AEP Support Services – Q3 2026 Funding Proposal

[isaac9905]

AEP Support Services – Q3 2026 Funding Proposal

Summary

This proposal seeks community approval to fund the ongoing support and maintenance required to operate the Akash Network during Q3 2026 (July 1 – September 30, 2026). Building on the support programs funded in Proposal 331, this work spans Console and core codebase upkeep, provider DevOps, customer support, a new security support program, community coordination, and financial governance.

Motivation

Q3 brought several major capabilities into production. Confidential compute and InfiniBand interconnect went live on mainnet in provider v0.16.0, ARM64 support shipped in provider v0.16.4 and was rolled out to community providers, the AKT price feed behind BME was migrated to new Pyth contracts through governance proposals 335–340, and Console moved managed-wallet users to automatic escrow funding and server-side storage for their data and secrets. Each of these expanded what providers have to operate and what users rely on day to day, and the support functions below absorbed that load.

These support services are distinct from the AEP-specific engineering work covered under the Q3 2026 Core Engineering and Client Engineering proposals. They represent the operational baseline required to maintain a production-grade decentralized cloud platform. This quarter also adds a dedicated Security Support program, reflecting the growing volume of externally reported vulnerabilities and security reviews that come with a larger production footprint.

Total Request

For the Q3 2026 AEP Support Services Proposal, Overclock Labs is requesting $597,071 from the Community Pool for labor and operating costs directly attributable to the support programs for this period, alongside a 54.3% AKT volatility buffer.

	Request from CP
Engineering hours	479.77
Engineering rate per hour	$98.95
Engineering total cost	$47,474
Support hours	2,926.18
Support rate per hour	$111.66
Support total cost	$326,730
Labor Subtotal	$374,205
Additional Operating Costs	$12,750
Total Budget	$386,955
AKT Volatility Buffer (54.3%)*	$210,116
Total Request	$597,071

*AKT Volatility Buffer – A 54.3% buffer is applied to this request to ensure adequate coverage during liquidation based on the past 180 days of AKT price fluctuations (applied as of 10/1/26). Any unused buffer during liquidation will be returned.

Budget Breakdown

	Hours	Cost
Core/Client Enhancements & Support	479.77	$47,474.13
As a percentage of total budget	14.09%	12.27%
Product/Customer Support	156.59	$18,880.44
As a percentage of total budget	4.60%	4.88%
DevOps and Provider Support	678.03	$59,580.29
As a percentage of total budget	19.91%	15.40%
Security Support	206.56	$35,821.30
As a percentage of total budget	6.06%	9.26%
Administrative Support	702.00	$107,054.62
As a percentage of total budget	20.61%	27.67%
Community Support (incl. $12,750 operating)	1,183.00	$118,143.76
As a percentage of total budget	34.73%	30.53%
Total	3,405.95	$386,954.54

Supported Programs

Core/Client Enhancements & Support

The core codebase and Console both need steady upkeep outside of any single AEP. This quarter that work centered on reliability for users and providers:

• Console transaction reliability, including out-of-gas failures, transaction timeouts, payment retries and proxy errors in billing flows.
• RPC proxy hardening for Console and the public RPC, so reads are served only from nodes caught up to the chain tip and unhealthy peers are removed.
• Provider HTTP proxy-buffer options (provider #429), shipped in provider v0.16.4 with Console and Console Air support.
• Fixes for lease lifecycle bugs, such as reclaiming leases that never closed on chain and workloads that kept running after a lease closed.
• End-to-end regression testing for provider upgrades, TypeScript chain-sdk modernization, and core and provider code review.
• CI running on Akash-hosted runners.

Product/Customer Support

As more users move onto managed wallets and automatic funding, direct support keeps them deploying successfully:

• Deployment, billing and escrow support for Console users, including fixes for user-reported issues with auto recharge, card top-ups and lease billing.
• Hands-on support for tenants running GPU workloads, including reserved deployments on PIP-funded providers.
• Triage of Console user issues reported through support channels.

DevOps and Provider Support

Provider releases moved quickly this quarter, from v0.16.0 with confidential compute and GPU interconnect through v0.16.4 with ARM64 support. The DevOps function carried those releases to the network:

• Staged rollouts of provider releases across OCL-managed providers, including v0.16.4, followed by community upgrade announcements and tracking.
• Beginning the move of providers off local RPC nodes onto the public RPC, with the first ten providers migrated in late August.
• Monitoring BME and price relayer health through the Pyth cutover, and managing provider withdrawals and incident response.
• Provider onboarding, troubleshooting and audits, plus sandbox environment management.

Security Support

A larger production footprint brings more security reports and more review work. This new program covers:

• Triage and remediation of externally reported vulnerabilities.
• Assessing Akash's exposure to upstream vulnerabilities and Cosmos related security issues.
• Security review cycles on core and provider code and hardening Console trial and wallet flows against abuse.

Administrative and Community Support

Running an open-source, community-governed network at Akash's scale requires significant operational coordination. Key functions include:

• SIG, Working Group and User Group administration, program management, and cross-team coordination of AEP delivery, including the governance proposals behind this quarter's Pyth migration.
• Community development spanning insider office hours, community events and sponsorships, the Student Ambassador Program, community content, and maintaining community resources such as meeting notes and awesome-akash. See akash.network/community.
• Managing relationships between the Decentralized Cloud Foundation, legal counsel, and market makers for the benefit of the Akash ecosystem.
• Administering the Provider Incentive Pilot programs as Pilot Program Administrator, including the PIP spot and reservation revenue share approved in Proposal 329.

FinOps functions are equally critical: budgeting, forecasting, cost optimization, financial reporting, and transparent tracking of Community Pool expenditures so the community can see how funds are used.

Community Support also includes $12,750 of operating costs for community expenditures supporting communications and outreach and community documentation.

Conclusion

These support services are what keep Akash running between milestone releases. Console and core codebase upkeep, provider DevOps, customer support, security response, community coordination, and FinOps governance are not optional at the network's current scale. Continued Community Pool funding ensures the network can absorb continued growth without compromising stability or user experience.

Limited Market Impact & Transparent Reporting

Overclock Labs will custody the requested funds in a new, distinct wallet so that funds from any other source are not commingled.

All funds will be liquidated and managed to minimize market impact. These funds will be handled with the same care and attention as all previous Community Funding Proposals, with liquidations done in a fashion that will not adversely affect the market. In practice, the effort of this liquidation will add depth to the AKT market for buyers looking to enter.

Overclock Labs will coordinate with the Decentralized Cloud Foundation (DCF) on the timing and execution of liquidations, so that conversions of these funds are aligned with other market activity across the ecosystem and are not working against one another.

In some cases, Overclock Labs will use structured market-making (MM) activity to manage funds responsibly. Conversions will take place gradually over defined trading windows rather than through large sell transactions. Spreading activity over these longer windows helps ensure that each trade reduces the likelihood of noticeable price movements and helps maintain a stable market for all participants. This measured approach allows Overclock Labs to meet operational needs while minimizing market impact and supporting steady liquidity within the AKT ecosystem.