One of the most well-known groups on the Polkadot network had to halt operations due to a flawed funding proposal.
The Chinese community PolkaWorld, which has more than 50,000 members, put forward a request last month for funding to cover three months’ worth of operating and maintenance expenses. It asked for 16,842 DOT tokens, or roughly $70,000 at the time of writing, to pay for expenses for the final quarter of 2023, including more Polkadot ecosystem promotion in Asia.
According to the community’s official Twitter account, the plan was soundly defeated, receiving 93.3% of the total votes cast as “nay,” causing the community to cease operations.
Members of the community retaliated by criticizing the new “OpenGov” open governance structure that was introduced on Polkadot in June and its alleged effect on long-term contributions.
“This is the first time we’ve had to pause in the four years and three months since we started in 2019,” stated PolkaWorld, adding further that “All of these changes happened after Polkadot initiated OpenGov.”
Every token holder is given a vote by OpenGov, guaranteeing that everyone has a say in Polkadot’s direction. It took the place of an earlier council system earlier this year that used specialists’ knowledge to evaluate, approve, or reject proposals.
PolkaWorld tweeted that they have an upbeat opinion of the new governance structure but added that “decentralization only works for the informed,” urging the project to partially (or at least) return its prior council.
In a lengthy article, PolkaWorld stated that “this council had expertise in certain areas and would use their knowledge to evaluate proposals,” adding, “I think this approach shouldn’t be scrapped.”
The author of the essay, Markian Ivanichok, is the creator of Brushfam, a Polkadot platform for companies.
Ivanichok clarified that his project will be departing Polkadot as well, citing the previously noted issues with OpenGov in addition to a number of other factors.
The founder described the decision as “long overdue,” and he wrote of the challenges he faced in obtaining funding, Polkadot’s lack of a business or marketing strategy, and “stubborn leadership” that refused to see the need for change.
In fact, Polkadot just underwent a leadership shift. Polkadot is a so-called multichain network that enables its developers to individually build atop their own blockchain and links the myriad smaller networks together as “parachains.”
Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum and the CEO of Polkadot, resigned from his position as CEO but continued to serve as chief architect. Regarding this most recent scandal, Wood has been quiet on Twitter.
Polkadot has gained some traction in spite of assertions made by PolkaWorld and Ivanichok. In May, it was reported that Uniswap would be launching on Polkadot through the Moonbeam parachain.
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