I voted no on this info action with the following recorded reason:
“Cardano Foundation asserts that it operates independently of the community and its board members are not elected or appointed by the Cardano community. Cardano Foundation’s decision making process lacks transparency. IntersectMBO is a better entity to manage these top-level domains.”
I have subsequently been approached by Markus from CF over Matrix chat (Element) to further explain my reasons so I have re-directed any discussion into the open here.
I think my reasons are pretty obvious from reading my on-chain vote context. But for further context it is worth reviewing this post. From that discussion it is clear that I started out with the view that Cardano Foundation was a not for profit organisation that was effectively governed by the community, for the benefit of the community, and that they would always act in the best interests of the community. However I was proved wrong! The various assumptions that I had made about the governance of Cardano Foundation were shown to be incorrect.
It concerns me that Cardano Foundation gets its board members voted by the Swiss government and that Cardano Foundation employees have openly confirmed that they are not mandated to act in the best interests of the community. Cardano Foundation employees have already taken actions that have upset the community and do not have widespread community support such as their recent heavy handed voting on Catalyst fund 13 proposals which dictated the outcome. In Catalyst Fund 13, CF voted 180 million ADA. The sheer scale of CF’s voting power was equivalent to the total votes in the most voted category of the previous fund. This was disproportionate and undermined the principles of decentralised governance.
Then there are my posts in relation to the CF stake pool delegation strategy which rendered meaningless the concept of the K parameter and undermined community push-back against multi-pool operation. See the following posts:
- Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #47 by Terminada
- Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #49 by Terminada
- Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #87 by Terminada
- Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #95 by Terminada
- Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #113 by Terminada
- and in particular this post: Cardano Foundation Updates Delegation Strategy - #117 by Terminada
Consequently I would prefer that these top level domains are managed by an independent not-for-profit entity that is effectively governed by the community. IE: That does have its executives voted by the community and is mandated to act in the best interests of the community.