[Proposal ##][DRAFT] Cancel Proposal 104

Proposal to Cancel Notional Funding by the Community Pool Notional has been funded 40,000 ATOM per year for 3 years, totaling an amount of 120,000 ATOM. Notional has published the following report for their work on the Cosmos Hub and AEZ: • `https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/notional-cosmos-hub-report-july-2023` • `https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/notional-cosmos-hub-report-june-2023` • `https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/cosmos-hub-report-may-2023` • `https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/cosmos-hub-report-may-2023` • `https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/cosmos-hub-report-april-2023` Technological contributions In proposal 104, Notional stated the following: We also continuously work to improve and develop the systems we work with, including Tendermint/Comet, Cosmos-SDK, IBC,…

Excerpt (1196 of 3047 characters). Read the whole post on the forum ↗

I’m posting from an anon account because I’m afraid of online retaliation from Jacob & the Notional team. I wish this proposal was a bit more clear in terms of how underwhelming their work has been so far. An overview of July’s work was available on their Notion page but the link seems to have been pulled offline. Fortunately we have the web archive: `https://web.archive.org/web/20230817135756/https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/all-monthly-reports/monthly-report/notional-cosmos-hub-report-july-2023` I do hope Notional, the team that constantly pushes for transparency in the space, will republish this information again. A common trick we see Jacob do is claim to have a ton of commits on the Gaia repo, as if commit numbers truly matter. But the reality is that most of these commits are very small changes like updating a dependancy, or literally doing a find-and-replace on 32 files to just change a very small thing. With 40,000 ATOM (~$400,000) a year, we’re have just spent 3,333 ATOM (~$30,000) for work that’s literally not even one mid-level full-time employee worth of time. Just for context, with that amount of money you can hire…

Excerpt (1198 of 1774 characters). Read the whole post on the forum ↗

I’m posting from an anon account because I’m afraid of online retaliation from Jacob & the Notional team.

This is unfortunate and shows how Notional is perceived by Cosmonauts.

I wish this proposal was a bit more clear in terms of how underwhelming their work has been so far.

As said in the post, I am happy to implement any comment into this proposal that are relevant.

In our pursuit of transparency and excellence within the Cosmos community, it’s imperative that we implement discernible and quantifiable measures to ascertain the true value and impact of the services offered by vendors. Assessing whether service providers are effectively delivering expected value to the community is not just reasonable, but an essential aspect of responsible governance. There’s an observed tendency within the community’s allocation of ATOM funding to favor projects with seemingly more significant political connections. While such a pattern may not be intentional, it could inadvertently create a perception of community-biased favoritism. This is an issue that warrants careful and unbiased examination. With this in mind, it seems both prudent and in line with our principles to contemplate a thoughtful approach toward the funding of vendors. Specifically, it might be wise to consider suspending or adjusting funding for those who may not meet the established expectations in terms of product, service, or support delivery. Proposal for Notional’s Response In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, I propose that Notional be given the opportunity to…

Excerpt (1193 of 2684 characters). Read the whole post on the forum ↗

@jacobgadikian Can we expect a comment from you on this proposal?

Hi,

Should the funding be revised after this quite important event occured?

catshark | decentrio

Wow 11 devs left Notional! What’s the status here @noodels, can we go forward? Clearly we are over paying Notional now.

I have had to block Jacob on Twitter because he puts out so much spam on there. It would show up even if I didn’t follow him. I think the guy means well but he is somewhat of a wild man. I don’t know exactly what Notional does and how important it is, but just on public behavior alone I would cut the funding in half. It is a bit ridiculous for people to be getting community funding from the Cosmos Hub and then go around slandering the other teams and airing grievances. It makes the community look bad.

I had a boss once upon a time who told me: “It doesn’t matter if you are right when you argue with a fool, because from the outside people can’t tell who is the fool and who is not. All they see is people arguing and they stay away from this stuff”.

If there aren’t any “senior” devs left, we should probably start either getting a reduction on the fees charged, or the contract canceled entirely.

How do proceed?

There’s a record of a chat from internal Notional group. I won’t go into detail where to find it but to sum it up. In that chat they talked that the people leaving represent 2/3 of the company. With 11 devs that would mean that 5-6 people are still in the company. Given the publicly known people and the ones active and referenced in the chat it is very likely that, besides Jacob, there aren’t any devs left. If they still have devs it can’t be more than 2 in my opinion. Besides the loss of manpower I also think, that given their internal restructuring it remains unclear if they are able to maintain their commitment to this task. I want to add that Jacob stated on Twitter they could. However, there was no further explanation about how . In my opinion, it would make sense for the Atom community to ask for a refund given the overall uncertainty and the importance of this task. The security of the hub stands above everything. Concluding, this is not anything against Notional or Jacob in person. This is just my perspective on what happened and what conclusions I draw from it. If Jacob can credibly confirm that he can continue to carry out the commitment that has been…

Excerpt (1190 of 1244 characters). Read the whole post on the forum ↗

Update prop 104 signatories Community Spend

Note: this is in extreme draft from. I just: https://twitter.com/gadikian/status/1730398889839398929?t=JGsewrCRVuPgVm22lxEMCA&s=19 Change log YYYY-MM-DD Created initial post Summary The signatories for prop 104 have largely left Notional, leaving only lit and I. Details I haven’t figured out the precise plan yet. But I think it makes a lot of sense to get this post on the forum. Recipient Amount Forum post link IPFS link Governance votes The following items summarize the voting options an…

there are many evs other than me

This revocation proposal must pass after recent events have highlighted Notional’s inability to adequately provide the services they claim to offer in Proposal 104. Thus far, they have utilized the loosely defined work in the proposal to bully others and threaten, harass, ridicule, and intimidate users and developers in the Cosmos ecosystem. Over the past week, the primary recipient of Proposal 104 engaged in bullying behavior with his departing employees in public, demonstrating his inability to handle a sensitive issue with the correct decorum. Additionally, the members that departed Notional represent parties in Proposal 104 today and a significant portion of resources tasked to do the work. If a genuine issue affects the Hub in a way that would require Proposal 104’s duties, ask yourself how you think Notional would respond. With professionalism? With competent engineering and support? With tactical communications that minimize risk for all participants in the Cosmos Hub? With respect for users, teams, validators, and developers? Countless forum posts and X threads highlight existing unprofessionalism and inexperience. Furthermore, Notional Ventures publicly lost control…

Excerpt (1199 of 2447 characters). Read the whole post on the forum ↗