Summary

This is a proposal to fund a core development and testing package on the Cosmos Hub for 2024. The teams that would receive funding if this proposal passes are the Cosmos Hub Teams from Informal Systems and Hypha Worker Co-operative. The total budget is $5.7 million USD (to be held in 30% ATOM, 70% USDC), plus 100k ATOM in performance bonuses, for a total of 914,285.71 using a spot price of 7 USD. This funding would replace both teams’ current funding from the Interchain Foundation and have these teams be directly accountable to the community. As of October 26, 2023, this represents approximately 18% of the community pool.

Notes:
- ATOM values have been calculated using a spot price of $7 USD as of October 26, 2023.
- This budget only covers the teams at Hypha and Informal that work specifically on the Cosmos Hub.
- The ATOM total requested from the community pool includes a 25% buffer on the budget amount to cover fluctuation in ATOM price over the 2-week voting period. Any unused buffer will be returned to the community pool.

This proposal is summarized by the following propositions:

(1) The release of 1,117,857.14 ATOM to finance:
- An overall budget of $5.7M USD plus 100k ATOM in possible performance bonuses, with a 25% buffer to cover price fluctuations between start of voting and liquidation to USDC. Any unused buffer will be returned to the community pool.
- Maintenance and perfection of the Interchain Security protocol
- Maintenance of the Cosmos Hub Gaia core software
- Maintenance and improvements to the testnet program for the Cosmos Hub and its consumer chains
- Research and development for improvements to Interchain Security such as Partial Set Security, Mesh Security (go to market), Atomic IBC, and IBC routing (go to market)

(2) These ATOM will be released to a liquidation multisig responsible for converting the appropriate portion of ATOM into USDC via the process laid out in the full text of the proposal. The liquidation multisig is made of:
- Simply Staking
- Stakecito
- Citadel One
- CryptoCrew
- Stakin

(3) The ratification of a committee that will oversee the work of Informal and Hypha within the time period of January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024 and provide insight and visibility to the community about that work. The committee is made of:
- Stride contributor: Aidan Salzmann
- Neutron contributor: Avril Dutheil
- Polkachu representative: Polkachu
- Jim Parillo at Figment Capital
- Shane Vitarana at Stargaze
- James Hinck, Product Manager at Circle

(4) An optimistic vesting mechanism which gives the community the power to suspend either team’s work agreement at any time via a governance proposal if that team is not fulfilling their commitment to the Hub

(5) Detailed disbursal of funds as follows:
- Informal budget: 3.16M USDC + $1.34M worth of ATOM
- Informal bonus: 79k ATOM
- Hypha budget: 840k USDC + $340k worth of ATOM
- Hypha bonus: 21k ATOM
- Of the budget portions, any unused funds will be returned on a quarterly basis.
- Any unearned bonuses will be returned on a quarterly basis. Earned bonuses will go into a one year locked vesting account.

Additional materials

• Full proposal text (Google doc)
• Full proposal text with discussion (Cosmos Forum with comments)
• IPFS pin of full text with comments

Governance votes and outcomes

The following items summarize the voting options and what it means for this proposal:

YES
You agree to fund the Informal Systems Hub team and Hypha Worker Co-operative with $5.7 million USD + 100k ATOM from the Community Pool for the Cosmos Hub’s continued development, maintenance and testing over the period of January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024, held accountable by their specified oversight committee.

A ‘YES’ outcome will immediately release 1,117,857.14 ATOM to the specified wallet (cosmos1jemq23tnffvmcfx0zktjenck2r6pzjuxx5yxkc).

NO
You do not agree to fund the Informal Systems Hub team and Hypha Worker Co-operative based on the terms of this proposal.

A ‘NO’ or ‘NO WITH VETO’ outcome will not fund the Informal Systems Hub team and Hypha Worker Co-operative from the Cosmos Hub community pool.

NO WITH VETO

A ‘NoWithVeto’ vote indicates a proposal either (1) is deemed to be spam, i.e., irrelevant to Cosmos Hub, (2) disproportionately infringes on minority interests, or (3) violates or encourages violation of the rules of engagement as currently set out by Cosmos Hub governance. If the number of ‘NoWithVeto’ votes is greater than a third of total votes, the proposal is rejected and the deposits are burned.

ABSTAIN
You wish to contribute to the quorum but you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.