Author: Pedro Solimano; Translation: Huohuo/Baihua Blockchain
A poorly designed funding proposal has forced PolkaWorld, one of the most famous communities on the Polkadot network, to suspend its operations.
Last month, PolkaWorld, a Chinese community with over 50,000 members, proposed a funding request to cover its three months of operation and maintenance costs. It requested 16,842 DOT tokens (worth nearly $70,000 at the time of writing) to cover expenses for the last quarter of 2023, including further promotion of the Polkadot ecosystem in Asia.
According to the official Twitter account of the community, 93.3% of people voted “against,” resulting in an overwhelming rejection of the proposal and forcing the community to suspend operations.
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In response, community members strongly opposed the new open governance structure implemented on Polkadot in June, known as “OpenGov,” and its apparent impact on long-term contributors.
PolkaWorld posted, “This is the first time we have had to suspend operations in four years and three months since our launch in 2019.” They added, “All these changes have occurred after Polkadot initiated OpenGov.”
OpenGov grants each token holder the right to vote, ensuring that all members participate in the development of Polkadot. Earlier this year, it replaced the previous expert council system, which used their knowledge to assess, approve, or reject proposals.
Although PolkaWorld expressed optimism about the new governance framework on Twitter, they pointed out that “decentralization only applies to the informed,” and encouraged the project to restore at least part of its previous council.
PolkaWorld wrote in a lengthy article, “The council has expertise in certain areas and will use their knowledge to evaluate proposals.” They added, “I don’t think this approach should be abandoned.”
This article was published by Markian Ivanichok, the founder of Brushfam, an enterprise-oriented Polkadot platform.
Ivanichok explained that his project will also be leaving Polkadot, citing concerns about OpenGov and several other reasons.
The founder called this decision “long overdue,” writing about the difficulties in obtaining funding, the lack of business or marketing strategy for Polkadot, and the “stubborn leadership” refusing to acknowledge the need for change.
In fact, Polkadot, a so-called multi-chain network that allows developers to build their own blockchains and connect multiple smaller networks as “parachains,” recently underwent a change in leadership.
Gavin Wood, the CEO of Polkadot’s parent company, LianGuairity Technologies, and co-founder of Ethereum, resigned from his position but still serves as the chief architect. Wood has remained silent on this latest controversy on Twitter.
Despite the claims made by PolkaWorld and Ivanichok, Polkadot has been gaining momentum, with news in May that Uniswap will launch on Polkadot through the Moonbeam parachain.
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