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I've been closely following the controversial #IOTA discussions with great interest. Until now, the main justification for the IOTA token supply increase, primarily from the IOTA Foundation, is that they finally see larger market opportunities. While that might be the case, there are crucial differences that should be considered in this debate.
One mustn't forget that trust is the hardest currency for any form of money – and a token essentially serves as an alternative currency. If a project aims to fund itself with its own currency, then that project must do everything to ensure trust flows into that currency.
I also find it hard to believe that this decision has to be made NOW because of the UAE and the progress of IOTA 2.0.
Over the past few years, I've collaborated with Dom several times. First in 2021, when he consulted me about his investment in XAIN, knowing I come from the search technology business and have already successfully founded and sold companies. He contacted me again in May 2022, this time to ask my opinion about Celsius. The context was that he wanted to secure a loan for the IOTA Foundation from Celsius, which was eventually declined. This was because Celsius was facing its own troubles and was on the brink of collapse. Subsequently, Dom found other lenders because he did not want to sell more tokens to fund the IF.
This led us to discuss Shimmer Supply, the future of IOTA, Assembly, and the crypto market's trajectory. I also supported the draft proposal for the Shimmer Supply increase.
Dom was well aware that at the end of 2021, I publicly announced on Twitter that I wasn't fond of Assembly and preferred another strategy with one IOTA token. He approached the topic surprisingly open-minded, which caught me off guard. He shared with me a 25-page document he and the team were working on. The plan was to phase out Assembly and increase the IOTA token supply. With his approval, I brought in other trusted and experienced business people. We revamped the concept and presented it to him.
This was urgently needed as his initial concept was far from good. It lacked any financial planning aspects (I still have a copy of it) and was purely technical with an arbitrary supply increase. Of course we quickly realized that he wasn't very experienced in leading organizations and handling numbers, so we offered our support to him. We did not expect or receive any money for our work and support. We simply wanted to advance the project with good ideas as community members and recognized the challenges. He was grateful and accepted our help.
We made the effort, evaluated the need of IF, the ecosystem, spin-offs, and also the compensation for VCs if Assembly were to be discontinued. We calculated the equivalent in euros and what this would mean at different token prices. Of course, the token price should be stabilized by explaining tokenomics promptly and clarifying the reinforced IOTA token.
Above all, it was essential for us that the IOTA Foundation could stand on its own in the future (as a for-profit arm) without constantly needing fresh money and having to sell tokens.
Working together as a team was actually fun. Dom was also constructive in cooperation until then.
This was all in mid-2022 (NOT 2023).
A central point of our concept was also to put it to a vote with the community. However, the cheerful atmosphere quickly shifted, and the discussions abruptly ended. Dom was strictly against a community vote.
A dispute arose between us because I felt it was only fair for the community to have a say in such significant decisions. He regarded this point as so crucial that he didn’t even look at the numbers and detailed preparations we had made.
We had managed with Shimmer to have a fair vote and include the community. Why couldn't we implement a similarly successful concept for IOTA? Yes, our concept differed from what we see today, but the discussions abruptly ended when I mentioned community involvement.
All arguments that we had already successfully initiated governance decisions, that we had all the tools for it with https://t.co/7eufo3WBWp and Firefly, and that this would present a trustworthy image to the outside world, were ignored. I was baffled since we had invested so much effort and could present all the data. With his concept, I would've understood the hesitancy for a vote. However, with all our data, there seemed to be no risk that this proposal wouldn’t be positively received. The community would have had a good set of data to understand every step of the proposed path.
I can only speculate about the real reasons why Dom wanted to make this decision so centrally.
Therefore, I cannot confirm that the decision to exclude the community and make a central decision is related to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That connection didn't exist back then.
Can we heal the current messy situation? Can we regain trust? That's essential and my primary goal.
Or is the trust now lost? I estimate it's 50% yes. However, a 50% loss of trust in a currency is far from an ideal start to a new future with an alternative currency named IOTA.
Wouldn't it then make sense to continue working with proposals? I will keep making counter-proposals and advocate for trust and community collaboration to be the top priorities, ensuring that IOTA as a token emerges stronger.
Unfortunately, Dom currently shows his frustration, just like back then. He closed the doors back then, and just yesterday he even removed Jelle (@JelleFm) from the Discord chat simply because he criticized the process. Democratic processes are tricky. I'll continue trying to make constructive suggestions and support everything that crypto should represent - promoting fair, transparent, and co-determined processes. That's what crypto stands for.
We've seen projects like FTX, Celsius, Luna, and many others that all lacked transparency. Why don't we set a better example? Who will finally start restoring trust in crypto projects?
IOTA could make a significant positive impact here. Unfortunately, we initially took a more publicly damaging path. Why?
Let's rebuild trust together with fair, transparent processes, and mend the situation for the IOTA project and token.
What do you think about creating an official proposal with transparent figures (as requested by @DavidSonstebo) and putting it up for a vote? Perhaps we should also involve the UAE in this decision-making process to ensure a good external representation for them and a perfect start with complete transparency. This way, all parties can also learn how future decision-making processes will be handled.
If these proposals aren't accepted or if a vote does take place and they're declined, then it's only fair. But that's the path we've always desired with crypto. After all, IOTA has been around for 8 years, so it's reasonable to expect a fair approach with the community.
Not every vision is popular with the masses. But if it stimulates thought and influences some decisions, then it's worthwhile.
In my eyes, there are currently the following paths:
1) Choose the central way of the IOTA Foundation, foregoing any transparency, thereby compromising future security and opting for the new fork.
2) Choose the central way of the IOTA Foundation and decide on the old IOTA.
3) Choose the path of an official and fair proposal, with complete transparency, and let the community decide the collective way forward.
4) ?
Which path will bring the most trust back to IOTA and the token?
In my opinion, it cannot be ruled out that there is currently a special emergency situation within the IOTA Foundation. I don't know, but it does greatly puzzle me as to why, after almost 1.5 years, they are announcing this news NOW without first launching ShimmerEVM and thus showing some good progress before asking for something. Strategically, this seems somewhat nonsensical.
When people invest their hard-earned money into a project and do not receive satisfactory answers even when they raise questions, it doesn't leave a good impression. At the very least, this bit of transparency should be provided to these long-time supporters.
What are your opinions, other than that Shimmer currently seems in a much better light? 🙃
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Dear #IOTA community,
Remember to stake your funds on TanglePay. It's important to restake your funds to ensure participation in the new staking period. Happy staking! Start stacking your $ASMB now!
"By digitilizing the total life cycles of products and supply chain, DLT solutions support companies to track and optimize the real impact they generate in society."
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#blockchaintechnology
The Training Fairlaunch is complete! 3 Million SMRsea allocated - no hickups.💪
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[Event] April 26th 11:15AM EEST - Alternative Finance Forum 2023, organized by @EIBINSTITUTE and @EIB.
#IOTA's @marianadlrw is taking part in a panel discussion about open and #decentralized finance.
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