AEP Support Services Q4 2025 / Q1 2026 Funding Proposal Part I

Summary

This proposal secures funding for the ongoing support and maintenance infrastructure required to operate the Akash Network beyond any single AEP development initiative. It covers Console operations, provider DevOps, customer support, core codebase upkeep, community coordination, financial governance, and the trial program that drives new user acquisition.

Motivation

With Mainnet 14 complete and the BME testnet live, Akash is entering its most operationally demanding phase to date. The network's support infrastructure must scale alongside the protocol itself. This proposal secures funding for the ongoing support and maintenance that keeps Akash running beyond any single development initiative — spanning Console operations, provider management, core codebase upkeep, community coordination, financial governance, and the trial program that drives new user acquisition.

This proposal represents Part 1 of a two-part funding request covering the Q4 2025 / Q1 2026 period. Overclock Labs is requesting approximately 50% of the total budget for these AEPs in this initial proposal. A second proposal for the remaining balance will be submitted in the May–June 2026 timeframe. This phased approach reduces the single-proposal draw on the Community Pool.

Total Costs

For the Q4 2025 / Q1 2026 AEP Support Service Proposal, Overclock Labs is requesting $605,334.11 from the Community Pool, representing approximately 50% of the total $968,534.58 budget covering labor costs and operating costs directly attributable to AEPs for this period, alongside a 25% volatility buffer.

The remaining balance will be requested in a follow-up proposal (Part 2), anticipated for May–June 2026.

*Additional Operating Support Costs

Represent recurring or semi-recurring expenditures that support the administration, coordination, and continuity of Akash Network operations across fiscal periods. They include professional services, software subscriptions, compliance support, and financial operations essential to sustain on-chain governance, accounting, engineering, and client-facing functions.

**AKT Volatility Buffer

Prior proposals calculated the volatility buffer using a 28-day trailing average of daily AKT price volatility. Due to recent periods of heightened volatility that fall outside that historical window, a 25% buffer has been applied to this request to ensure adequate coverage during liquidation. All unused AKT will be returned to the Community Pool.

Cost Breakdown (Total)

Supported Programs

Core/Client Enhancements & Support

Akash Console is the primary interface for deploying workloads on the network and has grown significantly with credit card payments, auto escrow top-up, billing dashboards, and the onboarding flow. As Console usage scales, so does the infrastructure, backend, and observability footprint required to keep it reliable. Key support areas include:

1. Infrastructure: Scaling, redundancy, uptime monitoring, and performance optimization to handle growing deployment volume.

2. Observability: Maintaining the tooling customers need to troubleshoot and manage workloads, including the log forwarding integrations delivered in AEP-34.

3. Analytics: Capturing business intelligence to drive Console enhancements and measure the effectiveness of paid acquisition strategies and trial-to-paid conversion.

Product/Customer Support

A key effort from Overclock Labs the past six months has been ensuring satisfactory customer experiences across all Console touchpoints. As the network onboards an increasingly diverse tenant base — from individual developers to enterprise teams running production workloads — these efforts are directly attributable to user retention and trial-to-paid conversion. Key functions include:

1. Direct deployment support, billing inquiries, and escrow management assistance across Console and CLI.

2. Proactive identification and resolution of user friction points before they escalate to churn.

3. Onboarding guidance for new tenants, including environment configuration, resource selection, and provider matching.

4. Feedback aggregation from support channels to inform product roadmap prioritization and Console UX improvements.

DevOps and Provider Enhancement Support

The Provider Console is now the network's native provider management platform, and HomeNode MVP (AEP-60) will soon open Akash to a new class of residential providers. Scaling the provider base — while maintaining quality of service — requires hands-on DevOps support across onboarding, upgrades, and troubleshooting. The bulk of these resources go toward the Core Team's DevOps function:

1. Technical administration, support, and troubleshooting for PIP providers and community providers alike.

2. Sandbox environment management for testing new provider configurations and features.

3. Resolving open issues from the Console repo, Discord, and direct community feedback.

4. Supporting providers through network upgrades — including the Mainnet 14 transition and upcoming BME-related changes — to minimize downtime.

5. Maintaining and updating provider documentation as new capabilities ship.

Administrative and Community Support

Running an open-source, community-governed network at Akash's scale requires significant operational coordination. As the ecosystem grows — more AEPs, more providers, more community contributors — the administrative surface area grows with it. Key functions include:

1. SIG, Working Group, and User Group administration, program management, and meeting facilitation.

   • Community Groups: https://github.com/akash-network/community

2. Community development spanning insider office hours, the Akash Club program, and the Student Ambassador Program.

3. Managing relationships between the Decentralized Cloud Foundation, legal counsel, and market makers for the benefit of the Akash Ecosystem.

Conclusion

These support services are what keep Akash running between milestone releases. Console infrastructure, provider DevOps, core codebase maintenance, community coordination, FinOps governance, and the trial program that brings new users in the door — none of this is optional at the network's current scale.

With BME approaching mainnet, CosmWasm going live, and HomeNode expanding the provider base, the operational load on every support function is increasing. Continued Community Pool funding ensures the network can absorb that 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.