor to an independent DeFi infrastructure builder ().
BGD Labs co-founders and core executives include Ernesto Boado and Andrey Kozlov.
Ernesto Boado is the former CTO of Aave and founded BGD Labs in 2022 as a service provider to the Aave DAO, leading development of Aave v3. He later announced that BGD Labs would cease contributions to the Aave DAO after April 2026, citing Aave Labs' organizational centralization and related issues.
Andrey Kozlov is a co-founder and current full-stack developer based in Vilnius, Lithuania, with 17+ years of experience. He was a core full-stack developer at Aave from 2018 to 2021, and previously co-founded advertising agency fbk-group and Garage Company.
Recent team changes at BGD Labs: In May 2026, Barry Fried joined as Risk Manager. Fried previously served as Lending Vertical Lead and Senior Researcher at Chaos Labs, bringing extensive DeFi risk management experience. BGD Labs, a Web3 development team, was a long-time core contributor to Aave DAO but announced in February 2026 that it would end the partnership on April 1, undergoing strategic adjustments. The addition of a senior risk professional likely aims to strengthen protocol security and risk management capabilities during this transition.