PEP-27: PoktFund's Wallet - Purpose Built Mobile App

Proposals Ecosystem
1

Attributes

  • Author(s):
  • Recipient(s):
    • BaaS Pools LLC (PoktFund)
  • Category:
    • Funding & Reimbursement
  • Current Employees:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/dottietosan 9
    • Toho - DAO voter, Software Engineer with experience working at leading tech companies including a major cloud provider, AWS. Their technical experience is split between application development and supporting/establishing infrastructure for large scale distributed systems
    • PoktBlade - DAO voter, noderunner & Active Discord Member, Sr. Software Engineer. Web3 expertise, scaling out to millions, infrastructure design, and application development. A good amount of system/infrastructure design knowledge was gained from working at AWS.
    • Kersley P. - UI/UX Designer and Frontend Engineer
  • Asking Amount:
    • 350K USD worth of POKT broken into milestones

Summary/Abstract

Previous Proposal: https://forum.pokt.network/t/pep-23-poktfund-ecosystem-development-wallet-pool-open-apis/2444/9
We have had extensive internal discussions as well as with members of the community unaffiliated with PoktFund following our previous proposal. The community feedback and discussions have been extremely helpful in our understanding of what the DAO is comfortable with and how we can better align. This information has guided us in making heavy revisions to our proposal and making compromises.

Here are the notable differences we’d like to highlight for ease of reading.

  • Shift to milestone based funding/grant
  • Reduced asking amount
  • Removal of PoktFund Pool
  • Clarification on what will be open source
  • In Depth breakdown of deliverables
  • MVP for the community to test

The community was loud and clear that they were not completely comfortable with a combination of the asking amount and the paid in full grant asking amount. We had an in depth discussion on a middle ground that would work for us while also making sure the DAO feels safe as well. The middle ground we landed on was breaking the proposal down into milestones and instead of asking for a full grant for all the work, we’re now asking for a more modest grant for the first milestone and using a reimbursement approach for all sequential milestones. We’ve also ripped out our core pooling service from the proposal. Clarification was another task that we dropped the ball on in the previous proposal. With the amendments to this proposal, we’ve clarified what our milestones/deliverables are.

Needs being met

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This always free and open-source product focuses on delivering a native wallet experience on their mobile device. PoktFund’s Wallet is self custodial and allows individuals and enterprises the ability to manage their POKT balances and ingoing and outgoing transactions (receive, send, staking, etc). The wallet will support backing up keys to local devices and native cloud storage solutions. For receiving and sending funds, QR code will be supported to prevent accidental amounts from being sent. Wallet will have native security functionalities integrated such as Face ID, fingerprint, and custom passcode pins. The wallet will also extend its use to use cases for node runners as well. They will be able to view various metrics such as comparing their average earnings by day, relays, etc with one application across many different staked nodes. By offering a native wallet experience, this service will attract more users to join the ecosystem, invest, hold, and use POKT.

Motivation/Rationale

As of today, there are zero Pokt-related applications in both Google Play and Apple Store. In the best interest and growth of Pokt - we believe that the more quality options the ecosystem has, the better - especially when it comes to which product stakeholders can utilize to hold and use Pokt. By providing an native application, Poktfund aims to instill confidence in the users who decide to invest, hold, trade, and use Pokt. With wallet.pokt.network, the functionality is simple, yet not really optimized for daily consumption. It is missing basic features that would greatly enhance the user experience such as:

  • QR generation
  • Statistics for node runners
  • Multiple accounts support
  • Mnemonic pass phrases
  • Lacking i18n & accessibility
  • Not optimized for mobile use

We have already seen incidents where users loses their funds by accident and some who even forget their passphrase after creating it. It wouldn’t be surprising if some are keeping POKT in centralized exchanges due to the convenience factor they have (Most CEX have mobile apps). This will also help improve the current monitoring tools available for node runners by offering them a single point view of their node earnings and detect when they are jailed. Users have asked for an alternative time and time again, and our team acts to serve as a medium to solve that problem in a timely fashion.

Below is just some of the recent snapshots we’ve seen that have supported a need for a mobile wallet:

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PoktFund’s Wallet will aim to fix all of these, instilling trust and providing a seamless user experience for new and existing users.

Deliverables & Budget

We’re looking to launch core functionalities of Wallet by Q2 (fiscal quarter) and core team members are working to meet this imminent goal.

Milestone clarifications:

  • Milestones must be unlocked in order (Milestone #3 can’t be granted before Milestone #2)
  • Governance lead (@Jackal) will qualify, determine if milestones are met, and disburse funds from the treasury on behalf of the DAO.
  • The cost of development should be thought of as a total. The milestones are broken down in this manner to minimize risk for the DAO and do not necessarily have a 1:1 value correlation with the work being performed in each milestone.
  • If the milestone outlines are not met, out of good faith, BaaS Pool LLC will commit to returning the grant to DAOOwner address so that other projects can be funded.

Grant ($75k):
Our team has identified the scope of what a mobile wallet should look like for Pocket and built out a MVP for community members to try out. This grant also serves as reimbursement given the team has already completed in terms of identifying the scope needed for this project and development of the MVP. There is still lots of development to do before the wallet is ready for production use in terms of Q/A testing, open source readiness, and functionality. The team will continue development and polish the MVP for Milestone #1 First Release Candidate.

Milestone #1 - First Release Candidate v0.1.0 (FUNDED BY INITIAL GRANT)

  • Open source the product with getting started documentation
  • Customizable endpoint to interact with Pocket network (with free endpoint provided by Portal as default)
  • Wallet history view to see outgoing/incoming transactions
  • Import wallet via Private Key and PPK
  • Backup keys to local device (encrypted via iOS KeyChain and Android’s Keystore)
  • Protect wallet with local pin
  • Listing on App Store and Google Play

Outcome: A mobile wallet that the mass can begin to use that offers more than feature parity of the web wallet.

Milestone #2 - Development continuation v0.5.0 ($75k)

  • Design overhaul - components and screens to support features listed in Milestones #2 and further.
  • Multiple account support with sending/receiving/transaction history
  • Protect wallet with native biometric security starting with Face ID
  • Jailing push notifications
  • Overview to see all accounts and track staking rewards
  • Watch only import (Import public keys, address, or domain only)

Outcome: A mobile wallet that even node runners can use while providing industry standard security that’s available on their mobile device.

Milestone #3 - Adoption v1.0.0 ($75k)

  • Reaping rewards across multiple accounts to one address
  • Local contacts / aliases for addresses
  • Import and Export keys to native cloud (Google Drive / ICloud) - which will be encrypted by a passphrase
  • Mnemonic pass phrases (BIP 32/39/44 impl)
  • Localization starting with Espanol

Outcome: A mobile wallet that offers convenience features that puts the wallet up to par to industry wallet standards and drives adoption across the crypto ecosystem

Final Grant - Long Term Support v1+ ($125k, awarded upon Milestone #3 completion)

  • Development is an iterative process. We will open channels for the community to suggest features. We ask the community to support us so that we can continue to provide first party support for the wallet.
  • The work covered in this milestone would be repository maintenance (Code reviews & PR’s), localization, documentation, QA testing, user suggestions, and providing feature updates as we move into V0.8 and V1.0.
  • BaaS Pools LLC will commit to two years of long term support, providing the needed code maintenance so that the core features of the wallet remain operational.

Total: $350k

Dissenting Opinions

This cost too much.

BaaS Pools LLC was specifically formed to develop and contribute to the Pocket ecosystem. Everyone in our team has vested interest in Pocket and wants to see it succeed. We are committing to not only deliver a feature rich wallet, but to continue supporting the wallet as Pocket continues to grow for multiple years to come. We also want to point out the sheer value of the development in terms of boosting the Pocket ecosystem which would offset any disbursement from the DAO treasury. The asking amount is fair given the expertise of our team, the value it will bring to the ecosystem, and our proactiveness to bring this application to the users as soon as possible while providing two years of long term support.

We are only comfortable with reimbursement due to the risks involved.

There have been previous statements regarding PoktFund seeing the DAO as a VC. We want to make it clear that we do not see the DAO as a VC. Our new milestone based grant approach does not involve equity or any private parties and is more risk averse. This product will always be free and open source. The DAO is a self-governing community with the purpose of enabling the development of value and has the shared treasury at its disposal to help accomplish this. We hold the stance that the ecosystem can benefit heavily from enabling/funding development instead of always reimbursing it in retrospect - as long as the risks are more controlled. By delivering a MVP, reducing the asking amount, and breaking down the disbursements into milestones, we believe the risks are now mitigated.

MVP (Use for Testing purposes only)

  • Android Play Store
  • IOS Test Flight
  • We’re taking feedback / questions about the beta here
  • The MVP currently only supports HD wallet imports generated by a BIP39 mnemonic phrase.
  • You can impersonate any address you’d like to populate the UI with actual Pocket Chain data by going to settings and typing and tapping impersonate address. This will allow you to check out the test out features (statistics & transaction lists) without the need to import your private key.

Images

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Videos (with IPhone 12)

Onboarding:
https://www.poktfund.com/videos/onboarding.mp4

Node Statistics:
https://www.poktfund.com/videos/statistics.mp4

QR Code Sending:
https://www.poktfund.com/videos/qr-code-sending.mov

Normal Send:
https://www.poktfund.com/videos/sending.mp4

Contributor(s)

BaaS Pools LLC as a whole, but to simplify the process, @PoktBlade will be the main lead/PoC for ensuring the success of each deliverables.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

1 Like
2

Looks like a game changer. I’ve been working in digital UI and usability for 30 years. We’re going from one end of the spectrum with the pokt wallet to the other with this, well played.

I have 1850 Pokt, I cant get at as i must have deleted my key file by mistake, no idea tbh, I have everything but the file or the private phrase, just the public one, password and address. It’s spoiling this small pump as i just think about them as they rise in value :).

Less is definitely more with wallets, Pokts current wallet, I’m sure you guys would agree, is currently one of the most bamboozling out there. It’s kinda 2018, designed by a dev. Im not the only one whose lost a boatload of Pokt bc its confusing; sometimes security over usability isn’t the way - more coins lost this way.

So keep going guys, I will send to everyone i know whose on the nodes with me, already have to our great node leader :).

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Disclosure
I currently work for Pocket Network, have 10 years of mobile development experience, and I vehemently opposed the original proposal.

HOWEVER, I’ve reviewed many iterations of this current proposal with PoktBlade and Toho and have seen their app. I am good backing this proposal as is, as it shows a lot of work already being done via designs and working apps via Apple’s TestFlight and the Google Play Store. I am 100% for a milestone based system and believe that the amount they’re asking for is in line with market rates for building a mobile product. I also strongly believe Pocket should have a mobile product, and in following with Pocket’s thesis on having the community build out tools that we believe are needed, I believe this is a strong first candidate for achieving this vision in the mobile space.

I’m happy to follow up more here if needed.

3 Likes
4

There’s been an update on the app where you can swipe from left to right to at the home screen to open up a nav bar to generate a new “wallet”

This was added to demonstrate the use of a BIP39 seed and BIP44 derivation path to generate child private keys. It is following slip-0010. Instead of creating multiple private keys, they can now be derived deterministically by one mnemonic phrase / bip39 seed

The benefits of this is huge for simplified key management. It’s a pretty massive improvement over juggling multiple private keys (fun fact: Pocket-Core uses a BIP39 seed that isn’t used by many for some reason). I also set up some up multiple Github suggestions for web wallet to adopt as well.

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5

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to show my support for this product as an end user! I’ve been testing the app and so far so good. Looking forward to the possibility of tracking node performance on the go.

Now if only we can get the server metrics into it as well :slight_smile:

Good Luck!

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6

I can confirm that the pseudonymous members of the Poktfund team have doxxed themselves to members of the core team, including myself.

Some questions on milestones

There is still lots of development to do before the wallet is ready for production use

Are you looking to receive the grant as soon as the proposal passes or once Milestone #1 has been fully completed. Are you prepared for a delay in the grant if the App Store listing takes longer than expected?

Milestone #4 - Long Term Support v1+ ($125k, awarded after Milestone #3)

Since there’s no guarantee that you’ll provide the long-term support, i.e. no incentive or enforcement mechanism, it would be more accurate to say that Milestone #3 will have a payout of $200k unless the Milestone #4 payout is made conditional on support.

Have you considered adding business models to help fund continued support?

Some questions on features

Open source the product with getting started documentation

Will the full wallet be open-sourced? If not, which components won’t be?

Reaping rewards across multiple accounts to one address

What does this mean? If it means what I think it means (sweeping node rewards to your Poktfund wallet) how is that possible?

Mnemonic pass phrases (BIP 32/39/44 impl)

Has this been confirmed to be possible with native POKT wallets?

Lastly, are you aware of the non-custodial node features coming in v0.8 and given much thought to how the Poktfund wallet will interact with this new design space?

7

Replying since I’m the main lead here :slight_smile:

Yes, a grant as soon as the proposal passes is what we are asking for. We will use that to continue to plan and build out the product. We already had a jump start on the store listings. Our company already paid the store fees and registered. The MVPs are in both stores right now and our application has been reviewed by the stores’ staffs so that people can begin beta testing.

Always free and open source, all components in the app.

PoktFund will immediately start and continuously work on the LTS phase following the payout and completion of Milestone #3. Milestone #4 payout should cover these costs for the entire duration of LTS. Since the wallet is always free and open source, we are firm on NOT adding any business models to the wallet product. Instead our team took in these considerations

    1. It’s a net win for the Pocket ecosystem which our team has stake in
    1. It builds a reputation for the PoktFund team

We believe that a proposal is not always about delivering a product, but also providing a pathway to continued sustainable support with safe measures in place. A wallet is unique in the sense that there aren’t really many ways to monetize the product without causing more harm than good. This is one of the reasons why there is a Milestone #4 that is in place that is paid out after Milestone #3. Once PoktFund’s 2 year LTS commitment ends, then the product should be in more than good enough shape for any other open source enthusiasts, such as the Foundation & DAO Contributors, that can fork the project if it ever gets to that point. In our experience, open source projects don’t progress much unless someone is leading the product in such early stages.

It’s a convenience features for node runners using the application. They will be able to transfer (“reap”) funds from multiple wallets to another with a simple tap of a button. The encrypted private keys live on the users’ devices, so it should be possible to do this. Also with v0.8, this feature may change.

Mnemonic phrase are experiment phrases right now, but yes we do believe it’s possible. Check out our MVP, we have a working implementation but still need to review the specifications and the implementation. In our first RC #1, this feature will not be enabled until we are confident to deliver it. But it’s in active research and there is a working proof of concept. We also started conversations so that the web wallet can add similar features, since its specification heavy.

Yes, absolutely. We need to embrace the changes that come with each major release. We are looking forward to v0.8 RC and non custodial staking is something we are aware of. This is something covered in LTS Milestone.

8

All good answers, thank you.

My point regarding the Milestone #4 payout is that, since it’s unique in being paid before the Milestone #4 work is done, it is essentially a Milestone #3 Pt 2, since the point of milestone funding is that payments are made once milestones are achieved. I’m comfortable with the larger payment, I just felt this was worth highlighting.

1 Like
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Ah! Thanks for highlighting it. The wording has been changed and should be crystal clear now.

to

10

This proposal is fairly detailed but lacks of transparency about how the funds will be used.
The only two doxed people are essentially sales people and won’t bring much value during the development process.

How will the funds be split between each person and for each milestones?

As mentioned @JackALaing, there is no assurance that a long term support will be provided once the development of milestone 3 is over. So the funds from the final grant should be distributed once the work has been done and not when milestone 3 has been completed.

I would add a fourth milestone with a budget of $75k to support v0.8 and v1.0. Then the last milestone would be a budget of $50k for a 2 year long term support that would only be distributed if actual issues are opened on Github and worked on.

11

We’d have to reprice all milestones if this was the case - as the milestones weren’t determined with 1:1 workload. It was a risk-based decision so that way the DAO feels more safe, and we have to deliver something before we are given funds while still accommodating for our business too.

By the time we get to the final grant, we’re looking at a product that is feature rich already and our company would have earned tons of trust in the community to be comfortable with 2 YR LTS. (We’d have to deliver before we get here), does this make more sense?

It’s going to the business - and funds will be distributed internally and privately. The funds will be used for development, marketing, support, etc just like any other business. All our employees are okay with this, our last approach was priced not fairly to the DAO. This was a huge mistake and owned up to it. See @ArtSabintsev who has years of mobile development and his inputs. I’m happy to discuss this further if needed.

We’re addressing this as much as we can. We aren’t completely strangers, we’ve doxxed ourselves to core members (See @JackALaing post ) and even now a community member which will post here shortly. I understand on initially look of the linked profiles, it may seem like the “sales” people aren’t valuable, I’m going to bite back a little on that. They are business leaders, and I seriously don’t believe we’d be where we are today without them. Their leadership has led us to the product we’re offering today. The developers including myself respect their role and what they offer in terms of development. Pocket would not be here today in similar fashion if we focused purely on development.

12

I conditionally support this proposal.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Your first proposal literally did everything wrong, from trash talking existing community projects to asking for the highest DAO grant in our history to self dealing by getting your own people to into votership positions in clear conflict of interest to (I suspect) encouraging astroturfed comments from 0 history forum accounts in support of your proposal, to a limited discussion time and a fast push to voting. It had all the hallmarks of a governance highjack, and I was shocked to see the revised proposal come through after I voted you down last time.

I’ve chewed on it this week, talked with Art and Adam about it, and finally, took a call with Poktblade for some face to face time to get a sense of who y’all are. I think you’re sincere in your recognition of how bad the original proposal was, and to be quite frank, how arrogant y’all came off. But in talking to Poktblade, I got the sense of someone who does want to be part of this community, to make meaningful contributions, and to grow their own thing along with growing the project, and I can get behind that.

I’m not much of a mobile wallet guy, but I recognize the need for one, and @ArtSabintsev is dying for one, and y’all appear to be capable of delivering it. The revised proposal meets the structure we expect, and the milestones are generally clear (inclusive of the commentary on it above). The for-profit entity has been removed from the proposal, and Poktblade has indicated they’re willing to integrate support for all the pools as needed.

Given all of that, I’m willing to take a chance on this one and see how they do, with the caveat that if they fail to meet these objectives, we’ll pull back in a further governance action.

3 Likes
13

By the time we get to the final grant, we’re looking at a product that is feature rich already and our company would have earned tons of trust in the community to be comfortable with 2 YR LTS. (We’d have to deliver before we get here), does this make more sense?

It does make sense in a way but I think the amount of $125k upon completion of milestone 3, which basically means you would get paid $200k in total for milestone 3 if you don’t offer any support during the next 2 years, is way too much. That’s why I was proposing to divide it up with a fourth milestone.

And you would’t have to reprice all milestones, you just need to reprice the last one.

14

Just to reiterate, LTS isn’t “priced” for $125k (See point 3 under “Milestone Clarifications”). In our initial drafts of our proposals, we had the initial milestones priced higher with the last milestone priced lowest. After many iterations and discussions, we decided to reduce the milestones disbursement amounts and place it towards the final grant. This would provide the DAO an ease of mind because there would be less to disburse initially. At this point in the proposal, the team would have delivered a fully fleshed out app and will undoubtedly be trusted to provide support for the app we have built for best interest of Pocket, the DAO, and our company.

15

Those are concerns that I too have shared. I have not had any personal connection with this team, so in the case of this new proposal, I plan to lean on the fact that @JackALaing, @ArtSabintsev, and @Jinx have been actively involved with vetting the motives of the team and proposal.

I’m still uncomfortable with the fact that the most active participants in this proposal (who are also the devs) are the anonymous ones in the community. I understand that they have doxxed themselves to some team members, which can hold weight, but it does feel weird to vote on a proposal where no Github with a track record of experience is given, especially for something as important as a wallet. They plan to make stuff open-source but only after the vote. I suppose at that point we’ll see the contributors. I’m not sure why that has to happen after the vote for funding.

Would you be able to provide clarity to this @poktblade?

I’m not comfortable with this becoming a precedent for development proposals. I’m unaware of legit DAOs that fund sensitive development projects without basic Github credentials. Github is Github for a reason in my opinion.

This is going to be a hard vote, because I’m relying on the involvement of others, rather than my own confidence. I’m undecided at this point, even though I don’t have many issues with the ask itself. If I end up voting no, it’s due to lack of transparency regarding the devs.

3 Likes
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A lot of software developers don’t have developed GH profiles because they only contribute to closed source software companies with proprietary software. This actually isn’t too uncommon and applies to us, which is why we built out a MVP for the community to prove that we do have the skills and commitment to build this out.

Thanks for your insights. We can all respect your decision regardless, Shane. I truly do believe Node Pilot was an amazing ecosystem development and can even say it was an inspiration for us to seek for the DAO’s support to build out a mobile wallet. Ever since I learned about Pocket, I’ve been a huge fan and believe we’re still early in its space and a mobile wallet would be beneficial and be a net add to the ecosystem. Today, we’re lacking many many options. As far as i know, there isn’t any other plans to build one out. So if this does passes, we’re all really excited to build this out and drive further adoption to Pocket.

17

Admittedly, I’m suffering from a little bit of PTSD still after PoktFund’s last forum proposal, so please take my healthy scepticism in the best possible light :slight_smile:

I have a few questions that I’d appreciate you answering @poktblade

FWIW, I don’t think future DAO proposals should be as painful as this one. But when you have breached the trust of so many in the community, I think it’s important we do our DD to understand who we are working with.

Background and experience

Has the PoktFund team ever built any tools for any other crypto ecosystem?

And does the team participate in any other DAOs?

Do you have a public ETH address you can share?

Timelines

What are the projected timelines for achieving each of the milestones?

And why can Milestone #1 not be completed upfront and funded retroactively?

Given the questions around the integrity and motivations of the team building the wallet, I’d be more comfortable with funding milestone #1 retroactively and then providing the $ for milestone #2 upfront to continue the development.

Long-term commitment and motivation

Can you unpack some of the detail in the quote below?

How did the PoktFund team discover Pocket Network? And what excites you about supporting Pocket, as opposed to any other ecosystem?

Does the PoktFund team plan to build more tools for the Pocket ecosystem in the future?

I appreciate that two of the team have DAO votes, which is to be commended, but what does the team’s current skin-in-the-game look like? Eg. how many nodes are you running, etc?

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The most important one to disclose to help with everyones’ skepticism is that we bootstrapped $100k of our own money to run nodes, and this was before we posted any proposal. Here’s the publci addresses of those nodes:

e6102aea930a58f45856cf30af2fdee9ed58295a
d9b01039ff6434b186f65f83afdeec77d791837f
7a0fbeca85b3d3f091ace5a1aacba20647b7836d
ed9180f5e9ea9af7c0a177cf2a4ec736fa35da93
43e6c3cfe4489945a2ad61a04bfda27dc50e9d7b

Word of Mouth and Professional Network. Dottie & I learned about Pocket back around November. I’ve been part of the crypto world as an investor and builder since around ~2016-2017, and have seen my fair share of off putting projects that don’t embrace the nature of cryptocurrency at all. Leading into that, the most exciting thing is that we know Pocket is still early in relative to the grand schemes of everything and it’s solving a real problem, decentralization for apps.

:100: x 100, one of which is a lighter v0 client for all node runners to use. But won’t go into much details until we have further development news on it ourselves.

We’re looking to aim for Q2 for stable, core functionality. The milestones are going to vary in time, so we should have a better idea later down the road as we continue to develop and build out the product That said, we don’t plan to leave the community in the dark and will be doing dev logs, participating in community event calls (we’re signed up for the next one), etc to keep everyone up to date.

The biggest reason is that there’s still tons of development to do, which takes time. We know what the wallet should look like for Pocket specifically given its unique nature it’s not a transactional blockchain, but there’s still much to research and develop. We hold the stance that the ecosystem can benefit heavily from enabling/funding development instead of always reimbursing it in retrospect - as long as the risks are more controlled. By delivering a MVP, reducing the asking amount, and breaking down the disbursements into milestones, we believe the risks are now mitigated.

No, we don’t participate in other DAO’s, Pocket is the first and we’re learning! For the ETH addresses, we do have some going back to 2016, and can disclose them, but they’re just mostly exchange withdraws and deposits.

Yeah, big mistakes were made in the first proposal and 100% own up to it. I understand the need for you to whatever DD needed and hope these answers help with that.

1 Like
19

I forgot to post here when I put the proposal up for voting!

Here is the link to vote Snapshot

20

Don’t think we need a wallet right now.